BTV4 live TV video freezing

[Phyberoptic]

I've got a new install of BTV4 on a Windows XP Pro, AMD 2600 machine with a 64MB Nvidia card and 256MB Ram. In live TV mode the application will play for up to 1/2 hour and then stall/freeze or progress maybe a 10 frames per minute. The firefly remote will not quit the application when this happens so the machine appears locked up, and no keyboard controls will break out either. In record mode the application has run for a couple of hours with no issue recording or playing back recorded shows. The input card is the Hauppague 150. Any thoughts on what to look for?
-=PO

[Phyberoptic]

No thoughts? I must be the only one experiencing this issue. Or is there more information needed to diagnose?

-=PO

[tenax]

do you have any more ram you can throw in there? you're running the minimum required by xp which from my experience is adequate on basic systems, never mind up to the task of a system with a pvr. i'd add at least 256 megs and see how that works for you..ram is so cheap these days that you'll love yourself for doing it.

[pdaughe]

Originally Posted by Phyberoptic

No thoughts? I must be the only one experiencing this issue. Or is there more information needed to diagnose?
-=PO

I don't think so, it's just that these kinds problems can be VERY difficult to resolve. Take my example as a case in point. I upgraded to BTV 4 on my backup system initially. Before putting it (or any update) into daily use, I let Live TV play all night long (I just turn off the TV). In the morning, I check it. Initially, BTV 4 did not pass this test and I was running it on exactly the same machine as BTV 3. However, a few drivers (HDTV) were indeed different on the BTV 4 system.

I solved the problem and BTV 4 now passes this test with flying colors. However, I can't "for sure" tell you what I did to resolve it. I try, like most members of this forum, to be accurate in my posts and not lead others down a dead-end road.

I will share a couple of items I did simply to perhaps get you thinking, although keep in mind, I don't know for sure which item resolved the problem.

First, I displayed (My Computer, Properties, Hardware, Device Manager) the list of all devices on the machine. I expanded each device and right-clicked on each one, selected "Update Driver" and allowed Windows to search the Internet. Drivers for a couple of devices were updated. (I've learn to do this periodically when performing maintenance. I've never understood precisely how the process works, but Windows Update finds updated drivers for some non-Microsoft devices, for others it doesn't, but the Internet search does. For other devices, one has to simply periodically watch the vendor's site).

Next I went to Dvico's web site and applied a hotfix for the Fusion drivers.

I then visited Nvidia's web site since the machine has a 6600 GT card. I read through the eight pages of FAQs. I found a list of Nvidia recommended BIOS settings for users struggling with jerky video playback. I made the recommended BIOS changes. Reading through the FAQs provided this understanding: ATI vs. Nvidia -- it's a very competitive market, as is the motherboard market. Performance is measured primarily in the gaming arena. BIOS settings (timings) are relatively tight to support high-end gaming adapters. Video processing simply isn't near as demanding. The recommended Nvidia BIOS settings for those experiencing video playback problems loosen the timings.

I made those changes, rebooted the system, and re-ran the "Live TV" test that evening. Problem gone. It passed that test two different times. I have now put BTV 4 into daily use on the HTPC and it is performing marvelously. I haven't posted a "success story" yet because life has been so busy,we really haven't watched much TV lately, and I'm in the process of implementing a dedicated tuner server (not Godzilla or Hydra, but it will turn Medusa's head).

I DON'T recommend my approach. It's generally best to make ONE change and then assess the impact of that change. In my situation, this was a backup of a well-maintained system, I am fairly experienced, and "time" was the scarce resource. I at least did write down every change I made.

My bottom-line recommendation would be to ensure you have all Windows Updates applied, all drivers up to date, and then if needed look at the manufacturer's web site for your video card for similar reported problems. Two BIOS settings I do recall is enabling PCI Tranaction Delay and setting the AGP aperture size to 128MB, regardless of the amount of memory on the video card.

Also, inspect the Windows Event log immediately after a reboot and then periodically during use. Resolve any reported errors.

Lastly, based on my experience, Tenax gave you excellent advice. It may indeed be the easiest place to start. NewEgg has great prices on Cosair Value Select Memory. You can get 1 GB (two sticks of 512) for around $75.

You WILL succeed if you just don't give up.

Paul

[merrypig]

fwiw I have this problem on my rig; Geforce FX5200, AMD xp2100, nforce2 mobo, 1gig ram.

It doesn't appear to be because of BTV in that some other apps also do it, but I also have some video player apps that don't. So it seems related to driving the video pipe via agp somehow. At work we had a problem with some nvidia chipsets having a problem with agp fast writes - they would stall for 1 second periodically. In the end we worked around it by turning off agp fast writes. However I tried that trick on my box and it made no difference. it still seems to stall now n then although I admit not so badly - so maybe I'm getting a 'stall' for cpu reasons instead of the original problem now.

Thanks for the comment on the bios settings fixing your setup paul. I'll dig out those faqs and see if I can fix things better yet

[DonK]

Heh try my system doing the same thing. Ran O&O defragger last night: 76% fragmentation. defragged, voila. problem solved.

Multiple tuner systems are especially vulnerable to that... some of the last few recordings I made had over 8,000 fragments.... No wonder my terabyte raid was freaking out...

[Phyberoptic]

Thanks, I'll try the memory route first and then bios tuning on the MB and Vid.

It just seemed funny to me that it would play back the recoreded video without any issues but that live TV would not make it past 30 minutes without freezing.

-=PO