[PD] Gem - CPU usage 98%

[klaas de Baas]

Hello,

I am working on a patch, in which I use a webcam as a motiondetector, to 
drive another video (AVI, DV). (Every detected motion forwards a frame of 
the movie playing in pix_movie). I want this patch to be playing fullscreen 
in an exhibition for two months, non-stop. The problem is that I am worried 
about the CPU load - it hovers above 90% in Task Manager. (OS=WinXP) My 
concern is that the computer will not hold out on that load for that long.

I had hoped to solve this by buying a new graphics card, which I thought 
would have taken over the processing load. I have been experimenting with 
the Asus n6200 256 MB (a Nvidia Geforce 6200 card) and the Hercules ati 
Radeon 9000 128 MB. I'm aware that my Mobo does not support 8X AGP bus 
speed, but since I am mainly looking for 2d acceleration I hoped it would be 
ok.

CPU utilization is still high. My questions:
- was I wrong in supposing that the GPU would take over processing tasks of 
the CPU?
- what would be a realistic cpu load for 24 hours a day, 2 months?
- Does anyone on the list have experience with running fullscreen 
gem-patches with specs such as pentium III, 800Mhz, 384 Mb, and do they have 
any pointers on how to optimize (such as using a different size video, 
codec, etc..?)

I am also working on another computer (faster pIV, 512MB etc, etc...). I 
noticed that playing a video in mediaplayer requires less than half the cpu 
load of playing it in pix-movie or pix-film.
- Can anyone explain why this is?

Looking forward to hear from you.

Klaas


windows XP, pIII 800Mhz, 384 MB, Abit VL 6 Mobo, Hercules ATI Radeon 9000 
128Mb