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More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 21 for Windows => Topic started by: Ambler1980 on February 09, 2016, 05:16:22 pm

Title: Antivirus software and MC
Post by: Ambler1980 on February 09, 2016, 05:16:22 pm
I've heard antivirus software can interfere with performance of MC.  Recent play of a bluray was hogging alot of my cpu usage... occasionally hitting 70-100%.  Granted I had a few DSPs running...

I am uninstalling my norton 360 antivirus to see if there's any change.

In the mean time, as there known alternatives?  Obviously nobody should run a windows machine without antivirus, and many of them do not allow you to turn them off or stop them in task manager.
Title: Re: Antivirus software and MC
Post by: ferday on February 09, 2016, 05:34:07 pm
I've had success with avast, avira, and AVG by just making sure to exclude:
The JRiver folder(s)
All folders with the media in them

After exclusion, restart PC


I'm not sure how that works with the optical drive, I know if you do an install from a CD drive the AV will kick in.
Title: Re: Antivirus software and MC
Post by: RoderickGI on February 09, 2016, 05:53:31 pm
I use Norton 360 with MC on the Server and my Client, and it is fine. In fact it is very good software now.

Just make sure it is not running in silent mode, so that you will see any popups it generates when it is taking some action, such as blocking an application. Get it to ask what you want to do when it does need to take action.

Also exclude the executables from being interfered with by the firewall. I don't even exclude my media locations, but if your PC is struggling with processing power, that may be a good idea. I should really do that myself.

See this thread for some hints. Not the same situation as you, but you will get the idea. http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=103104.msg715944#msg715944
Title: Re: Antivirus software and MC
Post by: Ambler1980 on February 09, 2016, 05:56:08 pm
Hmmm... uninstalling norton didn't seem to fix/change anything.  Still getting pops/clicks when playing this bluray.  I can see the cpu usage spike when it happens.
Title: Re: Antivirus software and MC
Post by: glynor on February 09, 2016, 06:13:08 pm
Hmmm... uninstalling norton didn't seem to fix/change anything.  Still getting pops/clicks when playing this bluray.  I can see the cpu usage spike when it happens.

That's good. Then it wasn't Norton, so long as you rebooted once more after completely removing it (that last reboot makes sure the system starts "clean" without the kernel drivers from the AV application still running). Assuming you did that (and the uninstallers usually make you), you can reinstall it if you want. Norton 360 is certainly not "well respected" as being the most well behaved AV application out there.  But, it should be possible to get it to behave generally with MC (if you have issues, which it seems not in this case) with something resembling these steps:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Taming_Symantec_Endpoint_Protection

Note that you almost always have to separately exclude filesystem locations (primarily the MC Library itself, and its AppData locations, not necessarily the media file storage location) AND the individual running processes. In fact, the latter is more important than the former, in most cases.

But, as I said, your particular problem seems to have been ruled out as being caused by Norton in this instance.

Otherwise, it might be best in a new thread because this thread title isn't really applicable anymore, but if you want recommendations on improving performance, we'd need:

* What kind of hardware do you have?
* What OS is it running?
* What drivers do you have installed for the GPU?
* Are you testing with decrypted discs, or are you running an on-the-fly decrypter (it could be some issues with that process)?
* What settings do you have enabled in MC (especially under Tools > Options > Audio, Options > Video, and the DSP)?
* Did you mess with any of the default madvr settings (assuming you're using ROHQ)?

Convolution filters and resampling, in particular, can beat on your CPU if you have an underpowered one. The GPU settings could also come into play, especially if you've done anything to customize madvr.
Title: Re: Antivirus software and MC
Post by: JimH on February 09, 2016, 07:21:58 pm
Hmmm... uninstalling norton didn't seem to fix/change anything.  Still getting pops/clicks when playing this bluray.  I can see the cpu usage spike when it happens.
Just to be sure, did you reboot?
Title: Re: Antivirus software and MC
Post by: Awesome Donkey on February 09, 2016, 07:39:24 pm
You can also try running the benchmark by going to Help > Benchmark... and post the results here.
Title: Re: Antivirus software and MC
Post by: blgentry on February 09, 2016, 07:49:40 pm
Another vote for the hardware not being fast enough.

Please run the benchmark and report back.

Brian.
Title: Re: Antivirus software and MC
Post by: Ambler1980 on February 10, 2016, 10:33:37 am
=== Running Benchmarks (please do not interrupt) ===

Running 'Math' benchmark...
    Single-threaded integer math... 3.946 seconds
    Single-threaded floating point math... 4.393 seconds
    Multi-threaded integer math... 1.993 seconds
    Multi-threaded mixed math... 2.445 seconds
Score: 1487

Running 'Image' benchmark...
    Image creation / destruction... 0.599 seconds
    Flood filling... 1.347 seconds
    Direct copying... 1.120 seconds
    Small renders... 3.307 seconds
    Bilinear rendering... 2.314 seconds
    Bicubic rendering... 1.766 seconds
Score: 2105

Running 'Database' benchmark...
    Create database... 0.637 seconds
    Populate database... 2.893 seconds
    Save database... 0.673 seconds
    Reload database... 0.144 seconds
    Search database... 2.677 seconds
    Sort database... 2.791 seconds
    Group database... 1.409 seconds
Score: 1916

JRMark (version 21.0.23): 1836
Title: Re: Antivirus software and MC
Post by: JimH on February 10, 2016, 10:35:27 am
A little slow, not good, not terrible.
Title: Re: Antivirus software and MC
Post by: Ambler1980 on February 10, 2016, 10:54:19 am
I actually removed a few automatic processes from task manager and the performance improved.