[mythtv-users] so long to switch PiP

[Jerome Yuzyk]

On Monday 13 November 2006 22:22, Andrew Lyon wrote:
> On 11/14/06, Jerome Yuzyk <jerome at supernet.ab.ca> wrote:
> > I'm using my PVR-550 and Picture In Picture to watch a NHL and a NFL
> > game. But it takes about 10 seconds to switch between pictures. Aren't
> > both tuners running live and recording? Why so long to switch between
> > tuners? _______________________________________________
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> > mythtv-users at mythtv.org
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>
> Thats about as long as it takes here, so probably not specific to your
> installation.
>
> Andy

Actually I think I was experiencing another problem - in cases where the 
switch took so long, Myth was switching to (I think) the point at which I 
last switched pictures. So the "foreground" feed was actually coming from 
the LiveTV recording, but all the way back to the point at which it became 
the "background" feed. Does that make sense? I missed two goals in the 2nd 
period of the hockey game because I was watching the footbal game in 
foreground, and when I switched to the hockey game at football half-time I 
got the hockey game in the first period. Myth switched to the rewound 
position in the background recording. A normal switch takes about 3 
seconds, but in this case, with the 10-second delay, I think Myth was 
seeking backwards to some point before resuming display at that earlier 
point.

I'm using the 0.20-144.fc5.at rpms, and don't remember this problem in 
earlier releases.

I am wondering why switching PiP should take so long anyway - both tuners 
are recording a data stream to disk, and that stream is being written to 
display memory (after the PiP is embedded). There should be no delay as 
there is in simple channel-switching - the recorded stream doesn't need to 
be primed. Is this a disk I/O limitation? Does a beefier machine (faster 
CPU and disk) work better?