Poor quality playback of video formats

[Jay_Jay]

Re: Poor quality playback of video formats

You may find this useful:
xorg-edit: GUI for editing xorg.conf
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=156243
Quote
Because I found it very complex to manually edit the X-Server config file (xorg.conf in Ubuntu) to add my monitor refresh rates

Thanks for that, turned out I didn't need it - my days as a "veteran" using EDIT in DOS/Win to trawl through my config.sys and autoexec.bat entries put me in good stead. All I had to do was call up Xorg.conf in Kate, change the file write permissions with Konqueror and alter any default depth references from 24 to 16

How about DefaultDepth 16 ?
Did it anything ?

Yes, a slight improvement to video files - a small reduction in digital artefacts, but the pixellation (and lower resolution) problems are still present. As is sluggish graphical operations - there is a pause/jerk between frames in video files and games.

On a side note, the good experiences have outweighed the bad in switching from Win to Linux - Kubuntu is on the whole a joy to use and I feel like I'm in the driving seat as opposed to M$ dictating to me what I'm allowed to do with my computer

Jay

[Rog131]

Re: Poor quality playback of video formats

EDIT in DOS/Win to trawl through my config.sys and autoexec.bat ...

Yes, i also get flashbacks


You have:

(EE) AIGLX: DRI module not loaded

and

Section "Module"
Load "bitmap"
Load "ddc"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "int10"
Load "vbe"
load "glx"
load "GLcore"
load "v4l"
EndSection

You could try: Load "dri" (it's for direct rendering)

Direct Rendering
http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/

The Direct Rendering Infrastructure, also known as the DRI, is a framework for allowing direct access to graphics hardware under the X Window System in a safe and efficient manner. It includes changes to the X server, to several client libraries, and to the kernel. The first major use for the DRI is to create fast OpenGL implementations.

Did it help ?
What says Xorg.0.log ?

Kubuntu refuses to connect to the wireless router

Hmm - i noticed this:
HP omnibook 6000 A-Link WL54PC (rt2500) ----> WifiDocs/Driver/RalinkRT2500
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...r/RalinkRT2500
Do you have rt2500 ?

Others:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/

[Jay_Jay]

Re: Poor quality playback of video formats

You could try: Load "dri" (it's for direct rendering) Did it help ?
What says Xorg.0.log ?

Added it: the slowdown has lessened but the problems with pixellation and "jerks" between new frames still remains. System settings still reports 256K of Video Ram and now the driver/card properties cannot be altered in the hardware tab.

If it helps, I can post comparisons of how the same films look in Windows and Kubuntu.

Tried to post the new Xorg but it exceeds the forum's character limit... please tell me what to look for in particular and I'll cut & paste the info onto here for you

In the meantime I will see what turns up on google for possible leads and solutions.

Hmm - i noticed this:
HP omnibook 6000 A-Link WL54PC (rt2500) ----> WifiDocs/Driver/RalinkRT2500
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...r/RalinkRT2500
Do you have rt2500 ?

No, I have the Netgear WG511T, the Atheros chipset reportedly is fully supported under Ubuntu. I can get online at the Library hotspot, no worries. However Kubuntu has issues with my friends router, Knetwork (severely unstable and prone to repeated crashes) confuses his AP with two other routers in the neighbourhood and lists the MAC addresses for all three routers under one router name! lol

One of other two routers is WEP encrypted and Kubuntu will attempt to connect to it and does not "see" my friends router. To connect to the correct AP I open Konsole and use the following procedure:

sudo iwconfig ath0 essid ROUTERNAME ap XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX commit

Sometimes this will work and I'll be in business. Sometimes it doesn't and I just have to boot into Win2k where the router is found and connected to instantly. Perhaps there's a bug in the networking components...

Jay

[Rog131]

Re: Poor quality playback of video formats

please tell me to look for in particular

Just errors and warnings - Is this going to the right direction ?.

From Ubuntu documentation:
The ATI Radeon open-source driver HowTo
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver

Tweaking The Driver

There are a few options which you can give to the driver to speed up its performance.

Two examples:
AGPMode option

AGP bus is by default 1x due to a few reported instabilities in higher modes.

You wrote: "2x AGP graphics capability."

DMAForXv

This can speed up movie playback but can in rare cases case instability

There is also:

See Also
Thinkpad Wiki Page On Radeon Driver - A page containing useful options and configurations for the "radeon" driver.

[Jay_Jay]

Re: Poor quality playback of video formats

Hi Rog... Ok, I had a good read of the guides you posted for me and updated my Xorg.conf to include 2x AGP support and DMAForXv with the following lines:

option "AGPMode" "2"
option "DMAForXv" "true"

From Ubuntu documentation:
The ATI Radeon open-source driver HowTo
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver

To see if you are using the driver you can test your 3D settings. To test your OpenGL acceleration you can run:

$ glxinfo | grep vendor

This has to be SGI.

Success, Konsole reports that the driver is the SGI version.

$ glxinfo | grep "direct rendering"

the result is: "direct rendering: No"

For trouble-shooting, try also

$ LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose glxinfo

Did so and the result was:

name of display: :0.0
libGL error: XF86DRIQueryDirectRenderingCapable returned false
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: No
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.2

Just errors and warnings - Is this going to the right direction ?.

Yes and I believe I've located some indicators of problems within the Xorg log:

[drm] failed to load kernel module "mach64"
(II) ATI(0): [drm] drmOpen failed
(EE) ATI(0): [dri] DRIScreenInit Failed

(WW) ATI(0): Option "DMAForXv" is not used
(II) ATI(0): Direct rendering disabled

(EE) AIGLX: Screen 0 is not DRI capable

(II) ATI(0): VESA VBE DDC read failed

Came across this during my search for potential clues:

HOWTO: enable 3d acceleration w/ Rage Mobility (mach64)
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=7200

It was written between 04 and 06 so I'm not sure if It's relevant to my current version. We appear to have already covered a lot of the ground it discusses... What do you think?

