TVServer faster channel changes with XBMC (1 Viewer)

[2010]

I won't bore you with my HTPC background but its fair to say I've used most of the windows offerings (XBMC, MCE/DVBLink, MP, NexPVR) and the most persistent issue has been slow channel changing.

NextPVR is the fastest tv server but thanks to DJBlu's Sky plugin & Titan, I prefer Mediaportal but the channel changing is too slow (5/6 seconds upwards) but recently XBMC has made a breakthrough with channel changing times and it now takes approx 1 second to change channels using MP TVServer!

I always assumed TVServer was the culprit for the slow channel changes but obviously XBMC proves that is not the case, so the question is, why is Mediaportal significantly slower at channel changing with its own TVServer then a third party client (using exact same hardware)?

The thread below has details regarding the improvements with XBMC

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=150887&page=4

Mark

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Not sure that is the whole story, my start live tv is 4 secs and channel switching 1-2 seconds.

@gibman, @Owlsroost any thoughts why the big difference seen by 2010.

 

[2010]

Just so it can be ruled out, MSE/Defender are disabled, I have the timeshift on a dedicated drive and I'm using a DVB-S2 with Win7 X64 (server & Client).

 

[pünktchen]

Have you tried UNC paths under debug options of the client?
XBMC doesn't use rtsp as far as i know.

 

[Owlsroost]

Not sure that is the whole story, my start live tv is 4 secs and channel switching 1-2 seconds.

@gibman, @Owlsroost any thoughts why the big difference seen by 2010.

My channel change times are simliar to yours, Ray (or faster) - single-seat DVB-T/T2 - in fact the last one I did from HD to SD channel (including swapping between different TV cards) took less than a second.

Using UNC paths normally gives faster changes than RTSP.

 

[2010]

Have you tried UNC paths under debug options of the client?
XBMC doesn't use rtsp as far as i know.

I have switched to UNC & there is an improvement, doesn't feel as fast as XBMC but I'll have to test more.

 

[pünktchen]

Just wonder how you test channel changing speed, hopefully not by channel up and down?!
Try number "0"...

 

[jonm]

Just looking at my log from trying a few channel changes, what's happening in the 8 seconds here?

2013-04-05 10:49:38.554218 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: TSReaderPlayer:Pause graph
 2013-04-05 10:49:38.585219 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: TSReaderPlayer: OnZapping :128   *****
 2013-04-05 10:49:46.145652 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: TSReaderPlayer: OnZapping :1	*****
 2013-04-05 10:49:46.148652 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: succeeded:Succeeded TvControl.VirtualCard
 2013-04-05 10:49:46.153652 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: TSReaderPlayer:Continue graph
 2013-04-05 10:49:46.159653 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: tvhome:startplay

 

[Owlsroost]

Just looking at my log from trying a few channel changes, what's happening in the 8 seconds here?

2013-04-05 10:49:38.554218 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: TSReaderPlayer:Pause graph
2013-04-05 10:49:38.585219 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: TSReaderPlayer: OnZapping :128  *****
2013-04-05 10:49:46.145652 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: TSReaderPlayer: OnZapping :1	*****
2013-04-05 10:49:46.148652 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: succeeded:Succeeded TvControl.VirtualCard
2013-04-05 10:49:46.153652 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: TSReaderPlayer:Continue graph
2013-04-05 10:49:46.159653 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: tvhome:startplay

You need to attach the full MP + TVserver logs - fragments don't help much...

 

[jonm]

Understood... will do, although it'll take me a while. (I just wondered what OnZapping did.)