[mythtv-users] performance on Via cpu when watching live tv

[Robin Gilks]

> Hi!
>
> I finally got mythtv working (with a dvb card). Not an easy ride it was.
>
> I'm still trying to smooth the setup of this, for instance, watching
> live tv is slow. I don't know why - playing normal on-disc movies goes
> smoothly. I wath tv via a dvb tuner, which works OK with pure mplayer
> or xine. In mythtv however, both audio and video pauses every few
> seconds and cpu usage is constantly 100 %:
>
> top - 22:04:25 up  5:04,  2 users,  load average: 4.54, 3.08, 1.84
> Tasks: 100 total,   3 running,  96 sleeping,   1 stopped,   0 zombie
> Cpu(s): 81.4%us, 11.8%sy,  0.7%ni,  0.0%id,  0.0%wa,  5.9%hi,  0.3%si,
> 0.0%st
> Mem:    449904k total,   443960k used,     5944k free,     2988k buffers
> Swap:  4088500k total,   127332k used,  3961168k free,   133928k cached
>
>  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
> 13036 freevox   20   0  316m  80m  41m S 53.1 18.4   4:18.59
> mythfrontend
> 4361 root      19  -1  257m  58m  21m R 37.1 13.3  19:27.81 X
> 13011 mythtv    20   0  220m  23m 8308 S  6.2  5.4   0:30.34
> mythbackend
>
> As you can see, I also run my backend on this machine but it doesn't
> use so much cpu time... I don't think this system is too slow for a
> mythtv frontend?
>
> cpuinfo
> processor	: 0
> vendor_id	: CentaurHauls
> cpu family	: 6
> model		: 9
> model name	: VIA Nehemiah
> stepping	: 8
> cpu MHz		: 1330.000
> cache size	: 64 KB
> fdiv_bug	: no
> hlt_bug		: no
> f00f_bug	: no
> coma_bug	: no
> fpu		: yes
> fpu_exception	: yes
> cpuid level	: 1
> wp		: yes
> flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr cx8 sep mtrr pge cmov pat mmx fxsr sse
> up rng rng_en ace ace_en
> bogomips	: 2666.69
> clflush size	: 32
> power management:
>
>
> The distro is a Mandriva 2009.

I'm running Gentoo on an Epia SP13000 which returns the following specs -
sounds like you are running similar.

cpuinfo
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : CentaurHauls
cpu family      : 6
model           : 9
model name      : VIA Nehemiah
stepping        : 8
cpu MHz         : 1333.418
cache size      : 64 KB
fdiv_bug        : no
hlt_bug         : no
f00f_bug        : no
coma_bug        : no
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 1
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr cx8 sep mtrr pge cmov pat mmx
fxsr sse rng rng_en ace ace_en
bogomips        : 2670.15
clflush size    : 32

I used to run the OpenChrome driver in XvMC VLD mode but I've found that
it can keep up in standard Xvideo mode with the Slim profile with no
de-interlacers (and it avoids DVD still frame problems in VLD mode).

I'd try playing with profiles/deinterlacers...

-- 
Robin Gilks