Does cachecard cache REALLY make any difference

[PhilG]

Posted in a comment in another thread, but copied here as the title is more likely to catch peoples eye

There has always been a "debate" over whether the cache in a cachecard really makes a measurable difference

Well

I had a 40Gb Tivo with NO cachecard support. Searching Wishlists for all matches took 29 seconds

Now I have a 200Gb Tivo WITH cachecard support (and possibly one or two MORE wishlist entries) - searching for all matches took a little under 10 seconds!

I'm convinced that the cache makes a difference

(Also, although I didn't time it, I deleted a Season Pass on the un-cached 40Gb Tivo and it took "forever" to sort out the Todo list)

Phil G

[Automan]

Yes I would say the card fitted with 512k of memory makes a big difference to my three tivos with 200gig drives.

However the fitting of these cards does seem to cause the lack of sound problem on power up.

"Restart the Recorder" option normally fixes this.

Automan.

[PhilG]

Hmm

I had the "lack of sound" problem before my cachcards, but it seemed MUCH worse when I had the cachecard and no drivers, seems better now, but took two restarts this morning to get sound.

I think Healydave (sp?) has a solution, but I can't bare to be without my Tivo while he wields his solering iron - I'll wait unti it gets unmanageably bad

[ericd121]

However the fitting of these cards does seem to cause the lack of sound problem on power up.Lack of sound on recordings? :confused:
I don't use system sounds (on anything - mobile phone, Windows XP, Tivo, XBMC) so I wouldn't know if they disappear.

On the speed issue, I found that Cachecard turned a six to eight second delay into a one or two second delay; so, going into Now Playing, Programme Details etc. is now bearable.

[kitschcamp]

However the fitting of these cards does seem to cause the lack of sound problem on power up.That was diagnosed as marginal power supplies, or ones on the way out, and some 512MB DIMMS were more prone to generate it than others.

[b166er]

I fitted a cachecard in December and it definitely makes a measurable difference when it comes to changing season passes. The "please wait a minute" which would sometimes take 3-10 minutes (when you've got 50+ season passes) is reduced to a maximum of about 30 seconds.

In retrospect though, if I'd known how limited the benefits are I would have not bothered with it. Considering that I only mess around in the SP menu once or twice a week, waiting a few minutes isn't such a big problem.

Being networked is much more important than having that cache. I only need to be in that menu for editing season passes. For re-ordering the position of SP's it's best to do that via Tivoweb. Perhaps searches are faster and menus come up a bit quicker but it's marginal.

[iankb]

On the speed issue, I found that Cachecard turned a six to eight second delay into a one or two second delay; so, going into Now Playing, Programme Details etc. is now bearable.Since my menus changed within one or two seconds before the cachecard was added, that probably explains why I never really saw a difference. It's possible that there was some software cacheing of the database before the cachecard was added and, depending on the volume of recordings, fragmentation, etc, some threshold for this was exceed by some users. I have 2 x 80GB drives, but my recordings are mainly films. It may depend upon not having active season passes or wishlists that have a large number of current hits. i.e. I never tried to record Friends, The Simpsons, or Big Brother Live.

[j.baker]

I dont have a cachecard, but I did upgrade my memory from 16Mb to 32MB.

Memory Statistics:
total: used: free: shared: buffers: cached:
Mem: 30695424 29646848 1048576 74522624 6008832 8110080
Swap: 133165056 0 133165056
MemTotal: 29976 kB
MemFree: 1024 kB
MemShared: 72776 kB
Buffers: 5868 kB
Cached: 7920 kB
SwapTotal: 130044 kB
SwapFree: 130044 kB


I only have 2x60GB HDD

Most menu appear under 2 seconds. Adding season passes is very quick.

[DaveBrown]

I pulled the cachecard when I started getting recordings with no sound.

The sound is perfect without it and random re-boots have also stopped. Never did like the eternal wait while it did its thing at startup !

A standard network card causes no problems for me.

[kitschcamp]

You could have just taken the memory out.

[gazter]

The big difference is when you have an expanded tivo with *lots* of recordings. I expanded my tivo with two 160gb disks, as the disks filled up it got slower and slower and slower, to the point that every menu change would take half a minute or so, with searches taking an eternity.

Stuck cachecard in, the difference was huge.

As far as I see it, Cachecard lets an expanded tivo with lots of recordings perform as well as a fresh one out of the box with hardly any recordings.