I May Have To Learn How To Live Without Service Mode (Stutter Related)

[Goodspike]

Based on a post in the beta forum, I tried running Sage without the service running to see if that would reduce stutter during long recordings. On my computer, when the file gets to be longer than about 1.5-2.0 hours, the CPU utilization increases to the point where stuttering occurs.

What I discovered is having the service running raises the CPU utilization significantly! With Sage Service running I'm at maybe 70-85%. Without it it's more like 25-35%.

[Goodspike]

More than 40 people have looked at this post, and no one can confirm or deny similar results?

And BTW, to be clear, the above percentages are while watching HD in Sage. So the service recording is taking up more CPU cycles than all of Windows and the viewing of HD content. It just seems odd.

[GTwannabe]

What is the cluster size on your recording drives? Did you disable antivirus scanning in the TV recording directories? How much RAM does your SageTV box have?

[Keenan]

I'm watching this thread as I have stuttering problems also. What exactly is "service mode" and how do I tell if I'm running it?

[Steve52]

Originally Posted by Keenan

I'm watching this thread as I have stuttering problems also. What exactly is "service mode" and how do I tell if I'm running it?

"Service Mode" is where you set STV to run as a windows service and not just a running program. SageTv can be more stable that way. There is a program in your windows/ start/all Programs which will turn on or off the windows service. Chances are that if you don't know what service mode is then you are not running in it.

[Keenan]

Originally Posted by Steve52

"Service Mode" is where you set STV to run as a windows service and not just a running program. SageTv can be more stable that way. There is a program in your windows/ start/all Programs which will turn on or off the windows service. Chances are that if you don't know what service mode is then you are not running in it.

So on a standard install it would default to not being run in service mode?

[hemicuda]

Originally Posted by Keenan

So on a standard install it would default to not being run in service mode?

From what I've seen... you are correct. You'll need to find SageTVServiceControl.exe in the SageTV folder in your Programs menu.

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by GTwannabe

What is the cluster size on your recording drives? Did you disable antivirus scanning in the TV recording directories? How much RAM does your SageTV box have?

64k
Yes (no antivirus at all).
1 gig.

And I've done a lot of other things to deal with stutter. But having 40% of your CPU going to Sage Service seems to be the biggest thing.

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by Keenan

So on a standard install it would default to not being run in service mode?

There is an option in the install to bring up the program that starts the service, so you could have done that.

It's not a big deal. In the Sage group for startup programs, there is one program that brings up this box that has four boxes you can click. One is to enable the service, another to disable it. One is to start the service, the last is to stop it. If you start that program, it will tell you whether you're running the service. If you are, and you want to stop it, hit stop, then hit disable. If you want to reverse that, hit enable, then hit start.

[GTwannabe]

Originally Posted by Goodspike

64k
Yes (no antivirus at all).
1 gig.

And I've done a lot of other things to deal with stutter. But having 40% of your CPU going to Sage Service seems to be the biggest thing.

What kind of CPU are you running? Do you have it configured for SpeedStep/Cool 'n Quiet? Are you running any 3rd party applications besides Sage (firewall, web server, etc)?

I would strongly advise you to run anti-virus on that box. Just exclude the Sage TV directories from the realtime scan.

[Keenan]

Originally Posted by GTwannabe

What kind of CPU are you running? Do you have it configured for SpeedStep/Cool 'n Quiet? Are you running any 3rd party applications besides Sage (firewall, web server, etc)?

I would strongly advise you to run anti-virus on that box. Just exclude the Sage TV directories from the realtime scan.

Do you have it configured for SpeedStep/Cool 'n Quiet?
Is this not desirable when running Sage? I have the AMD equivalent of run-cool, or what ever it is they call it, currently running on my setup.

[salsbst]

Do service mode's negative effects on playback effect both the pseudoclient and real clients on other machines? Or just the pseudoclient on the server box?

I ask b/c I've started to suspect that interaction between sagetvservice.exe and sagetv.exe (in pseudoclient mode) on my server may be unhealthy.

Also, do you run the service under a different user than the console user?

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by GTwannabe

What kind of CPU are you running? Do you have it configured for SpeedStep/Cool 'n Quiet? Are you running any 3rd party applications besides Sage (firewall, web server, etc)?

I would strongly advise you to run anti-virus on that box. Just exclude the Sage TV directories from the realtime scan.

Athlon 64 3000+
No Cool n Quiet
Just ZoneAlarm.

I removed the AV as an experiment to see if that would help with the stutter. It didn't, and I just haven't loaded it on again. Being behind a router, using ZA, not doing email and not doing any browsing besides here and TitanTV, I'm not terribly worried about viruses, but I will load it on again.

[Goodspike]

What I'm really interested in, rather than diagnosing my stutter, is whether others get a similar reduction in CPU usage without Sage Service on, or whether that's just something with my setup.

Could some others just check CPU usage while recording and viewing the same program, with and without Sage Service?

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by Goodspike

What I'm really interested in, rather than diagnosing my stutter, is whether others get a similar reduction in CPU usage without Sage Service on, or whether that's just something with my setup.

All of you having trouble with service mode, are you running the service with the LocalSystem account, or with a user account ? I had several people reporting problems with the newest SageMC version and service mode, and it turned out that a lot of those were related to using the LocalSystem account. Might not be the case for the issues you are having, but I thought I'd mention it...

Dirk

[Goodspike]

I'll have to check.

[salsbst]

I'm running as a domain user. It is a different domain user than the one that logs into the console and runs SageTV.exe, though.

[SprDtyF350]

Originally Posted by Goodspike

What I'm really interested in, rather than diagnosing my stutter, is whether others get a similar reduction in CPU usage without Sage Service on, or whether that's just something with my setup.

Could some others just check CPU usage while recording and viewing the same program, with and without Sage Service?

My server running in service mode while playing tv through an MVP is using only 10%. I would check with service mode off but don't really like playing with the server much. (Things break occasionally). I would be looking more at capture drivers, or some other process you may have running. I have an assortment of capture cards, PVR-150, 250, and an E-Home wonder. Only running a XP2400 with 1gb ram. Playing tv from your main machine will use more cpu, but then that becomes more of a video decoder issue.

[foolio]

I can confirm that service mode sucks up too much cpu cycles. When I'm watching HDTV on a true client on the network, the service mode starts out at 10% but eventually hits 100% and causes stuttering.

If I do the same with just SageTV running on the server - no service mode. No stuttering with sageTV hitting only about 50-60%.

So service mode is no go on my setup.

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by SprDtyF350

My server running in service mode while playing tv through an MVP is using only 10%. I would check with service mode off but don't really like playing with the server much. (Things break occasionally). I would be looking more at capture drivers, or some other process you may have running. I have an assortment of capture cards, PVR-150, 250, and an E-Home wonder. Only running a XP2400 with 1gb ram. Playing tv from your main machine will use more cpu, but then that becomes more of a video decoder issue.

There's not much else going on with that machine. It has one Fusion card and one MyHD card, the the percentages I mentioned are with the MyHD card being idle (but it's scheduler/IR component active).