Sage HTPC is CPU-bound when using HD-HomeRun

[testlund]

Hi,

I recently purchased a HDHomeRun. However I seem to have a problem somewhere because HD shows (ex: Conan O'Brien) record very poorly.
I have used Sage and VLC (to rule out a Sage problem) to view the HD shows, and they stutter quite a bit.
My CPU is at 100% so I guess I need to upgrade, unless someone can give me ideas to try. The network is gigabit from the HDHR to the HTPC so I can rule this out.
I guess I didn't realize that the HDHR would be putting the digital stream onto the network and that it would be the HTPC's job to encode the stream and save to the hard drive.
When I built the HTPC in 2004 I built it "just big enough" because a Hauppage 250 would do the encoding in hardware.
My old HTPC: Windows XP Pro, Pentium IV 2.0ghz, 512 MB,
350w power supply, video card with s-video out.

So after five good years, it needs an upgrade. Again, I want to make it just big enough - no sense spending extra money to just burn more kwh's.
I will reuse the Silverstone LC03 case, power supply, sata hard drives, Hauppage 250, and switch out the motherboard, memory, cpu, and video card.
So my question:
What is everyone using for CPU's these days with their HD HomeRun's?
I am looking at the following:
a. Intel Pentium E6300 Wolfdale 2.8 ghz dual core (65w)
b. AMD Athlon 64X2 7850 Black Edition Kuma 2.8 ghz dual core (95w) <- lot more power drain
Also I will probably put 2 gb of memory on the mobo.

Can I go smaller on the CPU?

Thanks much.

[Opus4]

Do you mean you have problems with playback or with recording? I can understand HD playback potentially being an issue to work out on the PC, but recording shouldn't cause cpu use issues. If it is a recording problem, check the troubleshooting on the SiliconDust site, including uninstalling Zone Alarm if you are using it. Also make sure you don't have an antivirus set to autoscan recording dirs and that the recording drives were formatted using 64K clusters.

- Andy

[testlund]

Thanks for the reply Andy.

The HDHomeRun Setup program gives you the option to view the HD station and it will launch the VLC media player. When I watch an HD show through VLC the CPU goes to 100% and the show stutters. When I watch a HD show that Sage has recorded, it also stutters in the same way, but I don't know if it was recorded that way or if playback is causing it to stutter.

I am using Avast antivirus on the HTPC. I did not have the drives excluded from the antivirus but have added that now.
The disk drive block size is 64k.

Is there something with Zone Alarm Security Suite that causes problems? I have this on my laptop where I also have stutter problems when watching through VLC.

Thanks again,

Troy

[Clift]

Troy,

It's a playback issue. I guarentee it. What video card are you using? Does your motherboard have AGP or PCI Express?

Quick and easy answer: Your video card/CPU is not powerful to playback HD content. You may be able to upgrade your video card and make it work, but you might have to upgrade your video card and CPU. The right video card should be able to do it though.

[kevine]

Also, if you can confirm it is playback and not recording, consider an HD200 before upgrading your server to playback HD and make your server headless. You will save yourself a lot of headache trying to get HD playback correct.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by testlund

What is everyone using for CPU's these days with their HD HomeRun's?
I am looking at the following:
a. Intel Pentium E6300 Wolfdale 2.8 ghz dual core (65w)
b. AMD Athlon 64X2 7850 Black Edition Kuma 2.8 ghz dual core (95w) <- lot more power drain
Also I will probably put 2 gb of memory on the mobo.

Can I go smaller on the CPU?

Thanks much.

I think everyone has basically covered this, but a few items of note:

First off, the 65w / 95w is not the amount of watt hours that the CPU uses, it is the amount of heat given off. You need to find out what the true cpu power usage (usually the more heat given off does mean more power used, but you can't use those figures when calculating energy cost).

Secondly, the studdering is not caused because of the recording with the HDHomerun as everyone stated. It really has to do with Playback. Your current system setup would not be able to handle it reliably which is why you are getting studdering. Recording of HD material only takes almost no cpu cycles as all your pc does it take the stream and save it to the hard drive.

Third, as already stated, consider the HD200. For less than it would cost to upgrade your whole system, you could have a low power unit that can do playback with no issues. If not, consider going down to the AMD 4xxxe series. Super low power usage.

[MattHelm]

Originally Posted by testlund

My old HTPC: Windows XP Pro, Pentium IV 2.0ghz, 512 MB,
350w power supply, video card with s-video out.

What is everyone using for CPU's these days with their HD HomeRun's?
I am looking at the following:
a. Intel Pentium E6300 Wolfdale 2.8 ghz dual core (65w)
b. AMD Athlon 64X2 7850 Black Edition Kuma 2.8 ghz dual core (95w) <- lot more power drain
Also I will probably put 2 gb of memory on the mobo.

See my sig below. I used the lowest end dual core you could buy, and they all work great RECORDING from a HDHomerun. The only reason they are dual core, is that I've used Windoze for a while, and it needed dual cores even back in the 1.3 (typed correctly) days. The HDHomerun does NOT need dual cores for recording.

BTW, the sever #2 system is lucky to get to 5% CPU usage when my dad is recording AND playing back HD recordings.

BUT, only the 3rd server normally plays back HD video. As others have said, your playback is the problem. Almost any modern video card will play back HD mpeg2 video easy, but if you ever try anything else, you'll want a better card, which at a guess will need a better MB.

As others have said, the HD200 is the way to go. Easy to set up, and will handle ALMOST anything.

[stanger89]

FWIW, my old HTPC, 45W Athlon X2 BE-2400 with an AMD 780G motherboard (<90W for the entire system, measured at the wall) could play HD recordings perfectly.

If an HD200 isn't an option (It should be, it's well worth it ) I'm sure we can come up with suggestions for PC parts. It would help if we knew what all you're planning on/willing to replace.