[mythtv-users] Have to start shows twice -- database problem???

[Joseph Fry]

I see no reason to replace your hardware, unless there is a must have
feature your lacking.  If you have older hardware that works great, most
likely it would only work better with a new os on it.

If your performance concerns are all you want to address, and you want to
see if faster hardware will make a difference here are the things I would
look at first:

1: Add more RAM and increase the memory usage of mysql to make DB queries
faster (may be able to do this without adding more ram?)
   Why?  Because it's possible that your playback problems are the result
of slow queries against the seek table.
2. Add an SSD as  your system/DB drive
  Why?  Again, faster DB queries could make playback start more quickly?
3. Add additional recording drives.
  Why? If you have more drives, you will decrease fragmentation because
they system will not be writing as many streams to the same drive at the
same time.  Also, it may reduce seek times and general drive thrashing in
situations where recording and playback are occurring simultaneously.

One other thing that you might do, I know I intend to once I have a few
bucks to spend, is use an SDD as your primary recording drive, and set a
cron job to move recordings to a different drive (storage group) after a
few days.  The advantage here are:
1. SSD isn't as effected by fragmentation (no seek time)
2. Moving completed recordings to magnetic media prevents fragmentation
compared to recording directly to it (filesystem can locate contiguous
blocks before writing)
3. Magnetic drives can spin down because they will only be used when
watching shows that weren't recorded recently

You might try something like the above before resorting to major software
or hardware upgrades.

Good luck.







On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 3:16 PM, Allen Edwards <allen.p.edwards at gmail.com>wrote:

>
>
> On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 10:18 AM, Mike Perkins <
> mikep at randomtraveller.org.uk> wrote:
>
>> On 25/02/13 17:18, Allen Edwards wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> I was going to do the new drive update method.  I even have the new 2T
>>> drive sitting right here next to me.  Then I got thinking about all the
>>> upgrading I would need to do.
>>>
>>> 1) The Squeezebox server.
>>> 2) The VM Windows server running Windows XP under Linux
>>> 3) Fan speed control
>>> 4) CPU Power control
>>> 5) Custom myth menus to run Chrome and the fire off VM
>>> 6) Setting it up so the projector and the TV and the computer monitor all
>>> work
>>> 7) Getting sound to both the TV (stereo) and the Surround system (4.1)
>>> 8) Setting up the IR remote, which controls the TV, Projector, HiFi, room
>>> lights, and Myth
>>> 9) The things I forgot that I did
>>>
>>> Even getting Linux to boot on my MB was a huge pain.  I think that took
>>> me
>>> about week.  At one point I called ASUS and the advice I got was to buy
>>> an
>>> Intel MB (I have AMD).  The solution was to mess with the order that
>>> things
>>> are done in the boot process.  I wish I could remember what I did.
>>>
>>> To that I could add the things that are now easy, setting up Myth...
>>>
>>> The bottom line is that the system worked perfectly for several years so
>>> something changed and if I can just fix that, we will be happy.
>>>
>>>  Things have moved on, as they say. I suspect that if you decide to
>> upgrade your OS then you'll likely find that things you had to wrestle with
>> back in the day just work 'right out of the box' now.
>>
>> My advice: don't upgrade. Take this as an opportunity to rethink your
>> whole setup. After all, the last time you did this was 0.21, right? Look at
>> new motherboards. You'll probably find a new one that will be cheaper and
>> take half the power (or less) while giving you the same (or more) grunt.
>>
>> The newest versions of operating system will likely make your life easier
>> as well. Case in point: Xorg, which now does much of the configuration by
>> itself, meaning you don't need to (for most of us.. there's always one or
>> two!).
>>
>> You shouldn't even need to set up your remote again, unless it *all* runs
>> through your myth system. The new myth instance is all that should need to
>> re-learn your IR commands, after all. Did I mention that Infra-Red handling
>> is now different in the newer kernels?
>>
>> --
>>
>> Mike Perkins
>>
>>
> OK, Mike (and anyone else who wants to offer up an opinion)
>
> Say I follow your advice and replace rather than update.  What HW should I
> buy?  What CPU (Intel this time), what MB, what Graphics card (or built in?)
>
> Significant requirements:
>
> 1) As I have two audio sinks, I now have two spdif (analog connector)
> outputs. One goes to my Surround decoder which is 4.1.  The other goes to a
> decoder and outputs stereo to the TV. Ideal would be a digital output to
> the surround box and analog outputs to the TV so I could get rid of the
> decoder. The second spdif output is wired to the second spidf port on the
> MB, the first one is standard MB output.
>
> 2) The Video goes to a TV which is 1080P capable but locked to 720p by
> XORG.conf so that I can easily switch the output to the projector which is
> native 720P (I have a DVI splitter that drives the TV and the projector).
>  I can't do auto detect as the projector will report that it can take 1080p
> but then produces a vastly inferior picture.  There is also a third display
> that is the main desktop.  Ubuntu is on the secondary desktop so I can do
> administrative and system stuff from the second display.  Myth is on either
> the TV or the Projector (or both) but it is duplicated by the splitter.
>
> I am always fearful that any new HW will break my video setup and refuse
> to play with the DVI splitter, or that I won't be able to lock it to 720p.
>
>
>
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