Disk access interrupts Live TV

[plink212]

When I emerge in the background it seems to interrupt the flow of the live TV in the foreground. As does any large disk access.

I am using
Hardware:
Gigabyte GA-K8N51PVMT-9
AMD Athlon 64x2 4800+
4GB Ram
500GB Hitachi Sata HDD.
2 x DVICO Dual HDTV Digital

Software:
Kernel 2.6.17-r7
mythtv svn
linuxtv mercurial branch
nvidia sata module from kernel runs disk

I was thinking of changing the pci latency values however they seem to be set to 0 for the sata and I cannot change it?
Any other suggestions are welcome

Regards

Tim

[JD1]

Have you checked to see if dma is on?

[plink212]

it is sata so I believe that it is built into the standard but here is the hdparm -I


ATA device, with non-removable media
Model Number: HDS725050KLA360
Serial Number: KRVN02ZAG36LAC
Firmware Revision: K2AOA10C
Standards:
Used: ATA/ATAPI-7 T13 1532D revision 1
Supported: 7 6 5 4
Configuration:
Logical max current
cylinders 16383 16383
heads 16 16
sectors/track 63 63
--
CHS current addressable sectors: 16514064
LBA user addressable sectors: 268435455
LBA48 user addressable sectors: 976771055
device size with M = 1024*1024: 476938 MBytes
device size with M = 1000*1000: 500106 MBytes (500 GB)
Capabilities:
LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
Queue depth: 32
Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, no device specific minimum
R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16 Current = 16
Advanced power management level: unknown setting (0x00fe)
Recommended acoustic management value: 128, current value: 191
DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6
Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
Cycle time: no flow control=240ns IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
Enabled Supported:
SMART feature set
Security Mode feature set
* Power Management feature set
* Write cache
* Look-ahead
* Host Protected Area feature set
* WRITE_BUFFER command
* READ_BUFFER command
* DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
Advanced Power Management feature set
Power-Up In Standby feature set
SET_FEATURES required to spinup after power up
Address Offset Reserved Area Boot
SET_MAX security extension
* Automatic Acoustic Management feature set
* 48-bit Address feature set
* Device Configuration Overlay feature set
* Mandatory FLUSH_CACHE
* FLUSH_CACHE_EXT
* SMART error logging
* SMART self-test
Media Card Pass-Through
* General Purpose Logging feature set
* WRITE_{DMA|MULTIPLE}_FUA_EXT
* 64-bit World wide name
* URG for READ_STREAM[_DMA]_EXT
* URG for WRITE_STREAM[_DMA]_EXT
* SATA-I signaling speed (1.5Gb/s)
* SATA-II signaling speed (3.0Gb/s)
* Native Command Queueing (NCQ)
* Host-initiated interface power management
Non-Zero buffer offsets in DMA Setup FIS
DMA Setup Auto-Activate optimization
Device-initiated interface power management
In-order data delivery
* Software settings preservation
Security:
Master password revision code = 65534
supported
not enabled
not locked
not frozen
not expired: security count
not supported: enhanced erase
240min for SECURITY ERASE UNIT.
Checksum: correct

[plink212]

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