David Esp Video Technical Blog

I have an old 1-core Athlon laptop running XP and AVG AntiVirus.   I use it mainly for capturing from tape via a similarly-old HDV camcorder.  The tape contains Mpeg2 in Transport-Stream (TS) format, as recorded by the camera.  This capture takes place in real-time, with the tape, via FireWire (FW).  The capture process must not be interrupted – otherwise packets will be lost.  Losing packets is a nuisance rather than a show-stopper, presumably a benefit of the TS format, the only consequence is lost frames (unsure whether that affects overall duration or whether blank frames are substituted for lost ones).

To minimise chance of lost packets, I reduce as many possibilities of delay and interference as I can think of. The machine is disconnected from network (and WiFi is disabled).  For storage target, I attach a GRaid two-disk storage device, necessarily via USB2 (the machine only has one FW port, and that is used for the camera).  Additionally I Exit/Quit/Suspend a number of processes.  Firstly all relevant icons in the System Tray.  Secondly via application-specific Control Panels:

• AVG AntiVirus: Disable elements via AVG Uder-Interface:
  • Shield
  • Identity Protection
• Java
  • QuickStarter: Disable via Java applet in Control Panel
• HDV Tape-Capture App (HDVSplit)
  • Change its priority from the default of “High” to “RealTime”.
    • {Uncertain if this is advisable, but the tape in reality is definitely real-time!  Anyhow, overall it worked OK}

Process Investigation:

• Using Task Manager, I noticed that every so often (e.g. every minute?) the CPU increased a few %.  Not drastic but nevertheless of concern.  Using Task Manager I monitored for biggest instantaneous CPU usage, noticing the following:
  • avgidsmonitor.exe
    • http://forums.cnet.com/7723-19703_102-500605/avg-using-about-40-of-cpu-all-the-time/
    • I discovered this can be disabled in the AVG application interface.
  • avgidseh.sy
    • http://systemexplorer.net/db/avgidseh.sys.html
      • AVG’s IDS Application Activity Monitor Helper Driver.
  • jsq.exe
    • http://www.ghacks.net/2008/12/15/jqsexe/
      • jqs.exe … is running with a low priority.  (It) uses about 1.5 Megabytes of computer memory and 2 Megabytes of virtual memory while running. It also initiates I/O processes frequently if those columns are activated in the Task Manager
      • Jqs.exe is … querying the Windows Registry … The performance increase might not be huge but you will free up some computer memory and some I/O processes on the computer system.
      • if you want to disable the Java Quick Starter process you can do that in the Windows Control Panel. You find a Java entry there which will open the Java Control Panel.  A click on Advanced and the selection of Miscellaneous will display the activated Java Quick Starter entry. Uncheck the box to disable the process. This will be visible in the Windows Task Manager immediately.
  • avgchsvx.exe
    • http://techdows.com/2009/11/what-is-avgchsvxexe-how-to-remove-it.html
      • AVG 9.0 optimizes the scan by scanning for system files and cache them after installing AVG 9.0. It does that to avoid scan of these system files during full scan or scheduled scan next time. Thus scan will be faster and takes less time than expected. But avgchsvx.exe process runs in the background and continues to cache the new files or modified files from old cache, which raises some eye brows from users for eating system resources and continuously reading hard drive.
      • Avgchsvx.exe process is also called as “cache server”
      • gchsvx.exe runs in the background in low power mode, it appears in processes list in Task Manager. It continuously reads the hard drive and caches the unknown files, modified files from last cache using NTFS cache journal. This cache will be in every drive in” C:\$AVG\$CHJW”. This folder will be hidden, you need to enable “hidden files and folders” options from folder options in Explorer.
      • Can we delete avgchsvx.exe?  No it is not recommended, it makes system unstable and also causes AVG to not to function properly.
  • avgrsx
    • http://forums.techguy.org/windows-xp/709220-solved-avgrsx-exe-why-so.html
      • AVGRSX.exe is the resident shield component of AVG 8.  This is the portion of the program that scans files as they are opened, copied or moved/saved.
      • (One option is to) Disable the resident shield. This … switches off real-time monitoring of files. AT ONE’S OWN RISK.
        • {I need to take that risk, else I risk losing packets.  Life is all about balancing risks…}
  • ToolbarUpdater.exe
    • http://forums.avg.com/gb-en/avg-forums?sec=thread&act=show&id=185110
      • You can disable the vToolbarUpdater service if you’d like to, but this is not supported nor recommended. The service is responsible for silent update of the AVG Security Toolbar.
        • {I elected to leave it alone}

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 31st, 2012 at 08:15 and is filed under video, Video Computer Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.