Video playback in Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox with Wayland drops too many frames

[Matheus Reich]

1) Description: Ubuntu Cosmic Cuttlefish (development branch)
Release: 18.10

2)xwayland:
  Instalado: 2:1.20.1-3ubuntu2
  Candidato: 2:1.20.1-3ubuntu2
  Tabela de versão:
 *** 2:1.20.1-3ubuntu2 500
        500 http://br.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu cosmic/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

3)While the video plays, it shouldn't drop a single frame, but Ubuntu with Wayland (selected on login screen) is dropping way too many.

4)When watching videos on Google Chrome, or Mozilla Firefox, or any other web browser (using Wayland on login screen), with the hardware acceleration option on, the video drops around 15 to 20 frames for every 100 frames at 60FPS videos (half of that on 30FPS). I know that my iGPU (Intel HD Graphics 2000 is old, but on Win8.1 or Win10 it didn't drop any frames, 60FPS without drops).

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.10
Package: xwayland 2:1.20.1-3ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.18.0-8.9-generic 4.18.7
Uname: Linux 4.18.0-8-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.10-0ubuntu11
Architecture: amd64
BootLog: Error: [Errno 13] Permissão negada: '/var/log/boot.log'
CompositorRunning: None
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Thu Oct 4 00:00:22 2018
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: cosmic
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/Xwayland
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, if not too technical
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0126] (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller [1025:0649]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-09-25 (8 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.10 "Cosmic Cuttlefish" - Beta amd64 (20180925.1)
MachineType: Acer Aspire E1-571
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.18.0-8-generic root=UUID=25579668-2ce2-4bbe-a046-428b54ef525c ro quiet splash vt.handoff=1
SourcePackage: xorg-server
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 12/16/2013
dmi.bios.vendor: Acer
dmi.bios.version: V2.21
dmi.board.asset.tag: Type2 - Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: EA50_HC_HR
dmi.board.vendor: Acer
dmi.board.version: Type2 - Board Version
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Acer
dmi.chassis.version: V2.21
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAcer:bvrV2.21:bd12/16/2013:svnAcer:pnAspireE1-571:pvrV2.21:rvnAcer:rnEA50_HC_HR:rvrType2-BoardVersion:cvnAcer:ct10:cvrV2.21:
dmi.product.family: Type1Family
dmi.product.name: Aspire E1-571
dmi.product.sku: Aspire E1-571_0649_V2.21
dmi.product.version: V2.21
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer
version.compiz: compiz N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.94-1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 18.2.1-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx N/A
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.20.1-3ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:18.1.0-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20171229-1build1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.15-3

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Firefox and Chrome/Chromium use software video decoding by default. They might also have "hardware acceleration" options for you to try, but to the best of my knowledge they don't do properly efficient hardware decoding. So this is a bug (two bugs) in the web browsers.

For a proper future solution see:
https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/chromium/src/+/532294

For a simple workaround that works today, see:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IntelQuickSyncVideo#YouTube

Another issue you will find is that Gnome Shell (especially Wayland sessions) stutters and drops frames more than it should. And this problem will be visible in your videos too. I have a list of causes for that:
https://trello.com/c/Q6JYXPPs

Many people report better performance using Xorg sessions, for now.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Also in the news just this week:

https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=463440#c65

[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 1424201, 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.