Author Topic: HD video is choppy / CPU is maxed  (Read 2574 times)

kboren

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HD video is choppy / CPU is maxed
« on: January 16, 2008, 04:26:02 am »
Long story short, I have been able to successfully setup LinuxMCE on my hardware after several weeks of trail and error.  Now that I have both HD tuner cards working, Live TV and recorded programs are sluggish.  It doesn't skip anything, it will pause for a split second or more and then continue playing.  I opened up the sys monitor and it shows the CPU is being maxed.  I think this may be an IRQ issue but I am not sure.  Here is the odd thing.  I first installed Mythbuntu on this same setup and after getting everything to work on it, it works great, no stuttering.  Therefore I know it is not a hardware issue and the CPE runs at about 50%.  So if I can get it to work so well in Mythbuntu why am I having this issue in Linuxmce?

My hardware is as follows:
MB    MSI K8T Neo with VIA K8T800 North Bride & VT8237 South Bridge / AGP slot for video card
CPU  AMD 64bit 3200
Ram  1GB DDR400 SDRAM
Video card   ATI 9800 256MB Ram / AGP
Hard drive   250GB Ultra ATA 133
HD Tuner cards  Dvico FusionHDTV5 Lite   ATI HDWonder  (getting these to work took the longest)

I think it may be an IRQ issue because when I look at the interrupts file my video card doesn't show up

dcerouter_55192:~# cat /proc/interrupts
           CPU0
  0:    1452365   IO-APIC-edge      timer
  1:       6061   IO-APIC-edge      i8042
  6:          5   IO-APIC-edge      floppy
  8:     283207   IO-APIC-edge      rtc
  9:          1   IO-APIC-fasteoi   acpi
 12:     170396   IO-APIC-edge      i8042
 14:      54721   IO-APIC-edge      ide0
 15:      85691   IO-APIC-edge      ide1
 17:          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   uhci_hcd:usb1, uhci_hcd:usb2, uhci_hcd:usb3, uhci_hcd:usb4, ehci_hcd:usb5
 18:     957005   IO-APIC-fasteoi   eth0
 19:     139817   IO-APIC-fasteoi   bttv0, bt878
 20:      15973   IO-APIC-fasteoi   cx88[0], cx88[0], cx88[0]
 21:      17992   IO-APIC-fasteoi   VIA8237
NMI:          0
LOC:    1452290
ERR:          0
MIS:          0

When I look at the interrupts file in mythbuntu, it looks like this, notice eth0 is sharing IRQ 16 with the video card which works fine and Mythbuntu finds the SATA also.

           CPU0       
  0:        139   IO-APIC-edge      timer
  1:       1037   IO-APIC-edge      i8042
  6:          5   IO-APIC-edge      floppy
  8:          3   IO-APIC-edge      rtc
  9:          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   acpi
 12:      24991   IO-APIC-edge      i8042
 14:      13650   IO-APIC-edge      ide0
 15:     199530   IO-APIC-edge      ide1
 16:     383903   IO-APIC-fasteoi   eth0, radeon@pci:0000:01:00.0
 17:        121   IO-APIC-fasteoi   sata_via
 18:       1523   IO-APIC-fasteoi   uhci_hcd:usb1, uhci_hcd:usb2, uhci_hcd:usb3, uhci_hcd:usb4, ehci_hcd:usb5
 19:      51321   IO-APIC-fasteoi   bttv0, bt878
 20:       9824   IO-APIC-fasteoi   cx88[0], cx88[0], cx88[0]
 21:       1371   IO-APIC-fasteoi   VIA8237
NMI:          0
LOC:    1163768
ERR:          0
MIS:          0

Here is my xorg.conf file in case someone wants to look at it.  I am not using the proprietary driver because it makes the video stretch vertically and it doesn't fix the choppy video issue.

dcerouter_55192:~# cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf
# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf(5) manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
#   sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Files"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
        # path to defoma fonts
        FontPath        "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection

