Help! 100% CPU usage w/ PVR-250

[chrisc16]

Hi all,

I just bought and installed Sage 1.4 last weekend after browsing here for months. I also bought a PVR-250 and a USB-UIRT from Frey at the same time. The problem is that Sage is mostly unusable since my CPU is pegged at 100% when watching live TV. It stutters quite a bit and the commands (like Home, Pause) are slow to respond. Here are my system specs:

AMD 1800 CPU
256 MB RAM
ATI Rage 128 (Pre-Radeon)
PVR-250
SB Live 5.1

The only decoder that I have available is the one that came with the 250. Do I need to download or install others? Where from? I tried the tip from Narflex to reduce the CPU load but it didn't do anything; probably since my vid card is so old.

Any suggestions? It seems like my CPU is more than ample for Sage.

Thanks,
Chris

[falchulk]

Enableing HW accleration likely did not work becasue your card has none. Since you are doing software decode anyway without acceleration, I would suggest using the elecard decoder. Buying a better video card would do wonders for you though.

[gplasky]

In your Detailed Setup for video and audio, if you just left the choices at "default" you might want to change it and pick the actual decoder, like Intervideo non-css decoder for video. This may help. But your weakest link in your current setup is your video card. Not very good (or any) support for Direct X.

Gerry

[chrisc16]

Thanks for the suggestions. I neglected to mention in my original post that even when I reduce the video quality (down to 1 GB/hour) the CPU is still pegged at 100%.

I know other people have much weaker CPUs but they all seem to have newer video cards. If the video card is indeed my problem, would a plain old Radeon 9000 or Geforce 5200 do the trick? Should I spend a few dollars more to get a DX9 card?

Thanks,
Chris

[Cayars]

The FX 5200 will work just fine. Pick one up with the least amount of memory. Don't worry about the "ultra" version either.
The above assumes your using this box as a dedicated PVR.

Carlo