Stuttering During Playback

[kevine]

Well, last night was the first big night of the new TV season and I have started to have stuttering problems. Luckily, it only seems to be during playback and during the height of recording. I believe it to be a memory issue but cannot be certain.

My sig has most of my configuration but here are some other important system info:
Sage Server WHS version 6.5.20 (never bothered to get 6.6 since it was the RC)
Java version 1.6.0
JVM heap size (Used/Total/Max): 673 MB/884 MB/884 MB
All drives formatted to 64k clusters, plenty of space
File duplication on everything except DVDs and recording share.

Playing of HD content is the problem. Recording was finished. Had trouble on the SD extender and the HD200. Also the HD200 was slow to respond. Able to watch a live or recorded SD show with no problem.

CPU: all 4 cores never reached 50%
Memory: At 86% of physical max, SageTVService using 1.2 GB according to task manager.
HD throughput: Not measured yet but if recording is not the problem, then not sure if this is either.
Network throughput: GB network never went above 10% utilization

Conflicting processes: Could be my add-ins. I have serveral:
AutoExit
PerfectDisk
MyMovies (which has SQL server express running)
Whiist
RemoteNotification

SageTV version? I doubt this is an issue.

Ordered memory: I believe this likely to be an issue. I ordered 2 GB more and should be in by the end of the week. I know WHS will only ustilize 3 total but 1 more GB will help.

Tuner problem: I had a tuner lock up on me. An insignifigant one but giving a lot of system error messages because of it. I have not had the chance to reboot yet. I have 8 tuners configured. 4 HDHR, 2 PVR500, 1 ATI, 1 HVR1600 analog. ATI is the one locked up according to messages.

No Comskip running and that scares me because how bad will this get when I am recording 4 HD AND 3 SD shows simultaneously while running comskip. Dirmon stops processing for some reason lately. I have to stop and start the service. Also due to memory?

I do have auto-convert on many items and 1 was running but canceling it did not fix the problem and again, cpu utilization never above 50% on any core.

There also is an error in the system log. 3 times over the past week. This being the strongest of all indicating a memory issue.

Event ID: 21
VolSnap
The flush and hold operation for volume C:\fs\15 was aborted because of low available system memory.

What about Windows Search service? Does anyone else turn this off?

Here is what I plan to do 1 at a time until it disappears:
Reboot my server and see if I can get rid of the tuner problem.
Install memory. Should be here tomorrow.
Increase JVM heap max. Can it be larger?
Install latest Sage version and HD200 beta
Turn off auto-convert. Wish this could be scheduled for off hours.
Remove MyMovies add-in
Remove PerfectDisk add-in
Start to remove tuners. Really don't want to do this and was planning on adding a few.

Anything else I should be thinking about?

[freedml]

I would start by going back to one or two HD channels. If that works reliably, add the other HD channels. Then add SD channels one at a time -- these can eat up a lot of processing time.


Dirmon won't start a job unless there is the required amount of processor time and memory available. So if the PC is busy Dirmon won't run any jobs.


Definitely remove the locked up tuner asap.

[davephan]

Your memory at 86% peak, sage consuming 1.2 gigs sounds high compared to what I see. Usually SageTV consumes about 800 - 900 megs, and my peaks are far lower. I think I only see that those high CPU peaks are when transcoding video files or commercial processing on both of my cores. I have six tuners and can record 3 HD programs at once. I assume you already have 2 gigs RAM. If you had only 1 gig RAM now, then you are caching to disk continuously, and that would be your problem.

You might also check your router and software firewall to make sure that the ports are not being blocked. I found when some ports were blocked, stuttering did occur. If you are using DHCP, then your IP addresses could move around over time, moving out of fixed IPs that were opened up.

If you need to relieve your SageTV computer's CPU load, you can offload the Comskip or ShowAnalyzer processing to another computer. I tried offloading ShowAnalyzer to three older slow computers at the same time. If you offload the commerical processing to another system, don't waste your time on old slow computers. The slow computers just can't keep up with the file processing and end up consuming too much power when they are also running 24 x 7. Use one fast quad-core for offloading the CPU commercial processing load. A fast SSD might also help to speed up commercial processing.


Dave

[Savage1701]

Couple things I can think of:

If any of your drives are USB, get them inside the server or on FireWire or use SuperSpeed or eboostr read-ahead cache.

