Animation slowing down in time (1 Viewer)

[zeflash]

I have MP running 24/7 for extended periods of time. The animation speed is set to 50fps, my TV is set to 50Hz. When I first boot window and run MP, the animation is (almost) flawless.
After some days though, it gets jerkier. For example today it has been running for about 7 days, and in the setting pane where you set the animation, even though it was still saying that the animation was running at 50fps, it looked more like a 10fps scroll. Actually, setting the lowest speed in there (10 fps) didn't result in a slower animation.
Restarting MP doesn't change a thing. Restarting windows does.
By the way, when I say "it has been running for 7 days", I mean the system has been up for 7 days. I have restarted MP many times during that period. I probably forced kill the process in some occasions.
I'll try to pay attention to the animation speed after a restart of the app, it might be related.


TV-Server Version:
MediaPortal Version: 1.0.0.0 Final, 2009/01/05 SVN build
MediaPortal Skin: StreamedMP
Windows Version: Vista 64bits SP1
CPU Type: Intel Q6600, 3.2Ghz
HDD: 2TB stripped
Memory: 4 GB DDR2
Motherboard: Abit p5b-e
Video Card: Nvidia 8600GT 512MB
Video Card Driver: Forceware 175.19
Sound Card: Terratec Aureon 7.1 PCI
Sound Card AC3: optical out
Sound Card Driver: 5.12.01.0008.15.06
1. TV Card: DigitalEverywhere FireDTV DVB-C
1. TV Card Type: DVB-C
1. TV Card Driver: 4.8.0.0
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: FFDShow tryout rev 1860
MPEG2 Audio Codec: FFDShow tryout rev 1860
h.264 Video Codec: coreavc 1.7
Satelite/CableTV Provider:
HTPC Case:
Cooling:
Power Supply:
Remote:
TV:
TV - HTPC Connection:

 

[tourettes]

If restarting MP doesn't help its most likely some bug outside MP.

 

[zeflash]

Granted, but what is it? and that's pretty much the only application running on the HTPC.
What application could I test that also uses directX graphics, to see if it's also affected by the framerate drop?

 

[CHli]

I had that problem for years and couldn't find a solution.

I'm running an ATI HD3450 GFX Card with Catalyst 8.5.

If restarting MP doesn't help its most likely some bug outside MP.

What if MP would be leaking some GFX memory ? Are there any tools to check GFX memory allocation ?

I just tried something that may be interesting.

At the moment my MediaPortal is in the state where the animations are really slow and a Windows reboot would be required so I can run some tests if you want.

1. If I press the ! button the white line is drawn at 50 fps
2. No problem with movies render rate only the MP animations are slow

 

[CHli]

Ok I have another theory, It could be that the timing mechanism used by MediaPortal to play the animations is causing some problem after a few day of uptime on some buggy hardware.

Interesting readings :
I need a high resolution timer with QPC
http://www.b500.com/~hplus/pc-timers.html

 

[CHli]

Zeflash,

Since you have the same symptoms as I have could you tell me if you have some sort of Remote Administration tools that uses a "mirror driver" like Radmin or VNC ?

 

[zeflash]

That's exactly what I see, glad I'm not the only one

I use ultraVNC, I think the mirror driver got installed but I'm not using it since it disrupts the overlay - which I use for TV (dvbviewer).
But I just checked, and it's not installed. I do use VNC though once in a while, but so far I haven't been able to link my remote accesses to the fact it starts slowing down.

How did you do the tests in dxdiag? I don't see any options to run tests there.
Wow actually I can't seem to find out where you talked about dxdiag in the first place! I need some sleep

 

[CHli]

I did talk about dxdiag but I edited my post because I realised that if it was failing it was because my radmin client was connected on the HTPC when I was running the test. That explains why the test was not working...

If you run dxdiag it is under "display" but I only get that option on my Windows XP and not on Vista.


In the same time I tried a test software using QueryPerformanceCounter functions and they seemed to work OK so I'm puzzled :-|

I uninstalled my Mirror Driver (Radmin 3.1) and will see if my MP is going to be slow again in a few days.

 

[poyntzj]

got the same

I see this here on my system, which does spend a lot of time in suspend mode.
I am suspicious of the Nvidia driver as that is the only similarity that I have with zeflash's configuration - everyting else is different.

Next time it happens I may look at stopping and starting the TV Service and SQL and see what that does.

Only other thing that maybe simiar is the Intel Chipset drivers, not sure if my version, but my chipset is the Intel P45 (My Mb is an Asus P5Q Pro with a Q6300 processor)

Cheers

 

[jonaskp]

I experience this too. This is only on my MP-client (since the Server is not running MediaPortal, only TVserver). I have onboard Nvidia graphics. Im running WinXP Pro.
I run it for long periods of time without restart. I hibernate it when it's not in use, but I don't suppose this would count as a restart.

It would be great if we could somehow find a reason for this happening, since it's really annoying. I have thought about making a scheduled task to wake it up every 3-4 days in the middle of the night and then do a restart. But it just doesn't seem like it ought to be neccesary.


Also, I don't use VNC, but I have it setup to allow connections through Windows Remote Desktop even though I have never actually used it (couldn't get it to work the first few times and stopped trying).