Testbuilds for SlimTV using TVServer+MPExtended - Updated for 2.2 (2018-10-09)! (1 Viewer)

[Lehmden]

Hi.
I have TV4Home installed and working on my MP1 SingleSeat System. There SlimTV did work properly. But on other clients I got an connection error (see screenshot) It did not matter if I use IP address or name, both the same. MP1 did run well on those clients. It's no matter of firewall, I've tested this.

 

[morpheus_xx]

I think you have Tv4Home installed on the TvServer-PC right?

Then all clients should be able to connect to this instance. Please post more details about your configuration, what PCs are involved, which runs what...

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.

I think you have Tv4Home installed on the TvServer-PC right?

OFC
Both PC running Win7 x64 SP1 (all recent updates), No AV or FW software installed. connected by GBit Lan. Windows Firewall is configured to allow all Home Network connections on all ports. If you need more Hardware specs, my PCs are listed in System information properly. On Main HTPC a MP1 TV Server and Client installation with TV4Home is present and working. Here SlimTV did work as expected (localhost). On my other PC a proper working MP1 Client only Installation is there (using TV Server from main HTPC) and here MP2 SlimTV did this error. On this PC there are lots of other software like Libre Office, Lightworks,... is installed as this is my working PC. A complete list maybe a bit to private to post it here. On Main HTPC not much aside the neccessary things around MP are installed. Firefox and Ashampoo Burning Studio is available here (the only BD Writer I have is HTPC in build so I need a burning software there). Most of my Media are on a separate nas without any MP related things, as I need to have TV cards in living room (only available antenna there)...

I had used (fix) IP Address and/or Name of my TV Server, did not change anything...

BTW I'm not the only one with this problem...
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/a-couple-of-mp2-questions.106273/#post-848567

Later this day I can test this on my Laptop also...

 

[toga67]

Please do not understand me wrong,
i do not want to critizice you. I love MP and it is really a great tool.
My main usage of MP is Live TV. It works very good but i think it needs to much CPU resources. So i hoped that MP2 will reduce the CPU Load for Live-TV. I just tried it and determined that it needs even more cpu. I tried it with different codeks like LAV, PDVD11, Microsoft and always with enabled DXVA. On my testhardware MP1 needs about 8-20% CPU Load (HD TV) while MP2 needs about 15-30%. My understanding was that the main "working" part should do the graphics card and not the CPU. It would be so great if you could reduce the CPU load dramatically. please!!! We all want to preserve our environment and safe power.
The DVBViewer shows that it is possible. Please see the attached picture. DVBViewer only need about 1-6% CPU.
Thanks for your understanding.

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.
ZDF HD did not utilize GPU much as this is progressive (720P). Not a good example I think.
For MP2 the TV Server from MP1 is still used while in Alpha stadium. So all Power needed for MP1 is needed for MP2 also and an additional Service (TV4Home) and Plugin so it is really normal MP2 uses a little bit more Power as MP1 atm...

 

[toga67]

I also tried it with Servus TV HD which is 1080i and i have the same low CPU usage in DVBViewer. I know that MP2 is in Alpha stadium.
I only wanted to say that a new development should also take the CPU load into consideration. And i only wanted to show that it is technically possible to reduce the CPU load nearly to zero. By the way, also Windows Media Center needs much less resources while looking Live TV than MP1. So my wish would be to improve it also in MP2.

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.
It will take a long time until TV server will be rewritten First the Client has to be finished likely. As long as that is the fact, CPU usage could not be less than in MP1.

A VW Polo needs less Gas than a MAN 40 Ton Truck, but no one will blame the MAN for that... DVB Viewer is not an HTPC Software so this is not nice to compare them at all. WMC did not even have 10% of the possibilities MP has, so this is also absolutely normal that MP did use more of the CPU... With neither of them you can stream Live TV to an unlimited count of other PC in your network, you can't mix up DVB-S, DVB-T DVB-C and Analog with no limitations,...

IMHO Live TV is not the problem, the really too much power consuming part of MP1 is the GUI rendering. And this is so much better with MP2. Do nothing in Basic Home can eat up more than 70% CPU Load. That's really annoying. Live TV reduces CPU load well notable...

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.
Only to proof my last comment, see attached screenshots
.

 

[toga67]

Hi,
no doubt about it that MP is the best MediaCenter. I just want to say that the user acceptance would further improve when also live tv would need less CPU resources. There are also a lot of messages in the forum because of dropped frames while watching Live TV. Perhaps the reason could be that the people want to save power and use a less powerful hardware which makes trouble with the high CPU load while watching tv.
Technically i have no idea how decoding, rendering etc. works. And perhaps you are right that you can not compare MP with WMC or DVDViewer. But the "normal" user only sees that he can watch with all the 3 programs tv and only 1 program (MP) needs quite much more CPU and a better hardware for the client.
By the way it is not the TVService which uses so much CPU. It ist clear that MP will never have the same low CPU usage than e.g. DVBViewer but perhaps only 3-5% more because of the TVService.
So my wish would be that one of the great developers also would have a look at the CPU load while watching TV. Perhaps you can temporarily switch of all functions of the MAN 40 Ton Truck so that the truck will become the VW Polo while watching TV.

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.

only 3-5% more because of the TVService.

do not forget the 5% for the needed MySQL server, so you have an extra 10% that can't be changed at all. 5 to 10% for the viewing application is not too much I think...

Perhaps you can temporarily switch of all functions of the MAN 40 Ton Truck so that the truck will become the VW Polo while watching TV.

This will not be possible at all, I fear. DVB Viewer and WMC are using TV cards locally, accessing the hardware direct. MP needs to do this via Network (on SingleSeat too) so the TCP related stuff will always be there. Without this stuff you can't have the Network streaming option any more. And the way MP is rendering the video can't be easily changed also.
But as I told before, CPU load on Live TV is not the problem. This can be handled by nettops without any issue. Droped Frames had nothing to do with this. This is a matter of Codec, renderer, GPU and a bit HDD speed... Most droped frames are from bad signal or insufficient codec settings. For me I only have droped frames if the signal gets weak. This appears every now and then, especially on not that good weather conditions...