LiveTV with HDHomerun - plays EXTREMELY slow

craigarno 2009-11-04, 05:38 #16

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In reply to post ID 799

More experimenting... If I press "Recordings" before the Video window pops up, the player appears to get stuck trying to contact the Backend server. Kind of like a race condition. Is this app multi-threaded?

The Vista machine, which is also able to execute faster still doesn't appear to have these issues, and is still running well. The only thing I notice is if a banner is scrolling across the bottom of the screen, the banner appears to kind of jerk along (isn't smooth). This isn't a problem, just something else noted.

Lomion (Moderator) 2009-11-05, 11:20 #17

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Thank you for this detailed explanation of this bug! We can definitly work with this.

Assuming you are right with your memory corruption or a NULL pointer exception it will be very difficult to find it in a programm of this size. That's why I suggest to start with the 480i-comments you made. Since you fell back to RC2 because 480i is more stable there I introduced this memory corruption or NULL pointer exception since then.

So what I added was a fullscreen patch from linux (the user) but this is executed in fullscreen mode only. The second change was to synchronize the time difference between audio and video more frequently (instead of doing it every 100ms in a low priority thread). The third change was to parametrize ffmpeg to use only 2 channels as it was before.

The change with the timediff synchronization is a bit tricky since I had to populate pointers between different threads ...
Since this change did not improve the original problem I would roll back and ask you to verify a new version. (Get it from the attachment)

What audio streams do you have? Is you 480i standard NTSC? What transcoding did you do with 1080i -> 720p?

Regarding the "jumping window" this is something flohack also reported with the 0.6.0-RC3 ... it happens when you click on the SDL window to move it instead of dragging the window frame ... to be investigated

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This post was edited on 2009-11-05, 15:55 by Lomion.

Lomion (Moderator) 2009-11-05, 15:55 #18

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Here is the rest ... the forum has some size limitation ...

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craigarno 2009-11-05, 23:43 #19

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Okay, Google is my friend... for anyone else trying to follow along:

To build a .7z Archive from the two parts, at the ms windows command prompt:
copy "MythTv Player.7z.001" /B + "MythTv Player.7z.002" /B "MythTv Player.7z"

.7z is a 7-ZIP archive: http://www.7-zip.org/ ...this format is new to me

The EXE file inside goes with 070r236 link a couple postings back and will crash if used with another version, in my case 060rc2.

After getting to here, the posted "MythTv Player" trial app will start. I'll refer to this app as 070r236c1 c1=Candidate1 All my testing this evening was performed on the XP SP2 machine described earlier in this thread.

070r236c1 is able to consistently run transcoded programs made with RTJpeg/MP3 codecs, a format I will call 720t from here on out. 720t is native QAM256 1080i transcoded to 1280x720 using RTJpeg/MP3 codecs (the only ones installed in my stock MythTV 0.21 backend).

Twice immediately after installing 070r236c1 seemed to run native QAM256 720p and QAM256 480i. After this brief period (after trying to start the 3rd show, a 720t program), the loud clicking resumed and audio never restored to native QAM256 programs. Pressing "f" for full screen snapped 720t audio back to operation. Native QAM256 in 480i or 720p, other than twice initially after starting, are a no go. The shows I tried were 720p PBS-NOVA, and 720p ABC Nightly news with Charlie Gibson, and I can't remember the 480i program. And they all seemed to work, once each. Then I tried a transcoded 720t program and the native QAM256 shows stopped working. 720t seemed to be messed up until I went to full screen. Now the program is stuck, only able to play 720t programming. 720t format transcoded programs continue to work with this version of the program.

Exiting the player and restarting doesn't seem to make any difference. I tried exiting and restarting the application, logging out and logging back in, restart, and full shutdown and bring up, reinstall 007r236c1b into a new directory. None of these actions restored native QAM256 480i/720p to operation in 007r236c1.
It's as if the system or installation has a memory of whatever mode makes 720t work. I didn't attempt to monitor the registry because I don't have a good way to do this other than dump the whole thing with REGEDT32.

So I installed 060rc2 in a separate directory. 060rc2 continues to play native QAM256 480i programs flawlessly.

Returning to 070r236c1 again plays transcoded programs in 720t (1280x720 RTJpeg/MP3) format flawlessly.

