[dfroula]

I an running serverwmc (1.0.0.52, build 1175) on a Windows 7 machine. I also have three Openelec 5.0.3 Raspberry Pi B+ clients running the latest PVR.WMC plugin. The serverwmc and all Raspberry Pis are connected by a wired 100 Mbps network through a managed Cisco Ethernet switch.

The PVR functionality worked quite well once a stream was established. However, I was plagued by the Raspberry Pi's locking up frequently on channel changes. I tried making numerous changes to various timers in serverwmc, but the problem persisted. Finally I tried disabling Avast antivirus on the serverwmc Windows 7 machine. This completely resolved the problem, resulting in channel changes that were slow (about 8-10 seconds), but completely reliable - no more lockups.

I tried re-enabling Avast and entering the Recorded TV directory in the list of exceptions. I also tried explicitly entering the .ts, .wtv and .sbf file types in in the exception list. Despite this, the problem returned when Avast was re-enabled.

I finally uninstalled Avast and installed the minimal (and free) Microsoft Security Essentials antivirus package. After installation, I entered the same folder and file extension exceptions as above. This has resulted in completely reliable channel changes on all the Pis, with no lockups. Channel changes still take 8-10 seconds. However, this is quite acceptable and pretty much the expected delay given the architecture of the serverwmc PVR backend.

Since i have a modest 32-bit Window 7 machine running serverwmc (Athlon 7550 dual-core at 2.5 GHz with 4 Gb of memory), I feel the problem is due to the lower performance of my machine coupled with the performance demands of Avast. Since installing Microsoft Security Essentials, overall performance of the machine has increased, as well as flawless operation of serverwmc.

Just a hint for those experiencing similar issues... Your antivirus software may be impacting the performance of serverwmc, even with the obvious exclusions entered in the exceptions list.

Regards,

Don

[krustyreturns]

Great first post! Thanks for putting your war story up for others to benefit. Even if Avast required more machine cycles, it seems strange that it would lock the system up, and only during a channel change. I just run SE on all my media pc's too.

[dfroula]

I noticed that Avast was constantly accessing my disk drives, even with all scanning disabled. The lockup frequency seemed related to the level of disk activity.

The lockups occurred in several situations:

- Pressing stop on a live stream froze the image on the screen. The GUI remained responsive until attempting to channel change. The GUI would then lock up. It would often recover after 10 minutes or so. When it did recover, I noticed that serverwmc frequently left behind undeleted .ts or .wtv files in the temp directory.

- Changing channels resulted in a black screen and completely unresponsive GUI. System frequently recovered after 10 minutes or so. Temp files were left, as above.

During the lockup, the serverwmc window on the Windows machine was often unresponsive or sluggish. Killing the serverwmc window off left tmp .wtv files. Sometimes I could not delete these until restarting the Windows Media Center Receiver Service.

I am using an Hauppauge 955Q USB tuner with the latest Windows drivers.

Anyway, all working now.

[dfroula]

Well, even with Microsoft Windows Essentials I found that the problem returned this morning. Turning off Real-Time Protection stopped the constant disk accesses and restored serverwmc to operation. I set MS Security Essentials to perform a scan every morning at 3:00 AM. Hopefully, this is adequate.

[dfroula]

I found that Microsoft Windows Essentials was causing the same channel change Kodi lockup symptoms as Avast antivirus, even with the exceptions entered as above. Only turning off real-time protection solved the issue of almost continuous hard drive accesses (verified by the Windows performance monitor). I resorted to leaving real-time protection off and running nightly scheduled virus scans.

This resulted in much better system performance and correct operation of serverwmc and the Kodi plugin.