How much memory does your sagetvservicecontrol use?

[timrob]

For the past few days, SageTV 6.0.19 has been slow to respond to vcr commands and the picture is jumpy when watching a pre-recorded program with nothing else recording or when watching live tv.

I checked the memory through Windows Task manager and noticed sagetvservicecontrol using 83,000KB of memory. I don't remember but this seems high. Can somebody list what your computer uses? Physical memory shows 916,960 K, available 391,322 K, system cache 581,500 K. SageTV.exe is about 45,000 K. CPU usage is at 80-90% when watching a show. I turn off sagetvservicecontrol and the jumpy picture goes away, but VCR commands are still slow to respond.

I've done nothing new to the computer and there's no little gremlins running around the house.

I have a AMD 1200 cpu and 896 mb of ram. Disk defrag report shows not needed. Scan disk was ok. I have 12.5 GB of free space on my HD. All data and movies are kept on seperate HDs and have plenty of free space. My AVG Free edition virus program doesn't scan mpg files. Any ideas besides reinstalling SageTV?

[stevech]

Sage TV server as service (latest) here is 72MB with light usage.
Sage TV server as application is abut 120MB with light usage.

I've read that the RAM that sage uses is related to the Java VM heap size and that grows and shrinks according to when the VM decides to do garbage collection, as it's called.

[dvd_maniac]

Sageservice is typically around 240MB, Sage starts out at around 70MB and grows to about 200MB. I am using latest beta but have seen no difference in the memory usage for a few versions now.

[bcjenkins]

What version of java?

[Taddeusz]

I noticed that my sage server was hitting the default JVM heap size. I increased it from the default 200MB to 533MB. My JVM heap size stats right now are 140MB/209MB/533MB. So the current total is just over the default maximum.

Check your total JVM heap size and see if you're not hitting the max. You can find it under Setup/Help/System Information.

[dvd_maniac]

Java 1.6

[timrob]

I'm using Java 1.4.1_07. I'll check the JVM heap size when I get home. If it's too big, what can I do? My wiz.bin is probably a year old. Would this have anything to do with it?

Taddeusz-How did you increase your heap size? Did you do it this way, post #9, http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...=JVM+heap+size

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by timrob

I'm using Java 1.4.1_07. I'll check the JVM heap size when I get home. If it's too big, what can I do? My wiz.bin is probably a year old. Would this have anything to do with it?

Taddeusz-How did you increase your heap size? Did you do it this way, post #9, http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...=JVM+heap+size

Yes, that's how I did it. It's a registry entry that you change to a hexidecimal value. Changing it to hex 200 sets it to 533MB. Although I don't know why because 0x200 is decimal 512.

[timrob]

The registry was initially set a 0 and Sage help read 67mb/104mb.

I changed the registry to hex 200. Sage help now read 86/104.

This didn't help as the picture is still jumpy. CPU usage is high when it's running smoothly or not.

After I initially posted last night, rebooting fixed the problem, but today it's back. I'm going to email tech support and see if they can study the log file.

[Taddeusz]

What kind of video card do you have in this system and what decoder are you using?

[timrob]

The video card is a Gigabyte nVidia 7600 GS. For Sage, MPEG2 Video Decoder-SageTV, Video Renderer-VMR9, DXVA MPEG Mode-default, DXVA Interlacing-Bob & weave, Dscaler Deinterlacer-enabled, Deinterlacing Technique-Blended Clipping, Double Refresh Rate-Enabled, Odd Field First-enabled.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by timrob

The video card is a Gigabyte nVidia 7600 GS. For Sage, MPEG2 Video Decoder-SageTV, Video Renderer-VMR9, DXVA MPEG Mode-default, DXVA Interlacing-Bob & weave, Dscaler Deinterlacer-enabled, Deinterlacing Technique-Blended Clipping, Double Refresh Rate-Enabled, Odd Field First-enabled.

Your decoder is your problem then. Either go with nVidia's PureVideo Decoder or any number of other decoders such as Cyberlink's. The built-in decoder in SageTV is not accelerated. Since your CPU is so slow it must do all the decoding and displaying which causes the CPU usage to be very high.

[bcjenkins]

timrob, you may consider upgrade to java 1.6u2 for speed too.

[timrob]

Taddeusz-I tried the nVidia's PureVideo Decoder. It reduced CPU usage from 80-90% while watching video to 30-40% The only problem was there was a purple haze (not the song) over the video, both over live TV and prerecorded. This isn't the only codec this happened on. I tried CyberLinks Power DVD Codec a few weeks ago with the same problem. It also occurs while using PowerDVD and Hauppauges WinTV to watch video. The built in Sage codec is the only one that didn't produce the purple haze. It looks like there's something much bigger going on. The only thing I can figure is to reload the video card software and drivers.

bcjenkins-I couldn't find java 1.6u2, even in the java archive, http://java.sun.com/products/archive/. I googled and found a few posts about security problems. I did download java 1.6u1. Should I try that for speed?

[Taddeusz]

To get proper video output on the 7600GS you have to back off to the last 80 series driver. The only problem is that the AGP version of the 7600GS was not available then, only the PCIe version. You have to modify the INF file in order for the older driver to detect your card. I did that on mine. I've attached the INF file I used on the 84.43 drivers to make my card installable with them.

Download the 84.43 drivers from Nvidia's web site and then extract the files. Copy this nv4_disp.inf file into the folder and overwrite the one that's there. Then you can install the driver and have it detect your card. All 90 series and later drivers screwed something up with the video playback. Unfortunately this is the only way to fix it.

[timrob]

I couldn't find your recommened driver. 94.24 http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_94.24_2.html is the latest release. In the middle left, there's a link for the archive. There's a release for version 84.21. Would this be ok? It doesn't say specifically that my card is supported, but it does support GeForce 7 series GPUs.

Does using 84.21 change your directions for the nv4_disp.inf file?

Thanks for your help on this.

[Taddeusz]

It was a beta driver they came out with. Here's a link to it:

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_do...bit_84.43.html

[timrob]

I tried 84.43 and the purple haze went away, but a new problem appeared. The nVidia control panel wasn't available except for right clicking on the desktop, properties, settings, advanced, GeForce Tab. And, I couldn't load the wanted profile for my computer's LCD without first going into clone view.

I tried the latest driver 94.24, and it fixed everything except the clone view issue. Damn nVidia drivers.

Thanks again for your help, at least the major issue is fixed.

[Taddeusz]

Yea, they put the sucky control panel in there in the 90 series drivers. IMHO, The old control panel was much better. I'm sorry that did do what you want. You'll have to make a decision about what's more important for you.

Honestly, ATI based cards and drivers have been more bug free with SageTV. Particularly under Vista.

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by timrob

bcjenkins-I couldn't find java 1.6u2, even in the java archive, http://java.sun.com/products/archive/. I googled and found a few posts about security problems. I did download java 1.6u1. Should I try that for speed?

I found it at java.com.. http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp

But yes, 6 is much faster than 4 for rendering ui in SageTV.

B