Live TV laggy

[qhplar]

This is my first experience with SageTV; I'm using 3.6.10. I have the media server installed on a 2.8GHZ P4 with 4GB ram and an Nvida 8600GT 256MB video card running on Windows Vista and using the AverMedia M780 TV card.

My client is a Core 2 Duo with 4GB Ram and an ATI 2600XT video card also running Vista. When I'm watching live TV the picture is Ok for about 15 or 20 seconds then it gets laggy. I don't see the lag on recorded TV only live TV.

Any idea's on what could be causing the lag?

[Opus4]

What exactly do you mean by 'laggy'?

If you mean it stutters & doesn't play smooth, was the the recording drive formatted using 64K clusters? If you pause playback for a few seconds, then continue, does it play smooth again?

- Andy

[qhplar]

By laggy I mean it seems to be dropping frames; jerky movements; stundering just like you say. I have the drive formatted whatever the standard windows cluster size is. Pausing the video doesn't improve the jerky video.

I'm assuming the standard cluster size for a 300 - 400Gb disk is 4KB. Do you think the 64K cluster will help?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by qhplar

I have the drive formatted whatever the standard windows cluster size is. Pausing the video doesn't improve the jerky video.

I'm assuming the standard cluster size for a 300 - 400Gb disk is 4KB. Do you think the 64K cluster will help?

Yes, it really ought to be formatted using 64K clusters, or else you will almost certainly end up with stuttering playback or messed up recordings. You only want/need the larger cluster sizes on the recording drives, not your OS or apps drive.

There are tools that can change the cluster size w/o reformatting the drive & losing the files -- Acronis is one company with such a tool.

BTW: You can double check the drive's current cluster size using chkdsk at a command prompt or using the File Size utility in the downloads section of the forum -- see the bottom of my profile for a link to the download.

- Andy

[qhplar]

Ok I will give that a try tonght. Can I move the recordings off the drive, reformat the drive, and then move them back?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by qhplar

Can I move the recordings off the drive, reformat the drive, and then move them back?

That works too... it may just take a while to copy the recordings, depending on how many there are.

- Andy

[qhplar]

Increasing the cluster size seemed to have fixed the lagging issue. For the most part it's MUCH better. I'm still getting hiccups every once in a while (2 or 3 time an hour) where it will stutter and then the program won't be "live" it will be one or 2 seconds behind "live". I have to press the "live tv" button a few times for it to catch up.