Fragile recordings

[liteswap]

Thanks for the tips.

Drivers and BIOS are kept up to date, and I set the Diskeeper defrag utility to run for four hours continuously, come what may. It always completes - even if it just checks to see if there's any further defragging to do - I know just how bad a fragmented disk can get.

Your comment about removing the old tuner reminds me that I must update my sig: the old PVR500MCE is gone, replaced by a quad-tuner HVR4000.

Will try the disk test you suggest - thanks again.

PS: Have run HDtach and I'm getting the kinds of speeds you suggested. I'm really starting to wonder if it's a CPU thing after all.

[gEd]

so recordings are ok unless you playback but you are sure that you do not see high cpu load during playback. and this is true irrespective of which tuner it is recording on at the time?

have you tried using the dvb-t tuner instead of the dvb-s one to compare?

I suppose if your disk is starting to get full, it may be struggling to find free space but that's rather vague.

make sure your anti-virus software is disabled or not scanning your recordings (or live tv buffer folder).

have you tried to record and then playback a HD programme yet? If you find your pc is not up to the task then that might be your cue to upgrade to a multi-core processor.

[liteswap]

Recordings are OK generally unless I use the DVR-MS mux in which case I get a lot of zero-length recordings.

I can't use DVB-T as we don't get terrestrial digital where I live - that's why I went DVB-S: fed up with rubbish analogue quality due to marginal reception and no DVB-T. The disk is only half-full - I could try disabling AV (I use Avast which is not too intrusive) as everything's behind a NATed-network with a firewall in the router.

And yes, HD just doesn't work - you can see that the CPU is struggling to keep up - I've set LCD Smartie to show CPU load on the Antec case display when it rises above 70 percent (most of the time it shows programme info) and HD whacks it firmly up to 100 percent. It does this also when changing channels or starting a programme for a few seconds too.

[liteswap]

I'm still no nearer to resolving this (and I'm getting grief about it) so I think it's mobo/CPU upgrade time. Thoughts on a cool-running CPU and mobo combo that'll handle HD on a postcard, please....

[Jaggy]

Have you considered keeping that computer for just recording & getting an NMT for playing back the recordings therefore keeping the load off your cpu?? Martin & sub made some major breakthroughs recently for the NMT & from my experience with mine they are really good with great WAF as well.

[liteswap]

I haven't as I'm trying to keep a lid on the number of boxes in the living room - but thanks for the suggestion: I'll certainly look into it. However, I've got a Linux server running in the basement connected via a wired gigabit Ethernet link to the PVR. I could at a pinch use that for offloading disk I/O - and could probably get a bit more clever rather than just using it a a place to dump bits. Maybe that's a way forward....

[Jaggy]

I haven't as I'm trying to keep a lid on the number of boxes in the living room - but thanks for the suggestion: I'll certainly look into it.

Funny you should say that as that was one of the main reasons I went down the MVP & now NMT path in the first place.

A long time ago I decided I didn't want a computer in the same room as we were trying to watch TV therefore I put the GB server on top of a cupboard in the hallway & just ran a network cable to near the TV & hooked up an MVP to it & the TV, basically a few minutes configuring GB & we were all go...no codec hell like a number of others etc. etc. (I ended up getting 3 MVP's eventually one for each TV in the house). With .ts recordings becoming the norm the MVP needed to be replaced with something that would play them & skip properly, so the decision was made to try an NMT....one of the best decisions I ever made

I just took some quick measurement of my EGreat NMT it is approx 6"(150mm) wide x 11/4"(40mm) high & 41/4"(110mm) deep.

Don't spend too much time reading threads in the NMT sub forum section as most are problems with the old integration into GB & aren't relevant these days......here is a post about my experience http://forums.gbpvr.com/showpost.php?p=3...stcount=19

[liteswap]

Yes, that DOES look interesting - and it would reduce the footprint.

However, I'd point out a few things from my perspective that might stand in its way (and if I'm missing something, please do say so!):
1. It doesn't seem to contain satellite tuners, which are my only route to broadcast content
2. I don't want to duplicate functionality I already have - which includes a server with a terabyte or two of disk space that I can easily add to
3. It's way more expensive than a new motherboard and CPU - the rest of the GB-PVR PC is in fine fettle.

I hope I don't seem obstructive - I think what you're proposing is a good idea - I'm just trying to get to the bottom of what exactly an NMT would buy me.

Thanks.

[Jaggy]

Yes, that DOES look interesting - and it would reduce the footprint. However, I'd point out a few things from my perspective that might stand in its way (and if I'm missing something, please do say so!):

I'm not trying to sell it to you....I just thought I would point out what "maybe" an option for you. Anyway I will try to answer your questions as best I can.

1. It doesn't seem to contain satellite tuners, which are my only route to broadcast content

They are a very small fairly powerful (for media playback) footprint client therefore you also need some form of server with your capture cards in it to do the recordings.

2. I don't want to duplicate functionality I already have - which includes a server with a terabyte or two of disk space that I can easily add to

Maybe this becomes your recording server as well as storage server? But I think you said it was running Lynux so that would make it difficult to run GB on it.

3. It's way more expensive than a new motherboard and CPU - the rest of the GB-PVR PC is in fine fettle.

Hmm interesting, I have seen this comment quite a few times now so I suspect prices for MoBo's & CPU's must be relatively quite a bit cheaper in the UK than here......I recently priced up a new low spec MoBo, CPU & RAM (I have to get RAM as well as my old one only has DDR not DDR2) at dealer prices for my development PC & it was actually almost exactly the same price as the NMT came to delivered.

I hope I don't seem obstructive - I think what you're proposing is a good idea - I'm just trying to get to the bottom of what exactly an NMT would buy me.

No worries, as I said above I'm not trying to sell it to you. I was hoping someone else who has been using one for longer than me would answer this part of you question......

Basically the NMT is a media extender (client) that can display all the GB-PVR menus & have most (if not all) of the usability of GB available including SD & HD playback without the worries of getting the right codec combination etc., in a very small quite package.....it will also playback a wide variety of other media files natively

[gEd]

The only thing you would need to verify is whether the root cause of your problem relate to playback on the gbpvr server itself or the accessing of the recordings from the disk whilst recordings are in progress. i.e. you would need to test playback of a recordings from another pc whilst recording is in progress to see if this affects the recordings.