[mythtv-users] stuttering playback with MythTV EPIA-M/networked
Hi, I am trying to use MythTV in a configuration where the backend is running on a central media server and playback goes via network on mythfrontend running on an VIA EPIA based box. Unfortunately playback on the VIA based box is stuttering, thus it plays well for half a second or so, then stops for 1/3 second (video and sound), then plays for another half a second, stutters again ... Don't take 0.5 second and 1/3 second for exact figures ... What I have already thought about: - Problems on the capturing side: I can watch TV on the media server without any problems, so the backend side does not seem to be the problem. - Performance problems / failing MPEG hardware decoder (XvMC) I think this is not the problem since I have another box (Pentium III/700 without any hardware accelerated video) - when I try to watch TV on this second box I just get a very poor framerate all over the time but no stuttering like described. So I assume XvMC is basically online since without XvMC playback would rather resemble that of the other slow box. - network problems In order to make sure network is not the problem I tried various ring buffer sizes ... and I even tried starting TV, unplug the network and see what happens: It keeps playing *and*stuttering* for another few seconds (buffer) and then stops. So it seems that the stuttering is not caused by network problems since the buffer seems to be full and the problem does not go away during playback from buffer only. - any other idea Many thanks in advance for any hints! Best regards, Tom -- Thomas Aeby, Kirchweg 52, 1735 Giffers, Switzerland, Tel: (+41)264180040 Internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] PGP public key available ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] stuttering playback with MythTV EPIA-M/networked
Hi I have an Epia box which did something similar. The stuttering was accompanied by load of prebuffering pause messages from mythfrontend. This is what I did to correct the stuttering: 1. Run mythfrontend as root or suid mythfrontend. 2. Run mythfrontend with nice -15 or so. eg nice -n -15 mythfrontend Hope this helps. Stephen Hi, I am trying to use MythTV in a configuration where the backend is running on a central media server and playback goes via network on mythfrontend running on an VIA EPIA based box. Unfortunately playback on the VIA based box is stuttering, thus it plays well for half a second or so, then stops for 1/3 second (video and sound), then plays for another half a second, stutters again ... Don't take 0.5 second and 1/3 second for exact figures ... What I have already thought about: - Problems on the capturing side: I can watch TV on the media server without any problems, so the backend side does not seem to be the problem. - Performance problems / failing MPEG hardware decoder (XvMC) I think this is not the problem since I have another box (Pentium III/700 without any hardware accelerated video) - when I try to watch TV on this second box I just get a very poor framerate all over the time but no stuttering like described. So I assume XvMC is basically online since without XvMC playback would rather resemble that of the other slow box. - network problems In order to make sure network is not the problem I tried various ring buffer sizes ... and I even tried starting TV, unplug the network and see what happens: It keeps playing *and*stuttering* for another few seconds (buffer) and then stops. So it seems that the stuttering is not caused by network problems since the buffer seems to be full and the problem does not go away during playback from buffer only. - any other idea Many thanks in advance for any hints! Best regards, Tom -- Thomas Aeby, Kirchweg 52, 1735 Giffers, Switzerland, Tel: (+41)264180040 Internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] PGP public key available ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] stuttering playback with MythTV EPIA-M/networked
Thomas Aeby wrote: Hi, I am trying to use MythTV in a configuration where the backend is running on a central media server and playback goes via network on mythfrontend running on an VIA EPIA based box. Unfortunately playback on the VIA based box is stuttering, thus it plays well for half a second or so, then stops for 1/3 second (video and sound), then plays for another half a second, stutters again ... Don't take 0.5 second and 1/3 second for exact figures ... What hardware (e.g. VIA EPIA M1), network (e.g. 100Mbps full duplex switched Ethernet), and software (e.g., MythTV 0.18.1, FC3, most recent Open Source Unichrome drivers) are you using? Have you tried MiniMyth http://linpvr.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=348? Since I am heading out on vacation, I may not be around when you respond. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] stuttering playback with MythTV EPIA-M/networked
Hello Stephen, thanks a lot, unfortunately it did not help for me ... I tried with mythfrontend as root with different nice values but I never got over the stuttering. Bad luck for me :-) Best regards, Tom On Fri, 2005-05-20 at 13:35 +0100, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: This is what I did to correct the stuttering: 1. Run mythfrontend as root or suid mythfrontend. 2. Run mythfrontend with nice -15 or so. eg nice -n -15 mythfrontend -- Thomas Aeby, Kirchweg 52, 1735 Giffers, Switzerland, Tel: (+41)264180040 Internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] PGP public key available ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] stuttering playback with MythTV EPIA-M/networked
On Fri, 2005-05-20 at 05:44 -0700, Paul Bender wrote: What hardware (e.g. VIA EPIA M1), network (e.g. 100Mbps full duplex switched Ethernet), and software (e.g., MythTV 0.18.1, FC3, most recent Open Source Unichrome drivers) are you using? Hmh, sorry for not including all that info from the start. It's an ME600 (256MB / CF-Card silicon disc), MythTV is 0.18.1 (on debian, used http://dijkstra.csh.rit.edu/~mdz and made new binaries march-ed for the VIA C3), Unichrome is a snapshot from April 21 (I used binary packages from http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~mfgalizi/debian). Have you tried MiniMyth http://linpvr.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=348? Ok, that's a good thing to try. I have not tried MiniMyth and KnoppMyth because it is unclear to me if they support the hardware MPEG2 decoder. Best regards, Tom -- Thomas Aeby, Kirchweg 52, 1735 Giffers, Switzerland, Tel: (+41)264180040 Internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] PGP public key available ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] stuttering playback with MythTV EPIA-M/networked
