Speed up MediaPortal (1 Viewer)

[jakc]

I switched from TVedia to MediaPortal a few weeks back. I have this set up on a fairly old box - 512ram, intel p4, onboard sound/graphics, XPc box. However everythign does work fine, no out of sync issues with videos, etc.

I use Nebula DigiTV in the background as my TV (will maximise to front with remote).

However, MPortal does appear to be quite CPU hungry. What changes can I make to make it more friendly on my cpu

1. can i remove certain elements (such as the tv?
2. Will different skins have different affects on CPU?
3. Perhaps a clean wipe of XP would speed up boot times as well

Any hints/pointers, much appreciated.

 

[and-81]

I would say with 99% certainty that the speed problem you are seeing is because of your onboard graphics.

MediaPortal needs DirectX 9 compliant video hardware.

Some non-DX9 cards/integrated hardware will work because they offload the DX9 instructions to the CPU (slowing it down) while others will not work at all.

If you want to use MediaPortal then get a cheap DirectX 9 Video card... Like an ATI Radeon 9250 or 9550... they're as cheap as chips.

Good luck,

 

[Spragleknas]

(...)like an ATI Radeon 9250

This is not a real DX9 card, from what I can remember.

 

[and-81]

Thanks Spragleknas, that's a fair call.

The 9250 is not strictly DirectX 9.0 compatible. It's almost DirectX 9 compatible, and I have had one working with MediaPortal in the past.

But the 9550 is a lot better for HTPC use. I should have just said 9550 and left the 9250 off.

Cheers,

 

[Spragleknas]

Other (cheap) DX9 cards - which are available in AGP:
nVidia:
- FX5200 or above (5500 etc.). (Old)
- 6200 and above - you get some PureVideo abilities. Fairly cheap.

ATi:
- 9500/9600-series or above (as stated by and-81)
- X-series (X1550)
- HD-series - like HD2400pro - a bit more expensive (Offloads CPU when watching HD-movies). Fairly cool.

 

[jakc]

thanks for prompt replies. Ill set up some alerts on ebay.

Q1. Whats the advantage of having a higher end graphics card in a HTPC? I mean, if im making the upgrade is there any point getting something not so cheap - for instance ive got a 7600gt in my other computer - is that too much?

Q2. Is there still no way I can tweak settings to maximise speed - i.e. remove TV element, etc?

Q3. Bit off-topic but is there a top 10 plugins/skins thread somewhere?

 

[ronilse]

Hi,
Try a simple skin like Simple MP, should use less gpu ..

Roy

 

[and-81]

Q1. Whats the advantage of having a higher end graphics card in a HTPC? I mean, if im making the upgrade is there any point getting something not so cheap - for instance ive got a 7600gt in my other computer - is that too much?

The only reason I can see that you would want a high-end card is to do High Definition content playback (like HD-DVD or Blu-Ray).

You should be able to do Digital TV in high def with anything from about a Radeon 9600 or better.

But there is no such thing as "too much".

Q2. Is there still no way I can tweak settings to maximise speed - i.e. remove TV element, etc?

You can disable any element you like, just go into the MediaPortal configuration Plugins section and disable anything you don't need/want.

Q3. Bit off-topic but is there a top 10 plugins/skins thread somewhere?

Don't think so, just browse around the plugins sub-forum and take a look at the Hot Plugins section.

Hope that helps,

 

[dandirk]

hmmm I sometimes see a slow down as well. Minor issues with standard DVD playback, sort of like a random slowmo every 15-30 mins.

I am using an onboard Ati x1250 displaying HD resolution desktop/playback (1080). Could this be the cause?

 

[and-81]

not sure, I don't really know anything about the 1250's.

Does somewhere else here know more about this?