So, it seems that performance problem is solvedSo... I get to post what I hope is good news. So far... both scenarios of testing Filter #2 from above (with and without MPEG2 parser) worked very well. In fact, there was no noticeable difference between either. The playback worked well. Not a single stutter... and this was indeed on my low power everyday HTPC.
Here's the GPU and CPU stats for each scenario.
With MPEG2 Parser...
- GPU1 pinned at 100% utilization
- GPU2 spiky... 0 or 100% utilization in sporadic spikes
- GPU3 steady utilization roughly around 65%
- 4 CPU cores roughly average around 18% utilization
- MP client was around 10% CPU utilization
- TV Service was consistent around 2-3%
Without MPEG2 Parser...
- GPU1 pinned at 100% utilization
- GPU2 spiky... 0 or 100% utilization in sporadic spikes
- GPU3 steady utilization roughly around 65%
- 4 CPU cores roughly average around 17% utilization
- MP client was around 10% CPU utilization
- TV Service was consistent around 1-2%
I've decided to reintroduce the MPEG2 parser and run with this new filter for everyday use to see if there are any long term impacts. So far I've had pretty good luck on everything I tried to watch in the last 30 minutes or so.