Live TV glitches when there is no intensive program running

[duder_me]

I have a USB ATI TV Wonder 600 that I use to watch Live TV with on Windows Media Center on Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. My laptop is an ASUS R500A-SX160S with an Intel Core i7-3610QM Processor, 2.3GHz, 8GB DDR3 RAM, 750GB 5,400RPM Hard Drive, and Intel HD Graphics 4000. Here is a link to the product description (and I'm from the U.S., not Canada) http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6834231071.

The problem I have is that sometimes when playing Live TV, Windows Media Center glitches out and the video that is broadcast starts to stutter with pixelation and artifacts. This is remedied simply by opening a memory intensive program, such as Google Chrome or a video game. When I exit out of such programs, the problem occurs again.

Now, I don't mind having to leave my web browser open to watch or record T.V., but I would like to know what is causing the problem and how I can solve it. I think it has to do with throttling on Windows Media Center's part, but I'm not sure.

[SoNic67]

Disable CPU power throttling in your BIOS.

[duder_me]

I know it has been a long time since I posted, but I checked my BIOS and there doesn't seem to be any option relating to disabling CPU power throttling. I even turned on High Performance mode in the power settings and that hasn't done anything.What is ironic about all this is that Live TV works fine on another laptop I have that has an Intel Celeron processor with 2GB of RAM, whereas mine has an Intel Core i7 with 8GB of RAM. Like I said, if an intensive program isn't running in the background, Live TV stutters and pixelates. I don't know what to do.

[newfiend]

I think you may find that the issue is the HDD in the laptop. A 5,400 RPM HDD isn't very fast.. Live TV buffer's to the HDD prior to playback (That way you can REW Live TV). There are others complaining of the same issue you are having here : http://www.pcmediacenter.com.au/forum/t ... ad-tuners/
I realize that they are asking about multiple tuners in this thread and you are using the USB ATI TV Wonder 600 but I think the HDD is where your system is a bit "bottle necked" as far as hardware goes. Upgrading that to a faster 7,200 RPM drive would most likely fix the issue.

You should also make sure you disable USB Selective suspend in Power Options and make sure you have the latest USB Drivers and BIOS installed for your PC prior to updating the HDD.

To test the HDD open up Task Manager in a Window > select the Performance Tab > then Resource Monitor button > Open WMC in a Window and watch TV. Watch the Disk meter and if it's maxing out when you're watching TV throughput could be the issue and you need a faster HDD for smoother playback. And even if it isn't maxed out but close to it any background task that windows decides to run in the background whilst you are watching TV will cause the TV picture to stutter and drop frames etc.. I would put money on it being the HDD. But I've been wrong before.
newfiend~

[duder_me]

I think you may find that the issue is the HDD in the laptop. A 5,400 RPM HDD isn't very fast.. Live TV buffer's to the HDD prior to playback (That way you can REW Live TV). There are others complaining of the same issue you are having here : http://www.pcmediacenter.com.au/forum/t ... ad-tuners/
I realize that they are asking about multiple tuners in this thread and you are using the USB ATI TV Wonder 600 but I think the HDD is where your system is a bit "bottle necked" as far as hardware goes. Upgrading that to a faster 7,200 RPM drive would most likely fix the issue.

You should also make sure you disable USB Selective suspend in Power Options and make sure you have the latest USB Drivers and BIOS installed for your PC prior to updating the HDD.

To test the HDD open up Task Manager in a Window > select the Performance Tab > then Resource Monitor button > Open WMC in a Window and watch TV. Watch the Disk meter and if it's maxing out when you're watching TV throughput could be the issue and you need a faster HDD for smoother playback. And even if it isn't maxed out but close to it any background task that windows decides to run in the background whilst you are watching TV will cause the TV picture to stutter and drop frames etc.. I would put money on it being the HDD. But I've been wrong before.
newfiend~

You may have a point about the HDD. It has maxed out once or twice on the Disk meter, but for some strange reason, it wasn't stuttering when I had the intensive program closed this time around. Usually I have to rely on an intensive program running in the background in order to keep Live TV playback smooth. I've been thinking about upgrading for a while now. Would an SSD work?

[crawfish]

I don't know about laptops, but since 2007, I've only used WD 5400 RPM Green drives in my desktop, and they've been perfectly fine recording 4 programs at once while watching Live TV or another program. I've always used a dedicated drive for WMC. You wouldn't want to use an SSD for WMC because of the expense, continuous writing pattern, and the fact that even slow HDs work great.

