sluggish digital tv on pc

[firmin]

TV-Server Version: /
MediaPortal Version: MediaPortal-0.2.3.0_RC3
MediaPortal Skin: default
Windows Version: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254)
CPU Type: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.40GHz
HDD: Maxtor 6E040L0 (40gb)
Memory: 758MB RAM
Motherboard: intel D845GVS1
Motherboard Chipset:
Motherboard Bios: BIOS Date: 03/16/05 23:33:50 Ver: 08.00.08
Video Card: RADEON 9250
Video Card Driver: ati2dvag.dll (6.14.0010.6561 (English))
Sound Card: Realtek AC97 Audio
Sound Card AC3:
Sound Card Driver: ALCXWDM.SYS (5.10.0000.6240 (English),4/25/2007
1. TV Card: twinhan (without cam) 2021
1. TV Card Type: dvb-c, pci
1. TV Card Driver: DVB-TV 878 Digital Tuner Driver
2. TV Card:
2. TV Card Type:
2. TV Card Driver:
3. TV Card:
3. TV Card Type:
3. TV Card Driver:
4. TV Card:
4. TV Card Type:
4. TV Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec: tried with the ones of mediaportal, none seem to work properly
MPEG2 Audio Codec: dito
Satelite/CableTV Provider: in-di (belgium)
HTPC Case: ??? (not familiar with this)
Cooling: not sure
Power Supply: not sure
Remote: ???
TV: digital tv
TV - HTPC Connection: ???


Hi,

I have been trying to get digital cable tv on my pc but it is too sluggish. Can someone tell me what I need to do ? I filled in as much information as I could, some of them I am not really familiar with but if it is really necessary I will look into it.

Thanks in advance

[firmin]

Is there anyone who can help ?

[Paranoid Delusion]

Hi Firmin

Not a specialist in Cable, but maybe i can point you in some direction to overcome your problem.

Please start with being exact as to what your problem is,

Mediaportal very sluggish

or

unable to watch cable TV as bad stuttering\picture quality.

if neither try to state exactly your movements to reproduce, ie enter TV and then takes 20 seconds before TV picture appears.

look at C:\Program Files\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal folder, you are then looking for MPTestTool2, run this and follow the test tool instructions and reproduce your problem as you normally would, the logs that are produced, attach to this post using the advanced settings.

Good Luck

[Taipan]

Originally Posted by firmin

Video Card: RADEON 9250

I think this might be the cause - I don't believe that it meets the minimum requirements for MediaPortal (supports DirectX 9) ?

[firmin]

Thanks for the replies.
Taipan, I think my 128mb videocard meets the necessary requirements. Could you eplain the reason why you think it doesn't ? No offence of course.

Paranoid, you are right. To be more exactly. the picture quality is stuttering. It does start immediately after I click the TV button though.
I ran the test program and attached the log files.

Thanks for the help so far!

[Taipan]

Originally Posted by firmin

I think my 128mb videocard meets the necessary requirements. Could you eplain the reason why you think it doesn't ?

The published specs from ATI say that it is only DirectX 8.1 - you need at least DirectX 9 for MediaPortal. I believe that this is what is causing the "sluggish" performance.

Can you try a DirectX 9 video card to see if it improves?

[wowski]

I have a very similar set upto you (similar Motherboard and processor), also using the ATI9250. I noticed in MP 0.2.3 RC3 is more sluggish than MP 0.2.3 RC2, but don't know why. I have still been able to get full 50fps on live TV by a fair bit of trial and error. Try these to see if it improved the performance any.
(1) I use the video codec from PowerDVD. Set this up with the PowerDVD application to use hardware acceleration, and hardware de-interlacing. I still use the mediaportal audio codec, and default directsound audio renderer as there seems to be some confilct on my system using the PowerDVD audio codec which I haven't got to the bottom of. Select no de-interlacing from the Mediaportal setup.
(2) Make sure the screen resolution is set to the minimum required, e.g. for my CRT TV the lowest available is 640x480.
(3) Some skins are faster/smoother than others. I use the latest foofaraw skin, which in my setup is faster than the default mediaportal blue one. Turn off animations, and keep the priority to normal. I found that increasing the priority slowed the TV framerate down.
(4) Check your PCI bus latency with PCI Latency Tool.
(5) One thing which surprised me a bit was I found that my old IDE hardrive was slow and causing stuttering when recording/timeshifting. Replacing this with a newer SATA one helped a fair bit too.
(6) Turn off any windows services not required. Other posts on these forums go through this a bit.

[firmin]

Taipan: I asked some people but they mostly have agp videocard, my mobo only has pci slots and they are all full

I will try wowski 's method, hope it works! I will you guys now.