09-24-2022, 06:11 AM
(This post was last modified: 09-24-2022, 06:17 AM by JonPike.
Edit Reason: clean up writing
)
One of my Moode boxes lives under my TV, with its "dac" being my HT amp. I hook it up to the amp, via HDMI. The amp even has an input default labled "streaming box". All good... and when I turn on the localUI switch, I even get the Mood UI showing up on the TV. Great.
The thing I noticed recently, is that the CPU usage on the Pi, is very high when the display is on and audio playing. Like, really high, like 2.0 usage or more on a Pi 3, and 70-80% CPU. Is this expected? I've checked this behavior and it's the same, on 8.1.2 and 8.2.0 boxes.
Done some poking around, and I've determined that it works something like this:
When the LocalUI switch is on, and playing something, 7-10 or more chromium browser instances show up, using 70-80% of resources.
When audio stops playing, instances cut back to 5-7, and CPU usage goes down to 10-15%
Just audio playing with LocalUI off, usage is only 5-7% Basic playing a 320k stream, to 16b/44.1kb/s audio, no SOX or fancy stuff.
I thought I was seeing occasional times where usage stayed in the 70-80% range, even with audio off, but see below....
If it goes into Screen Blank mode while still playing, audio stops but usage stays in the 70-80% level like it was when playing
If audio stops before going into Screen Blank mode, usage returns to a 10-15% level.
There is another switch, something like Enable LocalUI on Play, that starts the UI if you go to play, but also, will prevent the screen blank from happening, if the music is on. This prevents it from cutting off the display after the set timeout if it's playing something. This should always be used with a HDMI audio setup, since it prevents the high CPU case but even more importantly, see below...
If the Screen Blank comes on and the screen is blanked, during play, without the above Enable on Play switch, the screen AND audio are cut off. HDMI video AND audio go off. If Enable LocalUI on Play is on, the screen and audio stay on, as long as something is playing.
This last thing is a separate bit of annoyance that was discovered while I was shaking this thing down. Wonder if there's an easy way to have the HDMI video be enabled or disabled separately from the HDMI audio... or are they unavoidably tied together?
As another comparison, my other Pi 3 Moode box that proudly sits on top of my Schitt Stack of a Modi 3 and Magni 3, to Sennheiser HD6xx headphones... always stays in the 5-8% usage range, driving the USB Modi3 DAC, and no LocalUI needed...
Thoughts?
The thing I noticed recently, is that the CPU usage on the Pi, is very high when the display is on and audio playing. Like, really high, like 2.0 usage or more on a Pi 3, and 70-80% CPU. Is this expected? I've checked this behavior and it's the same, on 8.1.2 and 8.2.0 boxes.
Done some poking around, and I've determined that it works something like this:
When the LocalUI switch is on, and playing something, 7-10 or more chromium browser instances show up, using 70-80% of resources.
When audio stops playing, instances cut back to 5-7, and CPU usage goes down to 10-15%
Just audio playing with LocalUI off, usage is only 5-7% Basic playing a 320k stream, to 16b/44.1kb/s audio, no SOX or fancy stuff.
I thought I was seeing occasional times where usage stayed in the 70-80% range, even with audio off, but see below....
If it goes into Screen Blank mode while still playing, audio stops but usage stays in the 70-80% level like it was when playing
If audio stops before going into Screen Blank mode, usage returns to a 10-15% level.
There is another switch, something like Enable LocalUI on Play, that starts the UI if you go to play, but also, will prevent the screen blank from happening, if the music is on. This prevents it from cutting off the display after the set timeout if it's playing something. This should always be used with a HDMI audio setup, since it prevents the high CPU case but even more importantly, see below...
If the Screen Blank comes on and the screen is blanked, during play, without the above Enable on Play switch, the screen AND audio are cut off. HDMI video AND audio go off. If Enable LocalUI on Play is on, the screen and audio stay on, as long as something is playing.
This last thing is a separate bit of annoyance that was discovered while I was shaking this thing down. Wonder if there's an easy way to have the HDMI video be enabled or disabled separately from the HDMI audio... or are they unavoidably tied together?
As another comparison, my other Pi 3 Moode box that proudly sits on top of my Schitt Stack of a Modi 3 and Magni 3, to Sennheiser HD6xx headphones... always stays in the 5-8% usage range, driving the USB Modi3 DAC, and no LocalUI needed...
Thoughts?