Does your router/switch offer QoS settings? Try giving your SageTV server and any clients/extenders top priority and bandwidth. Nuts to everyone else, we're talkin' watching Sage here !!! :-)

I am posting this seperately - I finally ran an issue down to lack of my PS's ability to keep all my hard drives running when I was recording multiple shows, since Sage allocates across multiple drives. I added a test bed PS (make sure you give it sufficient load - I am using an old 350W PSU to power 4 HD's and a couple SSD's) or it may get freaky on you. My test bed PSU is taking a large burden off my main PSU (not easy or cheap to upgrade since it's a 2U server supply).

Just a few thoughts.

[kevine]

Originally Posted by freedml

I would start by going back to one or two HD channels. If that works reliably, add the other HD channels. Then add SD channels one at a time -- these can eat up a lot of processing time.

Not an option for me. I record 6 things at a time sometimes. I will have to try other things.

Originally Posted by freedml

Dirmon won't start a job unless there is the required amount of processor time and memory available. So if the PC is busy Dirmon won't run any jobs.

Did not know this. Thanks for the tip.

Originally Posted by davephan

Your memory at 86% peak, sage consuming 1.2 gigs sounds high compared to what I see. Usually SageTV consumes about 800 - 900 megs, and my peaks are far lower. I think I only see that those high CPU peaks are when transcoding video files or commercial processing on both of my cores. I have six tuners and can record 3 HD programs at once. I assume you already have 2 gigs RAM. If you had only 1 gig RAM now, then you are caching to disk continuously, and that would be your problem.

Pretty sure it is memory now. Happened again last night and a even after a reboot the night before. What's worse is now the recordings have stutters in them and not just the playback. Memory seems to peak at 86-87% physical memory load. The other 2GB arrives today. I will pop that in as soon as I get home. I know I will only get 3GB out of 4GB but every little bit helps.

What about the Java Heap size. Can I increase this once I get the new memory? I have seen, that it is at its max and that it can go higher.

Originally Posted by davephan

You might also check your router and software firewall to make sure that the ports are not being blocked. I found when some ports were blocked, stuttering did occur. If you are using DHCP, then your IP addresses could move around over time, moving out of fixed IPs that were opened up.

Where do I check for ports being blocked? Is it in the firewall log? Where is that? I use the standard Windows firewall coming with WHS. I have many open in the router for Placeshifter, Web server and jetty server.

Originally Posted by davephan

If you need to relieve your SageTV computer's CPU load, you can offload the Comskip or ShowAnalyzer processing to another computer. I tried offloading ShowAnalyzer to three older slow computers at the same time. If you offload the commerical processing to another system, don't waste your time on old slow computers. The slow computers just can't keep up with the file processing and end up consuming too much power when they are also running 24 x 7. Use one fast quad-core for offloading the CPU commercial processing load. A fast SSD might also help to speed up commercial processing.

Yeah, I know I could do that but having another computer up and running to support that seems like a waste. I am going to remove Comskip from running immediately during peak prime time hours. If I have it running good for a week with the new memory, I will add instances of comskip one at at time, 1 week at at time.

Originally Posted by Savage1701

If any of your drives are USB, get them inside the server or on FireWire or use SuperSpeed or eboostr read-ahead cache.

Not an issue. Have (1) 1 TB drive firewire. Other than that, all internal.

Originally Posted by Savage1701

Does your router/switch offer QoS settings? Try giving your SageTV server and any clients/extenders top priority and bandwidth. Nuts to everyone else, we're talkin' watching Sage here !!! :-)

The only QoS settings I have are for Wireless and Internet Access. Since non of my Sage appliances is wireless and I internet access would be a non-issue, I don't think this to be helpful.


Thank you everyone for you help.

[kevine]

Well, here is another problem adding to the issue. 3 HD programs last night also recorded simultaneously in SD. That certainly has taxed the server.

[kevine]

New memory installed and it happened again last night. 2 HD and 3 SD recordings from 8-9. Also, no comskip running. On to my next troubleshooting step.

[kevine]

90% sure I have found the problem. I have a firewire drive (1 TB) connected to my drive pool. It is getting hammered. I don't knw why but that is where WHS thinks it should record the majority of my programs now. Time to order a new drive. Luckily I have enough room to remove it from the pool tonight.

Anyone know why WHS does this? It's not like this drive has lots of space free either.