My guess is that you're doing software mpeg decode for some reason. I got smooth playback in software by going into setup/tv/playback and disable deinterlacing. Treat this as a diagnostic step rather than a solution :-) If you're getting smooth playback in this scenario, then you need to figure out why you're not using the hw assistance. - I assume you've enabled it in the setup! Also, what does top report - if it's at 0% idle during playback and there's no other processes hogging the CPU, then you're definitely not using hw assist. hope this helps Andrew ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] stuttering playback with MythTV EPIA-M/networked
Thomas Aeby wrote: On Fri, 2005-05-20 at 05:44 -0700, Paul Bender wrote: What hardware (e.g. VIA EPIA M1), network (e.g. 100Mbps full duplex switched Ethernet), and software (e.g., MythTV 0.18.1, FC3, most recent Open Source Unichrome drivers) are you using? Hmh, sorry for not including all that info from the start. It's an ME600 (256MB / CF-Card silicon disc), MythTV is 0.18.1 (on debian, used http://dijkstra.csh.rit.edu/~mdz and made new binaries march-ed for the VIA C3), Unichrome is a snapshot from April 21 (I used binary packages from http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~mfgalizi/debian). I am not familiar with this distribution. Does it have an up-to-date version of the kernel drm drivers? Have you tried MiniMyth http://linpvr.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=348? Ok, that's a good thing to try. I have not tried MiniMyth and KnoppMyth because it is unclear to me if they support the hardware MPEG2 decoder. MiniMyth uses hardware decoding. Version 0.18.1.0rc2 uses Ivor's 20050521 Unichrome drivers http://myth.ivor.org/unichrome/ and supports hardware decoding both the CLE266 and CN400 based motherboards. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] stuttering playback with MythTV EPIA-M/networked
On May 20, 2005, at 7:29 AM, Thomas Aeby wrote: Hi, I am trying to use MythTV in a configuration where the backend is running on a central media server and playback goes via network on mythfrontend running on an VIA EPIA based box. Unfortunately playback on the VIA based box is stuttering, thus it plays well for half a second or so, then stops for 1/3 second (video and sound), then plays for another half a second, stutters again ... I am using an M10K. I have had a series of video stuttering problems, which I have mostly worked through. The one you describe is the like first one that I had. In my case, I was still setting up, and experimenting, and had not yet set up the audio out yet. I had installed for ALSA, but my settings where still for /dev/dsp, which I got a warning about every time I started playing something. The video would pause just as you described, until I went in and changed my audio options to use ALSA, at which time both the audio worked, and that type of video stuttering stopped. Also, what type of tuner are you using? Another source of stuttering was the ivtv driver, which doesn't quite support VBI yet (sounds like it is getting very close, but definitely didn't when I was having the problem). When I ran the mythtv setup, and turned VBI to NONE for my ivtv cards, all but the slightest stuttering was gone. The only stuttering I have left happens for about 15 seconds every half hour or so. The CPU is normally 80% idle during playback, but during this time it is only 10% idle. It lasts for such a short time, and the the stuttering is so light, I haven't taken the time to really dig into the problem. Hope that's what you're running into, it's an easy fix. -Michael ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] stuttering playback with MythTV EPIA-M/networked
I feel quite ashamed ... the problem with my box' stuttering has not been the obvious thing no 1 (= unichrome drivers not installed correctly), but the 2nd obvious thing: my mythtv binaries had not proper XvMC support compiled in. Sorry for wasting your time. Anyway, the various answers I got from you already helped a lot in fine-tuning! The binary I've got now (http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~mfgalizi/debian) unfortunately hasn't got proper sound support (???) but has proven that TV playback would basically work. Where do you get your mythtv debian binaries from? Well, I give home-brewing another chance if there is no there yell ... Best regards, Tom -- Thomas Aeby, Kirchweg 52, 1735 Giffers, Switzerland, Tel: (+41)264180040 Internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] PGP public key available ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] stuttering playback with MythTV EPIA-M/networked
On May 20, 2005, at 2:49 PM, Thomas Aeby wrote: Where do you get your mythtv debian binaries from? Well, I give home-brewing another chance if there is no there yell ... I built my system from sarge debs, until I got to X. I started with XFree, but wanted to try Xorg, so I built it from source so I could mess around with the Unichrome driver. Once I did that, my Debian chops where not up to fooling the package system that I had X installed, and I ended up building everything that depends on X from scratch, including Qt and Myth. I'm sure if I spent the time to figure out how to get the package system to know about my custom built X, I would have saved time in the end, and there may have been a way to build the Unichrome driver without building an entire X tree from source. But I was lazy. And impatient, I started out with my M10K doing a net boot, and then threw in an old laptop drive in my quest to get rid of stuttering. So now that I have things working, it should be easier for me to test different setups using new NFS roots. I'd like to rebuild my setup using more debs and less custom compiling. Good luck! -Michael ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