Given that opening another program clears up the problem, which is weird, I would look at CPU and disk usage before and after starting the program. Sysinternals Process Explorer and Monitor are your friends here. See if anything else is hammering the CPU or disk before you start the program, and see if it eases down when you start the program.

[richard1980]

While I agree that the HDD could be too slow to handle both buffering and background tasks, I disagree that the solution is to switch from a 5400 RPM drive to a 7200 RPM drive. First, the speed at which the drive spins is irrelevant. When comparing two drives, compare the throughput, not the rotation speed. Second, live TV buffering requires very little HDD performance, so if the HDD is in fact too slow to handle buffering and background tasks simultaneously, then there are some very read/write intensive background tasks running, which is abnormal. If that is the case, then there should be an investigation into why the background tasks are chewing up the HDD.

That said, I don't think the HDD is the issue in this case. The OP stated (twice) that the issue goes away when a memory-intensive application is running.

[duder_me]

Here are screenshots of what I have observed. Even though I mentioned above that the problem seemingly went away (which it randomly has in the past), it came back again.

Stutter: Even though Chrome is open, a resource intensive website or tab wasn't running in the background


No Stutter: Chrome is running an active resource intensive website in the background (Hulu)


Again, as I have mentioned before, the other laptop I have doesn't seem to have any of these problems and runs Live TV independently. It's an Acer AO756 2623.

I have an Asus R500A-SX160S. http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6834231071. Even though it has a Canadian bilingual keyboard, I bought it refurbished in the U.S. from Micro Center. Even if the HDD isn't the problem, I guess I should mention that it's a Hitachi HTS547575A9E384 (750 GB, but actually 698 GB ).

Also, my computer's HDD has been wiped several times for clean installs. I recall having the same problems, even before I wiped the HDD from its factory install.

[newfiend]

While I agree that the HDD could be too slow to handle both buffering and background tasks, I disagree that the solution is to switch from a 5400 RPM drive to a 7200 RPM drive. First, the speed at which the drive spins is irrelevant. When comparing two drives, compare the throughput, not the rotation speed. Second, live TV buffering requires very little HDD performance, so if the HDD is in fact too slow to handle buffering and background tasks simultaneously, then there are some very read/write intensive background tasks running, which is abnormal. If that is the case, then there should be an investigation into why the background tasks are chewing up the HDD.

That said, I don't think the HDD is the issue in this case. The OP stated (twice) that the issue goes away when a memory-intensive application is running.

Do you think it could be faulty RAM causing this issue then or maybe the HDD is starting to wear out? What's strange (and seems backward) is that he says it seems to level off when running "memory intensive" programs but has issues when just watching TV. Maybe some RAM testing and or HDD Chkdsk is in order?
I'm at a bit of a loss as to what would cause this issue since you seem to think the HDD throughput should be fine.. Here are some benchmarks for his particular drive http://hdd.userbenchmark.com/SpeedTest/ ... 7575A9E384 it scored Average at 54.4% on their scale..
newfiend~

[Garst]

After building a new computer, I'm experiencing this problem too. Something that I'm noticing is that when the problem comes up, I still get the audio as if there isn't any problem. Also, after the problem comes up while watching live TV (which is the only time I ever have notice it happen), I can go to my Xbox 360 and startup the channel where I can watch it as if I had been watching from the Xbox all along. That leads me to believe this problem is probably an issue with my video card or the driver. After all, if it were a problem with any other component (e.g. WMC, Windows 8.1, TV Tuner) I wouldn't be able to go to the Xbox and pick up right where the video is glitching, although I think I can trigger the problem on the Xbox as well. So, it could be a codec problem, however, I think I'd be able to switch between watching Live TV on my computer and Xbox if the problem was the codec seems how I believe it's still the computer that is decoding the signal when watching on the Xbox. I haven't tried too much to fix the problem, because most of the time I'm just watching what I've recorded, which doesn't seem to have the problem. So I'd rather wait until after the end of the spring season so I don't miss shows that I'm watching. I haven't tried uninstalling WMC and reinstalling it or reinstalling video card drivers, although I might try the latter because it unlikely affect recording shows.