Section "Module"
        Load    "i2c"
        Load    "bitmap"
        Load    "ddc"
        Load    "dri"
        Load    "extmod"
        Load    "freetype"
        Load    "glx"
        Load    "int10"
        Load    "vbe"
        Load    "dbe"
        Load    "record"
        Load    "xtrap"
        Load    "speedo"
        Load    "type1"
        Load    "v4l"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Generic Keyboard"
        Driver          "kbd"
        Option          "CoreKeyboard"
        Option          "XkbRules"      "xorg"
        Option          "XkbModel"      "pc105"
        Option          "XkbLayout"     "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Configured Mouse"
        Driver          "mouse"
        Option          "CorePointer"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/input/mice"
        Option          "Protocol"              "ImPS/2"
        Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
        Option          "Emulate3Buttons"       "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Driver          "wacom"
        Identifier      "stylus"
        Option          "Device"        "/dev/input/wacom"
        Option          "Type"          "stylus"
        Option          "ForceDevice"   "ISDV4"         # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Driver          "wacom"
        Identifier      "eraser"
        Option          "Device"        "/dev/input/wacom"
        Option          "Type"          "eraser"
        Option          "ForceDevice"   "ISDV4"         # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Driver          "wacom"
        Identifier      "cursor"
        Option          "Device"        "/dev/input/wacom"
        Option          "Type"          "cursor"
        Option          "ForceDevice"   "ISDV4"         # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R350 [Radeon 9800 Pro]"
        Driver          "ati"
        BusID           "PCI:1:0:0"
        Option          "ConnectedMonitor" "CRT"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "Generic Monitor"
        Option          "DPMS"
        HorizSync       20-500
        VertRefresh     59-61
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier      "Default Screen"
        Device          "ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R350 [Radeon 9800 Pro]"
        Monitor         "Generic Monitor"
        DefaultDepth    24
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           1
                Modes           "1280x1024"
                Virtual         1280 1024
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           4
                Modes           "1280x1024"
                Virtual         1280 1024
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           8
                Modes           "1280x1024"
                Virtual         1280 1024
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           15
                Modes           "1280x1024"
                Virtual         1280 1024
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           16
                Modes           "1280x1024"
                Virtual         1280 1024
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           24
                Modes           "1280x1024"
                Virtual         1280 1024
        EndSubSection
        Option  "TVStandard"    "1280x1024"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier      "Default Layout"
        Screen          "Default Screen"
        InputDevice     "Generic Keyboard"
        InputDevice     "Configured Mouse"
        InputDevice     "stylus"        "SendCoreEvents"
        InputDevice     "cursor"        "SendCoreEvents"
        InputDevice     "eraser"        "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
        Mode    0666
EndSection
Section "Extensions"
        Option "Composite" "false"
        Option "RENDER" "true"
EndSection

Any help on this issue would be greatly appreciated, I am so close to getting this up and working, I hate to give up now!

tkmedia

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Re: HD video is choppy / CPU is maxed
« Reply #1 on: January 16, 2008, 04:48:08 am »
Video drivers have a big effect and the nvidia seem to work best. I use envy to install the latest nvidia drivers, it also supports the ATI drivers might be worth a shot. 

Or maybe just compare the ATI drivers under mythbuntu against Linuxmce
My Setup http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/User:Tkmedia

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kboren

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Re: HD video is choppy / CPU is maxed
« Reply #2 on: January 16, 2008, 02:08:46 pm »
I tried using the ATI driver installed by Envy but it stretches the video vertically so the 16-9 video looks like 4-3.  It also didn't help with the choppy video issue.  How would I go about comparing the ATI drivers under Mythbuntu against Linuxmce?  And what about the possibility of an IRQ conflict, do you know if the interrupts file is dynamically created on bootup or if it was created statically during the install and if so how do I edit the interrupts file?

Zaerc

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Re: HD video is choppy / CPU is maxed
« Reply #3 on: January 16, 2008, 03:17:16 pm »
Try setting up your display drivers properly: http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Display_Drivers
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