Viewscape slow-downs

[lsrracer]

After about 3 days of my computer up and running, I notice that the Viewscape really slows down in terms of it's user responsiveness.

Where I mainly notice this is when browsing the guide. It starts taking a second or more to simply scroll from one guide entry to the next. But I also notice it when loading the Viewscape. As it comes up, and the lettering gradually turns white from top to bottom, the whole process starts taking maybe a dozen seconds.

I can exit BTV completely by terminating the tray program, and re-run the program and bring up the Viewscape, and the slow response is still there. The only cure I've found is to restart the computer. That restores the Viewscape's responsiveness to full speed: it loads in a couple seconds and browing the guide is very quick.

My HTPC isn't the most killer system in the world, a 4600 X2 AMD with 2GB of memory running XP Home, but it's not bad, either.

There's not much disk activity during these slow-downs, so I don't think that's the issue. I have two drives, a 300GB WD Velociraptor for the system drive (10K rpm SATA 3G) and a 1TB WD Green Power (5400rpm SATA 3G) for my video folders. But the disk activity light is barely bllinking while I'm waiting.

It's not the end of the world to have to restart my computer every 3 days, but it's a little annoying. I'm wondering if anyone knows how to cure this issue? Any ideas?

[tscales]

I've never noticed this, but I never watch anything on the recording machines -- only through link. What version? I know some older versions had some leks, but I don't think the new ones do (who knows )

[lsrracer]

I run 4.9.1 build 6158 at the moment, but this has been happening for some time, on both beta and released versions. I pretty much keep up to date, hoping that something somewhere will fix the problems with my HD-PVR. But I don't think the issues with at are BTV's, I think they're Hauppauge's.

[lsilvest]

It's not BTV and there doesn't appear to be any reason your CPU and memory should be a problem.

What remote are you using? What kind of video - onboard or card? These are the two biggest suspects.

[lsrracer]

Video card is currently a 9500GT. Previous card was a 7600GT. Same symptoms on both. You have to keep in mind that it's slow down is independent of whether it's displaying anything in an overlay window or not. It slows down even just loading the program.

Other operations on the PC fly, it's just BTV that comes to it's knees after about 3 days of up time.

The response in the BTV guide goes slow regardless of whether I'm interacting with the keyboard or one of the remotes. I have a couple remotes, a FireFly which of course is radio waves, and the remote I use the most, which is just a simple Sony universal IR. I have a USB-UIRT to receive IR signals from the universal remote and translate them into keystrokes for BeyondTV, using EventGhost software. But the slowdowns are independent of the remote and occur regardless of how I control it.

[not_Shorty]

It most certainly is BTV. I've had a bug open on this for a LOOOOOOONG time, and they're clueless.

http://beta.snapstream.com:8080/browse/BB-1165

edit - I just re-read my bug report. This isn't exactly the same as what you're describing, but I have seen exactly what you're describing as well.

[tscales]

I don't doubt BTV has a problem, but if it slows down even loading, I would look outside BTV. That implies a problem with the computer, not BTV.

[not_Shorty]

Well, all I know is that response to my remote gets worse the longer BTV's been up, the app gets sluggish, just like his. It's a dedicated BTV machine that runs nothing else. Only started with a certain build of BTV, but I'd have to go look things up to tell you which build I noticed it doing so. It's a little annoying to have to reboot the machine a couple times a week. At the time when this was a new thing, switching back to the previous BTV build made things behave again, so, changes in BTV have got to be the cause.

[GeorgeH]

I agree that it is BayondTV.

But oftentimes BeyondTV is slow because a hard drive needs to spin up or some other process needs to wake up.

[redlion4]

This sounds identical to what we had been experiencing for some time, but please read my whole post here. For us, it started back in 4.8. The problem was present on two different HTPC builds and continued into 4.9. 4.9 solved an OTA HD smart chapter issue we had (a bigger problem for us than viewscape response). Once 4.9 was installed and the system stabilized I opened a ticket for the viewscape response problem.

