Hi,
I am using vdr 1.3.23 with dxr3-0.2.3-cvs20050323. Furthermore my machine is diskless, ie I run via nfs root. There are two problems I am experiencing:
1) On channel switches first pc and sound plays ok, then usually the pic/sound seems to stop for a brief time and come back resyncing. This happens once or twice just after ch switch, then everything is ok. (I also experienced this with vdr-1.3.6 and dxr3-0.2.2)
2) Since this newer setup runs much more stable I tried timeshifting as well. Here I have the same problem as in 1), but it happens in between which is very annoying, esp as with higer probability I loose a/v sync to a slight degree. Just recording and just watching the recording is no problem though. I have a 100mbit connection and it shouldn't be a problem to handle this. Most of the time timeshifting is ok, just a few times above problem happens.
So my idea was to try to increase some buffer, if poossible. I know that filling a bigger buffer will make channel switching slower, but I'd be happy if switching would be smooth... Furthermore if timeshifting goes smooth, I'd be even more happy.
So, could anybody give me a pointer where to look in the source files?
I should note, I am using pretty low-end hardware: AMD K6-2 at 500MHz with crappy Via MVP3 chipset. The chipset is know to do lousy busmastering, so this could be a trouble maker as well. But as I wrote above, I'd first try to make buffers bigger. I once used a Athlon with KT133 Chipset and still had Problem 1), so this wouldn't be entirely hw related. I never tried timeshifting then though...
-- Prakash Punnoor
Prakash Punnoor wrote:
So my idea was to try to increase some buffer, if poossible. I know that filling a bigger buffer will make channel switching slower, but I'd be happy if switching would be smooth... Furthermore if timeshifting goes smooth, I'd be even more happy.
So, could anybody give me a pointer where to look in the source files?
The buffers lenghts are defined in dxr3demuxdevice.h (AUDIO_MAX_BUFFER_SIZE and VIDEO_MAX_BUFFER_SIZE). I doubt that changing only this defines will change much if anything at all, but you can try.
Bye
Luca Olivetti schrieb:
Prakash Punnoor wrote:
So my idea was to try to increase some buffer, if poossible. I know that filling a bigger buffer will make channel switching slower, but I'd be happy if switching would be smooth... Furthermore if timeshifting goes smooth, I'd be even more happy.
So, could anybody give me a pointer where to look in the source files?
The buffers lenghts are defined in dxr3demuxdevice.h (AUDIO_MAX_BUFFER_SIZE and VIDEO_MAX_BUFFER_SIZE). I doubt that changing only this defines will change much if anything at all, but you can try.
Thanks, is there also a place in vdr itself to look?
I should note, I am using pretty low-end hardware: AMD K6-2 at 500MHz with crappy Via MVP3 chipset. The chipset is know to do lousy busmastering, so this could be a trouble maker as well. But as I wrote above, I'd first try to make buffers bigger. I once used a Athlon with KT133 Chipset and still had Problem 1), so this wouldn't be entirely hw related. I never tried timeshifting then though...
I spent countless hours trying to get VDR running with a DXR3 on a mainboard with an MVP3 chipset. The problem I had was more or less exactly as you described but worse.
Watching live TV was fine but any hard disk or network activity caused glitches, both in the recording and on the live display.
I tried all sorts of things to fix it, increased buffer sizes, upgraded drivers, messed with PCI latency settings, changed network cards, overclocked the CPU, etc etc. Nothing seemed to help much. It just seemed to be a PCI bandwidth problem and there was nothing I could do about it.
Eventually I gave up and switched to a mainboard with a BX chipset. All the problems went away (until I added a second dvb card, but thats another story)
James Lamont schrieb:
I spent countless hours trying to get VDR running with a DXR3 on a mainboard with an MVP3 chipset. The problem I had was more or less exactly as you described but worse.
Watching live TV was fine but any hard disk or network activity caused glitches, both in the recording and on the live display.
I tried all sorts of things to fix it, increased buffer sizes, upgraded drivers, messed with PCI latency settings, changed network cards, overclocked the CPU, etc etc. Nothing seemed to help much. It just seemed to be a PCI bandwidth problem and there was nothing I could do about it.
Well, even with the KT133 chipset, I needed this for being able to *just view* progs live on the ARD transponder:
setpci -s 00:00.0 latency_timer=0
I haven't tested the MVP3 w/o above, but I guess this is no better.
Eventually I gave up and switched to a mainboard with a BX chipset. All the problems went away (until I added a second dvb card, but thats another story)
Unfortunately I mostly have Via crap lying around here. Only my main machine has nforce2... I also have some Intel TX chips lying around, but I guess CPU (~166MHz) isn't strong enough. :-/
Well, thanx for sharing your experiences. I at least now now that I am not alone with this.
Luca Olivetti schrieb:
Prakash Punnoor wrote:
So my idea was to try to increase some buffer, if poossible. I know that filling a bigger buffer will make channel switching slower, but I'd be happy if switching would be smooth... Furthermore if timeshifting goes smooth, I'd be even more happy.
So, could anybody give me a pointer where to look in the source files?
The buffers lenghts are defined in dxr3demuxdevice.h (AUDIO_MAX_BUFFER_SIZE and VIDEO_MAX_BUFFER_SIZE). I doubt that changing only this defines will change much if anything at all, but you can try.
Believe it or not, but it did help! I set both buffer 8x times higher and now I nearly never have problems on ch switching. But is seems my system is now way less responsive. Ie it reacts much worse on remote or keyboard. Is this expected?
I am having another issue with dxr3 which I'll post in a seperate thread.
Prakash Punnoor schrieb:
Luca Olivetti schrieb:
The buffers lenghts are defined in dxr3demuxdevice.h (AUDIO_MAX_BUFFER_SIZE and VIDEO_MAX_BUFFER_SIZE). I doubt that changing only this defines will change much if anything at all, but you can try.
Believe it or not, but it did help! I set both buffer 8x times higher and now I nearly never have problems on ch switching. But is seems my system is now way less responsive. Ie it reacts much worse on remote or keyboard. Is this expected?
More findings: I also tried dvx-cvs from yesterday. While OSD is much better, I now have other troubles:
The stuttering is even worse on ch switch and happens more often in between (even with bigger buffers). And audio sync is very bad.
But, if I use NPTL, both are not a real issue anymore. And vdr is much more responsive. I just don't know how stable vdr is with NPTL. At least I can now start vdr with nptl whcih wasn't possible with dxr 0.2.2.
The progress is really nice!