Black & White Video Output (Gutsy)

[Lillipuziano]

Gstreamer fails to autodetect the correct video output on my hardware and ALL the videos (xvid, ogg theora, wmv) are only displayed in black & White, with both Totem and Vlc players.. Compiz is not related to this bug (it also happens when it is disabled).

Workaround: launch gstreamer-properties -> Video -> Output -> X Window System (No Xv)

Please note that currently Vlc continues to display videos in Black & White and the same happens in totem with the wmv format and in RealPlayer with the real video format.

[Mike Fedyk (mfedyk)]

Confirming this on gutsy.

Funny thing is that videos worked fine on a fresh install of gutsy beta but a recent release broke totem and vlc on this system.

lspci -nn:
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 82815 815 Chipset Host Bridge and Memory Controller Hub [8086:1130] (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82815 815 Chipset AGP Bridge [8086:1131] (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge [8086:244e] (rev 01)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 82801BA ISA Bridge (LPC) [8086:2440] (rev 01)
00:1f.1 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801BA IDE U100 Controller [8086:244b] (rev 01)
00:1f.4 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM USB Controller #1 [8086:2444] (rev 01)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM AC'97 Audio Controller [8086:2445] (rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc Rage 128 RF/SG AGP [1002:5246]
02:04.0 Mass storage controller [0180]: Promise Technology, Inc. PDC20375 (SATA150 TX2plus) [105a:3375] (rev 02)
02:08.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM/CA/CAM Ethernet Controller [8086:2449] (rev 01)

[Lillipuziano (lillipuziano)]

I add the info about my hardware (I thank Mike for the command). It seems that this accours with Intel graphic cards...

$ lspci -nn
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub [8086:27a0] (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27a2] (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller [0380]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27a6] (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller [8086:27d8] (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 [8086:27d0] (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 [8086:27d2] (rev 02)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 3 [8086:27d4] (rev 02)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 4 [8086:27d6] (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:27c8] (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:27c9] (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:27ca] (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 [8086:27cb] (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller [8086:27cc] (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge [8086:2448] (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge [8086:27b9] (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller [8086:27df] (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller [8086:27da] (rev 02)
05:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection [8086:4222] (rev 02)
06:01.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX [14e4:170c] (rev 02)
06:04.0 CardBus bridge [0607]: ENE Technology Inc CB1410 Cardbus Controller [1524:1410] (rev 01)

[Lillipuziano (lillipuziano)]

Solved. Since the latest kernel update (yesterday evening) everything works fine with my hardware. I just hope it'll continue to work fine...

[Mike Fedyk (mfedyk)]

Yes, I can confirm the problem is fixed now.

Don't know which package it was though.

[Mike Fedyk (mfedyk)]

Uh oh, it's back.

But I do have some more information that may be useful.

It seems to trigger after some uptime. Rebooting into the same kernel and versions of packages yields color video with xvideo (in either totem-gstreamer or vlc). Before the reboot the same video played black and white. I have tested this with multiple video files.

Besides a "normal" gnome workload the only extra processes I have running and use are:
vmstat 5
top
powertop
screen
azureus

How to reproduce:
My current hypotheses is uptime and watching a lot of videos -- hint, a good excuse to try and reproduce this bug ;).

Once it triggers:
Run anything that uses xvideo, totem-gstreamer, vlc or the video test in gstreamer-properties will show the results (black and white video with xvideo)

I originally found the problem in the linux-image-2.6.22-13-generic kernel and have reproduced the problem coming back in the linux-image-2.6.22-14-rt kernel also. I haven't checked with -14-generic yet though. I'm waiting to how long it takes to reproduce on the -rt kernel again.

[Lillipuziano (lillipuziano)]

Yes, it's back also with my hardware! It happend with the latest kernel update! No extra information at this time.

[urho (vonturha)]

having same problem, opening file with totem gives black & white picture but if i open file first with kaffeine (still black&white pic) & drop it on systray and then open the same file again with totem i get colours!

