slow MediaMVP

[MJFox]

Hi all!

I purchased my MediaMVP two days ago and everything works fine. My only problem is that the interface is soooo slow. Navigating through the menues is a pain, every time I press a button on the remote it lasts a second before something happens on the screen. What can I do? Is the box just so slow or is it my connection from the box to the server? I tried different versions of the mediaMVP software and also the GB-PVR-software but there doesn't seem to be any difference in speed.

BTW: There's no stuttering while playing a video-file, it's just the interface that's so slow.

Thanks for any help.

Greetings

MJFox

[sub]

What speed CPU do you have in your machine? This is the biggest factor.

Evert time you press a button on the MVP remote, the following happens:

1) Key stroke is sent across the network from the MVP to PC
2) the PC processes the keystroke, and generates a new screen
3) the PC converts the RGB screen image to YUV
4) the PC compresses the screen image
5) the PC send the compressed screen image across the network to the MVP
6) the MVP decompress and displays the screen.

This is quite a few steps, and its always going to take some time. Steps 2,3 & 4 are very dependent on the CPU in your PC. If you have a have a fast CPU, then the MVP will appear quite responsive. If you have a slow CPU, it'll sux. I have a fairly fast CPU, and each keypress seems to take about a half second to update the screen, which I think is reasonable given all the things it needs to do (listed above).

[MJFox]

thank you for your reply

I'm using a NSLU2 as a media server, it hasn't the fastest cpu on earth, so that could be the reason for the slow response

are there any minimalistic skins/ui that would improve the speed?

Greetings

MJFox

[sub]

To be honest, changing the skin will have minimal effect on this. You might be able to trim off a few milli-seconds, but that'd be about all.

[BobAtTorrey]

Sub,
Just curious, and I've meant to ask this before: Is the compression really necessary? Those who have a wired connection to the MVP probably have 100 Mbps so transmission speed isn't the issue. Since compression eats CPU time, does the MVP really require compressed data for the menu screen?

Cheers .... Bob

[sub]

Is the compression really necessary?

Yes, because the Hauppauge protocol expects it. I only write the software that runs on the PC, not on the MVP, so I just have fit in with there existing standards (by pretending to be the Hauppauge PC software).

[BobAtTorrey]

The MVP apparently accepts 3 types of encoding (Types 7, 8, 9) [I found this here: http://www.rst38.org.uk/mediamvp/protocol.html ] It sounds like Type 8 may have dimension limitations, and I'm guessing you're using Type 7 as it was supported by the earlier MVP firmware. Type 9 is described as having better compression and therefore better GUI responsiveness and therefore perhaps worth consideration. (But it doesn't mention whether that better compression requires more PC CPU power, and if it does, that may negate the advantages of the better encoding; it would probably require an experiment to test the tradeoff for various CPU speeds.)

I know this would be WAY down on sub's list, and personally I don't care, but I thought I'd mention it in the spirit of exploring the topic of this thread.

Cheers .... Bob

[sub]

I've run tests comparing type 7 and 9. There was very little, if any, difference for GB-PVR.

The compression used by both of these works better with Hauppauge's original software, since they have really bland skins made up of largely one color, which gives they really good compression rates. The GB-PVR skins are much richer, and dont compress anywhere near as well.

[BobAtTorrey]

Sub,
That really puts this issue to bed then; thanks.
It does lead to a good generalization that people should be aware of: Skins with less 'eye candy' (e.g., Flat Blue-High Vis) should yield better MVP menu responsiveness than those skins which are visually busy.

Cheers .... Bob

[jrockintuitive]

Sounds like something Tipstir would be interested in???