- September 1, 2008
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They're caused by the CPU running at frequencies which are too low for MediaPortal and/or TV Server's needs. Power saving is great and to be encouraged... but when dealing with real-time media streaming, a guaranteed minimum level of performance is needed. If the power saving settings allow performance to drop below the required performance threshold, problems can occur.Are the problems you are talking about caused by the frequency switching or by running the CPU at low frequencies?
In my opinion, anecdotally, USB tuners in general (no specific brands) seem to be more prone to problems. It's not because there's necessarily anything wrong with or bad about USB tuners (eg. smaller buffers or whatever). Rather, it just seems to be easier to [for example] get bad drivers for laptop USB controllers, or encounter USB input devices with drivers that have high DPC latency.Regarding DPC latency: Are TV cards known which have less (or more) trouble with DPC latency (e.g. by bigger/smaller buffers)?
I don't want to discourage you or other people from using USB tuners. We're talking about an uncommon problem (I might see one or two reports per year on our forum) that can often be solved by updating or changing drivers. In other words: please don't take this reply as a reason to sell your USB tuner(s). If you think/thought high DPC latency is/was responsible for the issues you were/are seeing, I'd encourage you to first try to reducing DPC latency by identifying the problematic driver(s) and updating or changing it/them if possible.