Video playback is choppy [Haswell 1080p]

[Travis]

After upgrade from 19.10 to 20.04 video playback is choppy

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+19ubuntu14
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-7626.30~1588169883~20.04~bbe668a~dev-generic 5.4.30
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-7626-generic x86_64
.tmp.unity_support_test.0:

ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
CompositorRunning: None
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Sat May 9 06:43:40 2020
DistUpgraded: 2020-05-08 18:55:15,812 ERROR got error from PostInstallScript ./xorg_fix_proprietary.py (g-exec-error-quark: Failed to execute child process “./xorg_fix_proprietary.py” (No such file or directory) (8))
DistroCodename: focal
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0412] (rev 06) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller [1043:8534]
MachineType: System76, Inc. Wild Dog Performance
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-7626-generic root=UUID=6ce8ac8b-f6ef-47b4-9428-b35e00870dfa ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to focal on 2020-05-08 (0 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 01/20/2014
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 0806
dmi.board.asset.tag: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: H87-PLUS
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
dmi.board.version: Rev X.0x
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset-1234567890
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: System76, Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: wilp10
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr0806:bd01/20/2014:svnSystem76,Inc.:pnWildDogPerformance:pvrwilp10:rvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:rnH87-PLUS:rvrRevX.0x:cvnSystem76,Inc.:ct3:cvrwilp10:
dmi.product.family: ASUS MB
dmi.product.name: Wild Dog Performance
dmi.product.sku: All
dmi.product.version: wilp10
dmi.sys.vendor: System76, Inc.
modified.conffile..etc.default.apport:
 # set this to 0 to disable apport, or to 1 to enable it
 # you can temporarily override this with
 # sudo service apport start force_start=1
 enabled=0
mtime.conffile..etc.default.apport: 2014-05-27T19:28:01.524954
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.14.1+20.04.20200211-0ubuntu1
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.101-2
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 20.0.4-2ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 20.0.4-2ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.20.8-2ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.10.6-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:19.1.0-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20200226-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.16-1
xserver.bootTime: Thu Nov 9 16:56:44 2017
xserver.configfile: default
xserver.errors:

xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
xserver.version: 2:1.19.3-1ubuntu1.3
xserver.video_driver: modeset

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

1. Which apps are affected?

2. Fullscreen video only or windowed playback too?

3. Are you using fractional scaling?

4. If possible please attach a video of the problem using a phone.

[Travis (keenan-travis)]

Sorry I should have included some of that information.

Watching You-Tube in the browser (Chrome, Brave, Firefox) is the where I notice it most. However I have used VLC with local videos (from the hard-drive) and it also has the same problem.

It happens with full screen and windowed.

I am not using fractional scaling.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thanks. Choppy video in a windowed browser is probably either a browser bug or a compositor bug.

Please run 'top' in a Terminal window while it's happening so we can see if anything is using particularly high CPU during the problem.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Please also try selecting 'Ubuntu on Wayland' from the login screen. Plenty of people including myself feel that is performing better at the moment.

[Travis (keenan-travis)]

This is top running for a little more than 5 minutes while a video had been playing.

top - 09:39:50 up 4 days, 1:00, 1 user, load average: 0.74, 0.89, 0.84
Tasks: 282 total, 2 running, 280 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
%Cpu(s): 20.5 us, 2.0 sy, 0.0 ni, 72.7 id, 1.1 wa, 0.0 hi, 3.7 si, 0.0 st
MiB Mem : 19894.7 total, 2133.6 free, 3532.8 used, 14228.3 buff/cache
MiB Swap: 4096.0 total, 3799.0 free, 297.0 used. 14242.4 avail Mem

    PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
   2925 keenanti 20 0 6491344 1.4g 154680 R 51.8 7.3 1416:49 gnome-shell
  54922 keenanti 20 0 5145876 392000 149640 S 23.3 1.9 4:39.67 brave
   3572 keenanti 20 0 979420 333424 163968 S 9.0 1.6 657:55.80 brave
   2700 keenanti 20 0 457728 19972 10312 S 3.3 0.1 106:43.25 Xorg
   2620 keenanti 20 0 1941788 12244 9468 S 2.0 0.1 21:26.19 pulseaudio
   3086 keenanti 20 0 806552 24996 13516 S 1.3 0.1 73:35.05 indicator-multi
   3434 keenanti 20 0 2537540 479092 287396 S 1.3 2.4 89:10.10 brave
   3687 keenanti 20 0 9394220 396764 106992 S 0.7 1.9 50:12.55 brave
  55148 keenanti 20 0 959084 50208 37492 S 0.7 0.2 0:01.28 gnome-terminal-
   1709 root 20 0 2441408 52456 13684 S 0.3 0.3 5:53.60 Plex Media Serv
   2250 root 20 0 435488 2244 2244 S 0.3 0.0 0:10.21 Plex Tuner Serv
   3660 keenanti 20 0 4899272 105788 34376 S 0.3 0.5 3:49.28 brave
  55169 keenanti 20 0 12196 4072 3360 R 0.3 0.0 0:00.81 top
      1 root 20 0 169756 10068 5304 S 0.0 0.0 2:16.78 systemd

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thanks. The high CPU of gnome-shell and the fact it's using 1.4GB of RAM sounds like you're using some extensions. Next please uninstall all gnome-shell extensions then reboot and retry.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

To check if any are still active you can run: gnome-shell-extension-prefs

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

I should have said "please uninstall all non-Ubuntu gnome-shell extensions".

[Travis (keenan-travis)]

I'm pretty certain that I don't have any extensions active. I'm attaching a picture of the extensions app.

[Travis (keenan-travis)]

I have removed the System76 extension and the problem persists. I'm attaching an updated picture of my extensions.

[Travis (keenan-travis)]

Found it!!!
A long time ago I installed an app called indicator-multiload that runs in the top right of the menu bar. I happened to turn it off and the video started running better. I have now uninstalled it and videos are playing normally again.

I'm not sure the process, but this bug can be closed!

Thank you so much for your help,
Travis Keenan

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug 784055, so it is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Feel free to continue to report any other bugs you may find.