[tonfa (bboissin)]

Same bug here with intel video card, I had to downgrade to make it work again (downgrading the intel driver wasn't enough, the kernel was probably to blame):
 7487 sudo dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-image-generic_2.6.22.14.20_i386.deb
 7488 sudo dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-image-2.6.22-14-generic_2.6.22-14.43_i386.deb
 7489 sudo dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.22-14-generic_2.6.22-14.36_i386.deb
 7490 sudo dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archives/xserver-xorg-video-intel_2%3a2.1.1-0ubuntu8_i386.de

[tonfa (bboissin)]

Actually I was wrong, the bug is still there, vlc works fine until I launch totem, then vlc is black and white too. Using the x11 backend instead of xv makes it works in color.

[muzzamo (murray-waters)]

This is happening to me also. On an Dell inspiron 700m with Intel 855GME graphics. Day before gutsy release day right now and i'm up-to-date if that means anything.

[Mike Fedyk (mfedyk)]

ii kaffeine 0.8.5-0ubuntu1 versatile media player for KDE 3
ii kaffeine-gstreamer 0.8.5-0ubuntu1 Gstreamer engine for kaffeine media player
ii kaffeine-xine 0.8.5-0ubuntu1 Xine engine for kaffeine media player
ii pitivi 0.10.3-1 non-linear audio/video editor using GStreame
ii totem-xine 2.20.0-0ubuntu3 A simple media player for the Gnome desktop

I don't think it's kernel related. I can reproduce with totem-gstreamer or totem-xine, but not with vlc, kaffeine (uses xine and gstreamer) or pitivi (uses gstreamer).

Now I just need to find which version of totem caused the bug...

[tonfa (bboissin)]

On Thu, Oct 18, 2007 at 07:00:24PM -0000, Mike Fedyk wrote:
>
> I don't think it's kernel related. I can reproduce with totem-gstreamer
> or totem-xine, but not with vlc, kaffeine (uses xine and gstreamer) or
> pitivi (uses gstreamer).

here is a part of my dpkg.log the faulty package is probably in one of them.

