Winfast TV2000-XP performance issues (1 Viewer)

[moose1973]

Area: Media Portal Program
MediaPortal Version: 0.2.0.0 (2006-07-03)
MediaPortal Skin: Razor
Windows Version: Windows XP (SP2)
.NET CLR Version: 2.0.50727
DirectX Version: 4.09.00.0904 (9.0c)
Audio Codec: DScaler Audio Decoder
Video Codec: DScaler Mpeg2 Video Decoder
CPU Type: AMD Athlon XP 1700+
Memory: 2 GB
Motherboard: 7ZXE (Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.)
TV Card Model: Winfast TV2000XP Delux
TV Card Type: Software
TV Card Driver: 5.13.1.279
Video Card Model: Nvidia Geforce4 MX 440 (microsoft Corporation) (64 MB)
Video Card Driver: 5.6.7.3
Video Card Resolution: 1024x768
Video Render Type: VMR9
Audio Card Model: HDA Digital X-Mystique 7.1
Audio Card Driver: 5.12.1.43
Synopsis:: -

I’m quite new to the concept of MediaPortal, so please excuse any naïve questions or responses.
The problem I’m having is to do with the live TV part of MP. I have installed all the drivers and applications as suggested in previous posts but to no avail. The problem is that live TV is choppy and is as though it was being played in slow motion. There is no dropout of video output but its just VERY jumpy and unwatchable.
I have installed the PVR software that is suggested by the Leadtek website, installed all their latest drivers, and if I use their software to view TV all works perfectly – including time shifting, recording and playback.
One thing I have noticed it that while running the PVR application provided by Leadtek, and watching TV, my system processor is running at around 10%. This increases to around 20% when I’m time shifting or at around 15% when I’m watching and recording at the same time. However, when I run MP and fire-up the “My TV†option, the processor usage jumps straight to 100% and stays there until I exit Live TV. This does explain why the TV picture is choppy and jumpy - the processor just can’t keep up.
I have gone through all the Video / Audio codec options and combinations available to me in the MP setup application and have noticed that only 1 combination actually works. The Audio Codec: DScaler Audio Decoder and Video Codec: DScaler Mpeg2 Video Decoder are the only codecs that actually give me any TV picture. All the others, including Leadtek codecs, just give a black screen (with 100% processor usage).
My question is, has anyone been able to extract the codecs that are used by the Leadtek PVR application? I believe that by using these codecs MP wouldn’t need to work the system at 100% in order to decode and display the TV signal.
Any information would be much appreciated.

 

[Nightmare77]

i think one of the pros will be able to best answer this one for you , but i have a feeling its the video card
Video Card Model: Nvidia Geforce4 MX 440 (microsoft Corporation) (64 MB)
Causing the problems, software that comes with the card more than likely don't use VMR9 render so they play quite fine on your computer . However MP is a directx application so , just running the menu eats up some of your graphics processing.
So when you run your live tv its already being used by the menu and now has to do live tv and i think 64mb video card which isn't a Directx9 card its struggling to keep up.
You have plenty RAM and your CPU should be fine for SD playback of tv, its just the video card causing your problems i would say.

 

[moose1973]

Thanks for the info NightmareRambo77. I had a quick look at the DirectX drivers and video card associations this morning. It seems as though the dxdiag application was quite happy with the old MX440 video card.. All the drivers and resources seemed to work fine using DirectX9.. Saying this, I wouldn't be surprised if the video card is too slow, so I have organised a slightly beefier card that I will try tonight.

 

[Taipan]

I think your main problem is that your TV card is a software encoding card, and you need at least a 2.8Mhz processor for it to work with MediaPortal. Having a "slow" video card (even though it supports DirectX 9 - I understand that a lot of the DirectX 9 features are supported in software, thus putting more load on your CPU) just makes the situation worse....

I would recommend that you get a hardware encoding analog TV card, or even better, a DVB-T card. Either of those should work OK with your processor.

 

[moose1973]

Thanks for the prompt reply Tipan. Yes, I do agree my processor isn't the fastest and it would be fair to say its seen better days..
However, one question I have that I hope you or someone else can answer is - Why does my existing hardware configuration work without any issues if I use the LeadTek PVR application to watch, record and timeshift live TV, whereas using MP the whole system grinds to a halt ?
Could it be related to the DirectX9 / VMR9 combination like NightmareRambo77 suggested ? or does it go a bit deeper than that ?

 

[Callifo]

Unlike your current TV application (as well as the DirectX part mentioned above), MP only records, views and timeshifts in MPEG2. It takes a lot of CPU power to software encode into the format, and thus very high requirements. People using hardware cards (these cards do the encoding for them), require much much less powerful processors (1.4Ghz).

If you then wonder why MP only uses MPEG2; its the only format accepted by the microsoft stream buffer engine, and to unify all the card types (software, hardware, dvb-t, dvb-s, etc) they wanted a standard format. The old software tv engine used to be seperate and it was terrible.

 

[regeszter]

Thanks for the prompt reply Tipan. Yes, I do agree my processor isn't the fastest and it would be fair to say its seen better days..
However, one question I have that I hope you or someone else can answer is - Why does my existing hardware configuration work without any issues if I use the LeadTek PVR application to watch, record and timeshift live TV, whereas using MP the whole system grinds to a halt ?
Could it be related to the DirectX9 / VMR9 combination like NightmareRambo77 suggested ? or does it go a bit deeper than that ?

I use Leadtek TV2000XP expert card with P4 3GHz HT and ge6600 and the CPU usage is about 60-70% with Intervideo codec (encoder & decoder).
I think u need better video card and/or better CPU.