[mythtv-users] transcode/mythtranscode memory leak or buffering?

[Christian Hack]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org 
> [mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org] On Behalf Of Henrik Bentel
> Sent: Wednesday, 21 January 2004 3:50 PM
> To: mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> Subject: [mythtv-users] transcode/mythtranscode memory leak 
> or buffering?
> 
> 
> Hi
> 
> When transcoding from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 I'm seeing memory then 
> swap usage go 
> up and up and up. but never down.
> It's a regular slow mem. usage creep (couple of megs a few 
> minutes apart).
> 
> I searched the mailing list and somewhere someone said it was 
> transcode 
> doing buffering, not leaking.
> 
> My problem is that I have a recording that's a bit over 4 
> gigs. And even 
> after reboot (with several services turned off to save memory) the 
> transcode will not complete
> before memory and swap runs out. I have 512 MB mem which 
> apparently isn't 
> enough. I have logs saying outofmemory and database not 
> accessible and all 
> kinds of errors all over the place. Then the machine reboots. Then on 
> startup it automatically starts transcoding again, which 
> again eventually 
> fails, and the whole thing repeats. My workaround was to 
> delete my 4 gig 
> recording. not cool.
> 
> Is this expected buffer strategy?
> Has anyone else seen this problem??
> 

Doesn't sound right to me. I regularly transcode nearly every recording
I make from DVB MPEG2 down to MPEG4. I have easily done recordings as
big as 10GB. This is on a machine with 512MB of memory. I don't even
have any swap space turned on since I find I'm only using around 200MB
in normal operation. The rest becomes disk cache. I have never noticed
memory usage get out of hand but then again, I haven't really bothered
to look.

Can you see the mythtranscode process actually using the memory (in
'top' for example)? Possibly it's something else using it.

BTW: I usually run with a week or two of CVS. You don't mention which
version you use.

If you want to top an automatic transcoding while it's in progress, I
have found the easiest way is to view the recording and change it's
cutlist. Mythtranscode will detect the cutlist change and abort. YMMV.

CH