Arch Linux

DaJinx

Member

From: Canada

Registered: 2009-04-29

Posts: 7

Stuttering & Skipping Video Playback

Hi,

I have quite a frustrating problem when trying to view certain video files in Totem they constantly stutter and skip to the point where it is just unwatchable. I am not sure why this is happening to be honest but it is severely annoying. I tried searching this site and google for days and haven't found a solution so I am desperate. Playback only seem to be problematic when trying to view video sourced from an HD source (such as an OTA broadcast or an HD channel). It only happens with files encoded with the H.264 codec and not 100% sure but also files that are 720P or higher. I have installed all the codec packages I could think of and in addition to Totem I have also tried VLC which is just as bad or worse. I really have no idea how to fix or if it can be fixed to be honest but I'd like to try. I booted into XP (something I never ever have to do) and they play fine in Windows. If you guys need more info let me know but for now I can tell you I run the i686 version of Arch, have a Pentium D processor, 1 gig of ram and a new HD purchased this summer. I am using the Gnome DE version 2.28 and have compiz enabled however I should note playback is exactly the same without compiz as well. Like I said if you need more info let me know and many thanks in advance to anyone who can help me resolve this if possible.

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Asus M4A785-M MoBo :: AMD Phenom II X4 955 :: 3 GB DDR II RAM
Main OS: Arch :: ATI Radeon HD 4200 IGP :: VIA VT1708S HD Audio

whoops

Member

Registered: 2009-03-19

Posts: 891

Re: Stuttering & Skipping Video Playback

- What's your cpu/ram doing while you're playing video? You might be able to see which applications take up most with the "taskmanager" / system monitor of your choice...
- What audio are you using? Pulseaudio (which is evil *g*)? Trying only ALSA might make a difference.
- Removing some codecs & gstreamer plugins might help (especially the [b]gstreamer-bad ones)
- I guess you're already sure you have the (proprietary) graphics driver configured correctly, or compiz wouldn't run well...?
- Also: make sure, nautilus / its video thumbnailer isn't doing weird stuff (use "lsof | grep thumb" or whatever works for that gnome thing these days and try killing it until it's gone )
- Try converting the video file with ffmpeg (to anything); might not be the best method, but that's what I do to check if video files are "weird".