Re: [mythtv-users] diskless xBox stuttering - was Help Diskless frontend
--- George Nassas wrote: On 5-Nov-05, at 10:20 PM, Ben Dash wrote: since I changed to a 2.6 kernel I get no errors I'm running 2.4 because I read the 2.6 fatx driver isn't quite ready for prime time. Do you do any updating of the xbox's filesystem while you're in linux? No. The only thing I'm using the native HDD for is swap and that seems fine with the fatX drivers for 2.6. I read somewhere that a major problem with FatX for 2.6 was a lack of long filename support and swap doesn't need that. I just don't understand why I'm getting stuttering when my CPU utilization is so low, i.e. 50%. I had a Could it be something to do with syncing updates to the vertical retrace? I've never had those kinds of issues on any of my FEs but I think some past threads on this list that mentioned that. One of those things you skim and file away for future use. Look for Use OpenGL VSync in the TV Playback menus. BTW, does the frontend log say anything? The frontend log just says prebuffering pause. I had an interesting development this weekend, I would have replied to this thread earlier but my PC was in pieces for an upgrade. Anyway, my development was that I found that if I run an xterm in the background and run top on it, then I get hardly any prebuffering pause stuttering. The stuttering goes from once every 10 seconds, without the xterm runing top, to once every 10 minutes with the xterm running top. Interestingly, when a stutter occurs the CPU utilization appeared to go down not up. Clearly the CPU isn't the limiting factor in this case. I have a gigabit switch so I doubt that I have a network bandwidth problem. My myth backend server is a different machine than my NFS root server (note that the xBox frontend is diskless with an NFS root except for a local fatX swap). So, the current status is that I, and more importantly my wife, can experience stutter free live TV and recorded shows at 640x480, which is GREAT. All I have to do is start up an xterm running top in the background. This seems more than a little wierd though. Does anyone have any idea why this solution is able to mask the problem and, if so, what a real solution could be? Thanks! Ben __ Yahoo! FareChase: Search multiple travel sites in one click. http://farechase.yahoo.com ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] diskless xBox stuttering - was Help Diskless frontend
--- David Whyte wrote: On 11/6/05, Ben Dash [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Any advice? I can play Std Def at no more than 20-30% CPU, and all I have is a sempron 2400. My advice, use the nvidia drivers if you can. Hardware MPEG 2 decoding is definitely the way to go if it's an option. Since the video card does all the work you can use more or less any slow, and hence cool and quiet, CPU. I had a 400mhz PII at one point but traded up for a 1ghz Celeron. I found that if I run an xterm in the background and run top in it then I get hardly any stuttering problems. The incidence of stutters go from once every 10 seconds to once every 10 minutes. Very strange. Any idea why this would help? __ Start your day with Yahoo! - Make it your home page! http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] diskless xBox stuttering - was Help Diskless frontend
On 11/7/05, Ben Dash [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- George Nassas wrote: On 5-Nov-05, at 10:20 PM, Ben Dash wrote: since I changed to a 2.6 kernel I get no errors I'm running 2.4 because I read the 2.6 fatx driver isn't quite ready for prime time. Do you do any updating of the xbox's filesystem while you're in linux? No. The only thing I'm using the native HDD for is swap and that seems fine with the fatX drivers for 2.6. I read somewhere that a major problem with FatX for 2.6 was a lack of long filename support and swap doesn't need that. I just don't understand why I'm getting stuttering when my CPU utilization is so low, i.e. 50%. I had a Could it be something to do with syncing updates to the vertical retrace? I've never had those kinds of issues on any of my FEs but I think some past threads on this list that mentioned that. One of those things you skim and file away for future use. Look for Use OpenGL VSync in the TV Playback menus. BTW, does the frontend log say anything? The frontend log just says prebuffering pause. I had an interesting development this weekend, I would have replied to this thread earlier but my PC was in pieces for an upgrade. Anyway, my development was that I found that if I run an xterm in the background and run top on it, then I get hardly any prebuffering pause stuttering. The