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[Metal Man]

I am a first time user of JRiver Media Center and I am currently using the free trial of version 20.0.131.  I have been using Windows Media Center for the past 6 years, and although I've never been completely satisfied with it, I haven't been able to find anything better so far.  So that brings me to trying out JRiver.  There are some things I like better about JRiver already, but I have also run into a few problems.

Regarding my setup, when I am logged into my HTPC locally, I am only interested in the Theater View of JRiver.  I don't typically keep a keyboard & mouse connected to my HTPC, nor do I plan to.  My goal is to operate the HTPC entirely by IR remote control.  Any sort of library management is performed remotely.

Having said this, I have run into some performance issues with the Theater View.  So far, in the options under General -> Video Card, I have set Hardware accelerated graphics to Low quality.  This made a pretty big improvement, but it is still just a little bit sluggish.  Basically, every time I press a button, there is a delay as it attempts to paint the transitions.  Meanwhile, it appears that 1 of my CPU cores is maxed out continuously.  I have also noticed some audio stuttering issues, which I would assume is the result of high CPU usage.  The high CPU usage only occurs in Theater View, not in Standard View.  Are there any other settings I can change that might help?  I would gladly disable any unnecessary flashiness like menu animations if I could find an option for it. 

My system:
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2002 Version Service Pack 3
AMD Athlon 4850e 2.5 GHz dual core CPU
4GB RAM
Western Digital VelociRaptor 10,000 RPM hard drive (for OS/apps)
ASUS Xonar Essence ST sound card
ATI Radeon X1200 Series integrated video card

I ran the benchmark test and got the following results:
Math: 720
Image: 1191
Database: 1639
JRMark: 1183

[JimH]

Welcome to the forum.  That's not a very powerful machine, a little below average.

Theater View uses 3D drawing so the video card is important.  A new, discrete card might help.

Theater View also has a framerate setting.  Try lowering it.

[Metal Man]

Thanks for the response.  Yeah, the machine is about 6 years old and was probably about average at the time I built it.  I built it specifically as a HTPC and at least in my mind, that wasn't something that should have required a lot of processing power.  So I put more money into the sound card than anything else.

Anyway, I tried lowering the frame rate of Theater View.  10 fps seemed to be about the optimal setting for my system.  It definitely seemed to help the performance of scrolling.  However, it didn't really seem to affect the responsiveness of the initial button press.  When the cursor is stationary and I press an arrow button, there is about a half second delay before anything happens.  Once it starts moving I can keep pressing the arrow button and it seems to be more responsive then.

As it stands now, I don't see myself being able to deal with a sluggish GUI long term on a daily basis.  I'll keep the video card idea in mind though.  Thanks.

[CountryBumkin]

Is the slow button response just the first time you press the button, then it is okay after that? If so, could the hard drive be sleeping? If so, you can prevent the hard drive from sleep in Windows Power Options advanced setup/configuration.

[Metal Man]

The hard disks are set to never turn off.  When I mentioned pressing an arrow button for the first time, I didn't mean to suggest that there was a long idle time preceding that button press.  Any time the cursor is stationary and I press an arrow button, there is a delay before it moves.  If I press the button rapidly, there is a delay before the cursor begins moving, but once it is moving it continues to do so at a rapid pace.