During the time I spent with this, I wasn't able to play QAM256 480i or 720p again, though I'd swear it worked at least twice after my first install of 070r236c1. I put a lot of effort into making native QAM256 work again in 070r236c1, because the first three HD program plays made me think I'd be reporting "problem solved", and it was exciting to have everything appear to work. I don't understand why this initial success can't be repeated.

Also, since I have a dual install, I can run both programs and play (one at a time, though actually both will run concurrently when audio/video are sync'ed and working okay) 480i programs on 060rc2 and 720t on 070r236c1 flawlessly.

070r236c1 did exhibit the wandering video window a couple times, and I was able to verify; grab the frame and it works, grab the window [when the cursor changes color from white to black] and the skidding window behavior develops. What caused the problem is when video and audio aren't able to sync, mouse control becomes erratic, and it's hard not to select the window when mouse movement is delayed and jerky.

I'm playing a half hour 720t program [The Big Bang Theory] now on the XP machine with 070r236c1, and it seems to be happy playing through the entire program without commercial skip.

I'm stumped, maybe this experience will mean something useful for you?

This post was edited 3 times, last on 2009-11-06, 06:41 by craigarno.

craigarno 2009-11-06, 02:43 #20

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In reply to post #17

How do I tell what audio format is employed? My MythTV 0.21 installation is largely "stock". All programs are DTV since my tuner doesn't have the software parts of the driver necessary for analog NTSC/MPEG2 encoding. Hardware is there, software isn't. I notice in the MythBackend setup there is an "NTSC" setting selected. I'm not sure what this does. I assumed a minimum of translation is performed to the incoming QAM256 program before it is stored to disk.

The transcode function doesn't appear to have any special options. I use the delivered "High Quality" one with the image resize set to 1280x720 (720p/i), Codec RTjpeg (quality:237) Codec MP3 (Sampling Rate:32000, MP3 Quality:7, Volume:90%).

Does this provide what you need?

If not, I can phone you to work out details (don't worry about phone charges, my phone package will cover it). I think Vienna is 9-10 hours ahead of my timezone. Evening for you (morning for me) would work best if we can reduce the initial back and forth in this forum to put us on the same page. If you want a call, send me your phone number/country code by email craig(at)arno.com. Or if you have what you need, we're all set!

This post was edited 2 times, last on 2009-11-06, 04:46 by craigarno.

flohack (Moderator) 2009-11-09, 16:06 #21

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Craigarno,

the movement bug came out of nothing already in 0.6 - as Lomion said and is described here: https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.…?func=detail&… - dou you think that is related to an out-of-sync condition of video and audio? If yes, I will have to check this again a bit closer...

regards Florian

craigarno 2009-11-10, 22:33 #22

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Quote by flohack on 2009-11-09, 16:06:
Craigarno,

the movement bug came out of nothing already in 0.6 - as Lomion said and is described here: https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.…?func=detail&… - do you think that is related to an out-of-sync condition of video and audio? If yes, I will have to check this again a bit closer...

regards Florian

There are really two problems described around this condition;

1. Window movement is exaggerated if the window is grabbed instead of the frame. This is true even if the player isn't playing anything.

2. CPU usage goes up significantly (20% -> 90%+) when video isn't synced with audio. This additional CPU usage makes the window behavior appear erratic and even more problematic, probably due to slow "update" rates on mouse position.

Problem #1 exists no matter what the player is doing. This issue behaves as if there is a multiplier on mouse movement reported to code performing the window grab movement. This is true under both XP SP2 and Vista environments.

craigarno 2009-11-10, 23:55 #23

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I had a little more time to look at 070r236 on two additional machines while my daughter was visiting from college this weekend.

Machine 3 (Laptop):
Windows XP SP2

Intel Core2 Duo CPU T5450 1.66GHz
3GB RAM
Wireless G
Display: Mobile Intel 965 Express Chipset
SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC

I didn't get too far on this machine because Wireless-G is too slow for playing 480i and 720p/t programming. From appearances, between "Rebuffering" activity, 480i and 720p/t programming appeared to play properly. With the rebuffering issue, I didn't bother spending much time on this machine.

