Can't record well when multitasking?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ANTant
  • Start date Start date
A

ANTant

Hi.

Is anyone having problems recording video from ATI's TV tuner/video in
when multitasking? I believe my system is fast enough to handle this. I
have an Athlon XP 2200+ with 1 GB of RAM, 7200 RPM HDDs (IDE; UDMA 2
and 4), Windows XP Professional SP1 (all updates), and using the latest
ATI's driver and MMC.

When I play back my recorded videos, I notice some scenes are choppy
(video, not audio). Is it because I am multitasking too much during
recording? Or do I have something misconfigured? I was hoping I could
multitask (e.g., basic stuff). All I was doing was checking emails,
Web browsing with Mozilla v1.5, etc.

Thank you in advance.
--
"Really. And do these lions eat ants?" --John Cleese in Monty Python's
Flying Circus
/\___/\
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How about changing the CPU usage in the MMC software. If you go to the TV
app setup, re-run the initialization wizard. Just keep hitting "next" until
you get to the screen with the Temporary File Settings., the window title is
"TV-On-Demand Initialization Wizard".

At the bottom of this screen is an ADVANCED button. Click this and set the
CPU load to HIGH, also try moving the Video Performance and Image Quality
sliders to midway. This may help things a little, but it probably still is
not a great idea to do anything else while recording.

Also, what type of files are you recording to? That may also make a
difference, especially with the slower hard drives you are using. UDMA2 is
not really fast when it comes to digital video.
 
Guess Who said:
How about changing the CPU usage in the MMC software. If you go to the TV
app setup, re-run the initialization wizard. Just keep hitting "next" until
you get to the screen with the Temporary File Settings., the window title is
"TV-On-Demand Initialization Wizard".
Click to expand...
At the bottom of this screen is an ADVANCED button. Click this and set the
CPU load to HIGH, also try moving the Video Performance and Image Quality
sliders to midway. This may help things a little, but it probably still is
not a great idea to do anything else while recording.
Click to expand...

I will try that. I belive I did set CPU load to high, but I don't remember.
Are you able to record smoothly during high CPU usage?

Also, what type of files are you recording to? That may also make a
difference, especially with the slower hard drives you are using. UDMA2 is
not really fast when it comes to digital video.
Click to expand...

I am recording to ATI VCR files with closed captioning.

--
"Really. And do these lions eat ants?" --John Cleese in Monty Python's
Flying Circus
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Ant @ The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Remove ANT if replying by e-mail from a newsgroup.
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I will try that. I belive I did set CPU load to high, but I don't remember.
Are you able to record smoothly during high CPU usage?
Click to expand...

I forgot to note that using Good quality (default preset) shows 50%+ CPU usage
in Windows' task manager. Is that normal? I still want high quality video.

I am recording to ATI VCR files with closed captioning.
Click to expand...
--
"Really. And do these lions eat ants?" --John Cleese in Monty Python's
Flying Circus
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Ant @ The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Remove ANT if replying by e-mail from a newsgroup.
( )
 
If you don't want to drop frames, you have to dedicate the computer to
capturing and not use it to do other tasks, especially those that
generate lots of interrupts, .e.g, modem over serial port.
 
Hmm, that stinks. That means getting a faster system wouldn't help much.
Thanks for replying.


Andy said:
If you don't want to drop frames, you have to dedicate the computer to
capturing and not use it to do other tasks, especially those that
generate lots of interrupts, .e.g, modem over serial port.
Click to expand...
--
"Really. And do these lions eat ants?" --John Cleese in Monty Python's
Flying Circus
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Ant @ The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Remove ANT if replying by e-mail from a newsgroup.
( )
 
Hi.

Is anyone having problems recording video from ATI's TV tuner/video in
when multitasking? I believe my system is fast enough to handle this. I
have an Athlon XP 2200+ with 1 GB of RAM, 7200 RPM HDDs (IDE; UDMA 2
and 4), Windows XP Professional SP1 (all updates), and using the latest
ATI's driver and MMC.

When I play back my recorded videos, I notice some scenes are choppy
(video, not audio). Is it because I am multitasking too much during
recording? Or do I have something misconfigured? I was hoping I could
multitask (e.g., basic stuff). All I was doing was checking emails,
Web browsing with Mozilla v1.5, etc.

Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...

first cause is the hard drives , and having DMA on, some chipsets and the DMA
drivers are problematic. try tuning all components to optimum
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first cause is the hard drives , and having DMA on, some chipsets and the DMA
drivers are problematic. try tuning all components to optimum
Click to expand...

How do I tune all to optimum? I thought they were optimum already. I
have Hyperion 4in1 driver, all updates, latest BIOS, etc.
--
"Really. And do these lions eat ants?" --John Cleese in Monty Python's
Flying Circus
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Ant @ The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Remove ANT if replying by e-mail from a newsgroup.
( )
 
How do I tune all to optimum? I thought they were optimum already. I
have Hyperion 4in1 driver, all updates, latest BIOS, etc.
Click to expand...

have you checked in the system icon to see if your IDE controller in on UDMA?

is you hard drive defragged so it has a linear path when writting?

how much memory do you have? how is the harddrive buffers set up?

I'm using a RAID 0 with 3 harddrives hooked up to a Rocketraid 404 and do all
my captures to it, also have the main drive well defragged
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How do I tune all to optimum? I thought they were optimum already. I
have Hyperion 4in1 driver, all updates, latest BIOS, etc.
Click to expand...
[/QUOTE]
have you checked in the system icon to see if your IDE controller in on UDMA?
Click to expand...

Yep. Primary IDE Channel Properties: UDMA Mode 4 and UDMA Mode 2.
Secondary IDE Channel Properties: UDMA Mode 2 and Multi-Word DMA Mode 2
However, I forgot to mention that the HDD that gets recordings are not
the ones above. It is on the new Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 Plus ST3120026A 120
GB (8 MB cache; 7200 RPM) HDD. According to Promise BIOS, it said UDMA 5.

is you hard drive defragged so it has a linear path when writting?
Click to expand...

Yep! I think the last time I defrag this HDD was two weeks ago. Do I need
to do it often? If so, then how often?

how much memory do you have? how is the harddrive buffers set up?
Click to expand...

See above for RAM (1 GB). How do I check HDD buffer setups?

I'm using a RAID 0 with 3 harddrives hooked up to a Rocketraid 404 and do all
my captures to it, also have the main drive well defragged
Click to expand...
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Click to expand...

What's up with all these verisign e-mail addrsses? Very annoying!
--
"Really. And do these lions eat ants?" --John Cleese in Monty Python's
Flying Circus
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Ant @ The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Remove ANT if replying by e-mail from a newsgroup.
( )
 
What's up with all these verisign e-mail addrsses? Very annoying!
--
"Really. And do these lions eat ants?" --John Cleese in Monty Python's
Flying Circus
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Ant @ The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Remove ANT if replying by e-mail from a newsgroup.
( )
Click to expand...

For the same reason as you ANTispam your email address, Ant. Presumably
he's less than happy with Verisign and is inviting them to a spamfest. Hey,
do ants like spam? ;-)

patrickp
 
For the same reason as you ANTispam your email address, Ant. Presumably
he's less than happy with Verisign and is inviting them to a spamfest. Hey,
do ants like spam? ;-)
Click to expand...

Oh, what did Verisign do? Ants hate cyberspace spam. ;)
--
"Remember, ants are only waiting for you to die..." --unknown
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Ant @ The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Remove ANT if replying by e-mail from a newsgroup.
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