I have had my frontend running quite well for 6 months. I decided to upgrade my drive to 500GB and I figured it would be a good time to switch over to XFS. After the switch it is running fine (deletes are a lot faster) but I am noticing a delay to play pre-recorded shows. It may take upwards of 10 seconds sometimes between when I hit play and when the video actually starts. I am only using SD content recorded off PVR-150 and PVR-500 cards. Does this seem excessive? How long does your system take to start playing pre-recorded video?

I upgraded my backend system not to long ago also, I am running a modified RE50 with a new 500GB sata drive that was setup as XFS also. On my backend the playback is fairly instant, but on my frontend that is playing over a 802.11g wireless network, it takes a few seconds to start. I have noticed this seems to only be on the initial start, as when a playlist is going it moves to the second recording alot quicker.

Not sure if this helps or not, just sharing my situation.

_________________
LinHES Release 6.04.00
Mboard MSI PM8PM-V P4M800
CPU - Intel Celeron D 336 Processor 2.80GHZ
Memo - Corsair VS512MB533D2 512MB DDR2-533
Hard D - Hitachi T7K500 250GB Serial ATA
Wireless - Netgear wg311
Tuner Card - PVR-150

I tried a usb drive that would power down and would respond similar to what you are seeing. I switched to a sata internal.