Video poor using any player

[ihateusernames]

Hello! My laptop won't play video anymore. Audio is smooth but it shows a new frame every second or so. Sometimes it will play okay for a few seconds, then the image freezes up again. Using VLC and Media Player. I recently switched to Mint but had been on other Linux versions previously and videos didn't work on those either, so it's probably hardware, but the spec should be capable. My work laptop can play them no problem on a lower spec. Spec below. Should it be able to play 720p MP4? What could be the cause?

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System:    Host: AsusLinux Kernel: 4.15.0-39-generic x86_64 bits: 64 gcc: 7.3.0
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.8.9 (Gtk 3.22.30-1ubuntu1) dm: lightdm Distro: Linux Mint 19 Tara
Machine:   Device: laptop System: ASUSTeK product: X202E v: 1.0 serial: N/A
           Mobo: ASUSTeK model: X202E v: 1.0 serial: N/A
           BIOS: American Megatrends v: X202E.204 date: 09/19/2012
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i3-3217U (-MT-MCP-) arch: Ivy Bridge rev.9 cache: 3072 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 7183
           clock speeds: min/max: 800/1800 MHz 1: 857 MHz 2: 801 MHz 3: 830 MHz 4: 863 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0166
           Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.6 ) drivers: modesetting (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1366x768@60.02hz
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ivybridge Mobile
           version: 4.2 Mesa 18.0.5 (compat-v: 3.0) Direct Render: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel 7 Series/C216 Family High Def. Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:1e20
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.15.0-39-generic
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 500.1GB (45.0% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: Hitachi_HTS54505 size: 500.1GB serial: <filter>
Partition: ID-1: / size: 458G used: 210G (49%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
RAID:      System: supported: N/A
           No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
           Unused Devices: none
Repos:     Active apt sources in file: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
           deb https: //mirrors.ukfast.co.uk/sites/linuxmint.com/packages tara main upstream import backport
           deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic main restricted universe multiverse
           deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates main restricted universe multiverse
           deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports main restricted universe multiverse
           deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-security main restricted universe multiverse
           deb http: //archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ bionic partner
Info:      Processes: 197 Uptime: 21 min Memory: 958.0/3831.0MB
           Init: systemd v: 237 runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 7.3.0 Client: Unknown python3.6 client inxi: 2.3.56

[phd21]

Hi ihateusernames,

Welcome to the wonderful world of Linux Mint and its excellent forum!

My laptop won't play video anymore

Is this a recent issue, were you able to play videos on your laptop before in Linux Mint without issues?

I do not see anything wrong with the results of the "inxi -Fxzd" console terminal command, so that is a good thing.

Maybe an update changed it. You could try booting into a previous Linux Kernel or installing a Linux Kernel above 4.15.xx series perhaps in the 4.18.xx series.

I also read in a recent post that someone changed the "cache" settings in VLC and their video now works well?



Hope this helps ...

[MrEen]

I was going to post pretty much the same thing. The setting for VLC is in preferences > input/codecs as per here.

Also, if you haven't already, installing mint-meta-codecs might help.

Another player option that is highly recommended is SMPlayer and it's available in the Software Manager.

Good luck.

[ihateusernames]

Thanks for the suggestions. Ive installed SMplayer and given it a go - it's slightly better than vlc - I can see 4 or 5 frames per second, but the audio is out of sync. I upped the cache to 3000, then 5000, then 10k but it doesnt seem to help. I increase the threads from 1 to 4 (max). The cooling fan is screaming away. It's still unwatchable.
I'm new to Mint. But it was the same on Lubuntu, Puppy, Ubuntu, Mate...

I think 5 years old is the limit for a laptop with no upgrade options...

[trytip]

install mpv go to any video folder and open in Terminal. type mpv then drag a video into the terminal. it will tell you statistics as it plays

[gm10]

Everybody missing the point. Run this in a terminal:

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apt install i965-va-driver gstreamer1.0-vaapi

Reboot and enjoy hardware accelerated video playback.

[phd21]

Hi gm10,

Good suggestion.

I do not have any issues playing videos and I already had these packages installed. I thought these were already installed, perhaps I installed something else which installed these packages?

Do you know of any way to check what installed applications and or packages use "i965-va-driver" and or "gstreamer1.0-vaapi" packages?

I tried

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dpkg -s  i965-va-driver

and

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dpkg -s  gstreamer1.0-vaapi

Hope this helps ...

