Disk I/O Priority Settings (1 Viewer)

[dedi]

Hi

Is there a way to set the Disk I/O Priority setting for TV Server and MediaPortal? I assumed this would be done by the e.g. "TV Server Priority" together with the CPU Priority, but this is not the case.

I'm running my HTPC on a SSD but still can run into disk performance issues. LiveTV starts to show artifacts and stutters. Test case is copy a large file to the SSD, after about 30-60sec the speed drops and LiveTV has problems. I'm investigating if it's the disk when using 4+ timeshifts or recordings at the same time with the same symptoms (with probably other services access the disk like shadowcopy or pagefile).


MediaPortal Version: RC4
MediaPortal Skin: default wide
Windows Version: Win 7 64bit
CPU Type: AMD 620 x4 2.6GHz
HDD: supertalent gx ssd
Memory: 2x2GB Mushkin DDR3 1600
Motherboard: Asus M4A785TD-V Evo
Video Card: NVIDIA GT 240 (ATI 4200 onboard)
Video Card Driver: 197.45
Sound Card: via onboard
Sound Card AC3: coax
Sound Card Driver: win default
1. TV Card: FireDTV
1. TV Card Type: DVB-C
1. TV Card Driver: 091128_firedtv_setup_5_7
2. TV Card: KNC One
2. TV Card Type: DVB-C
2. TV Card Driver:
3. TV Card: Terratec Cinergy 1200-C
3. TV Card Type: DVB-C
3. TV Card Driver: 4.08.03.18
4. TV Card:
4. TV Card Type:
4. TV Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec: Wn7
MPEG2 Audio Codec: FFDShow or Win7
h.264 Video Codec: MS-DTV / CoreAVC
Satelite/CableTV Provider: EBM / Intergga (Local Swiss Provider)
HTPC Case:
Cooling: Water
Power Supply:
Remote: Hama MCE
TV: Philips
TV - HTPC Connection: hdmi, second display hdmi

 

[Jay_UK]

Hi there,

I don't believe you can prioritise disk I/O as such (only Process priotories).

Like you have suggested, check other processes, AV, Backup/Imaging, etc.

You need to test your controller and SSD - there are some poor performing ones out there (in relation to a good HDD based controller and disk):

Throughput (both Read, Write and mixture (75/25) will need testing, along with latency and IOPs

I personally had some minor issues with HDD, so switched to a ramdrive, which helped alot.

Dropped frames/stuttering might not be disk IO related - there are lots of other causes too (I still everso often have the dreaded dropped frames - but thats a story for another day!)

J.

 

[tourettes]

I/O Prioritization in Windows Vista

Currently not supported by MP nor TV engine.

 

[regeszter]

You have 4GB ram. Try to use ramdisk for timeshift. MP+OS enough 2GB ram, so you can use 2GB for timeshift. I use SSD in tvserver + 2GB ramdisk for timeshift a NAS for store the recordings. It is a good solution.

 

[dedi]

It's possible to see the I/O priority in the Resouce Monitor, but usually everything has priority "normal".

2GB Ram for Ramdisk to use for timeshift is by far not enough. If you only pause for a short time, it might work out for you, but not for me: long breaks, multiseat, HD. Also I use the htpc also for inet surfing, so 2GB Ram is not enough for OS+programs

Well, I'm sure I have a sort of bottleneck, I just can't find out what. It's an SSD with an Indilinx chip and trim, which should perfom ok compared to most first generation (exect Intel) SSDs with decreasing performance. The mainboard isn't a old one too, and generally the htpc is overpowered for its task anyway.

yesterday a new firmware for the ssd was released, thats the next thing I'm gonna try. after that I dont have many clues what to try.

 

[dedi]

well, I did the firmware update for my SSD, together with a sanitary erase. With that I did a fresh install of Win7. It seems the problem is gone now (drop of write speed).

It's unclear if it was the firmware update (unlikely, the last wasn't really old, but still no changelog released for the current one), or (more likely) the broken AMD AHCI drivers. They appear to not support TRIM (what a lol), but are installed automatically with the ATI GPU drivers. I'm now using the default Microsoft AHCI drivers (4 years old), which were commented by others to not be perfect, but still better than the crappy AMD ones. My next computer will be a Intel again.