Choppy playback on recorded shows

[galenwright]

Hi there,

Hoping somebody can help me with the following problem I'm having.

First off, I have a P4 1.7 Ghz system, 1 GB RAM, Windows XP Prof and
ATI AIW 9200.

Whenever I watch TV live, performance is fine. When I record a
program and play it back later, there is frequent "choppyness". So,
I'm thinking there's an IO problem somewhere. I've tried recording to
my internal hard drive (probably only 5400 RPM) and to an external USB
2.0 drive (7200 RPM), both with the same result. I've tried both
ATI's native video capturing software as well as "Beyond TV". In both
cases I've tried all sorts of different settings as far as media type
and quality to record to (MPEG-2, AVI, DivX) but no difference. I've
also burned to DVD and played on a regular DVD player and found the
choppyness comes up at the exact same times as when I play it on my
computer so I know the videos are being recorded that way. I've went
as far as re-imaging my system, re-installing all the latest drivers
for everything and re-installing the apps but still the same issue
arises. In the case of Beyond TV, I've tried upping the Beyond TV
Recording Engine process to realtime but no difference.

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

 

[Captain Midnight]

Hi there,

Hoping somebody can help me with the following problem I'm having.

First off, I have a P4 1.7 Ghz system, 1 GB RAM, Windows XP Prof and
ATI AIW 9200.

Whenever I watch TV live, performance is fine. When I record a
program and play it back later, there is frequent "choppyness". So,
I'm thinking there's an IO problem somewhere. I've tried recording to
my internal hard drive (probably only 5400 RPM) and to an external USB
2.0 drive (7200 RPM), both with the same result. I've tried both
ATI's native video capturing software as well as "Beyond TV". In both
cases I've tried all sorts of different settings as far as media type
and quality to record to (MPEG-2, AVI, DivX) but no difference. I've
also burned to DVD and played on a regular DVD player and found the
choppyness comes up at the exact same times as when I play it on my
computer so I know the videos are being recorded that way. I've went
as far as re-imaging my system, re-installing all the latest drivers
for everything and re-installing the apps but still the same issue
arises. In the case of Beyond TV, I've tried upping the Beyond TV
Recording Engine process to realtime but no difference.

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

I doubt it's a drive speed problem but make sure DMA is turned on to the IDE
drive. Make sure you have the latest chipset drivers for you motherboard. If
you don't have the latest BIOS and a newer one has any needed fixes,
upgrade. I record HDTV to a USB2 drive so the design is up to it.

Check your CPU usage in Task Manager. I'd expect it to be less than 40%
while recording if your system is clean. Stop anything you don't really need
running. Networking can cause problems even if CPU usage isn't high. Disable
any modems and network cards in Device Manager then you can disable
Anti-Virus program. Once it's working turn needed things back on

 

[Michel R. Carleer]

At what res do you try to capture?
With my previous PC (2.5 GHz PIV) I could divx only up to 384 x 288 at 25fps
+ sound without problem. Above that res and fps, the task would use more
than 100% CPU time. Then I had the same as you: the recorded stream was all
choppy because the program was missing frames regularly.
With my new C2D, I can capture at full res and speed (768 x 576, 25fps).
All this with a Hauppauge or Pinnacle TV card, not an AIW.

 

[Howard]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in @o61g2000hsh.googlegroups.com:

Hi there,

Hoping somebody can help me with the following problem I'm having.

First off, I have a P4 1.7 Ghz system, 1 GB RAM, Windows XP Prof and
ATI AIW 9200.

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

As you posted this to the TiVo group...I would say get a TiVo and not worry
about it anymore.