[fix] Smplayer and blinking mouse pointer

[personman]

I posted this over in the Karmic forum, but it is especially relevant for Lucid and Nouveau:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3110326.0

Looks like this bug has been around awhile. I love smplayer, but the mouse cursor blinks on every few seconds.

It can be worked around by unchecking the "disable screensaver" option, or alternatively, by installing a vanilla mplayer package:

https://launchpad.net/~rvm/+archive/mplayer

Bugzilla report:

https://launchpad.net/bugs/455073

This problem is still present in Lucid. I've managed to install the vanilla mplayer karmic version, which corrects the issue, but is rejected by the package manager due to dependency changes.

Maybe if we vote this bug up, something will get changed.

This is especially problematic in Lucid with nouveau, because on my machine, the "NV video blitter" is not the default for xv, and the others seem to have vsync issues. So smplayer set to "nv video blitter" seems the only way I can get synced video currently.

-Andy

[Telengard]

Re: Smplayer and blinking mouse pointer

This is especially problematic in Lucid with nouveau, because on my machine, the "NV video blitter" is not the default for xv, and the others seem to have vsync issues. So smplayer set to "nv video blitter" seems the only way I can get synced video currently.

I don't mean to go too far OT, but how can one tell if there are vsync issues in SMPlayer? What does it look like? Oh, and where do you set NV video blitter?

[personman]

Re: Smplayer and blinking mouse pointer

Sure, vsync issues cause horizontal tearing/distortion to appear during videos, especially in scenes with a lot of motion.

To set NV video blitter, you go to the Video tab in Preferences->General, and select "xv (2 - NV Video Blitter)"

If you aren't seeing any vsync issues in nouveau let me know, because there is a possibility this is related to another bug I'm experiencing: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26800

-Andy

[Telengard]

Re: Smplayer and blinking mouse pointer

If you aren't seeing any vsync issues in nouveau let me know, because there is a possibility this is related to another bug I'm experiencing: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26800

I think maybe I'm seeing vsync issues, but I'm not playing with Lucid yet. Again sorry if this goes too far OT, but I just wanted to know for my own reference.

Thank you for your reply.

[personman]

Re: Smplayer and blinking mouse pointer

No need to apologize.

Just out of curiosity, are you using nouveau in karmic? or a binary driver?

If you're using a binary driver, there may be other workarounds or fixes you can use for v-sync issues.

Thinking I might start a "nouveau thread" here sooner or later, just for people to share experiences.

-Andy

[Telengard]

Re: Smplayer and blinking mouse pointer

I'm not using nouveau, and I'm not using Karmic. I'll post some info which should clarify. Sorry it will probably be TMI, but in this case I don't have a solid grasp of the terminology I should be using to describe my situation.

Sometimes when playing a video I notice that the top few hundred rows of pixels don't seem to update at the same rate as the remaining 80% of the picture. It is quite annoying, and usually happens when the camera pans up or down in the video. Again, I don't know what this is properly called, so sorry for not using a two or three word description.

Now for the tldr stuff:

$ uname -srvmpi
Linux 2.6.28-18-generic #59-Ubuntu SMP Thu Jan 28 01:40:19 UTC 2010 x86_64 unknown unknown
$ lsb_release -dc
Description:  Ubuntu 9.04
Codename:    jaunty
$ kde4-config -v
Qt: 4.5.0
KDE: 4.2.4 (KDE 4.2.4)
kde4-config: 1.0
$ nvidia-xconfig --query-gpu-info
Number of GPUs: 1

GPU #0:
 Name   : GeForce GTX 285
 PCI BusID : PCI:2:0:0   

 Number of Display Devices: 1

 Display Device 0 (DFP-1):
   EDID Name       : HSD HF257
   Minimum HorizSync   : 24.000 kHz
   Maximum HorizSync   : 80.000 kHz
   Minimum VertRefresh  : 56 Hz   
   Maximum VertRefresh  : 75 Hz   
   Maximum PixelClock  : 162.000 MHz
   Maximum Width     : 1920 pixels
   Maximum Height    : 1080 pixels
   Preferred Width    : 1920 pixels
   Preferred Height   : 1080 pixels
   Preferred VertRefresh : 60 Hz
   Physical Width    : 540 mm
   Physical Height    : 300 mm

$ mplayer -vo help
MPlayer 1.0rc2-4.3.3 (C) 2000-2007 MPlayer Team
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU     920 @ 2.67GHz (Family: 6, Model: 26, Stepping: 5)
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.
Available video output drivers:
    xmga  Matrox G200/G4x0/G550 overlay in X11 window (using /dev/mga_vid)
    mga   Matrox G200/G4x0/G550 overlay (/dev/mga_vid)
    tdfxfb 3Dfx Banshee/Voodoo3/Voodoo5
    3dfx  3dfx (/dev/3dfx)
    xv   X11/Xv
    x11   X11 ( XImage/Shm )
    xover  General X11 driver for overlay capable video output drivers
    gl   X11 (OpenGL)
    gl2   X11 (OpenGL) - multiple textures version
    dga   DGA ( Direct Graphic Access V2.0 )
    sdl   SDL YUV/RGB/BGR renderer (SDL v1.1.7+ only!)
    ggi   General Graphics Interface (GGI) output
    fbdev  Framebuffer Device
    fbdev2 Framebuffer Device
    svga  SVGAlib
    aa   AAlib
    caca  libcaca
    dxr3  DXR3/H+ video out
    v4l2  V4L2 MPEG Video Decoder Output
    directfb    Direct Framebuffer Device
    dfbmga DirectFB / Matrox G200/G400/G450/G550
    xvidix X11 (VIDIX)
    cvidix console VIDIX
    null  Null video output
    xvmc  XVideo Motion Compensation
    mpegpes Mpeg-PES to DVB card
    yuv4mpeg    yuv4mpeg output for mjpegtools
    png   PNG file
    jpeg  JPEG file
    gif89a animated GIF output
    tga   Targa output
    pnm   PPM/PGM/PGMYUV file
    md5sum md5sum of each frame

$ smplayer
This is SMPlayer v. 0.6.6 (SVN r2599) running on Linux

[personman]

Re: Smplayer and blinking mouse pointer

Here are some things you can try...

If you are using compositing, try disabling it, and vice versa. Make sure "Use vsync" is checked under KDE's System Settings->Desktop->Advanced tab

In nvidia-settings:

Under X server X video settings, make sure any options related to vsync are checked.

Under OpenGL Settings, there should be another vsync box to check.

Under the DFP-1 section, there may be a "Sync to this device" type option, make sure it is selected.


Also, you can experiment with different video output options in smplayer. You should be able to use various xv options, as well as any GL options.

Another thing you might look in to is updating your nvidia driver to the latest, and trying the VDPAU options in smplayer's video settings.

Ideally, if it works for you, use VDPAU whenever possible, as it offloads most of the processing to your video card. All my cards are too old to support VDPAU, so I can't give any further details as far as that goes. Could probably find more info simply by googling VDPAU.

Good luck, if you are still having issues, you may want to browse this thread on NVIDIA's forum about the topic:

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=131833

-Andy

[Telengard]

Re: Smplayer and blinking mouse pointer

The machine is down for maintenance right now, but I'll look into those options next time I'm messing with SMPlayer. Thanks very much for the helpful pointers.

[personman]

Re: Smplayer and blinking mouse pointer

I've manually compiled mplayer to fix this issue. While I was at it, I used the multi-threaded version of ffmpeg.

This was compiled against *buntu 10.04 for AMD64.

Download and instructions are available here:

http://e-buy-it.com/Downloads/details/id=1.html

-Andy