SageTV and CPU usage sudden jump

[waynedunham]

I went away for 2 weeks and was using the webserver to check in on my SageTV operations as well as adding/deleting/modifying recordings.

After the first day or so the webserver became VERY sluggish, i.e. 2-3 minutes over a 56k modem to display detailed info for a recording (station icons turned off).

This stayed like this the entire time I was away. When I got home I found SageTV using over 90% cpu which explains why the webserver was so sluggish. In addition there were several Showanalyzer's running on previous recordings, plus a large backlog of shows waiting to be processed by SA.

I also noticed 4 files with no program info including no title. They were in a folder named " - 4 files". The videos seemed fine and had a filename in the detailed info. When I deleted a file it was then shown as a folder named " - 3 files). (Using stock Sage XML BTW)

I rebooted and the SageTV process dropped down to a much more respectible level and Dirmon/SA cleaned up the backlog of recordings in decent time. However since then SageTV sometimes is back to it's usual CPU usage of <10%, but occasionaly jumps up to >50% for anything ranging from a minute to several minutes.

I suspect I may have a corrupt wiz.bin file. However with literally hundreds of recordings/archived files, etc I don't relish having to trash the wiz.bin and starting over.

I also just remembered that I'd added a directory into the media import dir on another networked computer (MediaReady 5000 at \\192.168.1.xxx\tv). That wasn't too long before I went on that vacation. I just removed that as an import directory and we'll see if that's the problem.

I don't know if that's it or not since everything was running fine when I left and the MR5k only recorded a couple shows after I left. (shut off IR)


Oh, also just to try and see if that was the trouble I finally upgraded to the latest Java from the old 1.4xxx that came with SageTv.
Just curious, what should "setup/help/system info" show as the java version if I'm using the newest "good" version?

Anyone got any other ideas where to look, or had similar problems?

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

However since then SageTV sometimes is back to it's usual CPU usage of <10%, but occasionaly jumps up to >50% for anything ranging from a minute to several minutes.

Can you identify the process in TaskManager or ProcessExplorer that is causing the high CPU usage ?

Just curious, what should "setup/help/system info" show as the java version if I'm using the newest "good" version?

Java Version: 1.6.0


Dirk

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by flachbar

Can you identify the process in TaskManager or ProcessExplorer that is causing the high CPU usage ?

That would be SageTV itself. As mentioned after reboot/install of newer Java it still randomly appears/disappears, but nowhere near to the extent of what I found upon returning home from 2 weeks away. Upon return from 2 weeks away SageTV was using 95-98% cpu. Now it hits maybe 40-50% for short periods, although not as short as in the past before this all started.

Originally Posted by flachbar

Java Version: 1.6.0

Guess I'll have to go to the Java site and try to download the proper install then. Mine's saying 1.5.0_10. I got that going through the java update process on the java console. I just ran the java update check and it says that I'm up to date with 1.5.0_10.
Shouldn't it show 1.6 as an update if it has been officially released?

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

That would be SageTV itself. As mentioned after reboot/install of newer Java it still randomly appears/disappears, but nowhere near to the extent of what I found upon returning home from 2 weeks away. Upon return from 2 weeks away SageTV was using 95-98% cpu. Now it hits maybe 40-50% for short periods, although not as short as in the past before this all started.

Ah ok, I just wanted to rule out that it is an issue with the SageTVTranscoder process...

Guess I'll have to go to the Java site and try to download the proper install then. Mine's saying 1.5.0_10. I got that going through the java update process on the java console. I just ran the java update check and it says that I'm up to date with 1.5.0_10.
Shouldn't it show 1.6 as an update if it has been officially released?

I think the java auto-update will not update from one major release to another, only within one major release (e.g. from 1.5.0_09 to 1.5.0_10). I would absolutely recommend to use 1.6, there is still a memory leak with the latest 1.5 version, and Sage seems to be faster with 1.6 for most of us too

Dirk

[Polypro]

You could try turning off thumbnail generation (related to SageTrancoder.exe) too.

P

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by flachbar

Ah ok, I just wanted to rule out that it is an issue with the SageTVTranscoder process...


I think the java auto-update will not update from one major release to another, only within one major release (e.g. from 1.5.0_09 to 1.5.0_10). I would absolutely recommend to use 1.6, there is still a memory leak with the latest 1.5 version, and Sage seems to be faster with 1.6 for most of us too

Dirk

It's not that it won't update from one version to another. If you go to the java website they're still showing 1.50_10 as the current version and 1.6 as beta.
At any rate, I uninstalled 1.42xxx and 1.5xxxx and the installed the 1.6 beta. I'll see how that goes.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by Polypro

You could try turning off thumbnail generation (related to SageTrancoder.exe) too.

P

Good suggestion, I'll give that a try if it's not already off. Is that the video thumbnail generation line in sage.properties? That's the one thing I noticed in the latest versions of Sage that I didn't have before. I don't see a setting for that anywhere in setup, so I have to disable that in the properties file manually right? (i.e. shut down all Sage activity, edit/save, restart Sage)
While it wasn't a major hit, I did notice more spinning Sage icon lag in the recording menus after the video thumbnails started showing up.