stuttering goes from once every 10 seconds, without the xterm runing top, to once every 10 minutes with the xterm running top. Interestingly, when a stutter occurs the CPU utilization appeared to go down not up. Clearly the CPU isn't the limiting factor in this case. I have a gigabit switch so I doubt that I have a network bandwidth problem. My myth backend server is a different machine than my NFS root server (note that the xBox frontend is diskless with an NFS root except for a local fatX swap). So, the current status is that I, and more importantly my wife, can experience stutter free live TV and recorded shows at 640x480, which is GREAT. All I have to do is start up an xterm running top in the background. This seems more than a little wierd though. Does anyone have any idea why this solution is able to mask the problem and, if so, what a real solution could be? That is definately bizarre -- I don't have any idea why that is happening. I did wonder if you had run chmod a+s mythfrontend and selected the option to have realtime priority in MythTV (I think it's in Settings-Play TV) and verified it is using realtime priority by looking at the frontend log? I realize the CPU usage goes down when it occurs but I am curious all the same. If you don't want to deal with the above you could also start playback and then adjust the priority of the specific playback process to see if it changes anything. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] diskless xBox stuttering - was Help Diskless frontend
--- Alberto Alonso wrote: I'd be surprised if the fstab has anything to do with this. I thought it may be a point of problems due to the fact that I'm running the xBox pseudo diskless with an NFS root. Did you look at xbox specific settings? I would look at audio buffering, acceleration, resolution, etc. in that order. I playing with the varios setting but it made no difference. There's a stutter/pause approximately every 5 seconds although CPU usage is relatively low. Has anyone else managed to get their xBox working as a totally stutter free Mythfrontend? Did you have an NFS root? Did you use the nv Xorg driver? Please let me know Ben Dash wrote: Could someone please share their fstab for their diskless frontend that is working? I found that my diskless xBox is stuttering a little although CPU usage is only ~50%. The 766mhz PIII PVR250 backend is fine, and is able to broadcast stutter free to my wife's 1Ghz PIII with only 0.3% CPU usage while the xBox continues to stutter. Since the CPU usage is relatively low on the xBox I am wondering if the problem could be the MFS root mount: xbox ~ # cat /etc/fstab # fs mountpointtype opts dump/pass 192.168.0.1:/mnt/data/xbox / nfs rw,sync,hard,intr,nolock,nfsvers=2 0 0 /dev/hda50 /mnt/fatx/E fatx defaults0 0 /mnt/fatx/E/linuxswap none swap sw 0 0 /dev/cdroms/cdrom0 /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,ro 0 0 proc/proc proc defaults0 0 #network nfs volumes 192.168.0.1:/mnt/data/music /mnt/music nfs noauto,ro,users,nolock,nfsvers=20 0 I notice that the memory usage is close to full, at 118MB or 122MB. It seems like there are several big mythfrontend processes: xbox ~ # ps -ef |grep myth root 6252 1 0 16:56 ?00:00:00 login -- mythtv mythtv6258 6252 0 16:56 tty1 00:00:00 -bash mythtv6265 6258 0 16:56 tty1 00:00:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/startx mythtv6278 6265 0 16:56 tty1 00:00:00 xinit /home/mythtv/.xinitrc -- -nolisten tcp -br -deferglyphs 16 mythtv6281 6278 0 16:56 tty1 00:00:00 xclock -digital -padding 2 -g -0+0 mythtv6284 6281 0 16:56 tty1 00:00:00 /usr/bin/evilwm -snap 6 -bw 0 mythtv6289 6281 0 16:56 tty1 00:03:06 mythfrontend mythtv6290 6289 0 16:57 tty1 00:00:00 mythfrontend mythtv6291 6290 0 16:57 tty1 00:00:00 mythfrontend mythtv6745 6290 0 21:30 tty1 00:00:05 mythfrontend mythtv6746 6290 34 21:30 tty1 00:29:46 mythfrontend mythtv6747 6290 1 21:30 tty1 00:00:58 mythfrontend mythtv6749 6290 0 21:30 tty1 00:00:12 mythfrontend mythtv6750 6290 0 21:30 tty1 00:00:35 mythfrontend root 6751 6201 0 21:37 ?00:00:00 sshd: mythtv [priv] mythtv6754 6751 0 21:37 ?00:00:00 sshd: [EMAIL PROTECTED]/0 mythtv6755 6754 0 21:37 pts/000:00:00 -bash root 6891 6778 0 22:55 pts/000:00:00 grep myth I'm guessing that the reason why there are so many instances of mythfrontend is because the system is using heavy weight threads. Would I improve things by going to NPTL? Please let me know if you have any ideas, I'm going to let lirc wait for now while I get the picture stutter free, the wife is not quite as happy as I was hoping :-( I'm using a 2.6.12.5 kernel and mythTV 0.18.1-r1 Thanks! Ben __ Yahoo! FareChase: Search multiple travel sites in one click. http://farechase.yahoo.com ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] diskless xBox stuttering - was Help Diskless frontend