Machine 4:
Windows XP Professional (5.01.2600) SP2
DirectX 9.0c

Intel Petium D 2.8GHz / 200MHz bus
ASUSTeK P5LD2-VM motherboard
3GB RAM
NVIDIA Vanta/Vanta LT video
Realtek HD Audio

This machine plays all i480, 720p/t programming using 070r236 (not c1). On the 720p programming it always starts with audio, and will fairly consistently stops after some 30sec-5min with the dialog about audio sync issues. This is a false detection, because up to this point, the program is playing properly. 720t programming is better behaved than 720p. I think I saw one of the 720t programs claim to lose audio sync, when it was in fact playing just fine. 480i seems to play fine with no complaints.

This is interesting to me because the Pentium-D system (Machine 4) is a slower machine and busier (more heavily loaded) than the AMD system (Machine 1). Typical physical memory usage is around 1.5GB-2GB. So why this machine would actually work better is something I can't currently fathom. This sytem is also running a second Windows XP session used remotely by a European relative. This machine is also used by me for schematic/PCB work and MSVC sonar application development, Thunderbird email, OpenOffice, and X-Server applications. It also has the most cantankerous installation of XP SP2. So when it's stable, I don't let MS "update" XP until I have enough time set aside to fiddle getting it "stable" again. This system has the largest number of installed apps and codecs of any of the machines. I use VMware Server to keep some of the larger applications separate from each other for stability reasons. i.e. Hardware CAE and systems requirements tools separate from Software development tools. In the past older versions of these applications fairly thoroughly clobbered each other. This machine has undergone 3 full reinstalls of XP in the past to clear out all the cruft and restore it to usable condition again. Linux is definitely more stable for heavy workstation use even with CodeWeaver (commercial WINE) and VMware to handle a few Windows apps with no comparable Linux equivalents (such as Quickbooks and Quicken for accounting).

As a benchmark, I have another Linux Server system playing the same programming over the network using Mythfrontend under OpenSUSE 10.3 x64 on an AMD Athlon X2 5200+. This machine is also a heavily loaded server with 8GB RAM, 1.5TB RAID5, running 3 OS's-two under VMware Server, Open-Xchange, Asterisk VoIP, email, web services, SMB file sharing, etc. It never has a problem playing any of the 480i, 720t, 720p programs, which leads me to conclude I can mostly rule out network or network viewing issues with the MythTV Server machine. My network has a Gigabit backbone connecting servers and different floors of the house. a 24 port 100BaseT switch on one floor and three 8 port gigabit switches on different floors connect machines and appliances together. This network is debugged and working reliably.

This post was edited on 2009-11-11, 03:41 by craigarno.

craigarno 2009-11-11, 03:41 #24

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Since Markus requested sample programs...

I placed a few files on my web server representing the different formats. You should be able to right click on the links below and "save" the link to a file. I put file sizes below so you can get an idea of how much download pain can be expected. I chose channel 9-1 (1091_) for 720p programming because it seems to cause the most trouble. Historically this channel has all the technical bells and whistles enabled in their programming content. 720t is just a random sample of a transcoded program chosen because it is only 30 minutes long (smaller file size than 1 hour). 480i plays on everything except 070r236 on the problematic Athlon 2200+ single processor system with XP SP2 installed.

480i - Eureka 1350MB http://www.arno.com/mythtv/2036_20090918210000.mpg
   (1 Hour) What Goes Around, Comes Around

720p - BBC News 2511MB http://www.arno.com/mythtv/1091_20091110053000.mpg
   (30 Minutes) International issues.

720t - Big Bang Theory 4069MB http://www.arno.com/mythtv/1071_20091102213100.nuv
   (30 Minutes) The Cornhusker Vortex

720p - NOVA 4910MB http://www.arno.com/mythtv/1091_20091105120000.mpg
   (1 Hour) Becoming Human: First Steps
   Clues about early ancestors in Africa include a complete fossil named Lucy's Child.

