Channel Changing Times

[madad]

Hi there, I'm a bit of a noob here, so please excuse the dumb question, but...

I've been using MCE for a long time but have become annoyed by lack of support for multiple tuner types, freeview epg etc so decided to try GBPVR. It's great but one thing I liked about MCE was how nicely it always buffered my tv (when watching live tv). I swtiched GB to use preview mode and was pleased with how quickly it changed channels. However I can't rewind live tv so switched it the other way and found it takes >10seconds to change channels.. not really usable (at all). I don't understand why it takes so long.. am I doing something wrong?

I'm running on windows xp pro + a single nova-s plus card pulling freeview down off Optus D1.

Cheers
Adam.

[sub]

Analog devices (like PVR150) etc typically take about half a second to change channels in live preview mode, and about 2-3 seconds to change channels in timeshift mode.

Digital devices are a bit more variable from device to device, and with different mux filters etc. The live preview channel change time is still about half a second. In timeshift it can take quite a bit longer (usually about 5 seconds), with the bulk of this time being how long it takes the mux filter to start produce data. The muxes do vary a bit, with the DVR-MS being quickest, then the ATI mux, then the Cyberlink mux.

[madad]

I hate to sound unappreciative, but why is this? When changing channels on mce I find its almost instant.. surely the buffereing of content in the past should happen (programmatically speaking) as a separate task from the rendering of live content?

It's a hard trade off to make, cause I lvoe being able to skip back on live tv and catch something I've missed. But taking that long to change channels makes it virtually unusable...

[sub]

Sorry, thats just the way it is. The third party mux filters are the main source of these delays. I'm not interested in writing my own mux filters to try to avoid this delay.

I personally prefer live preview mode so that channel changes are as quick as possible (faster than MCE etc), and so that I'm not continually writing to my hard disk while watching tv (generating heat, noise and wear&tear).

[blackpaw]

How does the Playback|LiveTV preplay delay effect this? does it make sense to set it to zero?