On 5-Nov-05, at 7:48 PM, Ben Dash wrote: Has anyone else managed to get their xBox working as a totally stutter free Mythfrontend? Yes. There is an initial hiccup when I start playing any recording but after that it's rock solid. Did you have an NFS root? No. Did you use the nv Xorg driver? No. XFree as shipped with Xebian. - George ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] diskless xBox stuttering - was Help Diskless frontend
--- George Nassas wrote: On 5-Nov-05, at 7:48 PM, Ben Dash wrote: Has anyone else managed to get their xBox working as a totally stutter free Mythfrontend? Yes. There is an initial hiccup when I start playing any recording but after that it's rock solid. So it IS possible :-) Are you running at 640x480 or did you cut the resolution down? Please let me know, Thanks, Ben __ Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005 http://mail.yahoo.com ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] diskless xBox stuttering - was Help Diskless frontend
On 5-Nov-05, at 8:23 PM, Ben Dash wrote: Are you running at 640x480 or did you cut the resolution down? 640x480. It doesn't look as bad as I expected. Also, during X startup there are a bunch of messages in the log about how it doesn't like something about the hardware. They're harmless but they do delay the start and the TV flickers quite a bit for about 5 seconds. Just in case that was your next question :) - George ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] diskless xBox stuttering - was Help Diskless frontend
--- George Nassas wrote: On 5-Nov-05, at 8:23 PM, Ben Dash wrote: Are you running at 640x480 or did you cut the resolution down? 640x480. It doesn't look as bad as I expected. Also, during X startup there are a bunch of messages in the log about how it doesn't like something about the hardware. They're harmless but they do delay the start and the TV flickers quite a bit for about 5 seconds. Just in case that was your next question :) I used to get a load of errors about X resolution, but since I changed to a 2.6 kernel I get no errors and Xorg starts much quicker. With 2.4 there was a lot of initial screen flicker before X came up. X still takes a lot longer than my regular PCs. They generally go from text mode to Evilwm X starting mythfrontend within half second. My xBox takes at least 5. I wonder if I'll be able to solve all my problems by going to the nvidia driver instead of nv? I just don't understand why I'm getting stuttering when my CPU utilization is so low, i.e. 50%. I had a PII 400 which was experiencing similar stuttering but its CPU was maxed out at 90-100% utilization. I can understand that, but at 50%, it must be something else surely? Any advice? Thanks, Ben __ Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005 http://mail.yahoo.com ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] diskless xBox stuttering - was Help Diskless frontend
On 11/6/05, Ben Dash [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Any advice? When I started with my myth BE/FE combo, I had severe stuttering. I solved this by getting an old TNT2 dedicated video card rather than the onboard thing I had with the crappy mobo I was running. This improved things, but I did still have stuttering, which I solved by using the nvidia drivers. Now, I can play Std Def at no more than 20-30% CPU, and all I have is a sempron 2400. My advice, use the nvidia drivers if you can. Whytey -- -- I have GMail invites, if you want one, email me direct. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] diskless xBox stuttering - was Help Diskless frontend
On 5-Nov-05, at 10:20 PM, Ben Dash wrote: since I changed to a 2.6 kernel I get no errors and I'm running 2.4 because I read the 2.6 fatx driver isn't quite ready for prime time. Do you do any updating of the xbox's filesystem while you're in linux? Besides regular myth I'm also playing around with xbmcmythtv and I want a reliable way to push out updates. Nothing to do with your problem but I'm curious. I just don't understand why I'm getting stuttering when my CPU utilization is so low, i.e. 50%. I had a Could it be something to do with syncing updates to the vertical retrace? I've never had those kinds of issues on any of my FEs but I think some past threads on this list that mentioned that. One of those things you skim and file away for future use. Look for Use OpenGL VSync in the TV Playback menus. BTW, does the frontend log say anything? - George ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
