WinTV 250 performs worse than ATI AIW 7500?

[beckerc55]

I've been looking for a decent hardware encoder, and so debated upgrading my AIW Radeon 7500 to the WinTV PVR II 250. I read on this web about folks that run one or multiple WinTV encoders, along with an AIW concurrently, so I figured I'd try it out.

I fired up the 250 and tried a sample record. It looked ok. Ran TaskManager to see CPU uptake, only to find it averaged about 37% CPU load while viewing TV (full or windowed; didn't matter) and around 55% CPU load while recording with DVD default settings.

Hold on. 55% CPU? I'm running an Athlon 64 3200 w/1Gig DDR 400 memory, SATA (OS) and ATA 166 (dedicated video drive), with Win XP SP2. I know for sure my ATI ran at lower CPU. I figured the Hauppauge should be giving me < 10% CPU!

I then decided to run the same test with my ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 7500. < 10% CPU viewing TV, and about 40% recording with DVD settings (don't forget, the ATI is doing <software> encoding). I don't get it.

I then decided that combined, I could probably run both concurrently at < 100% cpu. I recorded the same 1 minute clip (onto 2 different drives) simultaneously, then compared results. Basically, without doing a detailed analysis, I couldn't see much of a difference at all.

I then fired up BeyondTV (and since the AIW is not supported, only ran it with the 250) to find pretty much the same results for full-screen and windowed viewing and recording, which was around 37% for viewing and 55% for recording at DVD settings.

Any idea what gives? I did no tweaking whatsoever to either card. I can still return the 250, and I'm thinking seriously about the e-home Wonder now based on what I've seen... Am I missing something? (Yes, I know the hardware rendering should put less load on my CPU if it gets under stress compared to software rendering, but I would have thought it would run at around 10% all the time, not at 50%.)

Thanks for any input,
beckerc55

[wheemer]

I experience 5-7% cpu load while recording on one pvr 250. If I'm watching a recording or live tv it's about 12-15%. This is using the beta 3.5.

I think you might have a decoder issue. Have you installed the hauppauge decoder from the website?

The PVR 250 is the most supported hardware encoder available. So I doubt you'd see any improvements with an e-home. I'd stick to it, you've obviously got a little tweaking to do.

[Brett]

Uhh...couple of things.

1) The AIW is supported by BeyondTV, so not quite sure what you meant by that comment. Just make sure to change BTV to 3D acceleration (fsui->settings->general settings->renderer)

2) The 30+% for viewing TV is the decoding, not the encoding that is taking processor power. Its actuallying viewing & RECORDING the TV at the same time, that is what lets you have the PVR functionality.

3) You should see on average only 2% CPU for recording at DVD (or any) quality settings. This assumes your only encoding, with it minimized in the tray bar, and not decoding (watching) the show, as that takes some CPU to do.

4) You can lower the CPU % for decoding (watching) shows by changing the software decoder (FSUI->Settings->Playback Settings->Decoder). Check out the thread I just made a sticky (Setting up BTV) it should get you some kickbutt results.

-Brett