[mythtv-users] prebuffering pauses every 2 seconds watching tv

[Mark J. Small]

On Monday 26 April 2004 17:52, trooper ryan wrote:
> I'm using bttv.  I profess ignorance, but if these other apps can
> display TV without a problem, wouldn't my problem be Myth related?
>
> J. Donavan Stanley wrote:
> > trooper ryan wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I'm just having a crack at my first MythTV installation.  When I try
> >> to watch tv, I get prebuffering pauses every 2-3 seconds, making it
> >> unwatchable.  I've looked through the list archives and am unable to
> >> find the cause.  Both xawtv and tvtime work fine on my system.
> >>
> >> Any starting points much appreciated.
> >
> > If you're using ivtv check your driver version.  The 1.10pre line caused
> > this behavior with my machines.  If you used at rpms chances are you got
> > the drivers out of the bleeding section.
> > _______________________________________________
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> > mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> > http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users


It happens to me if I try to watch at too high a quality.  When you are 
watching livetv, the computer is capturing, converting to some format 
(mpeg2/mpeg4/rtjpeg/mjpeg), saving it too disk, reading from disk, 
deconverting the stream, and displaying it on your screen.  That's a LOT of 
work, but that's the way to get pause to happen.  

So try using a different codec (say rtjpeg), and lower your quality settings.  
It makes a huge difference.

Of course your problem could be completely unrelated.  Run top and see what 
sort of CPU load you have.

Hope this helps,

Mark