The basics of the problem were the same and the windows task manager pointed to svchost.exe, owned by Network Service. svchost only consumed 1% or less of the CPU time following a reboot. 3-4 days after the reboot, its CPU usage climbed to a few percent (problem would be slightly noticeable). 7 days after reboot, the problem was horrible and the svchost CPU usage would be in the teens with spikes into the 20-30s.

After opening the ticket, I paired back other things on the PC and the problem disappeared! Yep, it was a software interaction between BeyondTV and AquaNotes 3.5c made by Neptune Systems. This program interfaces via serial cable with an AquaController used on our reef tank, allowing data downloads (logs, graphing, temperature, pH data, etc), direct control of tank hardware (heater, pumps, lights, fans, etc.), and access to the program used to control the hardware automatically.

Sure enough, AquaNotes had been installed while we were running BTV 4.8 on our prior HTCP build (different hardware than currently in my sig). I can still use AquaNotes, but cannot leave it open in the background. If needed, I login at home or through VNC, launch the program, check the tank / make needed changes, then close it. BTV continues to run around the clock now, with no response degrades.

I would highly suspect some type of software interaction in your case too. Anything from antivirus/firewall software to other user specific programs.

[not_Shorty]

As I stated, my machine is a dedicated BTV machine with nothing else on it.

[not_Shorty]

Nothing ever powers down here. If installing one version of BTV makes the problem appear, and installing the version immediately previous to that one makes the problem go away, clearly it is a change in BTV that is responsible.

Originally Posted by GeorgeH

I agree that it is BayondTV.

But oftentimes BeyondTV is slow because a hard drive needs to spin up or some other process needs to wake up.

[lsrracer]

Originally Posted by redlion4

The basics of the problem were the same and the windows task manager pointed to svchost.exe, owned by Network Service. svchost only consumed 1% or less of the CPU time following a reboot. 3-4 days after the reboot, its CPU usage climbed to a few percent (problem would be slightly noticeable). 7 days after reboot, the problem was horrible and the svchost CPU usage would be in the teens with spikes into the 20-30s.

You're on to something. My system has been running without reboot for 3 days, and I was starting to see the slow down. I opened the task manager, sorted by name, and I have seven entries for "svchost.exe". Two of these are owned by "Network Service", and one of those two was showing CPU usage bouncing around, showing as high as 16%. The others all showed zero.

I started the Viewscape, during which time CPU usage for the suspect svchost.exe went over 50%, but it settled back down to 16% and less once the Viewscape was loaded.

Watching TV through the Viewscape, it showed slightly higher, occasionally bouncing into the 20's.

Then I exited Viewscape and closed the BTV tray application. svchost.exe's CPU usage dropped to a zero and stayed there. It's clearly tied to BTV.

I restarted the computer (which loads the BTV tray app automatically), and svchost's CPU usage is now bouncing around under 5%. Even watching through the Viewscape, it's under 5%.

So apparently this service's cpu usage climbs over time, and it's clearly tied to BTV, and probably related to the slow downs.

Good find. You'd sure think this could be debugged and fixed by SS.

[redlion4]

Mine was tied to a conflict with another program (Aquanotes 3.5c by Neptune Systems). When that other program is not running, svchost.exe stays below 1-2% for weeks on end. Only reboots now are the ones required by MS updates.

What are the specs on your HTPC and what other processes are active?

[lsrracer]

My HTPC:

Jetway socket 939 MB w/nVidia nForce4 chip set
AMD 4600+ X2 processor
MSI 9500GT PCI-express video card (512MB DDR3)
2GB DDR (PC3200 I believe, it's 184-pin)
300GB Velociraptor + 1TB Green Power drives (both are SATA 3Gb)
Vbox DTA-150 + DTA-151 digital tuners
Hauppauge HD-PVR for capture from my satellite receiver
USB-UIRT to change channels on the satellite receiver

For active software, I have:
BTV (obviously)
Wallmaster (wall paper changer)
EventGhost (remote control software)
Avast! anti-virus software
nVidia tray app for the video card