Synchronizing time while recording

[zoso]

I just swapped the motherboard out of my Sage server for an nForce2 board I had sitting around. The problem being that the system clock on the nForce2 board is horrible. It gains as much as 2 seconds every 10 minutes. To remedy this I downloaded a utility that syncs the system clock to a online server based on an atomic clock (currently set to access a naval observatory server.) I have it syncing every 10 minutes to avoid the system clock getting off by more than 2 seconds. My question is, will this effect the recording at all?

[davey_fl]

I do that with mine and I've never had a problem - also an nforce2 board...

[zoso]

So the stream only uses the clock for start and stop time, no indexing from the clock in the middle? Thats what I was assuming, but was kind of curious.

davey_fl: Is your nforce2 board as bad as mine. This is the absolute worst MB I have had for clock drift. I've read its a problem with the nforce2 boards in general.

[gplasky]

I can't say that's true. I've has an ASUS nForce 1 and a nForce 2 and also have a DFI Lanparty nForce2 board. Never had a time sync issue on any of them.

Gerry

[davey_fl]

Yup mine is really bad. It's a Shuttle MN31N. However, I'm willing to live with it as the MCP-T chipset is worth it. My Abit Nforce2 boards don't have the time drift problem, but then they don't support sp-dif out, which is why I went with the shuttle.

[mwhitlock]

My ASUS A7N8X Deluxe (nForce 2) also suffers from severe clock drift. I find it will start running fast spontaneously, and I can get it back to the correct rate by rebooting. There seems to be no rhyme or reason though as to when and why it decides to run fast.

[zoso]

I have noticed since installing the sink software that I quite often get static surges (two or three lines of static that appear for less than a second.) I am trying to pin it down to see if it is related to when the synchs occure. Has anybody else experienced this?

[roxy99]

Originally Posted by gplasky

I can't say that's true. I've has an ASUS nForce 1 and a nForce 2 and also have a DFI Lanparty nForce2 board. Never had a time sync issue on any of them.

Gerry

More and more I am seeing this on Nforce2 boards. Therefor your lucky situation may be more the exception rather than the rule. It seems that certain applications like Sagetv aggrevate the problem more on Nforce2, but the problem seems to stem from Nforce2.

With SageTv running. I was gaining 10 sec per minute. No not 10ms , 10 SECONDS PER MINUTE. So, 2 sec in 10min is nothing. Recently I discovered the role of a setting 'Spread Spectrum' designed to modulate EMI generated by the system. Interestingly it also modulated my problem. Now instead of SageTv causing a 10sec/min acceleration, it is now only 200ms/min acceleration similar to Zoso.

So, Zoso if you enable spread spectrum on yours, probably you will get only a 4ms/min acceleration. (mine being 50times worse than your system).

[blade]

I also have two Nforce2 boards. One is a BioStar and the other an Aopen and neither have the problem.

[roxy99]

Originally Posted by blade

I also have two Nforce2 boards. One is a BioStar and the other an Aopen and neither have the problem.

Great good for you you have 2 that don't have a problem, so why don't you trade me one of your functioning nForce2 boards for mine LOL.

I'm not trashing nForce2 but if you do a search on google you'll see that I am not making it up and I am not alone. On the otherhand, my PC is rock stable and the clock drift is isolotated to application that seem to involve any intensive IDE activity. EG: SageTV recording to drive D: or Mpeg editing a 2gb video file.