[mythtv-users] Slow/choppy playback problem (not the usual ones, either!)

[Joshua M. Thompson]

Ok I have been googling and tearing my hair out all day trying to figure
this out. First the setup:

Celeron 2.2 GHz
256 MB DDR266 RAM
120GB hard disk (DMA enabled, 36 MB/sec read rate from hdparm)
MythTV 0.16, self-built RPMs based on atrpms
Hauppauge PVR350 capture
GeForce MX440 PCI for TV-out
Fedora Core 2
Kernel 2.6.8-541
ivtv 0.2.0rc1a

The S-video input of the 350 is connected to a Dish sat receiver
controlled by a MyBlaster (that is the one part that works well :) )

I do not have sound input hooked up yet because I need to dig up a 1/8"
stereo to composite cable around here..dunno why my 350 didn't come with
one.

During initial setup things look good. If I manually set the input with
ivtvctl and then run "mplayer /dev/video0" things look good...the
quality is good and playback is fine.

But if I try to hit "Watch Live TV" in the frontend, or if I just try
running "mythtv", the video is running in slow-mo, with periodic short
pauses once per second. Output looks like this:

[root at tsunami mythtv]# mythtv
mythtv: could not connect to socket
mythtv: No such file or directory
lirc_init failed for mythtv, see preceding messages
2004-10-14 20:46:03 Connecting to backend server: a.b.c.d:6543 (try 1 of
5)
2004-10-14 20:46:03 Using protocol version 13
2004-10-14 20:46:03 Using protocol version 13
2004-10-14 20:46:03 Using protocol version 13
2004-10-14 20:46:06 Opening OSS audio device '/dev/dsp'.
2004-10-14 20:46:06 Audio fragment size: 4096
2004-10-14 20:46:06 Using XV port 105
2004-10-14 20:46:06 Changing from None to WatchingLiveTV
2004-10-14 20:46:07 prebuffering pause
2004-10-14 20:46:09 prebuffering pause
2004-10-14 20:46:09 prebuffering pause
etc
etc

(ignore the lirc errors; I haven't rebuilt lirc yet)

While this is running the "X" process shoots up to 70-80% CPU. By
comparison it hovers around 35% when just running "mplayer /dev/video0".

I am totally stumped on this one. Any ideas?

-- 
Joshua M. Thompson <funaho at jurai.org>