[no Bug] PC/MP becomes jerky/slow after TV recording starts (1 Viewer)

[doveman]

MediaPortal Version: v1.1.0 RC1
MediaPortal Skin: Blue3Wide
Windows Version: XP Pro SP3
CPU Type: P4 2.8Ghz Northwood
HDD: 500GB WD SATA
Memory: 1.5GB DDR
Motherboard: Gigabyte 8i848-PM
Video Card: 2600XT 256MB
Video Card Driver: 10.2
Sound Card: onboard Realtek AC97 (ALC655)
Sound Card AC3: no AC3
Sound Card Driver: 5.10.0.6300
1. TV Card: Hauppauge Nova-T 500
1. TV Card Type: DVB-T
1. TV Card Driver: 4.3.27240
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: MPC Gabest
MPEG2 Audio Codec: ffdshow
h.264 Video Codec: ffdshow
Satelite/CableTV Provider:
HTPC Case: Custom
Cooling: Nexus 120mm Intake Fan, Accelero S2, Mini Ninja
Power Supply: DELL DA-2 AC->12v DC, mCubed EF28 DC-DC board
Remote: Nova-T 500
TV: Sony XBR800 36"
TV - HTPC Connection: DVI

I was watching an AVI just fine, when a scheduled TV recording began, at which point the AVI playback (both audio and video) became jerky/stuttery. I tried shutting down MP and re-starting it but it didn't help and I noticed that even MP's interface was noticeably slower than normal, as is the PC in general.

I find Windows Task Manager quite confusing, as it shows System Idle Process mostly around the 86-94% mark, but at the same time shows CPU Usage down the bottom of the window at 40%, which is confirmed on the Performance tab. I don't know what could account for this though, as nothing shows on the Processes tab (TVService.exe is around 2-4%), so obviously something's screwy.

I'm sure that re-booting will sort the problem, but of course then the recording won't be in progress any more so isn't really a fair comparison. I can say though that I've had things recording whilst watching other channels over the previous few days without any problem, so I guess Hibernating leads to problems eventually and a reboot is necessary, which is unfortunate.

 

[arion_p]

Looking at your system eventlog, shows numerous disk errors (bad blocks), ide controller timeouts and network naming conflicts.

 

[doveman]

Yeah I think a lot of those were because I'd updated the motherboard BIOS and not adjusted some of the settings afterwards.

I've done that now and also updated to RC2 but I still have the same problem IE AVI playback is jerky whilst TV is recording. I've checked the eventlogs and there's currently no errors showing there.

One thing that seems a bit strange though. I've got no optical drives and only one, SATA, hard drive and for this to work I seem to have to leave Primary IDE channel enabled in BIOS (otherwise it fails to find it and boot) and SATA set to AUTO, which uses IDE mode.

Now in Device Manager, I've got Intel 82801EB Ultra ATA Storage Controller, then Primary IDE Channel, Secondary IDE Channel and Standard IDE/ESDI Hard Disk Controller. The last shows the Current Transfer Mode for Device 0 as Ultra DMA Mode 5, which seems right for the HD. The Primary IDE Channel however, despite it's Device 0 Transfer Mode being set to "DMA if available" shows a Current Transfer Mode of "PIO Mode".

Now maybe that's correct, but as I've only got one device, I would have thought either there'd be just one entry, or at least they'd both show UDMA5.

Ah, just realised the Standard IDE/ESDI Hard Disk Controller is for my Virtual DVD Driver, so Primary IDE Channel is indeed for the HD and should be set to UDMA, so I'll have to see if I can fix that.

 

[doveman]

I've managed to get the HD working in UDMA 5 mode now and the problem's gone, so please file this report as "No Bug".