System Info
Custom Built
Windows 8.1
MSI 990FXA Gaming motherboard
AMD FX 8320
Sapphire 100316L Radeon HD 6790 (reused from old build)
Corsair XMS3 Tri Channel 6GB PC12800 DDR3 Memory - 1600MHz, 6144MB (3 x 2048) (reused from old build)
Samsung EVO SSD (for OS)
Seagate NAS HDD ST4000VN000 4TB (for recording) (bought right before old motherboard died; I don't believe I had the problem with the old build)
HDHomeRun TV Tuners (I have two, butdon't have the models off hand, but they worked with the computer this build replaced and it works with a Windows 7 computer that uses WiFi to connect to them, so I know they can't be the issue unless it has to do with Windows 8.1)

Old computer used an EVGA X58 3X SLI Classified motherboard with a Intel Core i7 920 Processor BX80601920. Originally it used a single WD WD2001FASS Caviar Black Hard Drive - 2TB, 7200 RPM for both the OS and recording.

[Crash2009]

MSI 990FXA Gaming motherboard
AMD FX 8320
Sapphire 100316L Radeon HD 6790 (reused from old build)
Corsair XMS3 Tri Channel 6GB PC12800 DDR3 Memory - 1600MHz, 6144MB (3 x 2048) (reused from old build)

previous motherboard

EVGA X58 3X SLI Classified

I think I would start by eliminating the ram as being part of the problem. Corsair suggests a "Dual Channel Kit" for that board. Dual Channel Ram is a matching Pair/Pairs. http://www.corsair.com/en-us/memory-finder If replacing the ram is not an option at present time, you could try 2 sticks of the existing ram in different MB slots. example: instead of using MB Slot 1 and 2, try 1 and 3, or, 2 and 4. The MB manual might have some details on this....

Using the same Memory Finder at Corsair for the EVGA X58 3X SLI Classified, they suggest Triple or Single Channel Ram.

Then there is the possibility that one stick or one MB slot is bad. Label all three sticks 1, 2, and 3. Try each Stick in all 4 MB Slots. Record your results. EXAMPLE...

stick1 in slot1 =
stick1 in slot2 =
stick1 in slot3 =
stick1 in slot4 =

Then do the same for stick's 2 and 3

Some guys recommend Memtest. I have used the bootable version in the past. Takes too long, in my opinion, all though Memtest (and the above test) is likely necessary to prove warranty.

[Garst]

MSI 990FXA Gaming motherboard
AMD FX 8320
Sapphire 100316L Radeon HD 6790 (reused from old build)
Corsair XMS3 Tri Channel 6GB PC12800 DDR3 Memory - 1600MHz, 6144MB (3 x 2048) (reused from old build)

previous motherboard

EVGA X58 3X SLI Classified

I think I would start by eliminating the ram as being part of the problem. Corsair suggests a "Dual Channel Kit" for that board. Dual Channel Ram is a matching Pair/Pairs. http://www.corsair.com/en-us/memory-finder If replacing the ram is not an option at present time, you could try 2 sticks of the existing ram in different MB slots. example: instead of using MB Slot 1 and 2, try 1 and 3, or, 2 and 4. The MB manual might have some details on this....

Using the same Memory Finder at Corsair for the EVGA X58 3X SLI Classified, they suggest Triple or Single Channel Ram.

Then there is the possibility that one stick or one MB slot is bad. Label all three sticks 1, 2, and 3. Try each Stick in all 4 MB Slots. Record your results. EXAMPLE...

stick1 in slot1 =
stick1 in slot2 =
stick1 in slot3 =
stick1 in slot4 =

Then do the same for stick's 2 and 3

Some guys recommend Memtest. I have used the bootable version in the past. Takes too long, in my opinion, all though Memtest (and the above test) is likely necessary to prove warranty.

The EVGA board is dead. I don't know why it died, but it's not the first time I've had an EVGA board die on me. Granted, this only brings the total to two, but this was a replacement board after the first one died well within a year of purchase, but that's irrelevant. That is why I built a computer using the specific MSI board. It allowed me to cannibalize the RAM and video card (not that video cards are too specific to a chipset). I did make sure both were compatible with the board I bought by actually limiting possible replacement to the RAM that I had; I wanted a quick, cheap solution. Long story short, I'm 100% confident that all components are compatible.