Craig

flohack (Moderator) 2009-11-11, 09:27 #25

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Craig,

we have found the movement bug, its a strange error coming from the upgrade of the SDL library to 1.2.14 - 1.2.13 seems to be fine and we will consider to downgrade this again. However, it is totally unclear why this appears and we have to look through their changelog to determine the root cause.

regards Florian

craigarno 2009-11-11, 09:42 #26

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In reply to post #24

Had another "lost audio stream" message On the Pentium-D system running 070r236 under XP SP2. Log file attached. I would upload the program, but it's ~14GB. So I'll make it available if requested. The program is the 2 hour Season Premier of House in 720t format:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 13902781608 Sep 21 22:05 1131_20090921200000.mpg

Hugh Laurie out did himself in this one. The plot and imagery in this episode are outstanding and beautiful!

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flohack (Moderator) 2009-11-11, 17:42 #27

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I downloaded your log. Impressive channel list. OMFG! Are they all digital???

Here in Austria, its a bit more quiet - For analog cable I don´t care, and the only thing which I record is the DVB-T signal which appeared here during the last years. That gives me the total of 6 channels, boring!

:P Florian

craigarno 2009-11-12, 00:44 #28

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Quote by flohack:
I downloaded your log. Impressive channel list. OMFG! Are they all digital???

Yes. My Hauppauge 2250 card http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Hauppauge_HVR-2250 currently only handles digital programming and can tune two different channels simultaneously. There are currently 31 analog and 132 Digital channels; 23 Audio + 109 DTV programming. These numbers keep changing. The Hauppauge tuner doesn't receive the 31 analog channels (driver isn't implemented, hardware exists). I use ReplayTV 5000 series units for these since the 5000 series were the last to skip commercials, which account for 1/3 the air time in the US. This is why I primarily watch recorded programming as MythTV allows me to continue skipping 20 minutes of commercials for every hour of programming. I'm phasing out the older analog ReplayTV units for MythTV units. There are about 5 television/stereo centers operating in the house.

Of the 109 DTV channels:
4-1 720p 5-1 1080i 7-1 1080i 9-1 720p 11-1 1080i 13-1 720p (sometimes 1080i) 16-1 1080i 22-1 720p 50-2 1080i 60-2 1080i
all remaining DTV channels are 480i format.

Since you appear to be curious, I attached a spreadsheet of the channels I receive and cross reference where the same content is broadcast in multiple formats. For instance Channel 4 (analog NTSC) is also broadcast on 4-1 (720p), 79-3 (480i) and Comcast in their infinite wisdom places programming content under ch 104. I originally put this sheet together because comcast doesn't provide a lookup sheet relating 4 or 104 to what shows up on the TV 4-1. I also couldn't keep track of what channels showed up in HD such as 6 shows up on 16-1 in 1080i and program content is on 106. Earlier this year, it wasn't as straightforward as it is now where numbers are predictable and adjacent to each other. For instance we'd start watching a show on 11-1 and 1080i would stop working. With this lookup, I could quickly find and switch to 79-9. It's not always easy, for instance channel 71 has no callsign or programming and it also shows up on 80-9. Some channels aren't stable, such as this evening CBC (ch 99) is just coming online in 1080i, but one hour it will be on channel 50-2, then the next it will be on 60-2. Then you get down to channels like 117-14 which exist, are local government activity channels broadcasting public meetings and have no "schedule"/callsign for programming information or analog equivalent. Some are really boring channels, like the FOOD channel where you can watch people eat all day.

Here is a relatively accurate link to my channel lineup (you may need to select cable at the top):
http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/lineup_web/US:98021#l…

I hope this helps satisfy your curiosity.

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This post was edited 4 times, last on 2009-11-12, 07:20 by craigarno.

flohack (Moderator) 2009-11-12, 19:42 #29

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Craig,

I´ve started downloading your samples. Right now the 480i sample went through "testing" (watching that is :P) and it played with the 070r236 without any problem, by the way streaming through Wireless-G. My CPU and my network load are between 5 and 15%. I also tried jumping around in the video and had 2 or 3 rebufferings. was ok.

720p - BBC news is next, but still downloading...

regards Florian

flohack (Moderator) 2009-11-12, 22:37 #30

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Dear all,

i cannot play the 720p recording at my machine at all, stops after 0.5s of play, using the version from Lomion in this thread. Look at the screenshot, some things are very odd.

Craig, do you also see this strange and huge bitrate values in the main window?
kind regards Florian

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