[mythtv-users] Performance issue

Matt Vollmar matt at vollmars.com
Sun Oct 10 00:53:50 UTC 2004


I just realized that maybe I didn't state my question.  :-)  Is this 
performance normal?  I saw other people saying that there should be no 
problem recording and watching a recording at the same time with this 
type of system (or doing more).  Please help!  I bought this system so 
that I could record and watch at the same time.

Thanks,

Matt

Matt Vollmar wrote:

> Hi Mythical World,
>
> First of all, I add my thanks to the long list that has already 
> accumulated.  I'm sure we will soon have to start a mailing list just 
> for thanks soon.
>
> I just built a new box:
> - Shuttle SS51G V.2.0
> - Celeron 2.4 GHz
> - 512 MB PC2700 DDR RAM
> - Western Digital 120 GB HD (8MB Cache, 7200 RPM)
> - PNY NVidia MX440 64MB DDR AGP (6111 Drivers)
> - ATI TV Wonder PCI
> - External DVD Writer via USB (for boot) or IEEE1394
> - Mandrake 10.0 upgraded to Cooker (so basically 10.1)
> - MythTv with all plugins from the site - CVS version
>   -- Alsa AND OSS compiled in because I wasn't sure if that was my prob
>   -- XvMC compiled in because I have the MX440
>
> Rules the Universe except for one thing:  I cannot watch Live TV 
> without the infamous "prebuffering pause".  I've tried a bunch of 
> different configs with the way it captures, the way it decodes, etc.  
> I even started to wonder if it was btaudio, since I use that to 
> capture the audio.  I started to watch the system when I was capturing 
> movies, and it runs at about 70-80% (I use higher quality for these) 
> and watching at about 30%.  I have captured a little bit of sar to 
> prove my point:
>
> Watching a Recording
> 08:05:34 PM       CPU     %user     %nice   %system   %iowait     %idle
> 08:06:04 PM       all     30.14      0.00      5.79      0.00     64.07
>
> Recording a Show
> 08:09:06 PM       CPU     %user     %nice   %system   %iowait     %idle
> 08:09:11 PM       all     81.11      0.00      1.99      0.20     16.70
> 08:09:16 PM       all     84.57      0.00      1.20      0.00     14.23
> 08:09:21 PM       all     77.45      0.00      1.40      0.20     20.96
>
> The recording seems to be the problem.  Here are my settings:
> TV Playback:
> - Deinterlace with Bob (2x) -- I figure since I have XvMC compiled in 
> (kernel makes no difference)
> - Use XvMC Hardware Decoding
> Software Encoders -> Live TV
> - 480x480 (I would really like 640)
> - MPEG-4, bitrate=3000, max qual=2, min qual=15, max diff=3, the rest 
> is UNCHECKED
> - MP3, 32000, Quality=7
>
> If you need more info, let me know.  This is all the info I know to 
> check for.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Matt
>
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