Stuttering/freezing sound and display in Live TV

[csberto]

Area: Media Portal Program
MP Version: 0.1.3. cvs 09-01-2005
Skin: Project X
Windows Version: XP, Home Edition, 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600
CPU Type: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ 2.40GHz HT 1MB S939 Box
Memory: 2 x PQI 1GB DDR SDRAM PC3200 CL2.5
Motherboard Chipset: Asus A8N-SLI Premium nForce4 SLI, RAID, 2xGLAN (Phoenix Technologies BIOS Revision 1005 2005-05-30)
Video Card: XFX Videokaart PCI-e GeForce 7800GTX 256MB DDR3 2xDVI/VIVO
Video Card Driver: NVIDIA 8.1.8.9. 2005-10-28
Video Card Resolution: 1280 x 1024
Video Render Type: VMR9
Video Codec Type & Version: all codecs
Audio Codec Type & Version: all codecs
TV Card: Hauppauge PVR350
TV Card Type: hardware
TV Card Driver: 1.18.21.23257 2005-09-14


Synopsis:
When viewing live TV with time shifting on, after a while (5 to 10 minutes) display and sound begin to stutter/freeze every now and then for a short moment (a fraction of a second). Sometimes sound and display also gradually go out of sync. When I turn timeshifting or TV off and then on again things repeat: first everything is fine, but after a while the stuttering/freezing and sometimes sound and display going out of sync start all over again.
With time shifting off I can't watch live TV at all, because after 10 or 20 seconds display and sound begin to stutter heavily and then sound stops and display freezes completely.

[csberto]

Nobody experiences the same problem or knows a solution for it?
I now have MP 02.0_RC1 cvs-11-28-2005--19.16, but still the same problems.
I love MP, but hate this problem!!

[soliver25]

I don't know if this will fix your problem or not, but in the CVS builds, they removed VMR9 Windowless. I was having the problems you are describing when I try to use VMR9 Renderless. But, you can edit the mediaportal.xml file, under the MyTV section, change VMR9 to 2, and see if that fixes your problem.

[csberto]

Originally Posted by soliver25

I don't know if this will fix your problem or not, but in the CVS builds, they removed VMR9 Windowless. I was having the problems you are describing when I try to use VMR9 Renderless. But, you can edit the mediaportal.xml file, under the MyTV section, change VMR9 to 2, and see if that fixes your problem.

Thanks for your quick reaction, but your suggestion doesn't solve the problem.

[soliver25]

Actually, with the latest CVS, it seems like it's using Windowless instead of Renderless. I am able to watch TV now after running the configuration. I wasn't able to up until this most recent CVS.

[knutinh]

I have had these problems with 0.1.3.0 up until 0.2.0.0 RC1, CVS from yesterday. It just seems like the tv part of MP doesnt like my DVB-T/analog cable setup very much. I have installed all the microsoft hot fixes, re-installed windows, shuffled all the codecs, tweaked the tv-out of my graphics card. I also continually tweak the rendering options in MP, exclusive directx mode, go into/out of full screen mode. Either the picture/sound stutters, or I get other visual artefacts.

It just seems that I wont get stable live tv. Almost everyting else (such as movie viewing) works very fine though.

with regards
K

[csberto]

Originally Posted by csberto

Area: Media Portal Program
MP Version: 0.1.3. cvs 09-01-2005
Skin: Project X
Windows Version: XP, Home Edition, 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600
CPU Type: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ 2.40GHz HT 1MB S939 Box
Memory: 2 x PQI 1GB DDR SDRAM PC3200 CL2.5
Motherboard Chipset: Asus A8N-SLI Premium nForce4 SLI, RAID, 2xGLAN (Phoenix Technologies BIOS Revision 1005 2005-05-30)
Video Card: XFX Videokaart PCI-e GeForce 7800GTX 256MB DDR3 2xDVI/VIVO
Video Card Driver: NVIDIA 8.1.8.9. 2005-10-28
Video Card Resolution: 1280 x 1024
Video Render Type: VMR9
Video Codec Type & Version: all codecs
Audio Codec Type & Version: all codecs
TV Card: Hauppauge PVR350
TV Card Type: hardware
TV Card Driver: 1.18.21.23257 2005-09-14


Synopsis:
When viewing live TV with time shifting on, after a while (5 to 10 minutes) display and sound begin to stutter/freeze every now and then for a short moment (a fraction of a second). Sometimes sound and display also gradually go out of sync. When I turn timeshifting or TV off and then on again things repeat: first everything is fine, but after a while the stuttering/freezing and sometimes sound and display going out of sync start all over again.
With time shifting off I can't watch live TV at all, because after 10 or 20 seconds display and sound begin to stutter heavily and then sound stops and display freezes completely.

EUREKA EUREKA EUREKA EUREKA EUREKA EUREKA EUREKA EUREKA

I found the cause and solution for all the problems as described in my above post.
The cause is the dual core processor in my PC.
The solution is to set affinity for Media Portal to 1 CPU instead of the default 2 CPU's. I did that in Windows Taskmanager. In the Processes tab I rightclicked MediaPortal.exe and set affinity to CPU 0 only (instead of the default CPU 0 and CPU 1).
Problem however is that this setting isn't saved permanently, so when shutting down MediaPortal and starting it again the affinity is automatically set to CPU 0 and CPU 1 again.
The solution for this is the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit, that can set affinity permanently for a particular application.

For other users of Media Portal who experience the same problems as I did and want to try this, here are the instructions for downloading and using the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit

1. Install this:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en
2. Start.. Programs... Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit 4.1... Tools... Compatibility Administrator
3. At the bottom of the tree on the left is "custom database". Right click it, Create New... Application Fix.
4. Type in a name (say, the program name) and point it at the .exe of the program in question, and click next.
5. Choose "none" for operating system mode, and click next (you don't want any of the fixes on this page).
6. Choose "SingleProcAffinity" from the list and click next.
7. Click finish.
8. Click save and pick a name and location for the database.
9. Right click the database and pick "install".

[Eki-Setä]

MediaPortal Version: 0.2.0.0 RC2 (2006-03-01)
MediaPortal Skin: BlueTwo
Windows Version: Windows XP (SP2)
.NET CLR Version: 2.0.50727
DirectX Version: 4.09.00.0904 (9.0c)
Audio Codec: NVIDIA Audio Decoder
Video Codec: NVIDIA Video Decoder
CPU Type: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
Memory: 2 GB
Motherboard: LP UT NF3 Utral-D (DFI Inc.)
TV Card Model: Twinhan DVB-C MiniCab
TV Card Type: DVB
TV Card Driver: BDADriverV1.2.3.5_WHQL
Video Card Model: Nvidia Geforce 6800 GT (256 MB)
Video Card Driver: -
Video Card Resolution: 1280x1024
Video Render Type: VMR9
Audio Card Model: Creative Audigy Audio Processor (WDM)


With this affinity fix I finally got my MP working, thank you!

[dman_lfc]

Tried this...

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/cont...ies/amdcpu.exe

???

DMAN

[csberto]

Originally Posted by dman_lfc

Tried this...

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/cont...ies/amdcpu.exe

???

DMAN

What is it? What does it?