[i945gme] Xorg hardware-specific on Delll Mini 9 Inspiron 910 : playback choppy with H264

[komputes]

Binary package hint: xorg

Jerky playback of videos using the codec "H.264 / AVC" on a Dell Mini 9 (Inspiron 910). Totem/gstreamer skips many frames, but the audio plays. In vlc/ffmpeg video plays for a semi second then freezes up, while audio continues. At first, I thought that this was a codec issue (Bug #121279) but then realized it was hardware specific when testing the video on another machine (different video card, same driver) where it played back perfectly.

The card which is having issues playing back this video:
VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27ae] (rev 03)
 Kernel driver in use: i915
 Kernel modules: i915

The card which did not have any issues playing back this video (same driver):
VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 82G35 Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2982] (rev 01)
        Kernel driver in use: i915
        Kernel modules: i915

gstreamer-properties shows that it is using 'Autodetect' as the video plugin on both machines. Besides that, I'm not too sure how to check if I am using Xv or X11 gstreamer plugin.

Attached is example media for testing purposes. This clip was created with a Canon Powershot SD780 IS Elph on HD video mode.

Codec information:
Nautilus properties says: H.264 / AVC
VLC says: AVC1

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
CheckboxSubmission: 2927c59df4d910c7420633a88fe5f586
CheckboxSystem: d00f84de8a555815fa1c4660280da308
Date: Tue Dec 1 12:47:18 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
MachineType: Dell Inc. Inspiron 910
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
Package: xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu7
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-15-generic root=UUID=bcdb9576-0131-42b7-8a8c-449c2b08a8cf ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_CA.UTF-8
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-15.50-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 xserver-xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu7
 libgl1-mesa-glx 7.6.0-1ubuntu4
 libdrm2 2.4.14-1ubuntu1
 xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.9.0-1ubuntu2
 xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.12.99+git20090929.7968e1fb-0ubuntu1
SourcePackage: xorg
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-15-generic i686
XorgConf: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/etc/X11/xorg.conf'
dmi.bios.date: 08/05/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A00
dmi.board.name: CN0J14
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A00
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: A00
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA00:bd08/05/2008:svnDellInc.:pnInspiron910:pvrA00:rvnDellInc.:rnCN0J14:rvrA00:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvrA00:
dmi.product.name: Inspiron 910
dmi.product.version: A00
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.
fglrx: Not loaded
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 architecture: i686kernel: 2.6.31-15-generic

[Alberto Milone (albertomilone)]

Same problem on the Dell Mini 10v. I have attached the output of the following command:
gst-launch-0.10 filesrc location=MVI_0433.MOV ! decodebin ! xvimagesink

[Alberto Milone (albertomilone)]

@Jesse
Any ideas on what could be causing the problem?

[komputes (komputes)]

Alberto,

I am enthusiastic that you were able to reproduce this bug. Please let me know if there is a newer version of the video driver & xorg that I can test. Since karmic I have had problems with automatic multi-screen, screen configuration changes on close lit, sporadic black flashes just for a semi-second and Xorg spikes which seem to slow down the system. I am going to test Lucid soon to see if the issue is still present.

[H. Peter Klobes (h-peterklobes)]

how do i get off these e-mails u-guys are filling up my inbox everyday with very
trivial stuff!!! when I worked in I/T support my answer to ALL YOUR
QUESTIONS WAS:

  " RTFM" aka: Read The F'n Manuals :)

