[mythtv-users] SLIM vs, CPU--

[Brad DerManouelian]

On Oct 2, 2008, at 10:15 PM, Allen Edwards wrote:

> On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 12:44 PM, Brad DerManouelian
> <myth at dermanouelian.com> wrote:
>> On Oct 1, 2008, at 12:08 PM, Allen Edwards wrote:
>>
>>> On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 10:06 AM, Brad DerManouelian
>>> <myth at dermanouelian.com> wrote:
>>>> On Oct 1, 2008, at 8:59 AM, Allen Edwards wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> anyone?
>>>>
>>>> All the default playback profiles are spelled out here:
>>>> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Playback_profiles
>>>>
>>>
>>> I guess I should have said in my original post that I had read all
>>> that and more.  If you read that, you will come to the conclusion  
>>> that
>>> CPU-- would be less CPU intensive than slim but I am seeing the
>>> opposite.  That was my question.  Sorry I was not clear.
>>
>> That depends. If you're using PVR-350 and CPU-- and not playing back
>> MP2 recordings under 720x576, it would be MUCH more CPU intensive.
>> If XvMC isn't working correctly on your system, CPU-- would also be
>> more CPU intensive.
>> deinterlacers can use a lot of CPU if you're viewing interlaced  
>> content.
>> You mention audio skips. Is this only when viewing the OSD? This is
>> common with XvMC and the bob deinterlacer. Is this how you are
>> determining your CPU usage using each profile? What does top say  
>> about
>> your CPU when using each profile?
>>
>> Bottom line is that there are way too many variables to tell you why
>> you're seeing what you're seeing - especially with the information
>> you've given about the content you're playing back (ATSC HD - that
>> could mean about a hundred things)
>>
>> The way to figure out what's really happening is to look at your
>> frontend logs to see exactly what features are being used, then play
>> back the same content with the other playback profile and see which
>> features are being used and determine from there where the issue  
>> lies.
>> Could be as simple as not having UseEvents True in your xorg.conf
>> file. :)
>>
>> -Brad
>
> I do not have a PVR-350.  I have a Nvidia 6200 for the XvMC.
>
> I finally got around to doing a little experimenting.  Basically, I
> played the show in SLIM and the CPU% for mythfrontend was about 75%.
> I then switched to XvMC and the CPU went down to about 47% but there
> was no stuttering.  I got out of the show and started it again and the
> CPU% was 93% and the stuttering was back.  mythfrontend.log showed
> prebuffering pause under this high CPU% but not under the other two
> conditions.  I didn't start any other processes so don'w know what is
> going on.
>
> Strange.

Update your nvidia driver and make sure you're using the latest code  
from -fixes. There was a bug a while back about playing a video, then  
playing it again and getting big CPU usage the second time. I don't  
remember if it was resolved in an nvidia update or mythtv update, but  
it has since been resolved.