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[rpalmer68]

I know we've asked this before, but as the weather heats up over here in Australia my HTPC is starting to get louder and louder (fan niose) due to the extra heat generated by the extra CPU load the Theater View background animations are causing.

I can minimise MC when I'm not using it, but this really isn't a visually pleasing solution, so is there any way (beg, grovel, plead) we can have the animation disabled for those of us that really need to keep CPU load down?

Many thanks
Richard

[NickM]

I REALLY, really agree on this.  It's fine having annimations when you are actually pressing a button and using the menu, but when an HTPC is in an idle state, the CPU usage should be minimal....

[raym]

In one of the last threads on this topic a while back, I think it was JIMH who stated that it is not a trivial task to make the thing optional. I was one of the few people originally complaining about the CPU cycles consumed by the background viz - until I finally migrated MC to my main HTPC (running an Intel core 2 duo + ATI x1600 VPU) and now I see 0% usage. I guess this proves the 3D animations have some fairly strict hardware requirements which will catch people out. And if you're hardware's older still, then it may not run at all! I would suggest that the MC12 Theater View minimum requirements should probably reflect this fact.

[NickM]

I am running this on a Duo core 2Ghz, with 1.5GB RAM and Intel945GM video chipset.  This may not be the latest spec ( probably 6 months old ), but I would not expect such a severe hardware requirement.

Without MC running, I too have 0% CPU usage.  With MC in an idle state, not in Theatre View, CPU usage is 1%-2% ( maybe Otto? ).  As soon as I select Theatre View home page, usage goes up to 15%.  Scrolling continuously through the home menu pushes the usage to 35%.  Scrolling continuously through cover art averages 25%.

It's that 15% and home menu only bit that is frustrating as it keeps the fan going.

[prod]

I'm seeing a similar CPU usage, though when I'm at the theatre view main menu CPU usage stays at between 0% and 2%. As the theatre view main menu has the background animations, I'm tempted to say it's not those that are necessarily causing the 35-45% usage when in, for example, the Audio menu.