Slow channel change

[WKleeven]

I recently installed a dvb-c card. I saw that channel change was slow (on the server-pc), but thought it was due to the dvb-c card.
Today however I noticed it's slow too on the analogue card. Much slower than in 1.3.11, which I have still working.

Could it be due to the decoders?
I have MPEG2 video and H.264 video: microsoft DTV-DVD Video decoder
Video renderer: EVR

I don't understand what the logfile of the filtercheck means, so added it too.

[Reddwarf]

When you say slow, how many seconds exactly do you mean?

[WKleeven]

With 1.3.11 it took maybe 3/4s and with NPVR 2.2.6 it takes 1 1/2s. That may not be much in absolute sense, but it's still twice as slow.
I don't know if the same applies to digital tuning, which is slower to begin with than analogue.

[whurlston]

2.2.6 is buffering playback to the drive before playing whereas 1.3.11 in Live Preview mode did not do any buffering.

2.2.6 is still MUCH faster than 1.3.11 set to buffer mode.

[Reddwarf]

2.2.6 is buffering playback to the drive before playing whereas 1.3.11 in Live Preview mode did not do any buffering.

2.2.6 is still MUCH faster than 1.3.11 set to buffer mode.

It is not actually buffering until you push pause, it just stores the stream parallell to playing it. Once you go into timeshift mode it starts playing from the buffer, if I understand Sub correct.

[WKleeven]

In 1.3.11, with LivePreviewMode set to true the channel change takes 3/4s (with my analogue card).
With LivePreviewMode set to false, channel change takes 6,5 s.

And indeed, with LivePreviewMode set to false, there's a file in the buffer directory which there isn't when set to true.


This takes me to the next question of course. Is it possible to make a setting in NPVR to not buffer when watching live tv?
And could changing decoders make a difference? If so, what decoders are recommended for fast channel change?

[johnsonx42]

NPVR always buffers livetv. there is no option to change that, and likely never will be (it's not up to me of course, that's just what sub has indicated many times).

I don't know that there are any decoders that are somehow better than others at channel changing. I really haven't noticed any difference between Microsoft DTV-DVD, ATI MPEG-2 and ffdshow for channel changing speed, but I've not specifically benchmarked them either.

[WKleeven]

NPVR always buffers livetv. there is no option to change that, and likely never will be (it's not up to me of course, that's just what sub has indicated many times).

Too bad. Channel changing on the digital card takes even 6,5s in NPVR.
I was thinking about, in the future, buying another extender. Still am, but it seems that watching livetv through NPVR isn't really a option for me because of this slow channel changes (of course NPVR is still perfect for every other function).

[johnsonx42]

6.5 seconds? that seems unusual. this is changing from one digital channel to the next on the same tuner? not digital to analog or vice versa? reproduce that and post your logs.

[WKleeven]

6.5 seconds? that seems unusual. this is changing from one digital channel to the next on the same tuner? not digital to analog or vice versa? reproduce that and post your logs.

That's changing from one digital channel to another digital channel (both encrypted) on the same tuner. Maybe it's due to the encryption?