[mythtvnz] The dreaded 'prebuffering pause'

[Tortise]

>>Can someone give me some pointers on resolving this?
>>
>>During live tv viewing I'm getting constant prebuffering pause warnings in the 
>>log, with their associated audio and video stutters.
>>
>>When watching live tv, mythfrontend is at around 105-110% CPU time according 
>>to top. Myth FE and BE are on the one box.
>>
>>I've compiled mythtv from source: 
>>http://svn.mythtv.org/svn/branches/release-0-22-fixes/ mythtv-0-22
>>and patched with the mythtv_ffmpeg_r20504.diff patch. I can minimise (but not 
>>eliminate) stuttering by switching to Alsa:HDMI but then I would prefer to use 
>>the 5.1 setup I have. I have tried every option in the audio setup, but still 
>>the stuttering persists.
>>
>>I can play back DVDs without any (apparent) issues.
>>
>>Mobo: Gigabyte GA-EG41MF-US2H (embedded Intel G41 video)
>>RAM: 4gb interleaved DDR2 800
>>CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo (E7500) 2.93GHz
>>USB DVB-T card: AverTV Volar Black HD (afatech AF9015 firmware loaded)
>>
>>This is on a minimal install of OpenSuse 11.2 64 (just X and TVWM - no Gnome 
>>or KDE installed/running).
>>
>>I haven't yet checked to see if XvMC is working/installed yet - I'm googling 
>>that now as I have no idea what it is or how it could help.
>>
>>Any ideas anyone?
>>Thanks
>>John
> 
> Is this stuttering problem when trying to play back DVB-T HD
> recordings?  If so, then it is probably simply that you do not have a
> fast enough CPU, as there is no accelerated H.264 video support for
> Intel GPUs that I know of yet.  Your CPU may be just fast enough to
> play back 720p recordings from TV1 and TV2, but it is not fast enough
> for 1080i from TV3.  So you probably need an Nvidia card in order to
> use VDPAU to offload the H.264 playback onto the GPU.
> 
> _______________________________________________

I find a 3.16G C2D CPU using 1333 FSB is fast enough for VLC / 1080i TV3.

A 3G single Intel CPU running on 800 FSB is not fast enough for 720p / TV1.

2.93G is not a slow CPU.  

How important is the FSB?

Some (academic?) possibilities might include

Faster RAM / FSB setting.  How fast will the FSB go on that board?

Faster CPU ?

and vdpau NVIDIA card as also suggested is probably the cheapest option!