vlc video colour change

[Sam Cater]

Binary package hint: vlc

while using VLC (or xine, i noticed). The video has gone weird, it plays ok, with sound, exact the colours are screwed up. For example, any shade of green is purplish, and grey is whiter than usual. Anyone have something like this?

[Dirk (ubuntu-tobit)]

I have had this as well on Nvidia 8600GT using nvidia drivers with the latest Hardy code as of 17Apr08

[TheQuickBrownFox (theprash)]

I had this problem today. I opened an .flv and the colours were similar to the bug report. I managed to fix it by switching the video output to X11 in VLC preferences: Video > Output Modules > "X11 video output" (need to have advanced options checked). It was set to Autodetect but presumably this decided to choose something other than X11 for a change. Putting the setting at "XVideo extension video output" makes the colours go awry again.

Interestingly, I had the problem affected Totem movie player at the same time. I fixed this by running "gstreamer-properties" and in the video tab switching the default output plugin from Autodetect to "X Window System (No Xv)". A pattern emerges...

Note: I'm using proprietary nvidia.

[James McPhee (jmcphe)]

Having same problem. Mplayer and Totem both showing same weird colors. Changing to X11 fixes, and specifying Xv gives same as autodetect.

Also running proprietary nvidia.

Found people investigating similar issue with intel driver in Bug #32963, though they aren't having problems with some of the video players.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/32963

[JB VideoLAN (jb-videolan)]

The bug is not VLC nor xine, but nvidia drivers that changes hue colours for Xv.

[JB VideoLAN (jb-videolan)]

Fill a bug against nVidia drivers.

[Mark Darbyshire (markdarb)]

I find that when playing certain flv files the black and white portion of the video plays fine, but the coloured parts overlaying the video will be translated to the left or right so that the video has hideous colours.

On Hardy I found that if I had this problem in Totem, I could still play the video in VLC without any problems. However, in Intrepid, I have this problem with more videos than I did in Hardy, and playing them in VLC doesn't fix the problem. In VLC, however, switching to X11 output does solve this (perhaps in Hardy it chose X11 by default, whereas in Intrepid it's choosing XVideo by default).

For me, this bug is consistent as to which flvs it affects, but there are some flvs that it didn't affect on Hardy that it does on Intrepid. I don't know what might be different about these flvs.

Below are links to three flvs, all of them ripped from YouTube. The first one hasn't had this problem in either Hardy or Intrepid. The second has the problem only in Intrepid. The third has the problem in both Hardy and Intrepid.

http://misc.markdarb.com/Not_the_Nine_O_Clock_News_Bathroom_Plan.flv (neither)

http://misc.markdarb.com/Rowan_Atkinson_questions_God..flv (Intrepid)

http://misc.markdarb.com/Two_Ronnies_-_Mastermind.flv (Hardy and Intrepid)

I'm using the 32-bit version of Intrepid Beta with all updates. I have a GeForce 8600M GT. I've always used the proprietary drivers (although wish I could instead use some nice free drivers with a nice open card, hence avoiding all the annoyances NVIDIA cards are plagued with). I'm currently using version 177 of the NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver.

[themuddler (mike-udall)]

I have the same problem (intrepid using nvidia 173 driver as I have a different problem with the 177 driver). I notice that this bug is invalid and assigned to the wrong package but can't work out how to report this as affecting the nvidia driver. Is there a system for tracking these or do we have to email nvidia?

[Morty (morty+ubuntu)]

Try running:

  nvidia-settings -l

[Giovanni Go (dreamnid)]

Morty,

I have been running nvidia-settings. Once it executes, the problem is fixed without me doing anything in the program.

I think this is more of a workaround to solve the problem when it happens - ie. it doesn't actually prevent the problem from happening.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Sam Cater, thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu. Is this an issue in a supported release? If so, could you please execute the following command, as it will automatically gather debugging information, in a terminal:
apport-collect 199975

Please ensure you have xdiagnose installed, and that you click the Yes button for attaching additional debugging information.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for xorg (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]