[Natty] Stuttering video playback

[Lollerke]

Binary package hint: compiz

High frame rate/bitrate videos are stuttering badly with compiz (Unity and Ubuntu Classic with effects) in VLC, Mplayer and Totem. For example: if I enable yadif (double framerate) deinterlacing on a DVD Video or watching 50/60fps progressive SD materials. In full screen mode the stuttering is getting worse (~10fps). Mplayer doesn't show AV sync problems or dropped frames and the CPU usage is normal (see attached screenshot). All of these videos are running smoothly under Unity 2D and Ubuntu Classic without effects. I tried different video outputs and different ccsm setting combinations including sync to vblank, the unredirect fullscreen window option and manually adjusting the refresh rate, but the problem still exists.

It looks like compiz doesn't sync properly. Under Unity and Unity 2D glxgears shows 60fps, but in Unity the animation is stuttering even if nothing else is running. Also while playing these videos in full screen glxgears drops to 45-50fps, but only under compiz. I turned off Animations and Fading windows in ccsm, but it didn't help. Looks like the X200M can't handle compiz with reasonable performance.

(I have a desktop PC with an NVIDIA G210 VGA which is much faster than the ATI X200M and this video stuttering exists there too.) --> This was a VDPAU problem because when I turned off hardware acceleration the sync problem gone.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: compiz 1:0.9.4+bzr20110415-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic 2.6.38.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic i686
Architecture: i386
CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,regex,grid,resize,imgpng,unitymtgrabhandles,gnomecompat,mousepoll,place,vpswitch,move,animation,snap,wall,session,workarounds,expo,ezoom,staticswitcher,fade,scale,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: compiz
DRM.card0.LVDS.1:
 status: connected
 enabled: enabled
 dpms: On
 modes: 1280x800 1280x720 1152x768 1024x768 800x600 848x480 720x480 640x480
 edid-base64: AP///////wAyDADIAAAAAAAQAQOAIRV4CrNwmVlTjScjUFQAAAABAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBthwAuFAgJTAgKEQAS88QAAAZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA/gBMR1BoaWxpcHNMQ0QKAAAA/gBMUDE1NFcwMS1UTEU0ACo=
DRM.card0.VGA.1:
 status: disconnected
 enabled: disabled
 dpms: On
 modes:
 edid-base64:
Date: Mon May 9 17:31:38 2011
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: natty
DistroVariant: ubuntu
GraphicsCard:
 ATI Technologies Inc RC410 [Radeon Xpress 200M] [1002:5a62] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device [1179:ff31]
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release i386 (20110427.1)
InstallationMedia_: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release i386 (20110427.1)
Lsusb:
 Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0603:00f2 Novatek Microelectronics Corp.
 Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0458:003a KYE Systems Corp. (Mouse Systems) NetScroll+ Mini Traveler
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
MachineType: TOSHIBA Satellite L30
PackageArchitecture: all
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=hu_HU:en
 LANG=hu_HU.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic root=UUID=d306fe42-edcd-4237-8220-d85dbf283f13 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
ProcVersionSignature_: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic 2.6.38.2
Renderer: Unknown
SourcePackage: compiz
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 08/17/2007
dmi.bios.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.bios.version: V3.00
dmi.board.name: Satellite L30
dmi.board.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.board.version: Not Applicable
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnTOSHIBA:bvrV3.00:bd08/17/2007:svnTOSHIBA:pnSatelliteL30:pvrPSL33E-00E00XHU:rvnTOSHIBA:rnSatelliteL30:rvrNotApplicable:cvnTOSHIBA:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: Satellite L30
dmi.product.version: PSL33E-00E00XHU
dmi.sys.vendor: TOSHIBA
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.4+bzr20110415-0ubuntu2
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.23-1ubuntu6
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 7.10.2-0ubuntu2
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 7.10.2-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg: xserver-xorg 1:7.6+4ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.0-0ubuntu4
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.14.0-4ubuntu7.1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20110107+b795ca6e-0ubuntu7

[madbiologist (me-again)]

The VDPAU problem on your desktop might be fixed in the just-released NVIDIA 270.41.19 pre-release driver. It supposedly fixes a bug in the VDPAU presentation queue that could cause temporary hangs.

I'm not sure about the main problem on your other machine.

[Thomas M Steenholdt (tmus)]

Any news here?

Could this problem be related to the missing libvideo.so Compiz Video Playback plugin? I'm having all these problems as well on Natty, using fglrx.

Mplayer works sort of okay in fullscreen with gl output, but nowhere near optimal. Windowed gl output as well as xv output (fullscreen og windowed) performs really bad.

Please let me know is you need any info from my system

[display name (cameron-p-phillips)]

On a default install with a new and powerful system, I had the same video stuttering issues--particularly with HD. I did find, however, that using VLC and just the CPU to decode the video looked just fine. So, there was something in Unity not playing well with the GPU/driver.

I found two ways to fix my video stuttering problem in Natty:

1. Log in to Ubuntu Classic
This fixed pretty much all of my video problems.

2.Upgrade to the 275 nvidia driver. This made the stuttering under unity much less severe and only noticeable if I try really hard to see it.

[Vincent Tschanz (fogia)]

I have the same problem.

One easy way to spot this is to watch the credit roll-up at the end of movie, you will easily notice the stuttering.
Personally I have a core i3 graphics with intel open source driver.

Here is one way to avoid this stuttering while keeping Compiz on (works for me) :

1- Open CompizConfig
2- Enter OpenGL menu
3- Disable sync Vblank
4- Close CompizConfig
5- Open a video

Is this workaround working for you guys?

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

If disabling Sync To VBlank fixes the performance problem then you're seeing bug 763005.

[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 763005, 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.