[mythtv-users] Playback problem -- random short pauses

[Terjesen Jens Peder]

Kevin Ross wrote:

________________________________________
On 5/11/2011 8:23 PM, David Whyte wrote:
> On Thu, May 12, 2011 at 1:00 PM, Kevin Ross<kevin at familyross.net>  wrote:
>> Actually I just increased my log level by adding -v file (to the already
>> existing -v playback), and I noticed a long list of "Marked as 'watched'"
>> and "Not the ealiest" with all my shows, which happens at the same time as
>> those "PREVIEW_SUCCESS" messages, and the dropped frames.  I guess this is
>> the auto-expire causing dropped frames that was already mentioned?
>>
>
> Perhaps!  I reported that correlation between short pauses and the
> autoexpire event but I don't think it is a mythTV issue at all
> anymore.  I think maybe my HDD is performing terribly which is *very*
> noticeable when autoexpires occur and cause the short pauses.  See
> http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/479667#479667  I
> won't know for sure until I repartition my HDD, but this won't be
> anytime in the next fortnight.
>
> It may be worth you looking into whether you have a similar hardware
> performance problem or it could be completely unrelated.
>
> Cheers,
> Whytey

My hard drives are not the most performant ones around, and that could
be the problem.  I am going to try increasing the kBufferSize in
RingBuffer.cpp to see if that helps.

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I think the problem is related to disk access but I am not convinced that the performance of the drives is the problem.

I only updated my main combined BE/FE from 0.23 to 0.24 about one week ago.
On 0.23 it was working without any pauses even when recording up to three programs and playing a fourth one.

I did the upgrade hoping it would solve a small problem with the sound on some recordings where the volume would suddenly become very low.
Immediately after the upgrade I ran into this problem when playback and recording happens at the same time.
The only thing changed is the RPM packages for MythTV that are from the Packman repository.

The storage hard drives are four Samsung 1.5 TB at 5400 rpm. OS (OpenSUSE 11.2) and database is on a separate 7200 rpm Samsung. All are SATA.

Jens