[mythtv-users] CPU load when watching TV

lee lee at yun.yagibdah.de
Sat Dec 12 23:54:09 UTC 2009


On Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 04:23:52PM -0700, Brian Wood wrote:
> On Saturday 12 December 2009 04:19:02 pm Rod Smith wrote:
> > On Saturday 12 December 2009 06:05:10 pm Brian Wood wrote:
> > > On Saturday 12 December 2009 03:58:53 pm lee wrote:
> > > > Hi,
> > > >
> > > > the CPU load when watching live TV with the mythtvfrontend seems 
> to be
> > > > rather high. Is there anything I could do about that?
> > >
> > > More details on your system, and the actual numbers, would help. So 

Debian testing, amd64, Phenom 965, GeForce GT 240

Xosview shows from 20% to 40% on the four processor cores when
watching live tv with mythtvfrontend. When not watching (and not much
else is going on), it shows between 0% and 12%.

That way, it's hard to tell what load mythtvfrontend actually
causes. But kaffeine, for example, doesn't cause a load like
mythtvfrontend does.


> > > VDPAU will drop your CPU load, assuming the load is from decoding the
> > > video and not something else.

How can I tell if VDPAU is used?

> > Another observation: In my experience, misconfiguring X can result in a
> >  heavy CPU load from X, vs. from the MythTV frontend.

Well, I haven't had this problem yet. But mythtvfrontend as well as
mythtv-setup make the mouse pointer invisible once it enters the
window. Is there a way to change that?

> > One other point: Even if the CPU load is high, that's not necessarily a
> > problem, so long as video playback is still smooth. If the high load is
> > causing pauses, stuttering, sluggish responses to remote commands, etc.,
> >  then it's a real problem.
> > 
> 
> I agree, you buy a CPU to use, not to sit around idle. If you are running 5% 
> all the time you wasted your money.

The harder the CPU has to work, the more power it consumes. Anyway,
getting 20--40% load just from watching TV is quite a lot, considering
the hardware I have. In a way it doesn't really matter since it's
running smoothly, but it eventually blocks resources that could be
used for something else instead. And I haven't tried yet to watch
while other things put some load on the CPU, maybe it won't so smooth
anymore ...

Compared to other programs, the load is too high. Maybe I still have a
problem with the configuration?


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