Multitasking PowerDVD & Hipix

341 Views 5 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Joe Q, Nov 1, 2001

ronbaker

Discussion Starter · Oct 30, 2001

I'm using Win 2000 on a Pentium 3 800mhz w/ 256 MB ram. I would like to watch a DVD (currently using Power DVD but plan on moving to Theatertek) and record HD using Hipix in the background. When I try this Hipix successfully records in background but when watching a DVD I get quite a few audio dropouts. Neither PowerDVD or hipix utilizes much CPU time but I'm getting the dropouts.

Should I overclock the CPU, expect the TT player to have less dropouts, or should I forget about multitasking these apps?

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JKohn

· #2 · Oct 30, 2001

I multitask my accessDTV with DVD software, and don't experience any dropouts at all except when the ADTV begins and finishes the recording I get a few seconds of stuttering. This is on a P3 850, so I would think your 800 should be OK.

What version of PowerDVD are you using? TheaterTek may improve matters since it uses the Radeon's hardware support, and should therefore use less CPU.

Are you using software audio decoding, or outputting SPDIF? Same question goes for the HiPix. If one or the other program is doing software decoding of audio that could account for the problems.

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MKANET

· #3 · Oct 30, 2001

I think the common denominator might be PowerDVD's audio. I have only tried the combination of PowerDVD 4 with HWMC and accessDTV recording in the background once. For the first time ever, I was getting audio stutters via s/pdif passthrough when watching a DVD and HDTV recording in the background. I imagine PowerDVD 4's S/PDIF is very sensitive to CPU usage. I don't remember having this problem with PowerDVD 3 and definitely not WinDVD.

It would be nice to get PowerDVD 4's audio stable during HDTV background recording since I REALLY like PowerDVD's audio fidelity. If there is no way to get it stable, I may have to revert back to Zoom player using either Cinemaster 4/PowerDVD 4's video with WinDVD 3.1's audio.

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foundation

· #4 · Oct 30, 2001

Since you are running windows 2000 (works in NT too), I'd suggest using the task manager, going to the processes tab. Right clicking on a process will allow you to adjust it's priority. You might try playing with different combinations to see if anything solves the problem. I was having hipix playback problems when using IE (or anything else) in the foreground, and bumping up the hipix thread's priority fixed it. Thus hopefully bumping up PowerDVD's priority will fix your problem without harming hipix's recording capability.

For me it wasn't that the cpu was being used too much by IE, it's just that hipix wasn't getting the CPU when it needed it (seems fairly sensitive -- implies small buffers I think).

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Joe Q

· #5 · Oct 31, 2001

Quote:

Originally posted by JKohn
I multitask my accessDTV with DVD software, and don't experience any dropouts at all except when the ADTV begins and finishes the recording I get a few seconds of stuttering. This is on a P3 850, so I would think your 800 should be OK.

Well, I sure feel stupid

It never occurred to me to even try to do both at the same time. So this post made me want to try it.

Interesting results.

I am getting a split second audio stutter approximately every 30-40 seconds from the Hipix while recording (barely noticable) and I am playing a DVD with Theatertek at the same time which is NOT stuttering at all.

The Hipix is set to output via it's SPDIF connection and the DVD I am playing has a 5.1 DD track with SPDIF enabled at 48K with my SB Platinum card.

The connections are to my Receiver and the video is being displayed on my HDTV.

This is with Windows 2000 on a 866Mhz P3 with 256MB memory.

I have a Hipix timed recording set to go off at 9:00 tonight to record Hollow Man on HBOHD and I will watch a DVD through it's entirety at the same time.

I'll report back in the morning how the Hipix and TT behaved.

Thanks,

Joe

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Joe Q

· #6 · Nov 1, 2001

I watched a DVD with TT while the Hipix was recording Hollow Man on HBOHD at the same time.

The DVD was 100% glitch free during the entire movie and I watched my Hipix recording the next night (last night). It was also 100% glitch free.

So, on my 866Mhz machine and Win2k, I am pleased to find out that I can watch a DVD (ay least with the TT player) and record with the Hipix simultaneously.

Joe

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