2007-10-10 09:34:50 upgrade foomatic-db 20070919-0ubuntu2 20070919-0ubuntu3
2007-10-10 09:34:54 upgrade foomatic-db-engine 3.0.2-20070719-0ubuntu3 3.0.2-20070719-0ubuntu4
2007-10-10 09:34:55 upgrade x11-common 1:7.2-5ubuntu12 1:7.2-5ubuntu13
2007-10-10 09:35:01 upgrade xserver-xorg-video-all 1:7.2-5ubuntu12 1:7.2-5ubuntu13
2007-10-10 09:35:01 upgrade xserver-xorg-input-all 1:7.2-5ubuntu12 1:7.2-5ubuntu13
2007-10-10 09:35:02 upgrade xutils 1:7.2-5ubuntu12 1:7.2-5ubuntu13
2007-10-10 09:35:02 upgrade xbase-clients 1:7.2-5ubuntu12 1:7.2-5ubuntu13
2007-10-10 09:35:35 upgrade xserver-xorg 1:7.2-5ubuntu12 1:7.2-5ubuntu13
2007-10-10 09:35:40 upgrade libgs8 8.61.dfsg.1~svn8187-0ubuntu2 8.61.dfsg.1~svn8187-0ubuntu3
2007-10-10 09:35:41 upgrade ghostscript 8.61.dfsg.1~svn8187-0ubuntu2 8.61.dfsg.1~svn8187-0ubuntu3
2007-10-10 09:35:45 upgrade ghostscript-x 8.61.dfsg.1~svn8187-0ubuntu2 8.61.dfsg.1~svn8187-0ubuntu3
2007-10-10 09:35:45 upgrade openprinting-ppds 20070919-0ubuntu2 20070919-0ubuntu3
2007-10-10 09:35:48 upgrade xorg 1:7.2-5ubuntu12 1:7.2-5ubuntu13
2007-10-11 09:24:05 upgrade linux-image-2.6.22-14-generic 2.6.22-14.41 2.6.22-14.43
2007-10-11 09:24:29 upgrade linux-headers-2.6.22-14 2.6.22-14.41 2.6.22-14.43
2007-10-11 09:24:52 upgrade linux-headers-2.6.22-14-generic 2.6.22-14.41 2.6.22-14.43
2007-10-11 09:24:57 upgrade linux-libc-dev 2.6.22-14.41 2.6.22-14.43
2007-10-11 09:25:00 upgrade xdg-user-dirs 0.9-0ubuntu1 0.9-0ubuntu2
2007-10-12 18:23:48 upgrade hplip-data 2.7.7.dfsg.1-0ubuntu4 2.7.7.dfsg.1-0ubuntu5
2007-10-12 18:23:53 upgrade hplip 2.7.7.dfsg.1-0ubuntu4 2.7.7.dfsg.1-0ubuntu5
2007-10-12 18:23:57 upgrade libdecoration0 1:0.6.0+git20071006-0ubuntu2 1:0.6.0+git20071008-0ubuntu1
2007-10-12 18:23:59 upgrade compiz-gnome 1:0.6.0+git20071006-0ubuntu2 1:0.6.0+git20071008-0ubuntu1
2007-10-12 18:24:44 upgrade compiz-plugins 1:0.6.0+git20071006-0ubuntu2 1:0.6.0+git20071008-0ubuntu1
2007-10-12 18:24:46 upgrade libcompizconfig-backend-gconf 0.5.2+git20071005-0ubuntu2 0.5.2+git20071010-0ubuntu1
2007-10-12 18:24:48 upgrade compiz-core 1:0.6.0+git20071006-0ubuntu2 1:0.6.0+git20071008-0ubuntu1
2007-10-12 18:24:49 upgrade compiz 1:0.6.0+git20071006-0ubuntu2 1:0.6.0+git20071008-0ubuntu1
2007-10-12 18:24:52 upgrade flashplugin-nonfree 9.0.48.0.0ubuntu11 9.0.48.0.2+really0ubuntu12
2007-10-12 18:24:54 upgrade hpijs 2.7.7+2.7.7.dfsg.1-0ubuntu4 2.7.7+2.7.7.dfsg.1-0ubuntu5
2007-10-12 18:24:55 upgrade xresprobe 0.4.24ubuntu5 0.4.24ubuntu6
2007-10-12 18:24:56 upgrade xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.1.1-0ubuntu6 2:2.1.1-0ubuntu8
2007-10-13 09:42:57 upgrade linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.22-14-generic 2.6.22-14.35 2.6.22-14.36
2007-10-13 09:43:03 upgrade python-apt 0.7.3.1ubuntu2 0.7.3.1ubuntu3
2007-10-13 09:43:06 upgrade update-manager 1:0.80 1:0.81
2007-10-13 09:43:31 upgrade update-manager-core 1:0.80 1:0.81
2007-10-13 09:43:31 upgrade guidance-backends 0.8.0svn2...

[Mike Fedyk (mfedyk)]

Please don't fill this bug report with log output inline. If you want to post log output, attach a file.

I first saw this days after the affected package came in because I don't use totem often to play videos (I like to skip back variable portions and the (shift|alt|ctrl) + left arrow is great for that in vlc) and I don't restart my system often either.

[Mike Fedyk (mfedyk)]

I can only reproduce this with totem so I am assigning this to the totem package.

This bug has been confirmed on intel and ati video cards so unless totem is triggering a bug further up in the xorg stack, it's not there either. I have tested this against 4 ubuntu gutsy kernels 2.6.22 12-generic, 13-generic, 14-generic and 14-rt. All showed this problem and I don't remember a freshly installed gutsty beta exhibiting this problem.

[Mike Fedyk (mfedyk)]

Changing status to confirmed since there are 5 people reporting the same problem.

[unggnu (unggnu)]

It is easy to fix. Close Totem and remove ~/.gconf/apps/totem/ with "rm -r ~/.gconf/apps/totem" and then logout and login again. After that it should work.
Of course all Totem settings are gone.

[tonfa (bboissin)]

On Sat, Oct 20, 2007 at 09:11:00PM -0000, unggnu wrote:
> It is easy to fix. Close Totem and remove ~/.gconf/apps/totem/ with
> "rm -r ~/.gconf/apps/totem" and then logout and login again. After
> that it should work.
> Of course all Totem settings are gone.

works for me, thanks.

--
:wq

[TylerMcManus (tylermcmanus)]

> "rm -r ~/.gconf/apps/totem" and then logout and login again.

Just wanted to confirm this solution. I had the exact same issue, and the above fix worked for me as well. Thanks to all.

[Götz Christ (g-christ)]

> "rm -r ~/.gconf/apps/totem" and then logout and login again.

