Ubuntu 8.10 video playback problems

Hello everyone,

So I just installed Ubuntu 8.10 on my HP Dv5z, and everything seems to be working well out of the box.. well to a certain extent.

I installed the codecs needed to play propriety media such avi and mp3, but it seems that either they didn't install correctly or that I used bad sources for these codecs. Now mp3s seem to be running fine, but whenever I try to play a .avi movie I get good sound quality but video playback that seems to miss a few frames every few seconds. It's not choppy, but it's "flickery".

I've installed the ATI graphics driver and made sure that it's activated, and I've also tried using different players but I got the same results using all of them which made me think it's a codec problem.

Don't know if this helps too, but youtube videos play fine, but for some reason streaming videos of nbc.com won't work, but that might be a separate problem.

Hope some one can help

 

I think I understand what you're saying about flickering. Turn off Compiz, you'll see immediate improvements. You have to choose whether you want Compiz or good video playback. Also, what media player are you using? If you're not using SMPlayer then I'm going to ban you from the forums for two days. What version of Flash do you have? It should be version 10. Most importantly, did you follow the Multimedia and Video Guide I have linked in my Linux Switcher's sticky? I know how people just love getting into problem and not reading the sticky so I'm gonna bother you about it if you haven't. If no one told you before, Welcome to Notebook Review Forums newbie.

 

haha thanks for the welcome,

To be honest I didn't see that sticky. That's the first thing I looked for. I guess I just didn't notice it because I was looking for something that had to deal with the problem I was having. Another funny thing though is that I use to use slackware a few years back. Made me understand linux much better, but I've forgotten everything and don't feel like learning everything again. Anyway, thanks for the info, i'll defenitly read them.

So I turned Compiz off and the video played perfectly. Is there any way to fix that or is it just some fact of Ubuntu that I have to learn to live with until the developers come out with some patch? Oh and I don't use SMPlayer so no banning yey

Oh and I'm using flash 10.0

 

You just don't have the processing power to have Compiz enabled while playing the video. When combined your CPU gets choked and you get problems in your video. You'll have to wait for GPU accelerated Compiz or MPlayer and hope you don't have a crappy GPU. The deal was if you're not using SMPlayer no so attentive newbie. Go to the SMPlayer website and add the repo for 8.10 and install smplayer and use it for video from now on. (I assume you at least know how to add a repo) Are you using Firefox 3?

 

**** IT! Will I get banned now ?

The thing I don't get is that how am I able to play a video like that while having aero on in vista and not having choppy playback ? I'm guessing that's because it's gpu accelerated?

Anyway, just isntalled smplayer (thanks for the tip) and yes I'm using firefox 3. Should I disable compiz while attempting to play that too?

 

You should just face-palm right now. Just go. Having Compiz enabled when playing Flash is like asking for video tearing with a smile on your face. It might just be a compatibility problem with how you can't play CNN videos though. Also the thing about Aero and videos, let me answer you with a question. How much RAM and CPU usage do you have in Vista? Compare that to Compiz and you'll find the answer to your question. If you installed SMPlayer then I'll over look that but next time you're not prepared for something you'll get a nice shiny ban.

 

It is definitely possible to play flash while compiz is enabled and have no tearing. I do it every day. Sure turning compiz on increases the chances of problems but it is not a black and white situation. I play all kinds of videos in totem, while compiz is running and have no problems due to compiz.

 

Then you have an awesome CPU, you are the envy of many. For many others though it's a big problem and even though I'm not saying it's white and black you should be able to agree that it is a widespread and prevailing problem.

 

It's not likely a codec problem, it's more likely a video driver problem. You should read this Ubuntu forums thread, this Compiz-Fusion thread, and this Ubuntu bug thread.

The real solution will be when AMD/ATI fixes this in an updated Linux driver. In the meantime you can try the following suggestions as a workaround, just make sure you read the comment thread and realize that it's not a long term solution, (nor really a good one).

Good Luck..

 

Well now I know the short and somewhat of a long-term fix for this problems. Thanks for your help everyone, and thanks for the links jas

 

Cut and paste from /proc/cpuinfo:

Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7300 @ 2.00GHz

I would not call this "awesome" by any means. It was upper mid-range when I bought the laptop 1.25 years ago.

 

Then this is a conundrum. Flash/Videos and Compiz are always giving my problems along with many other people. I guess you're just lucky.

 

Yeah, it happens to me too. It's rather weird because it didn't happen in 8.04, even though I had Compiz enabled.

 

Same here.

 

I think this a more to do with fglrx not being able to do anything once compositing is enabled... To play video with compiz enabled you have to go in the setting of mplayer and change the rendering from xV to X11... I hope ATI fix all those problems quickly but I won't put my hopes too high at this point....

 

xv is the fastest and most efficient (therefore best) output driver. Are you saying that if I use X11 (almost as good as xv but not quite there) then all the video tearing I have when Compiz is enabled will go away?

 

I don't know about the tearing but I know that with Compiz enable all a was getting was a black screen and only sound, switching to x11 fixed the problem... So my guess is that the tearing should go away but your CPU will hate you for that move ...

 

If it'll tax my CPU then I can't do it. I already have frame skipping in 1080p videos so I don't want to create any more problem.

 

I have no problems with video + compiz.. and I didn't have to change anything for it either.

 

Only ATI cards are concerned by those kinds of problems...

 

People who have playback problems might want to check that they don't have an indexer performing indexing in the background. I was just watching something and playback was choppy. I checked a few things and then decided to turn off trackerd's indexing temporarily. That did the trick. I had turned down the indexing speed but it was not enough to keep it from interfering with video playback.

 

I don't use Tracker at all so I uninstalled it entirely.

 

i'm facing the same issue with my lenovo thinkpad W500 using "01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Mobility Radeon HD 3650"

anyone found a solution about it?

 

i'm facing the same issue with my lenovo thinkpad W500 using "01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Mobility Radeon HD 3650"

i went ahead and did whats mention at http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=6185937&postcount=5 and worked for me no more flickering

now its time to fix the sound issue

 

Hey everyone listen to my post

NBC USES A PLAYER ONTOP OF FLASH CALLED MOVE. MOVE IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH LINUX. THEY ARE POSSIBLY PORTING IT TO LINUX.

I always leave compiz running when I watch flash vids with no probs.

 

...it does? I just went to nbc.com and played some SNL skits and such, they all worked fine. Do you have a link to your non-working videos?

 

hi, I had this problem on a Dell Studio 15, running Ubuntu 8.10...
the solution is:
"type gstreamer-properties in terminal (Applications > Accessories in Ubuntu) and go to the video tab. Under Default Output, choose X Window System (no Xv).

If this doesn't fix the issue, then I'm out of ideas, since the second X Window System (X11/xv/shm) option causes my totem to fail."

I found this here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=982967

 

http://www.nbc.com/My_Name_Is_Earl/video/episodes/?vid=800103

If that works you have done magic. I really would like to know how you have done this. I didn't think there was a move media player on linux.

 

Why does the ATI driver have so much problem with composite and DRI?