[vdr] Re: VDR 1.3.12 buffer optimizations - SOLVED!

[Reinhard Nissl <rnissl@gmx.de>]

Hi,

Klaus Schmidinger wrote:

> Note that right now the Transfer Mode is a little "jerky" at the beginning,
That's absolutely true and it makes vdr-xine almost unuseable (a huge 
prebuffer of 4 seconds seems to be a workaround most of the time). But I 
currently have no idea whats wrong nor do I know how to improve the situation.

Strange is that I get buffer overflows although PlayVideo() was never called 
to deliver this data. The logfile entries below were created like that: when 
VDR calls PlayVideo() the first time after SetPlayMode(1) I write a "." on 
console which tells me that "soft start" begins. When this "." appears I 
manually switch on to the next channel.

So the sequence was like that:

	20.21.22.23.24.25[no dot]26.27.

Another issue concerns dolby audio: has there anything changed in breaking 
down those packets into smaller ones? I ask because a lot of FIXMEs are 
triggered in my code that deal with packet reassembly.

BTW: I've modified the source as suggested: changed all cCondVar to 
cCondVarSimple in VDR's sources. Added 1.3.12 cCondVar back to thread.[ch]. 
Commented out the section around "MAXNONUSEFULDATA".

Oct 10 20:18:15 video vdr[25497]: switching to channel 24
Oct 10 20:18:15 video vdr[25960]: transfer thread ended (pid=25960, tid=1933321)
Oct 10 20:18:15 video vdr[25497]: buffer stats: 40044 (0%) used
Oct 10 20:18:15 video vdr[25962]: TS buffer on device 1 thread ended 
(pid=25962, tid=1966091)
Oct 10 20:18:15 video vdr[25961]: buffer stats: 43052 (2%) used
Oct 10 20:18:15 video vdr[25961]: receiver on device 1 thread ended 
(pid=25961, tid=1949706)
Oct 10 20:18:15 video vdr[25497]: buffer stats: 0 (0%) used
Oct 10 20:18:15 video vdr[25965]: transfer thread started (pid=25965, tid=1998857)
Oct 10 20:18:15 video vdr[25966]: receiver on device 1 thread started 
(pid=25966, tid=2015242)
Oct 10 20:18:15 video vdr[25967]: TS buffer on device 1 thread started 
(pid=25967, tid=2031627)
Oct 10 20:18:15 video vdr[25897]: ERROR: can't open XPM file 
'/soft/vdr-1.3.12/etc/vdr/plugins/text2skin/MoroneFlat
/logos//Bloomberg TV Germany;Bloomberg.xpm'
Oct 10 20:18:15 video vdr[25501]: channel 27 (QVC Deutschland;QVC) event 07:00 
'Rund ums Haus' status 4
Oct 10 20:18:15 video vdr[25501]: channel 24 (Bloomberg TV Germany;Bloomberg) 
event 07:35 'Chefsache' status 4
Oct 10 20:18:15 video vdr[25897]: ERROR: can't open XPM file 
'/soft/vdr-1.3.12/etc/vdr/plugins/text2skin/MoroneFlat
/logos//Bloomberg TV Germany;Bloomberg.xpm'
Oct 10 20:18:16 video vdr[25497]: switching to channel 25
Oct 10 20:18:16 video vdr[25965]: transfer thread ended (pid=25965, tid=1998857)
Oct 10 20:18:17 video vdr[25967]: TS buffer on device 1 thread ended 
(pid=25967, tid=2031627)
Oct 10 20:18:17 video vdr[25966]: buffer stats: 48316 (2%) used
Oct 10 20:18:17 video vdr[25966]: receiver on device 1 thread ended 
(pid=25966, tid=2015242)
Oct 10 20:18:17 video vdr[25497]: cTS2PES got 0 TS errors, 1 TS continuity errors
Oct 10 20:18:17 video vdr[25497]: buffer stats: 91744 (2%) used
Oct 10 20:18:17 video vdr[25968]: transfer thread started (pid=25968, tid=2048009)
Oct 10 20:18:17 video vdr[25969]: receiver on device 1 thread started 
(pid=25969, tid=2064394)
Oct 10 20:18:17 video vdr[25970]: TS buffer on device 1 thread started 
(pid=25970, tid=2080779)
Oct 10 20:18:17 video vdr[25897]: ERROR: can't open XPM file 
'/soft/vdr-1.3.12/etc/vdr/plugins/text2skin/MoroneFlat
/logos//Astra Vision;ASTRA.xpm'
Oct 10 20:18:22 video vdr[25897]: Text2Skin: Channel display update thread 
ended (pid=25897, tid=999438)
Oct 10 20:18:22 video vdr[25969]: buffer usage: 70% (tid=2048009)
Oct 10 20:18:23 video vdr[25969]: buffer usage: 80% (tid=2048009)
Oct 10 20:18:24 video vdr[25969]: buffer usage: 90% (tid=2048009)
Oct 10 20:18:24 video vdr[25969]: buffer usage: 100% (tid=2048009)
Oct 10 20:18:24 video vdr[25969]: ERROR: 1 ring buffer overflow (165 bytes 
dropped)
Oct 10 20:18:30 video vdr[25969]: ERROR: 13602 ring buffer overflows (2557176 
bytes dropped)
Oct 10 20:18:35 video vdr[25497]: switching to channel 26
Oct 10 20:18:35 video vdr[25968]: transfer thread ended (pid=25968, tid=2048009)
Oct 10 20:18:35 video vdr[25497]: buffer stats: 4194303 (100%) used
Oct 10 20:18:35 video vdr[25970]: TS buffer on device 1 thread ended 
(pid=25970, tid=2080779)
Oct 10 20:18:35 video vdr[25969]: buffer stats: 79148 (3%) used
Oct 10 20:18:35 video vdr[25969]: receiver on device 1 thread ended 
(pid=25969, tid=2064394)
Oct 10 20:18:35 video vdr[25497]: buffer stats: 0 (0%) used
Oct 10 20:18:35 video vdr[25976]: transfer thread started (pid=25976, tid=2113545)
Oct 10 20:18:35 video vdr[25977]: receiver on device 1 thread started 
(pid=25977, tid=2129930)
Oct 10 20:18:35 video vdr[25978]: TS buffer on device 1 thread started 
(pid=25978, tid=2146315)
Oct 10 20:18:36 video vdr[25980]: Text2Skin: Channel display update thread 
started (pid=25980, tid=2179086)
Oct 10 20:18:36 video vdr[25980]: ERROR: can't open XPM file 
'/soft/vdr-1.3.12/etc/vdr/plugins/text2skin/MoroneFlat
/logos//HSE24;BetaDigital.xpm'
Oct 10 20:18:41 video vdr[25980]: Text2Skin: Channel display update thread 
ended (pid=25980, tid=2179086)

> Also, I'd like to hear whether this patch actually improves things for _your_
> systems, too.
I cannot see a big improvement as the most CPU intensive job is decoding and 
displaying the MPEG stream. But it seems that Astra HD plays a bit more 
fluently than before.

Bye.
--
Dipl.-Inform. (FH) Reinhard Nissl
mailto:rnissl@gmx.de