Big Delay starting playback

[mobiusnz]

I've been running BEAUTIFULLY for a while now on my pc with a Lifeview TV Walker mini for sometime now but in fustration at my wife wanting to watch a recorded "ER" while I want to use my pc I've just built a dedicated box and I'm about to get a Hauppauge 500mce for it. Its a Shuttle with an Athlon 64 3000+ - I'm currently only using it for playback and DVD playing still doing the recording on my pc as I don't want to install the Lifeview drivers when I'm ditching it once I get my Hauppauge. My problem is that when I playback a recording I'm getting a 15-20second delay from clicking play to actually starting playback, at first I thought it was because I was playing them across the LAN but even when I've put it in the local directory the lag is there. I'm running Windows XP Media Center 2005 with Intervideo WinDVD 5 Platinum and it happens with the decoder set to default or intervideo (presumably default is the Intervideo one). Once its playing response is normal with quick skipping etc - just a big lag to start. Before installing WinDVD I could playback nicely with it set to default (I assume Winxp MCE comes with an MPEG2 Decoder???) but quality was fairly poor - but it kicked into playing instantly. AVI's playback instantly (I'm using an Xvid codec for all Mpeg4 Playback). Anyone got any clues on this??? Its a very clean machine I'm trying to keep installed apps to a minimum.

[mobiusnz]

Played a bit more and realised I'd never played an mpeg with Media Player yet and the lag is there too - not quite so long but there (about 8-10 secs). Its sitting saying "connecting" - Playing the same mpegs in WinDVD is instand - If windvd is open and its in the playlist I hit play and it starts.... anything I can do to speed it up - not the end of the world as it beats ejecting the old tape, inserting the new one - finding it wasn't rewound - finding the start of the program and finally sitting down and watching!!!!

[Darx-starz]

Hi. Sounds like codec problem. The "connecting bit" WMP searching for 1. You need the cyberlink or the intervideo one. I dont think Window$ comes with an mpeg2 codec. Once you have the codec makes sure that its set to default so that WMP can find it easily.

[mobiusnz]

OK - done some more digging and comparing logs between my original gbpvr pc and the new one this is what I find in the logs.

PC THATS WORKING WELL

21:12:33.875 VERBOSE video decoder filter: InterVideo Video Decoder
21:12:34.485 VERBOSE getSetting(ListGraphFilters)
21:12:34.485 VERBOSE Graph contains the following filters:
21:12:34.485 VERBOSE - Default DirectSound Device
21:12:34.485 VERBOSE - Video Renderer
21:12:34.485 VERBOSE - InterVideo Audio Decoder
21:12:34.485 VERBOSE - InterVideo Video Decoder
21:12:34.485 VERBOSE - MPEG-2 Demultiplexer
21:12:34.485 VERBOSE - C:\PVR\Ali G In Da Usaiii\Ali G In Da USAIII.mpg
21:12:34.485 VERBOSE getSetting(SaveGraphFiles)
21:12:34.500 INFO DirectShowPlayerBase::playFile() done
21:12:34.516 VERBOSE DirectShowPlayerBase:etPlaybackRate(1.000000)
21:12:34.516 VERBOSE Restoring audio

Notice only 1 second passed through whole process.

From the PC thats SLOW to start playing (Plays well once its going)

21:15:37.656 VERBOSE video decoder filter: InterVideo Video Decoder
21:15:44.765 VERBOSE getSetting(ListGraphFilters)
21:15:44.765 VERBOSE Graph contains the following filters:
21:15:44.765 VERBOSE - Default DirectSound Device
21:15:44.765 VERBOSE - Video Renderer
21:15:44.765 VERBOSE - InterVideo Video Decoder
21:15:44.765 VERBOSE - InterVideo Audio Decoder
21:15:44.765 VERBOSE - MPEG-2 Demultiplexer
21:15:44.765 VERBOSE - C:\PVR\Ali G In Da Usaiii\Ali G In Da Usaiii.mpg
21:15:44.765 VERBOSE getSetting(SaveGraphFiles)
21:15:51.687 INFO DirectShowPlayerBase::playFile() done
21:15:51.687 VERBOSE DirectShowPlayerBase:etPlaybackRate(1.000000)
21:15:51.687 VERBOSE Restoring audio

As you can see appears to be long delays at get and save graphfiles....

Any help GREATLY appreciated.

[sub]

It'll be the one line in GB-PVR that asks the system to render the graph. The system then has to build a graph which has all the appropriate filters. In your case it sounds like its struggling to find an appropriate set of filters.

Unfortunately, I dont have any control over how long this takes. Its something wrong with the combination of directshow filters installed on your machine.

[GoodGuys]

Hi,
I understand you can't control it.
But could you perhaps make recommendations regarding what we can do to reduce the time?
For example - judging from your knowledge and experience:
1. Will it help if I removed my CyberLink codecs and stay with InterVideo only?
2. Will it help if I removed anything else that is not usually used?
Thanks,
GGF

[sub]

All you can do is remove all codecs that are installed on your machine, except those that you absolutely need.

[GoodGuys]

Thanks. I will try that.

[GoodGuys]

Just to let you all know - I did try this, with nice results, and nicer results.
In detail: I went to the Add/Remove programs and remove my CyberLink codecs (I still have the InterVideo ones), and an old no-longer-used copy of MediaPortal, and some other irrelevant piece of SW.
Results:
From a delay of about 7-8 seconds to start, the delay dropped to about 1 second for shows, and to about 4 seconds for DIVX / other codec Videos.

Me like! Me happy. Thanks Sub.
GGF