Long Delayed Pauses

[Cayars]

I know a few other people are getting long delayed pauses where the interface seems to freeze but then comes back again after 20 seconds or so. It then processes any keystrokes/remote codes that were entered.

I've been noticing this quite a lot in 2.1.10 so I've been checking everything I can think of. I think I may have discovered a problem at least on my system.

If I go to Setup->System Information and look at the "Last EPG Update" information it is almost exactly current. The "Next EPG Update In" always shows "0 minutes".

So it would appear that my machine is constantly refreshing the EPG data which of course does cause slow-downs and would account for the long pause delay I constantly see.

Anybody else seeing this?

Carlo

[Boolah]

I noticed the "Next update in 0 minutes" thing happening today only. Every other time that I've checked since I installed 2.1 the EPG update info seems to have updated correctly. Maybe Sage's EPG servers are down?

I have been experiencing the long pauses in the UI as well though. It doesn't appear to have anything to do with STVs though since I also get long pauses in the OriginalV2 STV.

[Cayars]

You could be right about the EPG servers being down. I never gave that a thought. I got "so excited" that I might have found the problem that I overlooked the obvious.

[samson]

this morning I tried to add a new source and when I entered my zipcode I could not connect to the sage servers maybe it is the same problem

[Pumpkinhead]

Sometime I notice pauses, but I dont recall it ever being more than a few seconds.

[Cayars]

I'm starting to get back studders and almost echoing sounds on the audio. I've backed down a recording quality and that does help out some.

Something interesting I've noticed is that viewing the material through sage client (network computer) works well as long as no viewing is being done on the server. The hard drive lights on the server blink on and off about once per second (as normal). However, If I view anything on the server the hard drive activity goes nuts. It's almost a solid color.

I've tried the above with a clean properties file (removed properties/backup) and let it re-create it. I can play any of the MPGs just fine on the server via WMP or WinDVD with very little disk activity but as soon as Sage plays it the drive activity goes nuts.

I've tried a few decoders (audio & video) and nothings helps.

I even installed Jeff's new DLL (even though I didn't need it) and I think it helped a little but still nothing I can think of works. I'm about to try going back to 2.0 but I've got the feeling this won't help without a format/XP install.

[Cayars]

One thing I forgot to add to the above. I can play DVDs just fine with no stutter/pause at all. These DVDs can be on disk or ripped on the hard drive.

How about that for complicating things...

[Pumpkinhead]

I'm starting to get back studders and almost echoing sounds on the audio.

I get these sometimes also. Sometimes they might occur every 6 seconds or so, sometimes less frequent or very intermittent. Exiting and restarting Sage ( & maybe the service) or rebooting and then sleeping/waking will knock it back into shape. I can't really accept anything less than DVD SP quality. When I've tried reclock, it hasn't helped. I haven't tried changing the buffer setting. Never tried DVD. It appears to be a playback issue, not something recorded to the file.

[Cayars]

I'm trying to use DVD ELP at the moment. I'm not a fan of it either but it's a little more watchable right now for me. DVD SP is unwatchable. Ya do what ya gotta do...

[m0ng00se30]

Here is something to check as well... I notice stuttering when WINDOWS UPDATE is downloading an update OR if there is an update waiting to install. If I cancel the install and turn off WU it usually ALWAYS stops my stuttering problems. Check your windows updates and try stopping the service.

--Mike

[Cayars]

The machine itself has (did) a prestine setup. Service Pack 1, all devices with it's own IRQ, RAID cacheing controller, 2GB memory, etc... No services running that don't need to be running. No firewall, no auto updates, nothing. No other software installed except for WinDVD.

I've had this machine running perfect for BTV and Sage through 2.1. This machine ran so perfect it amazed even me. No stutters. I've had over 10 recordings going at the same time at the BEST setting with multiple clients hitting it and it just ran perfect.

Now I can't even watch a video that WAS recorded at DVD Extra Long Play with no other recordings going on and no clients connected.

I'm thinking hard of grabbing a snapshot (Acronis/TrueImage) of it the way it is and restoring my perfectly running 2.0 setup. Then check to make sure 2.0 runs well again and then trying the 2.1 upgrade again.

When I upgraded to 2.1 and had tuner problems I did remove all the hauppauge drivers and install this stuff new. Maybe I'm having a conflict with something in the newer drivers. I'd be curious to see how 2.1 works with my old drivers and the new DLL Jeff released.

