ATI Remote Wonder II and GB-PVR on SP13000

[ed6612]

Hello,

I recently put together a PVR using VIA EPIA SP13000 and got it working well using the latest version of GB-PVR.

I am now attempting to get my ATI Remote Wonder II working with GB-PVR. Everything is working as far as functionality is concerned, I am able to navigate within the program and invoke various features. My problem has to do with substantial performance degredation whenever I enable LiveTV playback. I traced the problem to the ATIRW.EXE (remote control software process) spiking to 40% or more CPU use during the time of LiveTV playback, every other time this process does not exceed 6% CPU.

This becomes a problem since SP13000 is relatively underpowered and the the gbvpr process by itself already taxes the CPU by 50-60% while doing MPEG2 decoding.

I find it strange that the remote control software would require this much CPU during video playback, a completely unrelated function.

Is anyone else experiencing similar behavior with remote control software? I am planning on buying a compact wireless keyboard (possibly BTC 9019UF) for the system but now am concerned about performance.

Thank you,

-Ed

[JonnyCam]

Hi,

I have the above keyboard / joystick combo and had some issues with GBPVR. It worked fine, until I went into live TV mode, then both the KB & mouse stopped responding until I had completely exited from GBPVR.
- not sure if this is a problem with GBPVR or the drivers for the USB device- as it also randomly loses it's signal and will not recognise again until I detatch the UBS cable and re-attach.

Also, I use a program with my RW control - called uice. I think it's like $20 US and allows for quite good customisation - as you can have each button assigned differently depending on if an application is running or not (plus it does OSD functions too) (http://www.mediatexx.com) - this uses 1% at max.

Thanks

[ed6612]

Thank you guys,

Seems like my issue might be limited to a problem with ATI software, but thats ok since I am not planning on using it with my new system. Aside from that, I recently had a lot of success getting the InterVideo WinDVD MPEG2 codec working (after tweaking the registry) with impressive performance (10-18% CPU w/ OM and quality DVD playback with OSD) so the keyboard performance penalty (if any) might be easier to swallow.

I am currently researching the following brands:

XGene Imperial
BTC 9019URF
BTC 9116URF
iONE Scorpius P20

I noticed that the 9019URF has a limited range (9.8' advertised) and the Scorpius does not have extra programmable buttons. 9116URF seems fine except it's white color would not fit in with the rest of my setup, although its a minor concern. XGene keyboard seems like a good candidate, here is a review I found:

http://www.virtual-hideout.net/reviews/x...ndex.shtml

I would definatelly consider Gyration products except that I am drawn to the idea of having a pointing device integrated into the keyboard so that I don't have to deal with two separate wireless devices that might easily get lost behind sofa cushions and constantly ask for fresh batteries.

-Ed