[SOLVED] Mplayer occassionally freezes / fries graphics

Ranmaru · 2012-01-30 03:55:46

Hello,

I've been encountering a problem with mplayer. It occurs since the last kernel update, although I doubt it has anything to do with it but with the video files I'm playing which are all mkv (it never occured with avi etc.). At first I thought it was related to HD movies for that maybe by graphics card isn't strong enough to properly display them, but it happens with SD mkv files as well.
Sometimes playback stops for two seconds before it continues playing which can be avoided by using the cache flag, however sometimes the frame freezes and that's it. Audio continues playing after a second or two, but the video is frozen. Even when I quit mplayer and restart it, that frame is still frozen. What's more, any other GUI application also encounters graphic issues from that point on, e.g. the tab bar in Chromium looks like a mess and doesn't work anymore. If I log out and back in (I'm using i3wm), eveything's back to normal.

Strange is, that there is no error message in either the system log or the mplayer log. Everything seems to work fine, at least according to my logs.

I'm using Arch on a MacBook Pro (I believe it's a late 2009 model, at leat I bought it in late 2009) with nouveau display drivers. I tried switching to Nvidia drivers, but for some reason they don't work for me at all. If I do that, the Nvidia logo shows up on my screen after I logged into my window manager and it freezes right there and a cold reset is the only thing to even get it booting again -- so that's not really an option.

Anyone knows this problem?

Cheers,
Ranmaru

Last edited by Ranmaru (2012-02-02 11:55:11)

McDoenerKing · 2012-01-30 19:25:35

I'd recommend to reinstall the graphics driver you used before. I have to reinstall my nvidia driver after each kernel upgrade too (or just reloading? it won't break things anyways) ! Also to get more perfomance you can compile mplayer yourself with ABS:) I compile it for my netbook with great improvements

ConnorBehan · 2012-01-31 01:26:19

While I don't know the cause of the problem, it can sometimes be avoided by trying different video outputs (-vo x11, -vo xv, -vo gl, etc).

Ranmaru · 2012-02-02 11:54:50

Compiling it myself apparently solves the issue. No more freezes in the last two days. I hope it stays that way. If not, I'll be sure to try a different output.

Thanks.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-01-30 03:55:46

[SOLVED] Mplayer occassionally freezes / fries graphics

#2 2012-01-30 19:25:35

Re: [SOLVED] Mplayer occassionally freezes / fries graphics

#3 2012-01-31 01:26:19

Re: [SOLVED] Mplayer occassionally freezes / fries graphics

#4 2012-02-02 11:54:50

Re: [SOLVED] Mplayer occassionally freezes / fries graphics

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