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ATI TV Wonder VE - Very poor performance
http://forums.linhes.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2586		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  pimpybra [ Mon Oct 04, 2004 9:59 pm ]
Post subject:  ATI TV Wonder VE - Very poor performance
Greetings all,

After doing some searching here and on google, I am a little confused as to why I am having bad luck w/ my ATI TV Wonder VE card.

I first installed it in a Syntax S635MP Motherboard, with a 1.3ghz (runs at 800mhz) Samuel C3 processor (w/ supposedly built in MPEG encoding).
The frame rate was horrible for watching live tv. About one frame every 2 seconds. 256 Megs of ram, motherboard has 266mhz FSB.

I then installed it in a Duron 800mhz (Overclocked to 1ghz), 1.3 gigs of ram. The frame rate improved, but was at about 10 frames a second, jerky as anything.

I then tried it in my 'main' box, an Athlon 2700XP w/ 512 megs DDR dual channel ram, and it runs GREAT. When watching live tv, it uses 3% cpu.

Does anyone have any clue why it runs so poorly on the other boxes which seem sufficient in my eyes.
Author:  cesman [ Tue Oct 05, 2004 12:55 am ]
Post subject: 
I personally would never user a C3 with a software tuner. I think you answered you own question... Not enough CPU horsepower.
Author:  pimpybra [ Tue Oct 05, 2004 4:06 pm ]
Post subject: 
That's fine, C3 chip aside, I don't understand the Duron issue.

Here's a TOP when I am watching live TV. There's ~25% idle CPU.

Code:
top - 17:59:44 up 20 min,  2 users,  load average: 1.95, 0.95, 0.36
Tasks:  78 total,   4 running,  74 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  66.7% user,   6.2% system,   0.0% nice,  27.2% idle
Mem:   1292720k total,   214144k used,  1078576k free,    25332k buffers
Swap:   128512k total,        0k used,   128512k free,    90284k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  Command

  882 mythtv    19   0 43792  42m  15m R 27.6  3.4   0:54.84 mythfrontend
  876 mythtv    17   0 40672  39m  12m R 23.3  3.1   0:41.90 mythbackend
  879 mythtv    13   0 43792  42m  15m S  9.8  3.4   0:16.18 mythfrontend
  875 mythtv    12   0 40672  39m  12m S  4.9  3.1   0:07.56 mythbackend



Here's a top when I am recording a show, while not watching tv

Code:
top - 18:04:52 up 25 min,  2 users,  load average: 0.35, 0.79, 0.47
Tasks:  72 total,   2 running,  70 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  17.6% user,   3.0% system,   0.0% nice,  79.4% idle
Mem:   1292720k total,   260332k used,  1032388k free,    26296k buffers
Swap:   128512k total,        0k used,   128512k free,   141072k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  Command

  895 mythtv    18   0 39892  38m  12m R 19.3  3.1   0:17.03 mythbackend
  899 root      15   0   924  924  732 R  7.0  0.1   0:00.09 top
  894 mythtv    10   0 39892  38m  12m S  1.8  3.1   0:03.74 mythbackend



I have DMA enabled, it just seems like it should be able to handle it.
Author:  Xsecrets [ Tue Oct 05, 2004 4:22 pm ]
Post subject: 
well Issac the person who wrote mythtv started with a duron 800 and said it never worked for him on that and he had to upgrade.
Author:  kdavis11_1 [ Tue Oct 05, 2004 6:09 pm ]
Post subject: 
I have a Duron 900 that runs fine as a frontend only machine....800 not enough juice for a backend, unless you move to a PVR-x50.

good luck
Author:  pimpybra [ Tue Oct 05, 2004 10:19 pm ]
Post subject: 
Well, I got the duron 1ghz running. I put in a Nvidia GeForce 2 video card, and installed the nvidia drivers, instead of using the junk old ATI video card tjhat was in there.

And now, instead of using 75%, the CPU is pegged while watching live tv, and it runs smoothly. There is an occasional 'slowdown' now and then, but it is only every now and then.

So yes, the ghz duron can handle it. I might try overclocking it to 1.1 or 1.2 to see if that helps out at all.
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