More Observations about the TV Server (1 Viewer)

[Marky Mark]

It seems to be coming on really well, and I am looking forward to using it as my main system, but at present I am still using 0.2.0 with a local tuner for watching TV, and the same arrangement on a second PC for recordings. I am close to using the server for the recording part, but the client needs to be faster and more stable before I can replace the local tuner for viewing. Keep up the good work, it is much appreciated! I will keep testing as much as I can since I don't have the technical expertise to contribute to the development.

I have posted a couple of bug reports for specific issues, but thought I would add a few general observations as well.

The Server application installed easily enough, although it was useful to have the video tutorials to sort out a couple of things that I had missed. the DVB EPG worked straight away, but I also installed XMLTV to get the episode name to add to the recording filenames (bug reported). Overall the server side seems stable and is making the scheduled recordings OK, although if the master client crashes it seems to retain control of the tuner - if the stream stops perhaps the server should release the tuner.

The client application seems a bit slow and less stable (crashes bug reported).

A quick note of performance shows:

Server runs at 0-1% CPU for the Server process with 1 or 2 clients. Network utilisation is 0.5% for 1 anc 1% for 2 clients on a Gigabit LAN

Laptop Client runs at 27-34% CPU for the MediaPortal process when watching TV, but with 100% for several second when starting TV. It takes 17secs to load MediaPortal and 22secs to start TV streaming. Network is 5% on 100Mb LAN.

Desktop Client runs at 0.5% CPU for the MediaPortal process when watching TV. It takes 5secs to load MediaPortal and 5-7secs to start TV streaming. Network is 0.5% on Gigabit LAN.

Machine specs are:

Server:

MediaPortal Version: Server SVN12537
Windows Version: XP Pro SP2
CPU Type: 2x Opteron 270 Dual Core
HDD: Seagate SCSI/Maxtor 200Gb IDE/Maxtor 200Gb USB
Memory: 4GB Registered ECC
Motherboard: Supermicro H8DA8
Motherboard Chipset: AMD 8131/8111
Motherboard Bios: AMI 5000622
Video Card: Onboard ATI Rage XL PCI 8Mb
Video Card Driver: rdpdd.dll
Sound Card: none
1. TV Card: Conextant
1. TV Card Type: DVB-T
1. TV Card Driver: BDA
MPEG2 Video Codec:
MPEG2 Audio Codec:
Cooling:
Power Supply:
Network: Gigabit LAN

Client 1 (Laptop):

MediaPortal Version: 0.2.2 SVN 12537
MediaPortal Skin: Blue Two
Windows Version: XP Pro SP2
CPU Type: Pentium M 2GHz
HDD: Laptop Drive
Memory: 512MB
Motherboard: Dell Latitude D610
Video Card: ATI Mobility Radeon X300
Video Card Driver:
Sound Card: Sigmatel C-Major Audio
Sound Card AC3:
Sound Card Driver:
1. TV Card: None
MPEG2 Video Codec: MPV (Bob)
MPEG2 Audio Codec: MPA
Cooling:
Power Supply:
Remote:
TV: Laptop Screen
TV - HTPC Connection:
Network: 100Mb LAN

Client 2 (Desktop):

b]MediaPortal Version[/b]: 0.2.2 SVN 12612
MediaPortal Skin: Blue Two
Windows Version: XP Media Center 2003 SP2
CPU Type: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
HDD: 2x 250GB SATA
Memory: 1GB
Motherboard: Acer
Video Card: NVidia GeForce 6600LE 256MB
Video Card Driver:
Sound Card: RealTek AC97
Sound Card AC3:
Sound Card Driver:
1. TV Card: None
MPEG2 Video Codec: MPV (No Deinterlace)
MPEG2 Audio Codec: MPA
Cooling:
Power Supply:
Remote:
TV: Acer LCD Monitor
TV - HTPC Connection:
Network: Gigabit LAN