Dvico Fusion 5 Lite and cpu usage

[marm]

To resolve on Windows XP:
1) Open Device Manager
2) Expand Computers and open ACPI Uniprocessor PC
3) Manually select driver and choose Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC
4) Reboot when prompted

I checked and I could not find Advanced Configuration on my ACPI. The only options I have are Driver details, update driver, and rool back driver.

My video also stutters when I hit 100% cpu usage and it is driving me nuts. I have a AMD XP 3.2 1 gig ram, and a Radeon 9700 PRO and I am not happy with the playback. The recording does not use much CPU but it is kind of hard to watch a show when it stutters.

[Chris.Day]

Click on Update Driver and then manually select the one specified.

[rgann]

If at all possible, try to revert to the Microsoft IDE drivers. The nVidia IDE drivers are notoriously crappy and have known performance issues (wish I could find the links I ran across a while back.) Ironically enough, the nVidia IDE drivers were the cause of my stutter problems back when I first picked up the F5. (I can't believe I forgot about it.)

The Microsoft IDE Driver is "Standard dual channel pci ide controller", right? I tried replacing the nvidia IDE driver with that today, but the stuttering is still present. You think it's something to do with the hard drive? I checked to make sure UDMA is on, and the drive is 7200 rpms. Is there something else I can check?

Thanks for your help.

[daphatty]

The Microsoft IDE Driver is "Standard dual channel pci ide controller", right? I tried replacing the nvidia IDE driver with that today, but the stuttering is still present. You think it's something to do with the hard drive? I checked to make sure UDMA is on, and the drive is 7200 rpms. Is there something else I can check?

Thanks for your help.

I believe that is the correct driver now. Hmm... Let me think...

Where have you configured your LiveTV buffer to store to? Is it on a separate physical drive, a separate partition on the same physical drive as your OS, or the same drive as your OS?

EDIT: Also, try this. Do a search for quartz.dll on your PC (might have to search through the hidden files) and tell me the version that you are running. There is a known bug with a particular version of that file that causes "video stuttering."

[rgann]

I'm using 6.5.2600.2749. Should I be using 6.5.1902, as per other threads? I have no idea what this library does, so I'm not sure whether I should blithely replace it.

The livetv buffer directory is the same physical drive and partition as the OS.

[daphatty]

I'm using 6.5.2600.2749. Should I be using 6.5.1902, as per other threads? I have no idea what this library does, so I'm not sure whether I should blithely replace it.

The livetv buffer directory is the same physical drive and partition as the OS.

I would try moving your Live TV buffer to another drive (if possible) and then downgrade your quartz.dll file if moving the buffer doesn't help. Replacing quartz.dll isn't as drastic a measure as it sounds. It's helped me on previous HTPC builds.

[daphatty]

You know, I just noticed a stutter on one of my channels and I got to thinking, what if the stutter you're dealing with is due to low/borderline signal strength? I noticed that my Fox HD channel was exhibiting this stutter and found that the signal strength (through the Fusion app) was between 60-80%. Even my television's built-in tuner has issues with signal strength at that rate. Too bad we can't see that sort of info through GBPVR. I know this isn't a shortcoming of GBPVR (sub has already looked into the issue) but it would help us eliminate performance factors that are beyond our control.

[rgann]

No, I'm sure it's not related to that. The reason I say that is that I watch at least 1 hour of FOX using the Fusion program every night with virtually no skipping. Signal strength is always greater than 80% on that channel, so that is the channel I use to test GBPVR.

Unfortunately, no change with the older quartz.dll or changing the LiveTV buffer to a secondary hard drive.

For now I've just added a link to gbpvr for the external application. Not as good as using gbpvr, but to me it seems like this hardware just doesn't work with gbpvr (or mediaportal, or any other free pvr prog I know of) for me. Frustration is really setting in (for you too, I suspect!)

[daphatty]

No, I'm sure it's not related to that. The reason I say that is that I watch at least 1 hour of FOX using the Fusion program every night with virtually no skipping. Signal strength is always greater than 80% on that channel, so that is the channel I use to test GBPVR.

Unfortunately, no change with the older quartz.dll or changing the LiveTV buffer to a secondary hard drive.

For now I've just added a link to gbpvr for the external application. Not as good as using gbpvr, but to me it seems like this hardware just doesn't work with gbpvr (or mediaportal, or any other free pvr prog I know of) for me. Frustration is really setting in (for you too, I suspect!)

rgann - My newly rebuilt HTPC is running an nForce 2 chipset as well. I'm going to tune to one of my better OTA channels using the Fusion software and then switch to GBPVR to gauge the performance. In all honesty, I haven't really sat in front of a live or time-shifted show since the rebuild. I'd like to see if I can recreate this problem myself.

[povarotti]

povarotti: Have you followed the instructions on the Dvico website to reinstall your computer as Standard PC instead of ACPI? In that case, all devices on the system should be assigned a unique IRQ.

ok, i have tried quite a few things now -- ultimately decided i would have to reinstall. after having reinstalled the OS as standard pc, i do have a dedicated IRQ for the fusion 5 lite pci card, and using the FusionHDTV app I can watch/record tv flawlessly.

the same cannot be said for gbpvr. i was able to view live hdtv using the card once, but never since. this happened one time before i reinstalled the OS as well -- it seemed after reboot that something would change such that it would no longer work -- or perhaps subsequent restarts of gbpvr. the fault behavior is that when switching to liveTV or using the tv guide to select a channel associated with the fusion 5, the screen goes black (exits the menu system) and then i'm presented with a message box displaying the following windows error message:

Code:

Program Error
GBPVR.exe has generated errors and will be closed by Windows.
You will need to restart the program.

An error log is being created.

does anyone know where this error log is created? i've searched and cannot find anything.

once i click away the error message i get the following windows STOP message:

Code:

*** STOP: 0x000000D1 (0x00000004, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0xEB749CE1)

i've searched for this particular stop message but it didn't lead me personally anywhere. as of now i know of nothing else to try, so i guess i'll just live with using the fusionHDTV app itself.

i'm using the newest fusion software: v3.30.01.

if anybody can suggest anything i might try, i'd happily try it.

thanks,
pov.