Slow channel changes
#1
Good morning,

running windows 8 x64 with 8gb ram on an ssd drive, XBMC frodo with nextPVR and the PVR addon (including R2 patches).

it is taking at least 10 seconds to launch a channel for the first time and then 8 or so subsequently.

I am running the AEON NOX skin (if this is a contributing factor).

also, most of the time I can launch live TV, but if i try and change the channel the front end freezes (on the EPG) and then does nothing (still at EPG), if i select the channel again I get live tv.

how do i go about diagnosing what is going wrong!

thanks

Dan
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#2
Same situation here (same specs as well). I changed various settings in nPVR to no avail. This is the first time I've played with live TV through a computer, maybe this is normal? If so, I'm reconnecting my TV, which is a shame since my goal was to have one device and one remote for all my entertainment needs. Too lofty of a goal?
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#3
You are not the only ones with this issue...

Similar situation here, inside of XBMC first channel takes 5~8 seconds to start with another 5~8 seconds per channel change. My additional problem is that certain channels never start to playback in XBMC, while the file in the temp folder grows and is playable in VLC. I am glad that at least XBMC/NextPVR fails gracefully now as it used to hard lock XBMC requiring a ctrl+atl+del and then killing the XBMC process. One bird down, two to go!

Everything works just fine and nearly instantaneous when just using NextPVR so I am pretty sure is is something with XBMC. I think I do recall reading a thread where Sub3 mentioned (and this is my best recollection of the post which may have been over at NextPVR) that it is mostly likely something with the way XBMC remuxes for output taking to long.

Fortunately I do not watch a lot of TV, other people in my family fall back to the Boxee Box with tuner... for now.
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#4
I think I read somewhere it has to do with ffmpeg (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FFmpeg)
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#5
(2013-01-31, 01:34)Hecatonchieres Wrote: Everything works just fine and nearly instantaneous when just using NextPVR so I am pretty sure is is something with XBMC. I think I do recall reading a thread where Sub3 mentioned (and this is my best recollection of the post which may have been over at NextPVR) that it is mostly likely something with the way XBMC remuxes for output taking to long.

Fortunately I do not watch a lot of TV, other people in my family fall back to the Boxee Box with tuner... for now.

That is exactly the issue it doesnt do it in linux, and it will always do it unless the code is re written (per discussion in the media portal forum)
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#6
I've tried MediaPortal and Argus. Had the same results with both as I did with NextPVR although I have a whole new appreciation for how simple NextPVR is to use and configure...
I think this topic needs to be x-posted a level up since the issue apparently isn't with NextPVR or the plug-in.
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#7
I'm having the same issue. I've made it better (but not great). My setup is a virtual machine running npvr connected to an hdhomerun. I found that if I viewed TV directly on the virtual server using npvr I could greatly modify the time for channel changes and startup by selecting difference mpeg2 codecs and renderer settings. While running as a virtual selecting vmr9 and the cyberlink codec yielded the best results (which made much more sense after I researched the differences) locally and channels changes were ~ 2 seconds.

I've attempted to make changes on the XBMC htpc client machine (windows 7) around codec for mpeg2 and renderer. The changes were noticeable, but still not quick. The longest channel changes are when changing resolution and channel. If I change from a 1080i channel to a 480p channel It takes ~4-5 seconds, if I change from 1080i to 1080i it takes ~ 3 seconds.

I wonder if this is a normal time or if others are experiencing better performance. If anyone is seeing better times can you post them and your settings? I'd be interested in starting a chart with setups and liveTV stats.
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#8
Hi Frank

I would be interested in testing a few different codecs to see if it improves the channel change in xbmc as I didn't realise that those options had any effect on xbmc. I thought they would only affect the nPvr rendering. I'll need to check my settings but tbh my channel changes aren't too bad but could certainly be faster. I will time them though and get back to you.

I know I'm using CoreAVC for H264 but I'll check all my settings and get back to you.

Do you think it's worth starting a new thread for this rather hijacking the op's thread?
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#9
Yes, My bad, I was curious on why settings in npvr would affect performance in XBMC, thank you for your reply.
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#10
Here is the thread in the media portal side

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=154004
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#11
Unless you are actually running the NextPVR client on the host codec changes in nextpvr don't change xbmc playback, a new thread isn't necessary.

Martin
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#12
Bump
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#13
(2013-10-26, 17:37)Sebjsan Wrote: Bump
Are you asking about slow channel changes? NextPVR is performing a quick channel change, and delivering data to XBMC within a second or two, but Frodo builds of XBMC are taking a very long time to show the video. It's a bug in XBMC related to how it finds the audio/video streams. There some special XBMC builds like the Margro one, which fix this problem and give quick channel change times.
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#14
Thx for the response sub. I will look into the margro build
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#15
Does the new Frodo 12.3 include this fix?

If not, where can I find the margro build?

Is this it ? or something else?
Updated Gotham build with extra features posted by sub3 on 2013-11-17
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=178261

Thanks, I am just getting nextPVR configured now
My first HTPC build
My UnRaid Server
Kingston rebates and ASUS warranties are WORTHLESS FRAUDS
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