Mailing List Archive: Sudden choppy playback

Sudden choppy playback

May 3, 2020, 3:36 AM

Post #1 of 4 (573 views)

Hi All,

After updating my system (will I ever learn!) playback has suddenly gone
very choppy on my main frontend. It's an old Liva mini computer that I
plug into my projector.

Playback has been fine for years. It uses onboard Intel graphics.

My first thought was Myth, so I've tried playing videos outside of
MythTV. They are still choppy (I guess that makes this an off-topic
post, but it's all related to video playback, so hopefully no one minds).

I then wondered if the LAN connection was struggling, so I moved some
files onto the Liva box. They still play choppy.

This is what "vainfo" returns.

libva info: VA-API version 1.5.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/i965_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_4
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA-API version: 1.5 (libva 2.5.0)
vainfo: Driver version: Intel i965 driver for Intel(R) Bay Trail - 2.3.0
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
????? VAProfileMPEG2Simple??????????? :?? ?VAEntrypointVLD
????? VAProfileMPEG2Simple??????????? :?? ?VAEntrypointEncSlice
????? VAProfileMPEG2Main????????????? :?? ?VAEntrypointVLD
????? VAProfileMPEG2Main????????????? :?? ?VAEntrypointEncSlice
????? VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline:?? ?VAEntrypointVLD
????? VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline:?? ?VAEntrypointEncSlice
????? VAProfileH264Main?????????????? :?? ?VAEntrypointVLD
????? VAProfileH264Main?????????????? :?? ?VAEntrypointEncSlice
????? VAProfileH264High?????????????? :?? ?VAEntrypointVLD
????? VAProfileH264High?????????????? :?? ?VAEntrypointEncSlice
????? VAProfileH264StereoHigh???????? :?? ?VAEntrypointVLD
????? VAProfileVC1Simple????????????? :?? ?VAEntrypointVLD
????? VAProfileVC1Main??????????????? :?? ?VAEntrypointVLD
????? VAProfileVC1Advanced??????????? :?? ?VAEntrypointVLD
????? VAProfileNone?????????????????? :?? ?VAEntrypointVideoProc
????? VAProfileJPEGBaseline?????????? :?? ?VAEntrypointVLD

I've tried playing without vaapi, but that's even worse.

My current best guess is that a new video driver probably works great
for new hardware, but has broken things from my older hardware. Does
that sound likely?

If so, how can I try older drivers (I'm happy copying and pasting lines
into the terminal, but that's about as far as my terminal knowledge goes)?

What do you think?

Thanks,
Damian
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Re: Sudden choppy playback [ In reply to ]

jharbestonus at gmail

May 3, 2020, 6:52 AM

Post #2 of 4 (571 views)

Permalink

> On May 3, 2020, at 6:36 AM, Damian <myth@surr.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> After updating my system (will I ever learn!) playback has suddenly gone very choppy on my main frontend. It's an old Liva mini computer that I plug into my projector.
>
> Playback has been fine for years. It uses onboard Intel graphics.
>
> My first thought was Myth, so I've tried playing videos outside of MythTV. They are still choppy (I guess that makes this an off-topic post, but it's all related to video playback, so hopefully no one minds).
>

Are you using the VAAPI or VAAPI2 driver within mythtv. I also have an ECS LIVA, and found similar problems. Try switching between the 2 of them. Also try toggling the type of de-interlacing as well. I found that some of the deinterlacing types require more processing power, causing the choppy problems you describe.

