90% CPU usage from sage client!

[Djinn_X]

Help Iam still new to sage. While viewing any type of tv from my server on my client pc, my client pc reaches insane levels of cpu utilization! never less than 90%! Cpu utilization on the server is average. And the link between the server and my client is very laggy. I have gigabit nic's in each machine and a gigabit
switch linking them. I experience no lag with other apps over the link.
Here are my specs.

SageTv server:
-Sage Tv 4.1
-TUL ATI theater 550 pro, recording via coax with onboard tuner no cable box or IR blaster
-Windows Xp Pro sp2 (up to date)
-Pentium 4 C 2.4ghz w/ht (slightly oc ed to) 2.675ghz
-512 mb (2x 256) Kingston Hyper X Dual channel DDR 500 @ 440mhz 3-4-4-8
-Chaintech 9CJS Zenith mobo latest bios
-i875P northbridge @ 891 mhz
-Seagate SATA 150 40gb hdd (where sage is installed)
-Western Digital IDE 40gb hdd 64k block size (primary recording space, yes i know its small
-Western Digital IDE 80gb hdd (40gb partition 64k block size secondary recording space)
-Geforce Fx 5700 ultra 128mb 256bit (not in use for viewing display)
-onboard 7.1 (not being used for sound)
-onboard intel gigabit ethernet
-Nvidia pure video decoder installed


Netgear 5 port gigabit switch: links machines (duh

SageTv client:
-Sage Tv client ver 4.1
-Windows Xp Pro sp2 (up to date)
-AMD Athlon 64 3500+ soc 939 Venice 1000mhz fsb
-A-DATA Vitesta 2GB (2 x 1GB) Dual channel DDR 400 @ 400mhz
-ASUS A8N-VM CSM micro ATX mobo
-Nforce 4 MCP 430
-Single Western digital IDE 80gb hdd (not used for tv storage, and yes i know a fat SATA 2 hdd would be nice
-onboard Geforce 6150 256mb pci-x
-Sound blaster audigy 2 ZS using 5.1 over creative inspire 6.1 120 watt speakers
-onboard nforce 4 gigabit ethernet
-Nvidia pure video decoder installed

-Using the DVI-D output via the onboard GeForce 6150, over a 20 ft sheilded DVI cable for viewing on my
BenQ PE5120 DLP projector @ 720p 1280x720
-Final product is a 105 inch 720p screen.

Why am I experiencing so much CPU use? 90% is obsurd! i mean this aint a slow machine.
I use the client machine to view everything on ther server. The server has no video conection ( and i wish to

keep it that way)
There is a tremendous lag when asking the server to do "anything!" ex. change volume, change chanel, timeshift,

pause, play stop !
Considering this is the "client" machine I would expect it to have some headroom for other operations while

viewing tv.
????
Please help!

[ben_95sl1]

are you using vmr9 or overlay?...how about 3d acceleration and if so, do you have FSE enabled?

definitely something up....try overlay and disable 3d accel if not already setup that way. Weren't there problems with some of those 6150 equiped motherboards?

[Djinn_X]

I heard there were problems with these boards but i have experienced none. And I think they where in reference to the BIOS and other issues.
As for the VRM9 and 3D accell, yes i have them both on. Supose this could add a little work to the cpu
I will try to turn them off and use the overlay instead of VMR9, will this show a loss in picture quality? Cuz that may suck Would using the purevideo decoder add to cpu usage, cuz i thought it was supposed to do the opposite by off loading the work to the video card (in this case the nforce chip). Should i even use the purevideo decoder on the client? I mean the server is using it for the recordings, but i guess its not realy making much use of it, being a 5700 ultra and not meeting the geforce 6 baseline.

[Guyverix]

I know that some people had mentioned that they had issues with gig-E and had to adjust the NIC settings. I believe that Opus4 made a sticky on it. Perhaps this would help your situation.

[Djinn_X]

Originally Posted by Guyverix

I know that some people had mentioned that they had issues with gig-E and had to adjust the NIC settings. I believe that Opus4 made a sticky on it. Perhaps this would help your situation.

That may help, do you have a link to that post ? or some info on tweaking the gigabit nic for sage?
I suppose i could attribute some of the lag to the onboard video But come on man , iam trying to be cheap here LOL I will be purchasing a new 7800 GT soon.