This fix also worked for me, many thanks!

Why happened it?

[Carlos Parra Camargo (carlospc)]

Same problem here.

> "rm -r ~/.gconf/apps/totem" and then logout and login again.

Also works for me.

> Workaround: launch gstreamer-properties -> Video -> Output -> X Window System (No Xv)

Also works for me (no need to logout/login).

I'm in a fresh install of gutsy (installed on 2007-11-14) and i've updated the system daily. Since yesterday (2007-11-16) i've the black & white problem, i attach my dpkg.log.

[LKRaider (paul-eipper)]

These solutions are workarounds. What seems to be wrong is that Xv output on the Intel driver is not working correctly.

If I test Xv video output on gstreamer-properties it shows black and white. If I have Totem open at the same time though, then an error is output:

gstreamer-properties-Message: Error running pipeline 'X Window System (X11/XShm/Xv)': Could not initialise Xv output [xvimagesink.c(1309): gst_xvimagesink_get_xv_support (): /pipeline0/xvimagesink2:
No port available]

this is a regression, since it worked a few updates ago.

[Elmer van Baal (evbaal)]

I can confirm on this bug. My hardware:
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
I didn't have problems watching video on gutsy until today (nov 25).

[Carlos Parra Camargo (carlospc)]

My hardware:

lspci | grep Display
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)

[bytesmythe (bytesmythe)]

I noticed this bug and checked the Totem preferences. On the video tab, the saturation slider was all the way to the left.
I never changed this myself, so I'm not sure how it got modified. Does anyone else with this bug have the same setting?

[tonfa (bboissin)]

On Thu, Nov 29, 2007 at 08:48:35PM -0000, bytesmythe wrote:
> I noticed this bug and checked the Totem preferences. On the video
> tab, the saturation slider was all the way to the left.
> I never changed this myself, so I'm not sure how it got modified.
> Does anyone else with this bug have the same setting?

iirc it was the same for me.

--
:wq

[LKRaider (paul-eipper)]

Same here! Didn't know that Totem slider was a system wide setting! This is awful...

If I click "restore settings" it puts all bars in the middle and the image looks terrible. The controls feel strange and the Hue bar affects nothing at all.

So, the Intel Xv problems seem to be:
1) default saturation value is "grayscale"
2) totem color controls are system-wide affecting
3) hue is not working
4) no two programs can output at Xv at the same time.

feel free to break these up into specific bug reports if required.

[Henrik Nilsen Omma (henrik)]

This bug was nominated for Gutsy but does currently not qualify for a 7.10 stable release update (SRU) and the nomination is therefore declined.
According the the SRU policy, the fix should already be deployed and tested in the current development version before an update to the stable releases will be considered. With 7.10 now released, that policy applies to this bug. See: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates .
The bug is not being closed as work will continue on fixing it for the next release, Hardy Heron (8.04). If the state of this bug should change such that it qualifies for the SRU process, please contact the person who originally declined it and ask them to re-evaluate it. To help improve the state of this bug see: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/HowToTriage .

[delle (delle)]

hi !

I just wanted to confirm the exact behaviour described above.

I think this is a pain. Having to write rm -r ~/.gconf/apps/totem and log out / log in does not exactly help spreading the word about an stable OS known as ubuntu. :-(

hoping for the best

philipp

[John (john-line)]

Should the :-

rm -r ~/.gconf/apps/totem

-: be needed just once, or is it necessary to run it again every day one wants to watch videos in colour?

I fed that in yesterday but today videos had reverted to black and white. So fed it in again today, and again this easy workaround works, but for how long?

Do we know when an update to Ubuntu will fix this properly?

[tonfa (bboissin)]

On Wed, Dec 12, 2007 at 10:50:09AM -0000, John wrote:
> Should the :-
>
> rm -r ~/.gconf/apps/totem
>
> -: be needed just once, or is it necessary to run it again every day one
> wants to watch videos in colour?

Do you logout right after that ?
I only needed it once or twice, so if you can reproduce it easily it's
worth investigating (I can't reproduce at will)
>
> Do we know when an update to Ubuntu will fix this properly?