On 3/2/10, Bryce Harrington <email address hidden> wrote:
> ** Summary changed:
>
> - [i945] [i945gme] Xorg hardware-specific on Delll Mini 9 Inspiron 910 :
> playback choppy with H264
> + [i945gme] Xorg hardware-specific on Delll Mini 9 Inspiron 910 : playback
> choppy with H264
>
> --
> [i945gme] Xorg hardware-specific on Delll Mini 9 Inspiron 910 : playback
> choppy with H264
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/490946
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to
> xserver-xorg-video-intel in ubuntu.
>
> Status in “xserver-xorg-video-intel” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: xorg
>
> Jerky playback of videos using the codec "H.264 / AVC" on a Dell Mini 9
> (Inspiron 910). Totem/gstreamer skips many frames, but the audio plays. In
> vlc/ffmpeg video plays for a semi second then freezes up, while audio
> continues. At first, I thought that this was a codec issue (Bug #121279) but
> then realized it was hardware specific when testing the video on another
> machine (different video card, same driver) where it played back perfectly.
>
> The card which is having issues playing back this video:
> VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express
> Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27ae] (rev 03)
> Kernel driver in use: i915
> Kernel modules: i915
>
> The card which did not have any issues playing back this video (same
> driver):
> VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 82G35 Express Integrated
> Graphics Controller [8086:2982] (rev 01)
> Kernel driver in use: i915
>
> Kernel modules: i915
>
> gstreamer-properties shows that it is using 'Autodetect' as the video plugin
> on both machines. Besides that, I'm not too sure how to check if I am using
> Xv or X11 gstreamer plugin.
>
> Attached is example media for testing purposes. This clip was created with a
> Canon Powershot SD780 IS Elph on HD video mode.
>
> Codec information:
> Nautilus properties says: H.264 / AVC
> VLC says: AVC1
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> Architecture: i386
> CheckboxSubmission: 2927c59df4d910c7420633a88fe5f586
> CheckboxSystem: d00f84de8a555815fa1c4660280da308
> Date: Tue Dec 1 12:47:18 2009
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
> MachineType: Dell Inc. Inspiron 910
> NonfreeKernelModules: wl
> Package: xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu7
> ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-15-generic
> root=UUID=bcdb9576-0131-42b7-8a8c-449c2b08a8cf ro quiet splash
> ProcEnviron:
> LANGUAGE=en_CA.UTF-8
> PATH=(custom, user)
> LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-15.50-generic
> RelatedPackageVersions:
> xserver-xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu7
> libgl1-mesa-glx 7.6.0-1ubuntu4
> libdrm2 2.4.14-1ubuntu1
> xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.9.0-1ubuntu2
> xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.12.99+git20090929.7968e1fb-0ubuntu1
> SourcePackage: xorg
> Uname: Linux 2.6.31-15-generic i686
> XorgConf: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/etc/X11/xorg.conf'
> dmi.bios.dat...

[komputes (komputes)]

Bryce, I've tested this on Lucid Beta and the issue is still present although slightly different. I now get about 1 frame every 5 seconds.

[komputes (komputes)]

VLC reports these errors in Lucid:
number of reference frames exceeds max (probably corrupt input), discarding one
[0x8e05698] avcodec decoder error: more than 5 seconds of late video -> dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

Does this video hardware actually not have enough processing power to view this file?

[Chris Halse Rogers (raof)]

Isn't the problem here simply that the Atom N270 CPU in these netbooks is insufficiently powerful to decode a 1280x720 h264 video stream in realtime? There isn't any GPU video decoding acceleration available at this point, and decoding that clip takes a full core of my (substantially more powerful) Core 2 processor.

You can take video display entirely out of the equation by trying the pipeline:

“gst-launch filesrc location=/path/to/file ! decodebin ! fakesink sync=true”

If that can't keep up, then it's just your CPU being too slow; netbook processors generally need GPU video decoding offloading to play decent-sized videos at an acceptable speed, and h264 is a processor-intensive video codec.

[komputes (komputes)]

Hi Chris,

Can you step-by-step instructions on how I could use this pipeline to launch the video? I have tried the following command but nothing showed up. If a 1.6Ghz Atom with a i945gme video chipset cannot decode MP4/H.264, this is a very important issue as it will affects millions of netbooks which are based on this combination of hardware.

$ gst-launch-0.10 filesrc location=/home/komputes/Desktop/MVI_0747.MOV ! decodebin ! fakesink sync=true

(gst-launch-0.10:3313): GLib-WARNING **: g_set_prgname() called multiple times
Setting pipeline to PAUSED ...
Pipeline is PREROLLING ...
Pipeline is PREROLLED ...
Setting pipeline to PLAYING ...
New clock: GstSystemClock

...and then it just sits there until I pressed ctrl-c

[Chris Halse Rogers (raof)]

Argh. fakesink doesn't give you any notification about dropped frames.

This command isn't meant to give much output; it's meant to do *just* the video decoding, without trying to display anything. When I try this on my Atom N270 netbook, running
time gst-launch-0.10 filesrc location=/home/komputes/Desktop/MVI_0747.MOV ! decodebin ! fakesink
gives a time of 16 seconds. Given that the video clip is 10 seconds long, that means the CPU is significantly too slow to play this video properly.

Marking as invalid; this is not a bug, it's your computer being too slow.

[komputes (komputes)]

Chris, CPU speed being the limitation here, this should not work in Windows either, should it?

[Chris Halse Rogers (raof)]

It would probably not work in Windows either, no, although it's possible that it might. I'm unsure if that Intel chipset or netbook has some video decoding hardware, but if it did then this might work in Windows. There wouldn't be a linux driver for that at the moment.