live tv slow startup > 8 seconds?

[malc]

hi all,
I've just updated from 9105 to 9413 to accomodate my addition of a
media mvp.

My problem is it now takes more than 8 seconds to start live tv on my pc, once it does start all is ok. But of course this delay is too long when trying to use the mmvp (it disconnects because it desires a response within ~8 seconds). Unfortunately the setup using 9105 was not working too well when displaying live tv through the server, hence my choice to upgrade.

I've posted here because this is not an mvp problem, but a general how do I diagnose/fix the startup speed on my system. I've looked at the logs but can not see any debug that indicates what is slowing everything down.

My assumption is its the creation of the bda.grf file but I really don't know.

Changing channels takes about 4 seconds while watching live tv.

My machine is a p4 2.4G and the hdd is doing very little.

any ideas appreciated
thanks
mal

[sub]

BDA graphs are notoriously slow for creating and starting. There may not be much you can do.

[malc]

down to 5 seconds from 10 seconds, so somethings obviously slowing things down in my normal configuration, I'll post when I find out what it is just incase some one else suffers the same fate.

besides this magical speed up, mmvp is still timing out

so my question is two fold (future releases of course):
a) any chance of a line of debug after live tv starts playing so there is a good source for a time stamp to determine how long everything is taking as opposed to the good old windows clock in the back ground
b) an oh it would be nice request - any chance of the graphs being cached prior to use as opposed to created on the fly. This question really shows my ignorance as to how these resources are utilised by the os

any way
thanks for your reply
mal

[sub]

a) any chance of a line of debug after live tv starts playing so there is a good source for a time stamp to determine how long everything is taking as opposed to the good old windows clock in the back ground

I've been down this path before. I'm fairly sure there is already timestamps around the important items. Zip and attach your logs and I'll try to provide an interpretation

b) an oh it would be nice request - any chance of the graphs being cached prior to use as opposed to created on the fly. This question really shows my ignorance as to how these resources are utilised by the os

No, sorry I wont be doing this. It wont really help that much anyway.

With the BDA graphs for timeshift mode, they need to be stopped and started each time the file or channel changes. The act of starting the graph is one of the most time consuming activities. It take about 4 seconds for the Cyberlink mux to start producing MPEG2 data, so caching the graph creation would only save you about one second or so of graph creation during the initial start of live tv, but still take the majority of this time since the graph would need to be started. You'd also still have the big hit every time you changed channels.

[malc]

Hello Sub,
thanks once again for the response. I have attached the logs so you can verify the timing information is not present or slap me around a bit and show me where it is

I found by using graphedit that the bda graph created for the fresh install system was different to my existing system. I fixed this by installing the decoders from Elecard. This changed the startup time from 10+ seconds to < 5 seconds.

Of course the 5 seconds I previously mentioned is for constructing a bda graph that plays live tv on the pc.

So based on this I would presume the graph for streaming data to the mvp would be significantly simpler and as such should start producing data sooner than 5 seconds. Even 5 seconds should be able to stop the mvp from rebooting? One point of interest is the previous version (09105) is much quicker at constructing the graph and streaming data than the current version, by my calculations <2 seconds compared to ~5 seconds.

Ignoring all this I am stumped, my media mvp still refuses to play ball with live tv. I've even tried a P4 3G with HT just to see if the extra grunt would get it over the line, but it didn't.

So having started so confidentally with a presumed time out problem, I am no longer sure this is the case.

any help appreciated
thanks
mal

PS. ignoring these small gripes the current version is a nice piece of sw and it hurts to think how many man years you have put into it, nice effort!

[sub]

It looks like you've set your BDA device to record using the DVR-MS mux. The MVP cant play DVR-MS files natively, so it has to transcode them to MPEG2 on the fly.

If you use the Cyberlink mux it'd work better with an MVP, since it produces MPEG2 files which can be directly used by the MVP.

[malc]

what a nice treat for a saturday morning

[Rexel99]

I have had 9612 installed and running great for a while (using DVR-MS mux and overlay mode) and I was always able to start Live TV almost instantly.
I installed new DivX player software/codecs and this long 8 sec delay happens for me now too, everything else works fine, channel switching etc.
I de-insall DivX and it goes back to running well (no delay), but installed (as we all basically need it in there too) the TV start delay is a problem.

I had an idea of re-installing the Cyberlink codecs again, but they don't have the trial of PowerVCR anymore (which was my solution a while ago), installed their trial of Power Cinema (and it works, instant LiveTV) but no change for GBPVR.

Is there a new/suggested way of installing Cyberlink codecs again, to re-iniate settings, it seems to help (me) if this is last on the driver/codec install list.

Cheers.

[HtV]

What divx codecs/software did you install, I find it strange it would interfere with mpeg2 encoding.
I guess you have selected default for mpeg-encoder in config, you should try to select the one you want there, the one you were using all the time.

[Rexel99]

I installed the official DivX 6.2 (current) as well doing this about a week ago with the prev version. It was fine until I installed it recently on the working system, I also tried installing without (selectivly) the MPEG and DivX-Pro trial codecs that come with it and the various player apps optioned off also. But always, de-install of DivX clears it up (but of course I can't watch AVI files on it after that)

I have defaults set for all except the audio renderer, i find it best selecting the DirectSound to my sound card for better audio sync/processing.
I have tinkered and tried every option for the codec selection, this worked best.

I also have the gbpvr.bin in MVP to force the 16:9/Composite which helped with my config.

Just to note, the delay in starting can vary a little, over 11 secs on a cold run, and (it appears) a little less on restarting the Live TV.

Cheers, Rex