I think nobody figured out how the settings changed to b&w

--
:wq

[Alec Wright (alecjw)]

Confirmed on Hardy too. Its affected me for all of the time I've had this dell laptop (which is supposedly designed for Ubuntu). I've had to switch back to the i810 driver to get around this, which means my touchpad scroll bars don't work :(

[unggnu (unggnu)]

Touchpad problem is a hardy one, not an i810. Btw. you can use a different Video player per default like Vlc which hasn't this problem if Totem wasn't started at this session. There seems to be still a little color issue with Intel driver and Xv but not black and white.

[Dora Kovats (dorcssa)]

I've also got this bug just this afternoon on a dell inspiron 6400, gutsy(with the latest upgrades). It's rather odd, since there was no problem in the morning, but everything went black and white afternoon, and I didn't installed any upgrades..

[pixolex (pixolex)]

Just to confirm the bug.

I think it's a WMV video that triggered the black & white bug. Just made a xorg-intel upgrade this days.

Delete vlc and totem settings it's a workaround.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Could someone experiencing this issue please post their ~/.gconf/apps/totem config file?

Another thing that could be useful would be to disable lines in the config file line by line or section by section to try and narrow in on which line or lines are causing this problem.

[delle (delle)]

hI!

This is my ~/.gconf/apps/totem/%gconf.xml (attachment)

Is that what you asked for?

I had the mentioned problems, but they did not appear in some weeks.

cheers

Philipp

[Emilio Pozuelo Monfort (pochu)]

Bryce Harrington wrote:
> Could someone experiencing this issue please post their
> ~/.gconf/apps/totem config file?
>
> Another thing that could be useful would be to disable lines in the
> config file line by line or section by section to try and narrow in on
> which line or lines are causing this problem.
>
> ** Changed in: xserver-xorg-video-intel (Ubuntu)
> Status: Confirmed => In Progress
>

Done in the upstream report.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

The upstream for -intel has determined it's not a driver bug. Reassigning to totem.

[tonfa (bboissin)]

On Sun, Feb 03, 2008 at 09:15:45AM -0000, Bryce Harrington wrote:
> The upstream for -intel has determined it's not a driver bug.
> Reassigning to totem.

Well to me sounds -intel may be at fault. Even if totem does crazy
things, is the output supposed to stay b&w across reboots ?

--
:wq

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

May someone verify if they get the same with: gst-launch-0.10 playbin uri=file:///path/to/file ? thanks.

[Asif (imazing-asif)]

Same thing happened to me in Totem, VLC and Mplayer

asif@asif-pc:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82945G/GZ/P/PL Memory Controller Hub (rev 02)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82945G/GZ Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 01)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev e1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GB/GR (ICH7 Family) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GB/GR/GH (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 01)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Attansic Technology Corp. L2 100 Mbit Ethernet Adapter (rev a0)

[Asif (imazing-asif)]

This seems to work
go to totem players settings/preferences and turn saturation up,
it appears it affects all media players...

[AL (altash)]

To see totem with color video - start totem- go to preferences then click on a buttons that says set to default. At this point the video becomes colorized. You have to play with color characteristics of video player.

[Götz Christ (g-christ)]

That is not a very well solution, better is to remove "rm -r ~/.gconf/apps/totem"

Maybe this problem has relation with the opening of another video player or with some codecs.

Are other distros not affected?

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Moving to 8.04 final, since beta is about to be released.

[AJ ONeal (coolaj86)]

I think I have the same problem. It started just after I did an upgrade (not fresh install) to Hardy Beta.

The color isn't quite black and white. If I go into the settings in totem and throw the hue all the way up and the brightness up a little it's about normal.

This happens across mplayer, vlc, and totem for all video formats.

The first time that I ran vlc from one of my dvd drives it was almost no color. Then when I ran totem it was the same. I changed the DVD to my second drive and it had normal color in totem, but playback was very poor so I ran VLC at which point it went back to bad color but played well.

Then I changed the video settings in totem as described above and VLC played the color correctly afterwards.

Very strange behaviour, huh?

[AJ ONeal (coolaj86)]

rm .gstreamer-0.10/registry.i486.xml

[Chris Pimlott (launchpad-chris)]

I'm also experiencing this issue.

00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)

All video played though vlc, mplayer, totem or gst-launch appears black and white, while youtube videos and then like work just fine.

