MVP Slow Remote Control Response

[wvd]

I have an MVP connected to my network and it works great in streaming video from my dedicated PC running 6.3. The problem is the response time on remote control operations is awful. When I push a button on the remote, the red light on the front of the MVP blinks immediately, but the operation on the Sage interface displayed on the TV lags by about 2-3 seconds. This is most noticeable when trying to navigate through the SageTV playback menus -- when trying to pan through 40 recordings of a show it takes forever. This also makes it all but unbearable to watch live TV if you are a heavy channel surfer. I thought it might be something to do with the remote, but the same remote works great when navigating menus directly at the PC through the IR on the tuner card. The MVP is hardwired to the network, and the PC sits idle with only the service running. I would like to buy another one of these units, but the remote lag is making them less attractive to the rest of my household.

I'm new to this forum, so my apologies if this has been addressed before. Let me know if more environment specific details are needed.

[matt91]

have you updated the java from the initial sage install? There was one java version a year or so ago (search here and you'll find a discussion of it) that made a huge improvement in remote response time.

I'd bet that's it.

Matt

[wvd]

Java running on the SageTV machine? I did a quick search and found notes on changing the Java settings, but nothing about loading a different version of Java completely.

[CollinR]

update your java and remove v1.4

[wvd]

Thanks, I updated the Java client on the SageTV box, and the response is better. Still a little sluggish compared to the computer, but much more usable than before the change.

[matt91]

I did a quick search and found notes on changing the Java settings, but nothing about loading a different version of Java completely.

Not that it really matters now, but here are a couple I found:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25628
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32125
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28529

[Taddeusz]

You may need to increase the JVM heap size on your server. Some time back I was experiencing a slow MVP and increasing the heap size really helped. You can check it by going to Setup->Help->System Information. Scroll down a bit. Just as an example my current JVM Heap Size is 188MB/325MB/533MB. The default maximum value is 200MB. If your Total and Max are both reading 200MB you need to increase it.

If you are indeed bumping into a heap size limit follow the instructions here to increase it:

http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...13&postcount=9

[starfire]

Hi, I'm having the same issue with the MVP taking 2-3 secs. to respond to keypresses and its really irritating and causes WAF issues as keys end up being pressed twice or more and then you get the wrong menu etc...

My Java on the server is 1.6.0_05 and I've increased my JVM heap size to 512MB as I noticed it had hit total 200/max 200.

I've monitored my server which just runs in service mode and there is no noticable CPU usage spikes etc.

I use SageMC, I guess I could try removing that to see if it helps but I really like the interface.

Any other ideas, I would be interested in what sort of response times other users see with the MVP?

[matt91]

Originally Posted by starfire

Any other ideas, I would be interested in what sort of response times other users see with the MVP?

I usually see a near-instantaneous response with my MVP. My server is *far* from speedy, and my Java heap size is still 200MB. I also run SageMC.

I would certainly run it with the default STV to see what happens.

[starfire]

Thanks for your reply, very interesting to hear you get that sort of response time

Any other people get similar speeds?

I've today installed a PCI NIC rather than using the onboard and this seems so far to have helped a lot so maybe that was the cause, but I need to give it some more testing to see if the problem resurfaces.

[tchapin]

My MVPs have a slow response, mostly in the menus. When playing back video, things seem ok. Switching back to the standard STV does not seem to make a difference for me.

Perhaps I will try installing a PCI network card.

BTW, things used to be speedy until I upgraded to the most recent Sage + SageMC. But, given that things are still slow w/ the default STV, my guess is that Sage is to blame.

--
Sage 6.3.10.166 / Java 1.6.0_03
SageMC STV 6.4.7a-fix / JAR 6.3.7a
PVR 150, IR-UID
Windows XP SP2, AMD Athlon 64 3500+ / 2GB RAM / 300GB HD rec space
JR Media Center 12.xxx (latest version), ORB v1
3 Media MVPs (only regular viewing sources)

[starfire]

I'm a new user to Sage so have only used 6.3.10 and the latest SageMC, so cannot say whether it would have been faster with previous versions.

So far with the PCI NIC navigating the menus does seem to be a lot better than it was (tv playback was rarely a problem).

The only reason why I suspected the server's onboard NIC was when doing large file transfers I noticed the transfer rate was poor compared to other machines I had and also when playing back HDTV on my PC via the server it would stutter very occasionally, which I never had with my previous server config. When I monitored with task manager and perfmon there were no obvious problems though.

Worthwhile giving it a go if you have a spare card and slot.