Periodic stuttering with .10 beta?

[elaw]

I recently installed the .10 beta version, think I was running .6 before.

When watching a program (either live or recorded), every now and then - maybe every 5 minutes - I get a short period of severe stuttering in audio and video. This only goes on for maybe 5 seconds, then everything's fine again.

I originally thought it was a reception problem, but if I back up 15 seconds and replay the "stuttered" (is that a word?) segment, it plays fine. So it's definitely a playback problem.

I only record HD on this machine so I can't really say whether the problem exists with SD material. It definitely does NOT happen when playing DVD's, even though I use the same decoders for both (nVidia for video, AC3filter for audio).

Machine is a P4-3.0, 512 RAM, nVidia 6600 (not GT) video card, XP MCE with SP2 (but MCE services disabled).

I've considered things like disk fragmentation and background processes, but windows update is only set to "notify" (no downloads), and the problem seems to happen on all programs, regardless of whether the file is fragmented or not.

Anyone else experiencing anything like this?

Eric Law

[Polypro]

Just a guess here...when I watch anything live, my hard drive access light is constantly pulsing, when I rewind, it goes out. I'm *ass-u-me* 'ng that Sage is buffering in the RAM. I have 1 Gig and a 6600GT, and have no problems...can you throw another 512 in to test? SD and DVD are 480i/p, the HDTV is probably taxing the system a bit more.

P

[elaw]

What... an excuse to upgrade the RAM? Oh no, I couldn't do that!

Definitely sounds worth a try, although I'd swear it wasn't happening before the .10 beta.

Funny thing is, the machine is an HP media center box (Z555 I think), and it's the only computer I've ever owned that has never had its cover off. But that may change soon!

Eric

[Polypro]

Like I said...it's a thought Maybe wait for some more replies. You can copy the 4.1.10 folder to a backup location, uninstall, and then reload 4.1.9 to see if it *is* 4.1.10. Then install 4.1.10 and copy the folder back.

P

[amac]

I have a bug submitted for similar symptoms although not unique to 4.1.10 (which I can't even run because of some other bug regarding a missing entry point in the Windows USER32.dll).

What I have learned to date is that Sage definitely runs a process (seeker) every 5 minutes and my log file timings indicate that is when my stutter occurs. I can therefore conclude that something about that process is indeed the initiator of my problem (usually less than 2 seconds).

What I have yet to learn is what the process really does and what I can change to eliminate the problem. I am actively working with technical support and have been adjusting various sage.properties but to no avail yet. I will post an update if a solution becomes apparent.

Given that this process supposedly wakes up for every machine, but clearly (by the lack of a huge uproar) is not impacting everyone, I'm investigating Windows configuration issues on my side (pagefile, memory utilization, fragmentation) to see if there are inefficiencies in my system that are manifested by a stutter whenver Sage does its cleanup and calculation work.

[Deadbolt]

I am seeing this also Amac...please post any thing that works for you!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by amac

I have a bug submitted for similar symptoms although not unique to 4.1.10 (which I can't even run because of some other bug regarding a missing entry point in the Windows USER32.dll).

What I have learned to date is that Sage definitely runs a process (seeker) every 5 minutes and my log file timings indicate that is when my stutter occurs. I can therefore conclude that something about that process is indeed the initiator of my problem (usually less than 2 seconds).

What I have yet to learn is what the process really does and what I can change to eliminate the problem. I am actively working with technical support and have been adjusting various sage.properties but to no avail yet. I will post an update if a solution becomes apparent.

Given that this process supposedly wakes up for every machine, but clearly (by the lack of a huge uproar) is not impacting everyone, I'm investigating Windows configuration issues on my side (pagefile, memory utilization, fragmentation) to see if there are inefficiencies in my system that are manifested by a stutter whenver Sage does its cleanup and calculation work.

[elaw]

I haven't had a chance to try any configuration changes yet, but I did notice one thing last night. For me at least, the problem does *not* seem to occur with any degree of regularity. During 2 hours of TV watching, I only saw the problem occur 5 times, with severity ranging from barely noticable to serious. But it's definitely not exactly every 5 minutes. Very strange!

Eric

[DIBU]

yes i have this too, but not all time, but most time.

[mike_15]

I have the same stutter.
I leave the task manager running and when I have the stutter there is a sharp peak in the performance chart. Other than that CPU is running at 20-25%. I have been trying different variations of the decoders to no avail.

[Humanzee]

I've had the same problems, less so by running overlay than when in vmr9 with 3D accel and FSE. I'm considering building a new HTPC with a multi core processor and lots of RAM. Maybe I should just wait and see if anything gets better with .11 etc