Win7 or XP for recording service?

[Rob100]

Hi all,

 

For the last 15 months or so I've been using the recording service on WinXP with very few issues. It's wakes up when I expect it to and goes to standby when complete. All seems very stable. This PC has no other function other than to record and serve media to my LAN.

 

Everything other "Windows" PC I own now runs Win7 (a mix of 32 and 64 bit) and I'm wondering if I should upgrade this PC also to Win7? I have checked and there are drivers for my TV "cards" both 32 and 64 bit.

 

Are there any advantage as far as the recording service goes, running under Win7? Any preference to 32 or 64 bit?

 

Lars - what OS do you develop the recording service under?

 

Any comments welcome please before I potentially waste several hours doing this.

 

Thanks,

 

Rob.

[Lars_MQ]

You know the old saying: Never touch a running system.

So my advice: don't change anything, if you don't have to. There are no advantages using the recording service with windows 7.

[Rob100]

Thanks Lars.

 

The only reason I am considering the change is because I've noticed when I copy TS files across the network, whilst the recording service is recording, occasionally this causes a glitch or two in the recording.

 

This doesn't happen every time and more often when I have lets say 2 recording on the go at the same time. Typically this is as the copy starts. No doubt this is down to the HDD not being able to keep up with both operation's - I was thinking Win7 might perform better in this respect.

[Rob100]

Lars... Just been thinking...

 

You said there's no advantage running the rec service under Win7 - question is, are there any disadvantages from your point of view as the developer?

[Lars_MQ]

With windows 7 the recording service can't prevent hibernate or shutdown anymore. That's in my eyes one of the biggest problems. And windows 7 needs more resources as XP.

[majstang]

The only reason I am considering the change is because I've noticed when I copy TS files across the network, whilst the recording service is recording, occasionally this causes a glitch or two in the recording.

A job for the stream patcher...but wait it does not work in RS

Edited June 14, 2010 by majstang

[krasno]

yes.. for heavens sake don't touch it if it works...

[Lars_MQ]

Did I understand this correctly:

The recording service was recording something. You copied (via network) (large) TS-files and this caused discontinuity errors in the recording?

 

First: Set the priority of the recording service to higher in the configuration program ( http://en.DVBViewer.tv/wiki/Options_Service ). This ensures it will get preferred CPU time. Then check your AntiVirus program if it tries to scan the files while copying (not necessary for TS files).

 

And depending on your rec. Service version:

If Version < 1.6.0.0 you can set the Maximum Buffersize ( http://en.DVBViewer.tv/wiki/Options_Service_-_Recorder#Maximum_buffer_size ) to a higher value (10% of the physical RAM, this much will in most cases never been used).

The current version sets the value by itself. This can help if the service can't write the data fast enough to the hard disk.

[Rob100]

Yes you've got it in one

 

I've made the changes you've suggested. I'm still on 1.5.101, didn't see the update! I will look at that later, I've just downloaded it. The new changelog doesn't mention 1.6 - I wonder what's new...

 

A bit off topic... Do you remember me asking for the systems current time being displayed on the status page? I know you liked the idea at the time. Any chance sometime soon?

Edited June 14, 2010 by Rob100

[Lars_MQ]

    {servertime}
   {serverdate}

Are the tags for it. I think it's in there since you asked, but I forgot to integrate it into the templates.

 

The new changelog doesn't mention 1.6

Oh it does: http://www.DVBViewer.info/forum/topic/19629-recordingservice-beta/page__pid__298938__st__40#entry298938

[Rob100]

Ahh, I was looking here http://www.DVBViewer.com/lars/readme_svc.html - next to the download link

 

Will look at those tags, thanks.

[Rob100]

Here's something interesting...

 

I have 2 x PCI DVB-S2, 1 x PCI DVB-T and 1 x USB DVB-T tuners in my system. I've just been doing some tests (I should have done this before!) having made the changes you suggests and it seems that only the DVB-S2 cards produce errors.

 

Also I don't have to be copying to or from the same hard drive that the recording service is using, so I'm wondering it's a driver issue with the cards or a PCI bandwidth/latency problem. This takes me back to the days of analogue video capture!

 

I think one way or the other I need to make some changes to the system, now I've identified there is a problem. I'll install a fresh copy of Win-something on a new partition just so I can "fall back" if needs be...

[Lars_MQ]

It might indeed be a PCI bus bandwidth problem.

[patti]

Thanks Lars.

 

The only reason I am considering the change is because I've noticed when I copy TS files across the network, whilst the recording service is recording, occasionally this causes a glitch or two in the recording.

 

This doesn't happen every time and more often when I have lets say 2 recording on the go at the same time. Typically this is as the copy starts. No doubt this is down to the HDD not being able to keep up with both operation's - I was thinking Win7 might perform better in this respect.

 

I had these network transfer related discontinuities with my old HTPC. At first they were caused by an old soundcard (Creative Value something). Then I switched to another motherboard but this also caused discontinuities on some tuners. This, I found out, occurred only with tuners in certain PCI slots. Swapping tuners to different PCI slots helped to solve this. I suppose it had somethinng to do with shared interrupts between network card and tuners/PCI-slots. The systems in question were in P4 2.4-3.0 GHz range so not even really slow ones.

 

Maybe this gives you ideas on how to solve your problems.

 

patti

[Rob100]

Patti - Thanks for that. It's not causing me big problems, but I am a bit of a perfectionist and do like to get everything just right. I've had similar issues (years ago) with my Matrox RT2000 (video editing) trying to build a perfect system. You wouldn't believe how many motherboards, network cards, hard drive controllers and sound cards I went through until it was just right and I no longer had to deal with dropped frames whilst capturing. It was a juggling act putting different cards in different PCI slots and installing Win2K (and later XP) as a "standard PC" rather than "ACPI"

Edited June 15, 2010 by Rob100

[patti]

With windows 7 the recording service can't prevent hibernate or shutdown anymore. That's in my eyes one of the biggest problems.

 

I have made a small piece of vbscript which checks whether recording service is recording or if a recording is due soon. This way I can prevent my dedicated HTPC from shutting down in the middle of a recording if I press my remote power button and instead it just shuts down the monitor and lets the recording finish. If someone is interested in this script that circumvents one of Win7's biggest problems with DVBViewer, please let me know.

 

This kind of software check would be nice to have built-in in DVBViewer for Win7 but for the moment I am happy with how my script performs.

 

patti

Edited June 16, 2010 by patti

[majstang]

If someone is interested in this script that circumvents one of Win7's biggest problems with DVBViewer, please let me know.

Heck, yes! It is always intresting to see creative solutions Maybe you can post it in the script lounge? Im writing something similar myself, but not for workaround the Win7 issue. It is a general hibernationscript which behaves differently depending on the day of the week, time of the day and if a recording is going on or not and/or if a recording is due soon.

[patti]

Heck, yes! It is always intresting to see creative solutions Maybe you can post it in the script lounge? .

 

Check out scripting lounge. I am off to bed now, it's past midnight here...

 

patti