[mythtv-users] Re:can we all get together and figure out cpu usage - Please respond

[Dave Caplinger]

On Sat, 2003-04-19 at 19:51, Cedar McKay wrote:
> XP2000
> asus Asus A7N266-VM with nic, soundcard and basic graphics (gforce2)
> 512 crucial ram
> 180 gig WD 7200rpm drive
> antec case w/350 watt antec power supply
> Hauppage WinTV Go

Since my hardware is the pretty much the same as yours (minus the case,
HD, and PS), I hope you don't mind if I ask you a question or two about
disk I/O, sound quality, etc.?

What kernel are you running?  I was under the impression that IDE
support for the nForce chipset was poor except in relatively recent -ac
versions.  I'm running 2.4.21-pre5-ac2, for example, and with that I can
get about 32 MB/sec disk reads from hdparm on my 60 GB Seagate Baracuda
IV. (ext3 filesystem, data=writeback, noatime) With earlier kernel
versions I was getting much lower because it would refuse to honor
higher UDMA rates.

> 480 x 480 mpeg4
> 2900 kbps
> mp3 quality 6
> default everything else

I run 480x480 mpeg4, 3300 (scaled) and default (2/15/3) parameters, but
with 48000 KHz uncompressed audio and still see 60% idle and see about
1200 blocks wr/sec in iostat during WatchingLiveTV  Strangely, I see 0
blocks rd/sec in iostat during this.  I was under the impression that
watchingLiveTV was simultaneously writing and reading from the
ringbuffer, but perhaps I'm not seeing disk reads on the device because
the reads are being pulled from filesystem buffer in memory?

Whenever I try to go to mp3 audio I start getting jumpy video, but I
would think that my system is certainly beefy enough to do it. Likewise,
I can't seem to do 640x480 without jumpy video (even though I have 35%
idle cpu in this case).

> I'm using KDE since I have no reason to minimize cpu since i don't have 
> a second tuner.

I'm running FluxBox, but this brings up an interesting point: did you
disable artsd in order to let myth have the audio dsp?  On my (separate)
desktop system I run KDE and have never been able to figure out how to have
UI sound effects from artsd while still allowing other things like xmms or 
mythfrontend to play sound as well.

As for audio - I'm curious how you feel about the audio quality from your
setup.  I have the same card I think (WinTV Go, model 190) and the sound
from Myth seems harsh and lacks bass.  Is it safe to assume that you're using
ALSA for the nForce onboard sound?

Thanks for any pointer you might be willing to provide!

- Dave