Video playback "panning"

[saif]

Hi

I don't understand about video terminology and so was hoping you could help.
I have recently moved over to a linux build (mainly so that my PC could run more efficiently and actually PLAY HD media) but the video is not as smooth as I would like (but it does move, unlike in XP). When panning, it is as if the screen cannot keep up and the bottom part of the screen is behind the rest. Especially noticeable on vertical lines and so, to approximate using the magic of ASCII.

| |
| |
.....| |
.....| |

The split is not always in the same place. I assume (only cos I saw it in the settings!) that it may have something to do with vsync. Any ideas?

[sj33]

It is a Vsync issue. On Windows, you can use newer builds of Media Player Classic - Home Cinema, which has various different Vsync options.

However, you're more limited with Linux because everything revolves around Mplayer and the ffmpeg team. Does VLC have Vsync?

btw if you moved to Linux primarily to play HD media better, you should switch back. Most players on Linux use ffmpeg for decoding, the same as ffdshow in Windows. With Windows, you can use CoreAVC (the fastest software-based H.264 decoder) as well as CUDA hardware acceleration in CoreAVC, and DXVA-based acceleration in DivX7 and MPC's own decoder. Windows is quite a bit ahead when it comes to video playback.

[Phar]

Haven't tried it myself but there is a CoreAVC build for Linux here along instructions, might be worth a try.

[saif]

Thanks for the info. That was the initial reason for moving (I knew the processing overheads were were lower through ubuntu) but am now very happy to have a system that does as its told. I do not have THAT much power - I am running a quiet (ie laptop chip/cooling) desktop built cheaply around 3 years ago. It now runs media that it does not under windows (40% CPU for mkvs that skipped at 100% CPU) and the whole system is much smoother - for me it either works or it doesn't, now that it does, I am happy. I really like linux now.

I'll have a look at the settings tonight - the settings I looked at were for the graphics card rather than the application (SMPlayer).
I have an nvidia graphics card (7300 GS from memory) and I think that it does not support HD video acceleration.

[Phar]

Theres a pre built mplayer binary here as well with CoreAVC, you still need to register CoreAVC though, instructions are on the page for doing this.

[abigsmurf]

Screen tearing is largely a graphics card issue, most notably when you don't have graphics acceleration enabled (hardware acceleration != hardware decoding) or the graphics card can't cope.

V-sync first, then you need to play around with the overlay settings if that doesn't work. I've no idea how you do it in Linux though. As has been said, Windows is a much better platform for media playback than windows. I find Zoom Player and CoreAVC to be very light on the CPU.

Incidentally, what CPU is it?

[saif]

Cheers guys.

Smurf, its a AMD Turion 64 (I think ML-56 but it was bought 3 years back and was the second cheapest one in the shop).
I don't game on PC so it is fine for me.

[CrispyXUK]

This is caused by fitting 24 or 25 fps into a refresh rate that isn't a multiple, basically a pulldown error.

[saif]

I know this is from a while back but this has been sorted and is now as smooth as I want.

I turned v-sync settings to my second screen (Toshiba LCD telly) but it still would not work. A bit of digging around and I discovered there was a problem with compiz graphics effects and so turned it off. Now it is excellent. Had an overscan prob (I mainly watch subbed stuff) but using smplayer, just make the screen a little smaller in full screen and it is perfect. Does not tax the CPU, keeps noise down and sound through the telly or amp as I see fit.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.