I checked the totem settings, and sure enough, saturation was all the way to the left. I made the mistake, though, of clicking "Reset to Defaults" which has side all 4 sliders (brightness, contrast, saturation, hue) to the midpoint, which leaves the video rather garish - over saturated and high contrast with the color balance seriously out of whack.

This issue first appeared coincidentally with other video problems - video fails to follow the window in real time when dragging the window (it only moves when the window is placed in its new location), black outlines around windows when placed over a video window, failure to draw the video window properly in compiz alt-tab window previews.

I also noticed that if I create a new user, none of the video issues appeared on that account.f

[AJ ONeal (coolaj86)]

The problem is with a change in gstreamer settings. Delete the registry as shown in the post above and the problem is immediately solved.

[Götz Christ (g-christ)]

If the problem is with a change in gstreamer settings, why xine and mplayer have also the same problem?

Sure, it is a problem some where else. Drivers? X?

[AJ ONeal (coolaj86)]

That's a good question. I don't think it has a good answer.

Wait...

Interesting... I opened a DVD on my room-mate's account on this computer but usually we use my account to watch movies. The apps in his account seem to run the color fine without having deleted any of his config files.

Just now I started opening up all sorts of different media players on my account and found that some of them still have this problem and some of them don't.

Perhaps all of these programs do some sort of video test the first time that they're run and create these files with 'optimal' settings but a driver has been changed and those files need to be deleted so that they can re-detect the 'optimal' settings.

some of the config files I found that may be affected:
.gnome2/Totem/xine_config
.gstreamer-0.10/registry.i486.xml
.vlc/vlcrc
.gxine/config
.mplayer/gui.conf

[Götz Christ (g-christ)]

Hmm, that is a good theory... But witch component has the bug? Maybe it is only one components bug, but maybe many components are the cause of the problem.
And also .gconf/apps/totem/plugins/%gconf.xml ?

Witch component has something in common with all those config files?

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Tentatively targetted to 8.04.1; we still don't seem to have a clear handle on reproducing this bug though, comments indicate a variety of symptoms with no common theme. Assigning to desktop-bugs for further prospective triaging.

[bitey (fandrews-tns)]

Okay, I have the symptom. I installed Gutsy and updated it completely as of 4-26-08. Then I tweaked my system for video editing with kino (this involved altering the repositories list). Once it was working I backed up the partition, then the next time I booted I stupidly accepted 39 updates. Now all my digital video is black-and-white no matter what player I use.

It's Intel i810 video, if that helps.

[bitey (fandrews-tns)]

Oops, scratch that, it's Intel G33 video.

[bitey (fandrews-tns)]

I did an in-place upgrade to Edgy and the problem remained. Must be one of the config files.

[bitey (fandrews-tns)]

Now I've created another account in Edgy. When I log into that one, I get supersaturated color as described previously in this thread.

[AJ ONeal (coolaj86)]

FYI I've got an nvidia card, not intel.

[bitey (fandrews-tns)]

More info -- under both accounts in the in-place upgrade to Edgy, VLC and kino both display correct color. Only the default player, Totem, does not.

[nicksk (nicksk-deactivatedaccount)]

I confirm this bug as well. After a recent update i see only black screen when running videos. I am using Ubuntu Hardy on nx6325.
But interestingly, when the video is in fullscreen mode, it works fine. I can watch movie.

[delle (delle)]

Hi,

I've got the feeling that the change to black+white video occures gradually. Thus I did not realize for a while what was happening. But it happended again today. Video lost it's color on my machine.

So what can we do to tackle this problem? Is there anything I can do or post or whatever to help circle in on the problem?

cheers Philipp

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

could somebody try if that's still an issue using totem-gstreamer 2.23.91 in intrepid?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the issue could be bug #216820, if the fix is confirmed on intrepid an hardy update could be considered

[tonfa (bboissin)]

On Wed, Sep 03, 2008 at 02:58:46PM -0000, Sebastien Bacher wrote:
> could somebody try if that's still an issue using totem-gstreamer
> 2.23.91 in intrepid?

Sadly it wasn't easily reproducible (I haven't encountered it since
some months).

--
:wq

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Closing this bug report as no further information has been provided. Please feel free to reopen this bug if you can provide the information asked for. Thanks!.