Increased memory usage from RC2 to RC4

[nitro]

Hi, I have been using RC2 for a while now, and of late have started to use it exclusively for my home media requirements. As such my usage has increased and I cam across the memory leakage problem in RC2.

When RC2 started, mediaportal.exe use to sit at the homescreen with 14mb ram used, then after a day of watching tv and movies, music, picutes (whatever) the system would get very slow and eventually i would kill MP and be presented with a "you virtual memory is too low" ballon from the task bar. A reboot would empty the bit bucket and away I go again.

Tonight I got jack of it, and upgraded to RC4. And al of a sudden MP now uses 100MB sitting at the home screen, but the up side is, changing channels, starting/stopping movies has no great effect on the memory used.

I was and am still using DScaler for Audio and Video.

Has anyone else experience this significant jump in memory usage? Is it something the devs have done to eliminate the problem (prefetch data)....i did notice the disk chugs a bit more when going from plugin to plugin

and on a side note, my system is apparently running pirated software...so i have to sort that one out...looks like my license from joe blogs backyard compouter store wasnt legit!

[Rybber]

Yes, I have experienced this too!!!

Take a look at my post then: http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/vi...007&highlight=

I still have the same problem with RC4 - after viewing a recorded show, memory is NOT being released, so after playing 3-4 recordings, MP crashed with the same baloon tip

[Marcusb]

This has been discussed a few times before already and is to do with the way dot net handles memory.

When code no longer needs memory in DotNet it marks it as unneeded.
To increase efficiency and speed, the DotNet garbage collector monitors system memory and keeps that memory in a virtual "recycle bin" until it's either needed again by the code or if needed by other applications the memory is released.

Basically this is how Windows XP handles memory. Everything gets more than it needs as long as there is plenty to go around. There is only a problem if this is happening and your system has not enough memory (which should never be the case if the garbage collector is working poperly).

[nitro]

that may be the case in Rybber's problem, but that doesnt explaint the 86mb increase in memory usage from RC2 to RC4

[Marcusb]

I thought it explained it well. Does your system have ample spare memory? If so, then this is normal DotNet behaviour.
Is it causing you any problems?

To test, you can try turning of virtual memory (not recommended for XP for the resons I have just explained) and see if MP's memory usage decreases.

There is a very recent post where people have told stories of tiny DotNet apps that use >20Mb ram and similar. I suggest a search for further information.
FWIW, I used to get around 50Mb of memory usage in MP before .2rc3.

Edit: actually, I just read Rybbers thread he linked to. It looks like that is an issue with the DVR-MS files, since WMP also crashes when trying to play them.

[nitro]

but DotNET was used in RC2, i must be missing something.
I have diabled the pagefile on my system, the only differnence is that it take a little longer to swithc between plugins.

i have 512mb ram

[Marcusb]

But it still gets back to my first point. If your system has enough memory, then this shouldn't be an issue. This is just the way that Windows XP handles it's memory. On the surface it is similar to the 9x series, but there's a lot more to it.

I'm not sure why more memory is being allocated (not used) but it must be something to do with the many improvements to the way MP operates. My guess would be the increased use of MultiThreading processes (each one will use a certain minimum, vs, one process using a larger amount).

Also, disabling the page file to test the garbage collector will only work if you are running out of memory. Only then will it start to get rid of any excess memory usage. Just think of it like your recycle bin. Everything goes in there and stays, until you need to free up some space, then it is deleted.[/b]