[mythtv-users] Have to start shows twice -- database problem???
Allen Edwards
allen.p.edwards at gmail.com
Tue Feb 26 15:12:51 UTC 2013
On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 1:43 AM, Michael Watson <
michael at thewatsonfamily.id.au> wrote:
> On 26/02/2013 12:42 PM, Allen Edwards wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 12:53 PM, Joseph Fry <joe at thefrys.com <mailto:
>> joe at thefrys.com>> wrote:
>>
>> 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 <mailto:allen.p.edwards at gmail.**com<allen.p.edwards at gmail.com>>>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 10:18 AM, Mike Perkins
>> <mikep at randomtraveller.org.uk
>> <mailto:mikep at randomtraveller.**org.uk<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.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> I really don't have performance complaints, just that the system no
>> longer works correctly. Often when I start a show, myth will sit there for
>> a minute or two with a blank screen, then come back to the menu where I can
>> then select the show again and it plays instantly. Plus, a show I stopped
>> in the middle will not resume. It will do the same thing, waiting a long
>> time and come back with no longer showing the play from... option. It
>> worked fine for many years but quit working correctly about a year ago.
>>
>> Allen
>>
>> You are complaining about performance.
>
> You are running a Windows XP under a VM, this can be very resource
> intensive. This could be causing your problem.
>
> Many people have offered advice on how to rectify, (ignore the ones that
> just say upgrade, upgrade). You need to work out what is causing the
> problem. This can only be done by looking at the logs (mythtv and system
> logs), looking at system load whilst the problem is happening,
>
> You have not stated the specs of your hardware, other than it is many
> years old. How old is that??
> Its very difficult for anybody to provide any real advice, without logs,
> performance data, os version and specs. Everybody is merely guessing
> whilst trying to offer advice.
>
> Regards
> Michael
>
> The processor is an AMD Athlon 64 x2 5400 2.8GHz Dual Core 65/watt on an
ASUS M3A MB. The video is a ASUS GeForce 6200 with 512M memory PCI Express
X16. 2G memory and 1.2T HD split between two disks.
I will post some log files next time it acts up.
Allen
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