Regards,

Jay

> I then wondered if the LAN connection was struggling, so I moved some files onto the Liva box. They still play choppy.
>
> This is what "vainfo" returns.
>
> libva info: VA-API version 1.5.0
> libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
> libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/i965_drv_video.so
> libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_4
> libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
> vainfo: VA-API version: 1.5 (libva 2.5.0)
> vainfo: Driver version: Intel i965 driver for Intel(R) Bay Trail - 2.3.0
> vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
> VAProfileMPEG2Simple : VAEntrypointVLD
> VAProfileMPEG2Simple : VAEntrypointEncSlice
> VAProfileMPEG2Main : VAEntrypointVLD
> VAProfileMPEG2Main : VAEntrypointEncSlice
> VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointVLD
> VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointEncSlice
> VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointVLD
> VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointEncSlice
> VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointVLD
> VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointEncSlice
> VAProfileH264StereoHigh : VAEntrypointVLD
> VAProfileVC1Simple : VAEntrypointVLD
> VAProfileVC1Main : VAEntrypointVLD
> VAProfileVC1Advanced : VAEntrypointVLD
> VAProfileNone : VAEntrypointVideoProc
> VAProfileJPEGBaseline : VAEntrypointVLD
>
> I've tried playing without vaapi, but that's even worse.
>
> My current best guess is that a new video driver probably works great for new hardware, but has broken things from my older hardware. Does that sound likely?
>
> If so, how can I try older drivers (I'm happy copying and pasting lines into the terminal, but that's about as far as my terminal knowledge goes)?
>
> What do you think?
>
> Thanks,
> Damian
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users@mythtv.org
> http://lists.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> http://wiki.mythtv.org/Mailing_List_etiquette
> MythTV Forums: https://forum.mythtv.org

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Re: Sudden choppy playback [ In reply to ]

myth at surr

May 3, 2020, 7:40 AM

Post #3 of 4 (571 views)

Permalink

On 03/05/2020 14:52, Jay Harbeston wrote:
>
>> On May 3, 2020, at 6:36 AM, Damian <myth@surr.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> After updating my system (will I ever learn!) playback has suddenly gone very choppy on my main frontend. It's an old Liva mini computer that I plug into my projector.
>>
>> Playback has been fine for years. It uses onboard Intel graphics.
>>
>> My first thought was Myth, so I've tried playing videos outside of MythTV. They are still choppy (I guess that makes this an off-topic post, but it's all related to video playback, so hopefully no one minds).
>>
>
> Are you using the VAAPI or VAAPI2 driver within mythtv. I also have an ECS LIVA, and found similar problems. Try switching between the 2 of them. Also try toggling the type of de-interlacing as well. I found that some of the deinterlacing types require more processing power, causing the choppy problems you describe.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jay

Thanks Jay

I was on MythTV 0.29 (before today). I don't think that had many
options, but I'll try all of the variables when I next can.

It seems strange that it has been running fine for years, but is
suddenly really bad. The fact that it's also poor with loack files, and
playing them through VNC, made me wonder about drivers.

Today, I've updated Xubuntu on my server, and updated MythTV from 0.29
to 0.30 and then again to 0.31.

Now, can't even connect to the database (about to start another thread),
so I'll have to come back to the playback problems.

Cheers,
Damian
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Re: Sudden choppy playback [ In reply to ]

myth at surr

May 13, 2020, 6:09 AM

Post #4 of 4 (542 views)

Permalink

On 03/05/2020 14:52, Jay Harbeston wrote:
>
>> On May 3, 2020, at 6:36 AM, Damian <myth@surr.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> After updating my system (will I ever learn!) playback has suddenly gone very choppy on my main frontend. It's an old Liva mini computer that I plug into my projector.
>>
>> Playback has been fine for years. It uses onboard Intel graphics.
>>
>> My first thought was Myth, so I've tried playing videos outside of MythTV. They are still choppy (I guess that makes this an off-topic post, but it's all related to video playback, so hopefully no one minds).
>>
>
> Are you using the VAAPI or VAAPI2 driver within mythtv. I also have an ECS LIVA, and found similar problems. Try switching between the 2 of them. Also try toggling the type of de-interlacing as well. I found that some of the deinterlacing types require more processing power, causing the choppy problems you describe.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jay

Now that I've got MythTV back up and running, I'm back to try to fix the
choppy playback.

My Liva machine used to play things fine. Now, there's an annoying level
of stuttering. If ranges from frustrating to unwatchable.

I have tried both vaapi options in MytvTV. Both seem to give roughly the
same results.

Is is likely that the current driver is simply worse, for my hardware,
than an older one was?

If so, how can I try different drivers?

I have tried. I found a page that listed different i965 deb files, but
they either didn't install correctly or did and didn't improve things.

I'd love get get the little Liva box working properly again, but I'm
close to abandoning it.

Any tips?

Thanks,
Damian
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