Ubuntu 11.04 choppy video playback fix

[oldhat]

For anyone suffering from stuttering, choppy video playback in Natty(using Unity3D), try this:

. Install "COMPIZCONFIG SETTINGS MANAGER"

. In CompizConfig Settings Manager, select "GENERAL", then "COMPOSITE" & disable "DETECT REFRESH RATE"

. Next, change "REFRESH RATE" to your monitor's native refresh rate(usually 60Hz for LCD screens)

. Back in "GENERAL" options, select "OPENGL" & disable "SYNCHRONIZE TO VBLANK"

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

By disabling VBLANK sync you may just run into another problem though, which is video tearing. This seems to happen a lot with NVIDIA cards. If you have this issue check out: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/01/how-to-fix-video-tearing-in-videos-nvidia-ubuntu/

This still affects my card with the latest NVIDIA drivers. The fix in the link above works for me pretty well.

 

[oldhat]

By disabling VBLANK sync you may just run into another problem though, which is video tearing. This seems to happen a lot with NVIDIA cards. If you have this issue check out: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/01/how-to-fix-video-tearing-in-videos-nvidia-ubuntu/

This still affects my card with the latest NVIDIA drivers. The fix in the link above works for me pretty well.

ATI cards also prone to tearing when using proprietary drivers, but I'd rather endure tearing than the eye-wateringly jerky video playback. Just hope there is a general 'fix' for all these graphics related issues soon...

 

[GreGorGy]

When I play videos in Ubuntu it shts itselfs. Everything grinds to a halt. Takes 2 minutes to kill VLC and the machine becomes horribly unstable. Major fail as far as I am concerned. Anyone else encounter this?

 

[MyWorld]

Run vlc from a terminal and see what the output is, there is usually a clue there as to what went wrong.

 

[Smiley_lauf]

I have noticed this on my machine with nvidia geforce 330--even after doing these work arounds--I suspect it has to do with how 3D is integrated within the kernel or vice versa; Linux Mint 11 (11.04 based) does not do this out of the box; you may want to try this if you feel this work around does not work for you.

 

[Ockie]

I have noticed this on my machine with nvidia geforce 330--even after doing these work arounds--I suspect it has to do with how 3D is integrated within the kernel or vice versa; Linux Mint 11 (11.04 based) does not do this out of the box; you may want to try this if you feel this work around does not work for you.

I had the same problem with Ubuntu 11.04. I switched to Mint 11 a week ago and VLC seems to work much better and does not freeze when playing video. What it does do is loose sound when you move the time slidey thingy to jump forward in the movie. You then have to select a different audio device (from sterio to mono and vice versa) to get sound back. Also...the sound was very scratchy....but switching from Pulse to ALSA solved this. Ubuntu had the same scratchy sound problem.

 

[GreGorGy]

I have noticed this on my machine with nvidia geforce 330--even after doing these work arounds--I suspect it has to do with how 3D is integrated within the kernel or vice versa; Linux Mint 11 (11.04 based) does not do this out of the box; you may want to try this if you feel this work around does not work for you.

Thanks - download started. Will try it out later today. Seeing as how it seems to have fixed OC's issues...

 

[Smiley_lauf]

Thanks - download started. Will try it out later today. Seeing as how it seems to have fixed OC's issues...

And how did it go?

 

[GreGorGy]

And how did it go?

Install was pretty straightforward although at the end it stalled on grub.

Video playback was fine for around 15 minutes then similar behaviour to ubuntu began. So, I was cursing. At least with mint it did not bring the whole system to its knees.

So I started thinking. Disabled the screensaver and started video again and what do you know, it worked. Why would VLC and the Screensaver not play nicely?

 

[Ockie]

Install was pretty straightforward although at the end it stalled on grub.

Video playback was fine for around 15 minutes then similar behaviour to ubuntu began. So, I was cursing. At least with mint it did not bring the whole system to its knees.

So I started thinking. Disabled the screensaver and started video again and what do you know, it worked. Why would VLC and the Screensaver not play nicely?

mmm maybe the screen saver tries to activate even though the screen is active and they clash? lolz...that sounds like such a noob remark but that is how I think of these kinda things. I have mine screen saver set to "Blank"

 

[oldhat]

ATI gfx card users, try setting as per original post & enable 'Tear-free desktop' in Catalyst settings. I get smooth playback with no tearing on HD4350...

 

[suPerb0b]

Thanks oldhat, saved me from tinkering myself
On a sidenote... am I the only one that thinks compiz blows? With my current machine, every setting I change stuffs up the display until i log out and in, but that could just be the ati card.
I've had a bad experience with compiz on other machines too and end up disabling it most of the time.

 

[oldhat]

Thanks oldhat, saved me from tinkering myself
On a sidenote... am I the only one that thinks compiz blows? With my current machine, every setting I change stuffs up the display until i log out and in, but that could just be the ati card.
I've had a bad experience with compiz on other machines too and end up disabling it most of the time.

Trust me, it's not just you & your ATI card! Compiz is fine if you NO NOT change it's numerous settings(in Ubuntu 10.04, that is)! Once you try to experiment, expect lots of problems :-( Looking at Ubuntu 11.04 as a whole, it's obvious that they(Canonical) are trying to limit what the user can change. While this may make things easier for software developers, it's a big change from the infinitely configurable interface long term users have become used to...