[gm10]

Do you know of any way to check what installed applications and or packages use "i965-va-driver" and or "gstreamer1.0-vaapi" packages?

You mean which installs it? Use apt rdepends. The second one is installed by mint-meta-codecs, but the first one isn't, and that's the actual driver you need (with Intel chips). Mint should pre-install it.

[phd21]

Hi gm10, ihateusernames, and anyone else,

Thanks "gm10" for your reply and information.

After running these commands below

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sudo apt rdepends i965-va-driver

and

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sudo apt rdepends  gstreamer1.0-vaapi

I think I understand why my system already had these video packages installed.

Everyone that wants to watch videos or play music should have installed the 3rd party software when asked during the installation of Linux Mint which as "gm10" pointed out is the "mint-meta-codecs" package. Check to make sure that is installed, and if not, install it.

I always recommend that people also install the "ubuntu-restricted-extras" from the Software Manager or Synaptic Package Manager (SPM) as well which would have installed the "gstreamer1.0-vaapi" package.

I also always install the current versions of the superb SMplayer (a multimedia player) with MPV per their instructions which looks like it would have would have installed the "i965-va-driver". These are available in the Mint Software Manager or Synaptic Package Manager (SPM), but I prefer the current versions using the instructions below. Although I really like the versatile VLC multimedia player, I think that SMplayer plays some videos better. SMplayer can use various video processing engines like Mplayer or MPV and you can try either one; if you have no seek options, don't use "other" select either mplayer or mpv. I also really like the Totem multimedia player with its plugins for playing DVD discs or DVD iso files because it has working DVD menu support; this shows up as just "Videos" in menus. Recommend rebooting (restart computer) after installing these packages before running these.

How to install SMPlayer 18.9 Released on Ubuntu 18.04
https://howto-ubuntunew.blogspot.com/20 ... ed-on.html

How to Install MPV 0.29 in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS - Tips on Ubuntu
http://tipsonubuntu.com/2018/07/27/inst ... 18-04-lts/


To install current versions of SMplayer and MPV in Linux Mint 19.x or 18.x using the PPA method, open a console terminal, type in, or copy & paste, each line below one by one: Click "Select All" above command, right click the highlighted command, select Copy (or Ctrl+Insert), click in the console terminal window, and right click paste ("Shift+Insert" or "Ctrl+Shift+v"), repeat for each command.

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sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rvm/smplayer

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sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mc3man/mpv-tests

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sudo apt-get update

for Linux Mint 19.x

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sudo apt-get install smplayer smtube smplayer-themes smplayer-skins mpv mpv2

for Linux Mint 18.x - not sure if MPV2 is available in Linux Mint 18.x

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sudo apt-get install smplayer smtube smplayer-themes smplayer-skins mpv

Hope this helps ...
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SMplayer_Preferences1.jpg

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SMplayer_Preferences2.jpg

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SMplayer_Preferences3.jpg

[ihateusernames]

Everybody missing the point. Run this in a terminal:

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apt install i965-va-driver gstreamer1.0-vaapi

Reboot and enjoy hardware accelerated video playback.

GM10! You're awesome! It works!! You just saved me from buying a new computer! Cheers!

[gm10]

GM10! You're awesome! It works!! You just saved me from buying a new computer! Cheers!

Now I feel bad, buying new computers is fun!

just kidding, glad I could help

[thx-1138]

................................
I always recommend that people also install the "ubuntu-restricted-extras" from the Software Manager or Synaptic Package Manager (SPM) as well which would have installed the "gstreamer1.0-vaapi" package.

...just to note that if someone has mint-meta-codecs installed, installing ubuntu-restricted-extras is redundant...
you can see why with apt depends

...gstreamer-vaapi is also a dependency of mint-meta-codecs only under Mint 19: in previous versions it has to be manually installed.
However, it's only useful for 'Xplayer' (and gstreamer-based players), ie. it won't change the slightest thing under vlc / mpv.
The reason that you happen to already have i965-va-driver already installed is quite likely due to the mpv ppa

[gm10]

................................
I always recommend that people also install the "ubuntu-restricted-extras" from the Software Manager or Synaptic Package Manager (SPM) as well which would have installed the "gstreamer1.0-vaapi" package.