Jay

[Rog131]

Re: Poor quality playback of video formats

[drm] failed to load kernel module "mach64"

Hmm - this seems to be known bug:
DRI not Automatically Enabled for ATI Rage Mobility P/M - Mach64
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s....15/+bug/34590


But 2D (video files) should work .

Now:

(WW) ATI(0): Option "DMAForXv" is not used

What happen if you:
Don't load dri - Does DMAForXv work ?

More options:
Option "UseFBDev" "true" or Option "UseFBDev" "false"

ATi Rage Mobility L: Anyone got it working 100%?
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=35449
Len:

As for the ATI card, I'd try to tweak the device setup.
First I'd try to change
Option "UseFBDev" "True" to Option "UseFBDev" "false" and see if X still works (should be faster)

but
slux:

I doubt changing that to false will improve performance at all.

More of DMAForXv and UseFBDev:
Should I give up on watching DVD's on Imac with Ubuntu?
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=2950395


Good documents needed !

[Jay_Jay]

Re: Poor quality playback of video formats

What happen if you:
Don't load dri - Does DMAForXv work ?

Nope... No joy at all, Xorg.0.log still reports:

(WW) ATI(0): Option "DMAForXv" is not used

More options:
Option "UseFBDev" "true" or Option "UseFBDev" "false"

Tried it: no real noticible improvement.

DRI not Automatically Enabled for ATI Rage Mobility P/M - Mach64
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s....15/+bug/34590

One of the posters on there warned that the guide can "break" your OS, is this simply scare tactics or should I be cautious before trying it?

Matt Hoy said on 2007-07-31: (permalink)

My advice? Don't use the guide. It broke my system beyond use, and it was only by chance I had another computer I could get it back. You may be lucky enough to have wired networking.

and:

I think I'd rather just live with a less than outstanding video performance than risk losing it all.

Chances are it'll be in Gutsy anyway.

What's your take on the situation, have we exhausted all avenues, should I wait and see if my problems are resolved by the next release? On the bright side, I can boot into Win2k to watch films/play games, so that's a partial workaround for the meantime.

Jay

[Rog131]

Re: Poor quality playback of video formats

One of the posters on there warned that the guide can "break" your OS, is this simply scare tactics or should I be cautious before trying it?

Probably it works most of the time but sometimes even upgrading can broke your system: Topic: KDE issues after upgrade (http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=6006.0)

I had significant issues with Kubuntu when upgrading from 5.10 to 6.0.6 (KDE and desktop apps completely removed, wrong kernel installed, X wouldn't start at all, etc.)

What's your take on the situation, have we exhausted all avenues, should I wait and see if my problems are resolved by the next release?

I have to admit that this beats me

Your xvinfo tells:

maximum XvImage size: 720 x 2048

(I have 2048 x 2048)

I think that is why:

If I minimise the film/clip to a small window then the quality resembles what the video would look like on Windows/OSX running fullscreen, but once I maximise to full screen the degraded quality returns.

Mabe it is same reason is why you get:

(WW) ATI(0): Option "DMAForXv" is not used

Have you tried Phoronix Forums
http://www.phoronix.com/forums/
there is "Open-Source AMD/ATI Linux -Technical support and discussion of the open-source Radeon and Avivo drivers."

[Jay_Jay]

Re: Poor quality playback of video formats

Have you tried Phoronix Forums
http://www.phoronix.com/forums/
there is "Open-Source AMD/ATI Linux -Technical support and discussion of the open-source Radeon and Avivo drivers."

I've registered and I'm in the process of posting a thread on there to see what they suggest. I really appreciate the time and effort you've invested in helping me remedy my problems.

I'll post an update on here if/when I manage to resolve this so that others in the same situation can benefit from my experiences.

Jay

[Jay_Jay]

Re: Poor quality playback of video formats

Ok, update time...

Quote
Have you tried Phoronix Forums
http://www.phoronix.com/forums/
there is "Open-Source AMD/ATI Linux -Technical support and discussion of the open-source Radeon and Avivo drivers."

Yes, no replies to my posts: ah well...

Matt Hoy wrote on 2007-07-29: (permalink)

I do not recommend the use of dougfractal's above script.

It rendered my system unusable, with Xorg broken, the ati driver package broken and no means of restoring it, with the backups all pointing to the destroyed ati driver.

I had to download xserver-xorg-video-all and xserver-xorg-video-ati onto a memory stick from my other computer, purge them on the laptop in terminal then use sudo dpkg -i to reinstate them.

Without another computer or a cable connection, and decent knowledge of terminal commands, you will not be able to recover your system, and may be forced to reinstall.

Just hold out for an appearance in Gutsy, or use Mepis.

Unfortunately, Matt Hoy was correct - I ran the Mach64 script twice and on both occasions it broke my OS, leaving me with re-installation as the only option to restore a working Feisty Fawn. For anyone else with the same chipset in their laptop, I advise you to act with caution - the script has yielded success for some and also adverse effects for others like myself.

Looks like the best hope is for Gutsy to redress the situation or try a different distro?

Jay

[Rog131]

Re: Poor quality playback of video formats

Yes, no replies to my posts: ah well...

More forums:

Rage3D
http://rage3d.net/board/forumdisplay.php?f=88

Drivers Discussion forum for Linux drivers.

Looks like the best hope is for Gutsy to redress the situation or try a different distro?

Hmm - you could try different Linux distro or:

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