[mythtv-users] CPU Speed Question

[kim gross]

mike at woodsnest.com wrote:

>I've got a question about channel changing speed.  Now, I'm not trying to start a long debate about how to "fix" it, I know that's been done, and some of you guys are probably looking into it.  My question really relates to how channel change speed might be, or might not be, affected by cpu speed.  I run the frontend on an Epia M-10000 Nehemiah board.  My backend is running in the basement with a PIII 666mhz and a PVR 250.  So, neither of my CPUs is particularly powerful.  My backend used to act as both front & back before I recently got the EPIA to cool & quiet things down in the Family Room a bit.  Anyway, with either of these 2 boxes as my frontend, channel changing is delayed...I've never timed it, but I'd say its generally 2-3 seconds, maybe 4 or even 5 sometimes.  I love myth and haven't really taken much issue with this until tonight.
>Tonight, for Thanksgiving I'm over my brother-in-laws and last night he installed myth for the first time...using KnoppMyth (which he loved by the way!).  He installed on a shuttle, with a 2.4ghz P4 and a PVR 250, and his channel changing is much faster than mine.  Again, we didn't actually time it, but I'd guess his cuts my time almost in half.  That's pretty significant.
>
>So now I'm wondering how his is so much faster than mine.  My boxes are both RH9, his again is KnoppMyth.  His CPU is obviously a heck of a lot faster than mine.  Other than that, we're both using the PVR250, we both have 7200rpm harddisks.  He just installed last night and went to bed, so he has done absolutely nothing to tweak his box.  I do believe in KnoppMyth the livetv buffer is stored on a ext2 partition..while mine is on a ext3.
>
>So back to the original question.....could this difference be related to CPU?  If you don't think so....any other thoughts as to why there's such a significant difference?
>
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I know one simple thing that will effect the speed.  His is on one 
machine yours is on 2.  No network latency involved in your brother in 
laws setup, while in  yours you have to wait for the backend to change 
channels and then spool enough data for the frontend to start playing.

Kim