[mythtv-users] HD-PVR playback--high CPU usage

Brian Wood beww at beww.org
Thu Mar 25 13:32:17 UTC 2010


On Thursday 25 March 2010 07:22:26 am Zach C wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm having trouble playing back recordings from my Hauppauge HD-PVR.
> The CPU on my Pentium dual core frontend is pegged and playback is
> unwatchable.
> 
> What is weird is that I can play back 720p h.264 torrented video files
> with no problem.  In that case playback is perfect and cpu is probably
> around 30%-50%.  I would think the 720p h.264 video coming from the
> HD-PVR should be roughly equivalent to the video files.  I don't
> understand why the system can't handle it.

Files acquired by "unofficial" means are often encoded at low bitrates. If your 
HD-PVR recordings are at a significantly higher bitrate this might explain 
things.

Are you using VDPAU? Pure software decoding of HD recordings does take a lot 
of CPU.

What (if any) de-interlacer are you using?

Playback with Myth's internal player does take more CPU than some other 
methods, since it is doing more (checking the DB for commercials etc.). Have 
you tried playing the recordings back with some other program?   

You might try a simpler playback profile (Slim?).

 


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