For now, I am fine leaving the bug alone, because it only shows up when I use "skip forward/back" while watching live TV, which isn't too often. Plus, I do have the work around where I can startup my Xbox 360 to maintain the buffer while I restart WMC (just the program; not windows). That does work, so I'm don't need to do too much until summer when there aren't really any shows I want to record. At that point, I might try uninstalling WMC and reinstall it, but I do believe the likely solution will be replacing the video card. While the video card does still work mostly without error, it's old. But I have had the error message bubble come up once or twice saying the video card driver crashed and windows was able to reinitiate it. Yesterday, I did try reinstalling the driver, but WMC will still glitch, so that's not the solution. I also did run MEMTEST86 v5.01. I let it do one pass and the RAM tested fine, so I have no reason the RAM was damaged when I put it into the new system. That leads me to believe the problem has to either be with the video card or the bug is a memory glitch in WMC. I really do believe the problem is most likely with the video card given I have seen windows tell me it has crashed since I built this system (which was done in early March 2016. Yes, this year) and because I can pass the live TV buffer to the Xbox 360 without any problem. If it was anything other than the video card, I wouldn't be able to continue watching on the 360. If WMC, the HDD, RAM, TV tuner, or network and/or port was the problem, the 360 would give some sort of error or also have the glitch when streaming from WMC. Actually, the 360 would probably just show an error connecting to WMC. The video card and/or driver is the most likely the faulty component for me, so my only recourse will be to buy a new video card. Hopefully if/when I do that it will fix the glitch. If I do decide to try to fix the glitch, I'll try to remember to post the results of what I do.

[Crash2009]

The 2nd thing I would look into would be the HD6700. I have a 6700 series video adapter in my main Win7 HTPC. I tried many different driver versions with that one. None of them worked correctly for me.

The key for me was to remove everything AMD and use Windows Update to figure out what driver is best for me.

Windows Update selected an older driver 4-19-2011 (Version 8.850.0.0) as being best for me. The driver came with No Catalyst or Hydrovision, and has been flawless for about 4 years.

[Crash2009]

The 3rd thing I would look into would be the Power Supply. Test for proper voltage going into the HD6790. Might as well test them all while you are in there. Testing the Power Supply takes longer than replacement, maybe throw your spare in instead. Instructions for testing are all over the internet. Basically all you do is jumper a couple of contacts with a paper clip, and test the leads with a multi-meter. The manufacturer of the PS posts the specs on their website.

[Garst]

The 2nd thing I would look into would be the HD6700. I have a 6700 series video adapter in my main Win7 HTPC. I tried many different driver versions with that one. None of them worked correctly for me.

The key for me was to remove everything AMD and use Windows Update to figure out what driver is best for me.

Windows Update selected an older driver 4-19-2011 (Version 8.850.0.0) as being best for me. The driver came with No Catalyst or Hydrovision, and has been flawless for about 4 years.

Assuming reviews for the video card came out shortly after the release of the card itself, the card was is hardware from early 2011. Windows 8 didn't come out until late 2012. So there is two years between the two products with some major changes made to Windows, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if it is just a bad driver. Maybe I could get the same results getting the driver through Windows Update, but seems how I wouldn't mind getting some new games to play, having a newer card would be something I should do anyways. After all, the current card is 5 years old. It was fairly top of the line when I bought it, but you can get equivalent cards for pretty cheap that were tested to work with Windows 8 before being sold.

As for the power supply, that was replaced when I decided to upgrade the EVGA based system with an SSD and 4GB drive, because the old PS didn't have enough SATA connectors and I couldn't remember where I put all extra cables that could be added to the PS. Plus that power supply was showing signs of failure. The new PS has been performing rock solid, so I don't think that's the problem.

P.S. The exact data I purchased the video card was 11/10/2011. The rest of the system components were actually procured 10/29/2009, which obviously included a different video card that the 6790 replaced. Love how easy it is to keep track of digital invoices.

[Crash2009]

Something worth considering is... 8.1 is the end of the line for WMC. Have a look around here at TGB in the WMC/8.1 section, find some members with no complaints, click on their HTPC Specs (just under their name), see what cards are working and maybe just up/or/downgrade the video adapter (or driver) to something that works.

If you have to go to Win10 to get the most out of the new card you buy....That is a whole different "Can of Worms", but not impossible.

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 16#p103216