[mythtv-users] Can't get rid of "prebuffering pause" messages

Mon Apr 18 15:29:32 UTC 2005

(CCing the mailing list also.)

If the card works with tvtime, then it is probably not
a hardware MPEG card.  What chipset does it use?  If
it's a bt8x8 (848, 878, could also be labelled as a
Conexant 848 or 878), or it is a Conexant 2388x, then
it's a software card.  Another way to tell is if
you're using the bttv driver.

You didn't say whether the 700MHz machine is a
frontend only, or a combination frontend/backend. 
I'll have to assume the latter.  (If it is a frontend
only, then you might have other problems.)

A 700MHz machine is not enough unless you're using an
MPEG-2 hardware capture card.  On the playback as
well, 700MHz is pushing it unless you're using XvMC. 
I have a 1GHz VIA that will peg the CPU at around 90%
if I don't use XvMC, but with XvMC, it sits at around
40%.  (I don't use the VIA anymore though, I was
having a ton of problems with it).  XvMC won't work
with non MPEG-2 recordings, so if you want to use it,
you'll have to get a hardware MPEG-2 card (or
transcode everything to MPEG-2 before playing it)

-- Joe

--- Scott Simpson <Scott.Simpson at computer.org> wrote:
> It is a 700 MHz VIA motherboard which I think should
> be fast enough since
> the AverTV Studio card is doing the encoding. Hdparm
> says DMA is enabled.
> Time to buy another motherboard and CPU?
> 	Scott
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joe Votour [mailto:joevph at yahoo.com] 
> Sent: Sunday, April 17, 2005 9:24 PM
> To: Scott.Simpson at computer.org; Discussion about
> mythtv
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Can't get rid of
> "prebuffering pause" messages
> 
> Being able to use tvtime to watch TV on your capture
> card is not an indication of how well it will work
> under MythTV.  This is because everytime you watch
> "Live TV", you're still recording and then playing
> it
> back.  When using tvtime, it's just taking the video
> data and overlaying it into video memory, which is
> not
> very system intensive.
> 
> A "prebuffering pause" generally happens when the
> frontend doesn't get the data quickly enough from
> the
> backend.  If you're running the frontend and the
> backend on the same machine, then your PC just isn't
> keeping up.
> 
> Do your hardware specs match those in the MythTV
> documentation (section 3.1)?.  Is DMA enabled on
> your
> hard drive(s)?
> 
> -- Joe
> 
> --- Scott Simpson <mythtv-users at scottsimpson.tv>
> wrote:
> > Fedora 3, latest ATrpms, AverTV Studio card,
> Ensoniq
> > PCI audio card
> > 
> > I keep getting these "prebuffering pause" messages
> > when watching live TV 
> > that is keeping me from getting MythTV working. I
> > thought it was because 
> > I was using the audio that came on the motherboard
> > so I turned that off 
> > in the BIOS and put the Ensoniq PCI audio card in
> > from another machine I 
> > had. Same problem.
> > 
> > The weird thing is that I can watch TV with audio
> > with "tvtime" just fine.
> > 
> > Here are the messages I'm getting:
> > 
> > 2005-04-17 16:54:44.369 mythfrontend version:
> > 0.17.20050130-1 www.mythtv.org
> > 2005-04-17 16:54:44.371 Enabled verbose msgs :
> > important general
> > 2005-04-17 16:54:45.559 Switching to square mode
> > (G.A.N.T.)
> > 2005-04-17 16:54:46.766 Joystick disabled.
> > 2005-04-17 16:54:46.865 Registering Internal as a
> > media playback plugin.
> > 2005-04-17 16:54:46.921 Registering MythDVD DVD
> > Media Handler as a media 
> > handler
> > 2005-04-17 16:54:46.923 Registering MythDVD VCD
> > Media Handler as a media 
> > handler
> > 2005-04-17 16:54:47.438 Registering MythMusic
> Media
> > Handler as a media 
> > handler
> > SIP listening on IP Address 192.168.1.3:5060 NAT
> > address 192.168.1.3
> > SIP: Cannot register; proxy, username or password
> > not set
> > 2005-04-17 16:54:59.752 Connecting to backend
> > server: 192.168.1.3:6543 
> > (try 1 of 5)
> > 2005-04-17 16:54:59.762 Using protocol version 14
> > 2005-04-17 16:54:59.849 Using protocol version 14
> > 2005-04-17 16:55:00.665 Opening audio device
> > '/dev/dsp'.
> > 2005-04-17 16:55:00.666 Opening OSS audio device
> > '/dev/dsp'.
> > 2005-04-17 16:55:00.739 Using XV port 77
> > 2005-04-17 16:55:02.367 Realtime priority would
> > require SUID as root.
> > 2005-04-17 16:55:02.392 Changing from None to
> > WatchingLiveTV
> > 2005-04-17 16:55:02.498 Video timing method: RTC
> > 2005-04-17 16:55:03.373 prebuffering pause
> > 2005-04-17 16:55:04.381 prebuffering pause
> > 2005-04-17 16:55:05.790 prebuffering pause
> > 2005-04-17 16:55:06.568 prebuffering pause
> > 
> > Any help would be appreciated. I've been trying to
> > get MythTV working 
> > for a year now and keep running into problems.
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > mythtv-users mailing list
> > mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> >
>
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> > 
> 
> 
> 		
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