Probably a widely discussed problem:STUTTERING, LiveTV stuttering:causes and remedies

[Gemini1706]

I am now experimenting with GB-PVR so I can see if my machine can handle LiveTV ...etc., if I did not like GB-PVR I will install SageTV next week after getting some confidence in my machine (Sage TV Trial Period is not enough, too short, most of us experiment during weekends, so very short time.. )

Ok, to the topic:

I have a Pentium III 1GHz Machine with 256MB of ram (PC100), PVR-250MCE, Windows XP Pro with SP1, DirectX9.0c.
I am planning to use Radeon 9500 Pro for TV-Out, but for now I am using old TNT2 video card to view on monitor.
I also use a 30GByte Harddisk, 100ATA 7200rpm.

I installed GB-PVR successfully, and was experimenting on my monitor (before hooking stuff to mt TV using DVI with Radeon 9500 Pro).

During LiveTV, Windows Task Manager shows: ~ 70% to 80% CPU usage, and about 160MB of PageFile (virtual memory) usage (without GB-PVR it shows 90MB PageFile Usage)

For the LiveTV/playback I used:

1-a regular old TNT2 video card,
2- Installed a free codec pack (K-lite codec pack 2.27 Full from http://kppfree.altervista.org ) which uses elecard as the mpeg decoder.
3- I am using Overlay Manager (not VMR9) since my TNT2 video card cannot do VMR (obviously)


Now, the LiveTV option works fine except of those problems:

1- During fast moving scenes, the video blurs/slows down, which appear as a decoding issue.
Will changing my decoder to say Sonic Decoder or something similar will solve my problems?
Will increasing RAM help this? or it is just a decoder problem?

2- Even during slow/still scenes, or fast scenes, I see a little bit of stuttering (kinda like dropped frame??) with some scense every few seconds not running 100% smooth (jerky/jumpy). It is not very severe, but it is still noticable.
Is this Stuttering due to:
Low RAM? Do I need more RAM?
Slow Macine? I do not think so, since CPU usage never went above 80%
Bad Decoder? Will buying the Sonic codec help this? Unlikely since it is more like a system slowdown due to paging file or RAM or harddisk, (unlikely CPU)..
Video Card? Do you think installing the Radeon 9500 Pro will help resolve this? I do not see any link between the video card and the stuutering.. Is there?


Please help..
I really do not want to upgrade mu machine to a faster one, since it appears that CPU is not fully overloaded so a faster machine will not help..

Basically, what worked for you/other people?:

1- Better codec? Is this has anything to do with Sttutering?
2- More RAM?
3- Faster machine? (God, please NO NO)
4- Radeon 9500 Pro can help reduce stuttering? Unlikely



Sorry for the long post.. ???

Thanks in advance...
Cheers...