Originally posted by: pkypkypky
good info. how much memory intensive is running a tuner card? I've got a decent system, but would like to know how much of the processing the card does and how much I can multi-task while say recording a show.
It depends on the app. I never looked to see what WinTV2k used, but Dscaler seems to use about 25MB, regardless of the card.
Now, if you're referring to CPU time, for just watching, again, it depends on the app. With the .vxd drivers, on Win9x, using WinTV2k, almost no CPU time. Switching to an NT-based OS, the WinTV2k app either uses almost no CPU time (less than 5%), or well over 40% (if you turn on the de-interlacing feature included in the latest .wmd/WinTV2k package).
Dscaler, right now, on my rig, is using 0 CPU time. Yes, 0. And unless something else tries to take over the overlay (a media player, for example. it usually happens when i run a file-sharing app that starts with K, and it's happened a few times when i was at a website using Flash, though i haven't got the faintest idea what caused that). Keep in mind that I've also gone through ALL the options in Dscaler, read what they all do, tested them extensively, and gone with what I think looks acceptable. You might find what I consider to be acceptable absolute trash (doubt it, though, because i can't even look at a regular TV screen any more without noticing flicker, blurriness, and just poor quality in general. Dscaler gives me TV at almost DVD quality), and decide you need certain features turned on or off, thus changing your CPU usage.
When Dscaler does show any CPU usage at all, because of overlay thieves, it's an average of about 25%, and ends as soon as I close the offending app.
As far as capping goes... like SearchMaster said, unless you're using a hardware-based card, don't push it. You can do light things, like surf, or read e-mail, or play simple games, but I wouldn't try opening anything while capping (too many HDD writes could interrupt the cap, as could sudden surges in CPU usage). It's also going to depend on the software you use, as well as the settings you use. You could probably quite easily cap at 320x240 w/audio without stressing the system, and 512x384 without significant slowdowns, but once you hit 640x480 or above, you're really pushing the limits. A hardware encoder would alleviate most of the strain, but even then, I'd be careful. Some people just set up an older rig with a tuner/cap card, tweak it out, and use that for all their capping. I've got a machine I'm going to dedicate to precisely that purpose, as soon as I get the cooling issues worked out (crappy case, crappy fans).
>> Here << is an EXCELLENT guide and resource for capping.
Also, I have a correction to my previous post. There are .vxd drivers for NT/2k for the WinTV series, but based on my previous tests... they suck. They look as bad as the .wdm drivers, though they apparantly support the old VFW standard. I personally tested every version available, every version I could find archived, of both the .vxds and .wdms, and until I started using Dscaler for my Win2k TV viewing, the picture was just horrid. So there is VFW support for NT-based OS' using WinTV cards, but there's a serious problem with how the WinTV2k app accesses the driver or handles the output. Also, the file size limit on FAT32 is 4GB, but standard practice is to break up your files into 1GB chunks for easier management. Again, NTFS doesn't have that restriction, so if you're using 2k/XP, you can cap to a single file of as much free HDD space as you have. Also keep in mind that that's uncompressed video. Using on-the-fly compression, like DivX, Xvid, or similar codecs, significantly reduces the amount of space needed, but also significantly increases the CPU time and memory usage. Some people like on-the-fly compression because it's the quickest way to get the job done, others like to capture uncompressed video, run it through filters, and compress it afterward for cleaner video and guaranteed "the way I like it"-ness.
Lastly, there is support for WinTV cards under most Linux distributions, but I can't say how well they work or how much work they require. Not my area. Sorry.