...just to note that if someone has mint-meta-codecs installed, installing ubuntu-restricted-extras is redundant...
you can see why with apt depends

Actually with Mint default settings the package ubuntu-restricted-extras won't install a single file no matter what because it has no hard dependencies (other than another meta package). Didn't want to derail the thread with that but since it's been solved now...

[thx-1138]

...yeap - just commented that because i frequently see this recommendation around -
which appears to me that it's probably relevant only under standard / official Ubuntu variants...
My question would be why mint-meta-codecs couldn't be updated to bring i965-va-driver (under all supported Mint versions),
and also further bring gstreamer-vaapi under previous 17.x/18.x, say for those using Xplayer...

Btw, libhal1-flash is broken since...a long long time now, so why it still gets included in there...

[gm10]

Btw, libhal1-flash is broken since...a long long time now, so why it still gets included in there...

Either in hopes of it getting fixed down the line or because nobody told them yet. Did you?

[thx-1138]

...no, i haven't reported such, for the simple reason that i don't know in which github repo is the appropriate one to do so...
xplayer? mint-dev-tools? Maybe i should make a thread in the 'Suggestions' area of the forum,
including all of the above, gstreamer-vaapi / intel-va-driver & libhal1-flash, since the devs do look there from time to time...

[gm10]

...no, i haven't reported such, for the simple reason that i don't know in which github repo is the appropriate one to do so...
xplayer? mint-dev-tools? Maybe i should make a thread in the 'Suggestions' area of the forum,
including all of the above, gstreamer-vaapi / intel-va-driver & libhal1-flash, since the devs do look there from time to time...

Oh, actually I was thinking you were going to bug report to Ubuntu to fix or remove the package from the repo.

If you just want it removed from mint-meta-codecs, I think the place would have to be https://github.com/linuxmint/linuxmint/issues, since mint-meta isn't on github.
But is it actually a problem to keep it (other than flash being a problem that won't get on my system)? From a cursory glance at the thread you linked you'd gain nothing nothing removing it but lose the chance to get it fixed.

I did let Clem know about including va-driver-all by the way, it's under consideration. Also Cinnamon will get p7zip-full in 19.1, another package that was curiously missing from that edition.

[thx-1138]

...i don't think hal-flash will ever be fixed...as it's broken almost 2 yrs now, since Flash 24...
plus, since flash as a whole will die by early 2020...so, who would care fixing such & more importantly, what for,
it would be for truly fringe cases...better let anything related to such die even earlier i'd think.

But i think you took my 'question' a bit too seriously in the first place, heh - it was at least partially rhetorical...
In the sense, "since they include it, haven't they noticed that..."...and since they included gstreamer-vaapi in 19,
how comes it wasn't further included in previous versions, as it's not like it doesn't exist for such...
Put it the other way around: some choices like the above ones, occasionally 'feel' somewhat inconsistent to me.

...another example, i think i've mentioned it before in the forums in the past...
The gist package is still currently broken, since February i think, because Github deprecated the anonymous paste abilities.
A single script, currently broken...and which also further pulls the whole...Ruby libs & friends in the system.
Why not use say pastebinit, avoid the Ruby dependencies, since it's python-based instead (as most mint-based projects),
and which also isn't currently broken? So, equivs to the rescue for me for the time being...
I did noticed however at some point in the 'Roadmap' that such has been noticed & will be eventually taken care of.

Ie. i (have to) assume that the devs know better (and quite obviously indeed they do).
Meaning, by the end of the day, unless there's a serious actual 'bug' that causes direct problems,
and not just a secondary / 'semi-cosmetic' issue that i can fix for myself with 2-3 clicks or commands, what's there really to report...
I might make a comment here or there if the discussion brings it, 'to whom it may concern' if you will, but up to that:
i feel that such reports are usually better left to people who more or less want to personally be involved into the development itself

[gm10]

But i think you took my 'question' a bit too seriously in the first place, heh - it was at least partially rhetorical...
In the sense, "since they include it, haven't they noticed that..."...
[...]
Ie. i (have to) assume that the devs know better (and quite obviously indeed they do).
[...]
i feel that such reports are usually better left to people who more or less want to personally be involved into the development itself

Fair enough, although to continue along your lines I'd say you're probably taking a small dev team's grasp and knowledge of the full package base and its implications and interactions way too seriously, plus their desire and time to fix everything.

PSA: If you want something fixed, make a report, even if you cannot get involved in the development yourself. That does not guarantee it will get fixed, but at least you're putting it on the radar.