Virus Scanner Configuration Question

[stustunz]

its writing to the hard drive when saving the mpeg
its reading from the hard drive playing back the file
its using the hard drive for the system
the on top of that the virus scanner kicks in to check files in a different place on the hardrive

where as if you had 2 drives it is halved effectively

i have always had 2 drives
these days they are so cheap why wouldnt you

you could try increasing your virtual memory in advanced settings but since you only have one hard drive this probably wont do much

hardware acceleration on video card can help but unless you are using fse you may find this doesnt help much either

someone else might have some ideas good luck

[gEd]

it seems odd that a skip every 15mins could be due to a virus scanner.

Are you saying that this problem only started when you installed Mcafee and that before you did this it was ok? If so, try disabling the realtime virus checker, disable the checking for floppy/usb drives or even uninstall it completely to confirm that it is really is causing your problem.

Make sure that you defragment your drive regularly.

My PC is of similar power and I can record 2 shows at the same time whilst watching a third (on one hard drive).

[sub]

Sub, what is your experience (if any) with running GBPVR with only one hard drive? Have you seen this lead to problems while simultaneously recording and playing back files?

I've only got single drive and havnt had any problems I'd attribute to this. This is a dedicated machine though, so its only recording or watching live tv or watching in-progress recordings.

I do have pretty good disk performance on that machine though. I'm running a 500GB Seagate 7200.11 drive with 32MB cache. I keep the disk defragmented.

Multiple drives is good for several reasons but my lounge PC is passively cooled machine with zero fans and the hard drive is the only thing that makes any noise. Adding a second drive would mean more noise and more heat - which would have been a potentially large problem in my passive cooled system.

I tend to record at higher rates (constant bit rate of 8k) and sometimes record two shows while playing back a third all at the same bitrate.

I'm all DVB here, so the bitrate is set by the broadcaster and varies from channel to channel.

[accgr]

bgowland: it skips for recording and playing back files. I haven't tested it for timeshift mode for live playback. Therefore, the Live TV Buffer Directory doesn't come into play.

stustunz: I wasn't so much doubting your suggestion as trying to understand it. I've actually considered a second hard drive in the past, but what stopped me was the idea that during playback and recording, probably less than 5% of hard drive activity would be on the system drive. By the way, I am using fse with hardware acceleration, which reduced my cpu activity considerably.

gEd: Thanks for the data point regarding being able to watch and record shows simultaneously on one hard drive. I had no skipping at all for the 6 months prior to installing the virus scanner. I've made other (minor) changes besides installing the virus scanner (upgraded GBPVR and comskip, config tweaks, etc), but the biggest one that would affect studdering is the virus scanner.

My idea was to systematically add exceptions to what's being scanned until the problem was solved, with the last step being uninstalling the scanner if necessary. Thus, my initial question was what else I could (should) exclude. If there is nothing else that would affect playback, then I guess disabling the entire scanner is my next step.

[accgr]

two drives would mean more noise and more heat

Those are two out of the three reasons I'm reluctant to buy an additional hard drive (the third being $$). Thanks for the data point sub; I think I'm sticking with one hard drive after yours and gEd's posts about it not causing problems.

[accgr]

it seems odd that a skip every 15mins could be due to a virus scanner.

Any other ideas of what could cause this? I guess defragging more often might help. Most other culprits would lead to studdering much more frequently, and would also occur during playback only. (My problem occurs only during simultaneous playback and recording)

[stustunz]

when do you run comskip during or after the recording
when you say recording and playback what file are you viewing (ie the one that is still been recorded or one that is finished)
have you tried disabling the virus scanner while testing to see if the stutter is still there

does it skip more or less when recording mor ethan one show while watching if it makes any differnce at all ?

[gEd]

I've made other (minor) changes besides installing the virus scanner (upgraded GBPVR and comskip, config tweaks, etc), but the biggest one that would affect studdering is the virus scanner.

these are not "minor" changes, any of them is potentially capable of creating stuttering but not once every 15 mins.

I would suggest (as an easy test) defraging your HD overnight and see what happens. If your HD is very fragmented then it is going to be working overtime when trying to write a new show whilst playing back a recording at the same time.

[accgr]

stustunz: I run comskip after the recording, so it isn't involved with this situation. I am recording and playing back different files and getting studdering. I think it might skip more when recording two shows than with one, but I'm not 100% sure about that.

For upcoming tests, I will certainly defrag my hard drive and disable the virus scanner entirely.

[ChiPPy]

Wouldn't the easiest test be just disabling the virus scanner? If the stutters are gone, then there is your issue, plain and simple. McAfee is a pig on resources anyway, although, not as bad as Norton.