[Deadbolt]

What is this new DLL all about? Is there a link with more info?

~Thanks

[Pumpkinhead]

I'm curious about this new DLL also. I saw it mentioned a few times, but no details or links.

I also have no unnecessary background programs, screen savers, windows updates, or services enabled/running. But in contrast to Cayers, my system (details in profile) has a couple hundred or so programs installed. Processor utilization is also pretty low when I see the jitter. But I can usually eliminate it for the most part using one of those steps mentioned. But eventually it will rear its ugly head again.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Deadbolt

What is this new DLL all about? Is there a link with more info?

See this post in the SageTV 2.1 not tuning thread. Jeff posted an updated DLL to try for the problems mentioned there.

- Andy

[jptaz]

Cayars and Pumpkinhead,

Changing the amount of video buffering should completely eliminate the pauses and video problems. I used to have really bad probelms in 2.0 and had the same problems in 2.1 until I remebered that every time you install a new version of SageTV it goes back to the default 2MB video buffer.

See this link:
http://www.sage-community.org/index....-do-i-fix-this

I do not understand why the default buffering on Sage is still only 2 MB. I always bump mine up to 32 MB.

John

[jptaz]

Also I found that when I upgraded to SageTV 2.1 simple recordings were using high CPU 25% to 30% (4 recordings). I ended up making a backup up of all my properites and wiz files and uninstalling all related components.

SageTV
Hauppauge Drivers
StreamZap Drivers
Java
All Video Decoders

Then I reinstalled the current version of all of them.
Latest version of Java
New Hauppauge Drivers
New Hauppauge Decoders

Now when I am recording it only uses 5 to 20% CPU (4 recordings).

This still seems high, but it is managable.

[mls]

Originally Posted by jptaz

I do not understand why the default buffering on Sage is still only 2 MB. I always bump mine up to 32 MB.

The reverse question could also be asked here as to why you actually need to alter that setting while many others (including myself) do not have a problem with it running at the default? There is something else involved here that maybe should be corrected.

[Cayars]

Originally Posted by jptaz

Cayars and Pumpkinhead,

Changing the amount of video buffering should completely eliminate the pauses and video problems. I used to have really bad probelms in 2.0 and had the same problems in 2.1 until I remebered that every time you install a new version of SageTV it goes back to the default 2MB video buffer.

See this link:
http://www.sage-community.org/index...w-do-i-fix-this

I do not understand why the default buffering on Sage is still only 2 MB. I always bump mine up to 32 MB.

John

I'm not sure what this is referring to as the link is broken but if you're talking about the DISK BUFFERS adjustment and NOT video buffers then, yes I've tried everything from 2MB to 32MB with no help from this either.

BTW, for those not familar:
Use Regedit to edit the registry.
These are default SageTV settings:

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Frey Technologies\Common\DSFilters\MpegDeMux
• "NumBuffers"=dword:00000020 <- hex or 32 in decimal
• "BufferSize"=dword:00010000

This comes out to be 32 buffers 64KB in size. A total of 2MB buffers.
These are modified settings:

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Frey Technologies\Common\DSFilters\MpegDeMux
• "NumBuffers"=dword:00000200 <- hex or 512 in decimal
• "BufferSize"=dword:00010000

This comes out to be 512 buffers 64KB in size. A total of 32MB buffers.
The 64KB size adjustment is designed to match the 64KB sectors your drive is formatted with.

[Pumpkinhead]

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I have'nt tried the buffer setting. I assumed that would increase my channel change delay, which only takes about a second right now. But it's on my list of things to do. I was thinking about reinstalling this system from scratch with XP Pro, and see if I still have the problem. It's been very minor for me, and I can work past it to eliminate it or cause it to be very intermittent. Sounds like Cayers is experiencing something much more serious.

[Deadbolt]

Originally Posted by jptaz

Cayars and Pumpkinhead,

Changing the amount of video buffering should completely eliminate the pauses and video problems. I used to have really bad probelms in 2.0 and had the same problems in 2.1 until I remebered that every time you install a new version of SageTV it goes back to the default 2MB video buffer.

See this link:
http://www.sage-community.org/index....-do-i-fix-this

I do not understand why the default buffering on Sage is still only 2 MB. I always bump mine up to 32 MB.

John

This may help some people...but not my case. My stuttering is in the recording...not due to playback. I can watch the file in WinDVD, or burn it to DVD and watch it in a player...samething...stutter.