vPlug news

Freezes, High CPU usage, Blue screens!

Q. What parameters can cause freezes and high CPU usage during watching an encrypted channel with emulators?
A.

DW’s
Do not use multiple active EMU’s at once. It’s very important.
This is the main job of emulators:
Receiving ECM’s from the Host (DVB application) -> doing processing on those packets -> sending final result (DW’s or decrypted words) back to the host.
Now suppose you have running 2 EMU’s at once. One of them sends a correct DW and another one sends an incorrect DW. Result is freeze. Host program will process all of them. It is not able to identify which one is correct and which one is incorrect.

Codecs
Do not mess your system with All in one codec packages.
If you want to screw your current Windows installation (especially if it’s Vista), go a head! Now enjoy freezes, poor video output and post, hey you bastard! your plugin does not work!
For example after installing the famous “vista codec package” on your Windows Vista (which is not recommended for dvb-s applications), you have only one option : reinstalling your Windows!

Poor signal level.
Duh!

Blue screens! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Screen_of_Death
Most of the times blue screens mean hardware conflicts.
If you are using AMD based computers, and you have at least 2 blue screens per day, do not forget to update the BIOS and drivers of your system. (I had the same problem)
Try latest driver of your dvb-s card instead of original driver which was shipped with your card.
Also try non BDA drivers of your DVB-S card.
Sometimes changing the PCI slot of your internal card will help.

Dual core CPU’s
Results of the Incorrect synchronizations during multithreading are freezes and deadlocks.
Some of the dvb-s applications are NOT compatible with dual core CPU’s.
Try to change the CPU affinity on your dvb-s application (by using windows task manager) or some of the dvb-s applications have this option internally.
Also you can change the priority of your program (windows task manager -> set it to above normal or high and most the times, this option is available in your dvb-s application too)

Running unnecessary features
Satellite time was introduced in vPlug for TPS channels to eliminate the answering of this question:
Why TPS channels are working for 5 minutes , then I have black screen and so on.
TPS uses this cycle:
[Viaccess-1] - TPSCrypt4 - [Viaccess-1] - TPSCrypt4 and so on.
[Viaccess-1] does not need any kinds of time synchronization.
So if your system’s time is not synchronized correctly , you will have color - black- color …
By enabling SatTime in vPlug.ini, you don’t need to be worry about these details.
And if your system’s time is synchronized correctly, just turn it off and enjoy fast channel changing of TPS channels and low system’s resources consumption.
[this feature is on by default and will be ...]

Also EMM handling needs a lot of system’s resources [Memory, CPU]. If your keys are correct, turn off EMM handling and AU in vPlug. (edit vPlug.ini or v_emm.ini)

CSA and FFdeCSA http://csa.irde.to/
CSA or common scrambling algorithm, is the final process of decrypting an encrypted signal and normally it’s done by the host (your dvb-s application) .
It has been implemented in 2 ways: CSA.DLL and FFDeCSA.DLL. (most of the DVB applications have included these algo’s internally, so you won’t notice the existence of them.)
CSA.DLL can process one packet at a time and FFDeCSA.DLL is designed for processing of multiple packets at once. So by using FFDeCSA, CPU usage will be reduced dramatically as you can see it some the dvb applications. It’s very important for HD channels (reducing CPU usage as much as possible). You will have a lot of freezes during watching of HD encrypted channels Without FFDeCSA, and this is not the bug in processing of ECM’s by EMU’s.
You have 2 choices for HD channels. Upgrade the hardware’s of your computer and continue using of your dvb application which is using CSA.DLL or switch to an application with FFDeCSA support.
For example ALT-DVB is using FFDeCSA(.dll) (one of the 1st in Windows) and ProgDVB or MT are using CSA(.dll) internally (till now).

If you have a P-III, it’s better to buy a hardware based dvb-s card. For example a Nexus-s has an onboard CSA chip and also MPEG2 decoder. You will have max 10% CPU usage with that on encrypted channels. “But” these cards can not pass the full TS to dvb applications by design and it will cause a lot of headaches for programmers. So most of the new born dvb applications do not support them.

Turn on windows updates
Sometimes you need latest patches form Microsoft to eliminate stuttering. (thnx to okapi)
_http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896626

EPG modules/plugins
Also you can always disable EPG modules too.