iPlayer Desktop Only Using 1 Core

[Anders]

I've noticed BBC HD content skips a lot when I watch it and discovered that the iPlayer Desktop is utilising only one core of my CPU, i.e. core 1 usage at 100%, core 2 around 10%. Is there any way to get a better balance or is video playback something that can't exploit parallelism?

System for info:
Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope 9.04
Core 2 Duo 6420 (@ stock)
Asus P5B
2GB Geil RAM (spec: PC2-8500 DDR2 1066 MHz, CAS 4-4-4-12)
GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB

Time to try to the http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...beginners.html perhaps

[TheAnimus]

You using 64bit, you could just use Windows 7, or just jump on the flash sucks bandwagon.

Its entirely because flash can only address one thread, you have no hardware acceleration working. Depending on how the affinity for the task scheduler is set up, you will see it just max one core, the best you could hope for is 50% of each. Its been too long since I used linux for me to be able to say with any authority what's going on really thou (2.4 days!)

[watercooled]

Does iPlayer desktop even use flash? I don't think anything as drastic as an OS swap is a good recommendation for this case before knowing what's causing the problem, unless the OP is dual booting and already has 7 that is. Do you have the proprietary nvidia drivers installed? I'm not exactly sure how iPlayer desktop works but after a quick Google search it looks like it does support hardware acceleration so your system should have no trouble playing back the H.264 videos I think it uses.

[TheAnimus]

I thought they only had them for 64bit? In which case an OS change is the only option if its a media PC to turn it into something useful.

[TheAnimus]

actually my quick google I have yet to find mention of it working fully under linux.
http://www.liliputing.com/2009/11/ad...n-arrives.html

[watercooled]

But I don't think iPlayer desktop uses flash at all, I could be wrong...

[TAKTAK]

But I don't think iPlayer desktop uses flash at all, I could be wrong...

It uses Adobe AIR, which incorporates flash

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Integrated_Runtime

[watercooled]

I stand corrected, I thought it was just a custom media player using DRM-protected H.264 videos. That explains the crap performance then...

[Firejack]

.....Time to try to the http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...beginners.html perhaps

EXACTLY what I did on my Media server. E2180 overclocked from 2GHz to 3GHz. iPlayer Desktop runs smoothly now under Ubuntu 9.10

[Anders]

Cheers peops. I'm using 32-bit Ubuntu (and XP) and I have the proprietary Nvidia drivers installed. I can confirm the iPlayer uses Adobe AIR on Ubuntu and XP. Just installed iPlayer Desktop on XP and the load is fairly even across both cores and HD playback is smooth.

The iPlayer is running multiple processes on Ubuntu. You mention the affinity task scheduler. Can you give any more of a steer on that please?

[TheAnimus]

http://linux.die.net/man/2/sched_setaffinity

its kinda an 'advanced' topic, so make sure your not doing anything important at the time as you might end up making your system unstable and have to re-boot (but it sounds like you won't mind!)

affinity is just a mask that is used to say which logicals can work what processes, this helps as you can shift everything but the one task off one core, reducing the number of context switches. Thou without the hardware acceleration I don't think you have a shot for HD i'm affriad. If you've got a good heat sink overclocking might be the only way.

But I have to add i HATE that idea.

[Singh400]

EXACTLY what I did on my Media server. E2180 overclocked from 2GHz to 3GHz. iPlayer Desktop runs smoothly now under Ubuntu 9.10

Eh? You overclocked your media server? Why? It only serves files, if anything you should be under-clocking it, no?

[Anders]

Got my first modest overclock setup this morning with the FSB at 300, multi 8 (roughly 2.4 GHz). I've left my computer running Prime 95 to check it's stable. Is CoreTemp still regarded as the "most" accurate for temperature measuring? It'll be interesting to see how much overclocking is required to make any difference to the iPlayer ...

[Firejack]

2.66GHz is fast enough for smooth iPlayer playback on my E2180.

Eh? You overclocked your media server? Why? It only serves files, if anything you should be under-clocking it, no?

Originally I was short of a PC so used my Media Server as a Backend for Tvheadend/serving files and Frontend for playback using XBMC/Online video.


Its now used as a pure server but I kept it overclocked as it do some light media encoding from time to time.


The server only uses 65watts (at the wall) while serving files. Not too worried about having to save power with that figure

[Anders]

2.4 GHz survived 12 hours Prime 95 torture I pushed on to 333x8 and after just a few minutes (of Prime torture test) the temps were up to 60/65 degrees ... at which point I lost my bottle!



The OC guide says read the troubleshooting section if temps are too high, but I can't see anything related to that. CPU cooler is "Thermaltake Big Typhoon 120 VX" with "Arctic Silver 3" thermal paste. I'll see if I can increase the CPU fan speed (think it's set slow for noise) and hoover the case out. Is it worth reapplying the paste while I'm in there? Any other advice/tips?