Weird video playback

[Calubuntu]

I have been noticing weird video playback on my laptop. The frames freeze like every 2 seconds. To get a continuous normal playback I need to continuously wiggle my mouse over my panel / task manager. Sometimes this also happens with other programs like file managers or pdf viewers. The frame freezes until I move my mouse over my panel / task manager. Somebody know what is wrong?

I am running:

Kubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot

ps: I am not experiencing this problem under Windows 7 (I am dual-booting)

[GreyGeek]

Assuming that you are using Flash to play the video, try removing it completely, including config files, and then reinstall it. Use the Muon Package Manager to do it.

[Calubuntu]

I use VLC to play my videos. But as I said the problem I am experiencing does not solely occur with playing videos but also with other software.

Example:

- I scroll in a PDF file (with Okular)
- Scrolling stopts abruptly (screen freezes)
- I move my mouse pointer over my panel
- Screen immediately starts responding (by jumping for instance, because it did not scroll any further while I was still spinning the mouse wheel)

[GreyGeek]

How much RAM are you giving to buffer space?

[NickStone]

I use VLC to play my videos. But as I said the problem I am experiencing does not solely occur with playing videos but also with other software.

Example:

- I scroll in a PDF file (with Okular)
- Scrolling stopts abruptly (screen freezes)
- I move my mouse pointer over my panel
- Screen immediately starts responding (by jumping for instance, because it did not scroll any further while I was still spinning the mouse wheel)

At first I thought it might be a problem with videoRAM set too low but as your experiencing problems with other GUI related apps then I would say it is to do with the graphics drivers installed on your computer. Try running the `additional drivers` app in K menu --> system menu.

Or it could be a rogue app running in background thats using up all the RAM causing everything else to "freeze".

Hope this helps.

[Snowhog]

Do you have strigi activated?

[Calubuntu]

@GreyGeek

I have 8 gb of RAM and a swap of about 13 gb. I have not done anything with a buffer.

@nickstonefan

I haven't checked my RAM usage while things start to freeze. I will do that right a way when it happens again and report back. But usually when this happens I am using Okular to read papers, Google Chrome to look for papers and JabRef to manage my reference database. I do not have any widget running or servers or GPU demanding software.

@Snowhog

I do not know what Strigi is, but I think not.

[GreyGeek]

8GB of RAM is certainly enough.
But, it suggests that your video is completely downloading before it starts to play. What is your connection speed?

[Calubuntu]

@GreyGeek

I am not downloading while playing videos. I am playing videos straight from my laptop hard disk.

But this is getting really annoying. The only fix I have right know is rebooting. But this is very inconvenient when you just want to watch an episode of whatever. The sound is working great. That continues even when there is no video. However if I just swing my mouse over the panel on the bottom of my screen, the video becomes alive, however, I need to continue swinging the mouse to get a continuous video playback...

[sithlord48]

...as your experiencing problems with other GUI related apps then I would say it is to do with the graphics drivers installed on your computer. Try running the `additional drivers` app in K menu --> system menu.

seeing how you have this problem also im guessing you never followed nickstonefan's advice and checked your video drivers...looking up your laptop says. have a newer nvidia card you should really try the properitary drivers if you have not do so already. please also let us know what card it is exactly by copying the section "display" from the info that shows when you run the command lshw (use konsole to run it). this should give us all some better info about your machine that we can use to help you more.

[Calubuntu]

Thanks for the help sithlord48. Linux got me going crazy. I really love the free apps and the functionalities compared to windows, however it keeps going on and on with these Jedi mind tricks up my ***. Got quite some stuff not working properly. But now back to business.

I got a Nvidia GT 540m 2gb as GPU. I am using Bumblee (Linux version of Optimus). Currently I am not using any properitary drivers for my GPU. At least that is what jockey tells me. Here is the information you requestion:

*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
version: 09
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
resources: irq:51 memory:f1400000-f17fffff memory:e0000000-efffffff ioport:4000(size=64)

Tell me if you need more info? Thanks!