Dropped Frames every 100 seconds (1 Viewer)

[Jago]

Unfortunately, I don't have another PC with Windows 7 running and I will not have time to install it in the near future.

 

[kiwijunglist]

well i have personally had tv series plugin get stuck in an endless loop due to database corruption. this loop actually caused mp to hang on starting.... you never know, maybe db corruption is the cause of why tv series plugin makes you drop frames. also there are lots of options in tvseries that you can play around with.

 

[Jago]

OK, I will delete the tv database so that it can be rebuilt from scratch. Maybe, this will do the trick.
Thanks.

 

[RoChess]

And to be sure, the E350-CPU is underpowered, the E350-GPU is awesome and can decode 2x 1080p without skipping a beat. However the moment the GPU is doing that and the CPU does more then 30% activity, the GPU is impacted because the CPU is unable to feed the GPU with the new data. Since MediaPortal runs on the .NET framework there is an additional load on the CPU that the other programs you mentioned do not have. Also MediaPorta does more in the background. Now you can disable a lot of this activity, such as configure Moving-Pictures and MP-TVSeries to not do any type of import tasks in the background, so you could have overlooked something (log files in debug mode should clarify this), but MediaPortal v1.4 also added new features and might just be a higher load that you can not configure.

However with a ton of tweaking it should be possible to make it work.

 

[Jago]

Thank you RoChess for clarifying the situation.

If the E350 is suddenly too weak I really have to think about continue using Mediaportal.
But I don't believe that this is really the case. Something else is going on. I just cannot find anything in the logs.

If the E350 was really too weak I think I should also get dropped frames with the MPTV-Series Plugin disabled.... but it runs smooth.

 

[RoChess]

MP-TVSeries just adds another plugin that MediaPortal has to add to the mix, and it also does a lot of background tasks. It is much more intense in doing background tasks then for example Moving-Pictures, because the data on TheTVdB is much more extensive and updates much faster then say IMDb/TMDb (the sources MovPic mainly uses).

Also keep in mind that each time you start MediaPortal for the first time, most plugins use this time to rescan the entire collection (check for missing episodes, missing artwork, etc). Scanning a large TV collection can take a long time, and if you do not let this process finish before starting playback on a media, then this will interfere with the playback.

MP-TVSeries config has the following options to minimize background impact as much as possible:

1. Online data tab -> Enable local/online scan when starting MediaPortal
2. Online data tab -> Automatically download updated data from theTVDB.com every: XX hour(s)
3. Online data tab -> Update all existing Fanart on Import
4. General tab -> Watch my Import folders for changes automatically
5. General tab -> Scan remote shares every XX minutes
6. General tab -> Scan remote shares while fullscreen video is active

If you just disable all the options above, then you just force a manual import each time via the hidden menu (left arrow on most skins). The entire import process from start to finish is then indicated by the spinning circle animation, so you know exactly when it has an impact on your system resources.

This might be too cumbersome for you to force import manual each time, so then you can play with other settings, for example you can re-enable the import scan when starting MediaPortal (but then be patient before you start your first mediaplay, use a manual import to 'time' how long an import takes on your system).

More system memory, or a fast SSD (Samsung 840 or Intel 520) could also solve it, as the high amount of disk activity is removed as a bottleneck then. Enabling the more dangerous 'write back cache' setting can also work on a mechanical harddisk if you already have 4GB+ in the system.

The final solution is to indeed switch to a lighter solution such as the special XBMC version that is optimized for E350 and alike thinclients, aka OpenELEC -- http://openelec.tv/ (even works on a RaspberryPi)

 

[Jago]

I already have a Samsung SSD 840 Pro and I just disabled everything that you suggested without success. The only thing that helps is disabling the plugin completely.

 

[kiwijunglist]

You could try

1. Switch LAV to DXVA2 Native - uses less resources.
2. Disable vsync - Drop less frames due to sync mismatch from slow hardware
3. Overclock the hardware. I used to run 780G mono with onboard HD3200. It worked for MP1.0. For MP 1.01 I had to overclock the FSB+GPU Core. For MP 1.0.2 it was too slow for Live TV. If you want to make your h/w faster you need to raise the FSB this will increase the speed in which the GPU can access the shared memory. It will have the side effect of increasing the CPU speed as well. Raising the GPU Core will help slightly but less so. I would suggest an increase by about 10-20% of the current value. Also turning off CPU throttling in bios may help.
4. Increase MePo priority. I think it's under MP Config -> General Settings (advanced mode)
5. Format your PC and only install MePo + Plugins + LAV + Minimal drivers. Then go into msconfig and pretty much disable everything (Even the soundcard + video card stuff is not actually needed to run in the background). Don't install antivirus.
6. Run services.msc then disable things.

I know all this helps from previously running underspec'd hardware with mepo.

 

[RoChess]

@Jago, I actually got some E350 Foxconn barebone kits lying around. Will see if I can replicate your problems this weekend. Makes it easier to figure out a solution then. The HD6310 GPU that comes with the E350 is more then capable to handle 1080p output via DXVA.

• Windows 8 Pro 64-bit
• MediaPortal v1.4
• Moving-Pictures
• IMDb+
• MP-TVSeries
• mvCentral
• OnlineVideos
• InfoService
• WorldWeather Lite

That is how I normally configure a MePo box, would that work for you?

What type of media do you normally use? Are we talking 15GB 1080p MKVs at high-bitrates, or more 700MB H.264 MP4s type?

 

[Jago]

The type of Video does not really matter. The problem can be seen in all video types. Dvd, mp4, mkv ... it doesn't really matter what you choose.

Yes, that setup is more than sufficient.
This is my setup:

• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• MediaPortal v1.4
• Moving-Pictures
• MP-TVSeries
• OnlineVideos
• SubCentral

I don't really use a lot of plugins, just the most popular. I even deactivate weather and info service.

I found out that I sometimes do not get dropped frames but I see spikes in the graphs (SHIFT+1) - so it's just a near miss. But it is always a 100 second intervall.
Thanky you RoChess. I really appreciate your help and effort yo're putting into this.