High CPU w/ Live TV as compared to BTV

[cgreenle]

I'm evaluating moving from BTV and I must admit everything is pointing to STV except one thing. Watching only Live TV in BTV I run ~17-20% CPU usage, in STV it runs ~50-60% on SageTV.exe.

The menus seem to drag from one item to the next.

I've searched several threads and have yet to find a solution or even pinpoint the cause.

Here are some specs and settings:
SageTV v6.3.10
SageMC v6.3.7a
Server 2003 RC2
AMD 64 X2 6000+
2gb Ram
M2N32-SLI MB
160gb Sata (Recording Drive)
3tb Raid 5 (Rocketraid 2320)
Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS
HDHomeRun
Full Hardware Acceleration
Video Renderer = Overlay
Mpeg 2 Decoder = Cyberlink Video also tried SageTV Decoder

I don't know what else might be helpful. Please, I appreciate any help or insight you might offer.

Thanks

[Brent]

Something isn't right there. CPU usage should be about the same. Let me think about it and I'll see if I can come up with anything to investigate.

Are you running SageTV in Service mode?
OS: XP, Vista, or what?
Try a few additional video decoders just in case
What audio decoder are you using?

[cgreenle]

Are you running SageTV in Service mode?

Service Mode

OS: XP, Vista, or what?

Server 2003 RC2

What audio decoder are you using?

AC3Filter

I will try other video decoders, any suggestions?

[cgreenle]

Same result..... ~50% on SageTV.exe

It's all about the playback. When no video is playing it hovers next to nothing. What does BTV use to decode mpeg2 video?

Just for fun I played some Xvids through SageMC.....The CPU ran at about ~10%.

[toricred]

With the Sage decoder you need to enable DVXA for hardware acceleration. I vaguely recall that when Sage is installed it sets the Sage video decoder so high that no other encoder is used even if you specifically tell it to.

[toricred]

It looks like they fixed the time stamp issue, please see my post above.

[Brent]

Just for kicks don't change anything except do change the audio filter just to see if it makes a difference. I seem to remember AC3 causing an issue (a fixable one). I might be wrong, but give it a shot at least and report back

[cgreenle]

Changing the Audio Decoder didn't seem to make any difference.

I took a look at process explorer and it seems with SageTV decoder selected, mpegdemux.ax seems to be hogging the CPU. With Cyberlink Video it's clvsd.ax....

I don't really know if that helps or not....

[Brent]

Can you give VMR9 and default mpeg2 decoder a try?

Grrr. SageTV Forums are taking that time shifting a bit too far again so the posts are out of order. Anyhow, just in case you missed it toricred has a good suggestions:

With the Sage decoder you need to enable DVXA for hardware acceleration. I vaguely recall that when Sage is installed it sets the Sage video decoder so high that no other encoder is used even if you specifically tell it to.

[cgreenle]

Originally Posted by toricred
With the Sage decoder you need to enable DVXA for hardware acceleration. I vaguely recall that when Sage is installed it sets the Sage video decoder so high that no other encoder is used even if you specifically tell it to.

That didn't seem to make any difference either.

Originally Posted by Brent
Can you give VMR9 and default mpeg2 decoder a try?

Grrr. SageTV Forums are taking that time shifting a bit too far again so the posts are out of order. Anyhow, just in case you missed it toricred has a good suggestions:

Same result..... ~50% on SageTV.exe

It's all about the playback. When no video is playing it hovers next to nothing. What does BTV use to decode mpeg2 video?

Just for fun I played some Xvids through SageMC.....The CPU ran at about ~10%.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by cgreenle

What does BTV use to decode mpeg2 video?

It depends on your setting in BTV. Go into settings and see what video decoder you have set up there.

[cgreenle]

Originally Posted by Brent

It depends on your setting in BTV. Go into settings and see what video decoder you have set up there.

SnapStream Video/SP Decoder

[cgreenle]

Alright, To show my frustration....I completely reloaded STV from scratch. (just uninstall and reinstall didn't work)

I avoided this because I had such a hard time setting up the HDHR but this time it was much faster. I watched the CPU the whole time I made changes and so far.....

I'm running at ~10-15% CPU on Live TV!!!

Thank you so much for your help Brent & toricred!! I'll keep you posted if this happens again.

[Brent]

Great news

Now I wish I understood what was going on behind the scenes, but the fact its working as it should is good. Now take it slow - don't pile on a bunch of plugins until you explore and get things working your way.