/dev/chat

Forced video codec: ffh264vdpau
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
libavcodec version 55.52.101 (internal)
Selected video codec: [ffh264vdpau] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg H.264 (VDPAU))

VO: [vdpau] 1280x720 => 1280x720 H.264 VDPAU acceleration

... for example, those are what the lines look like. In this case, using nVidia hardware decoding.

Or, you could have:

Selected video codec: [ffh264] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg H.264)
VO: [x11] 1280x720 => 1280x720 Planar YV12  [zoom]

Faheem Mitha

@derobert VO: [xv] 624x336 => 624x336 Planar YV12

Does that look correct?

derobert

Yes, that's to -vo, xv

Faheem Mitha

Could my video card be too slow? Could it be contributing? It is quite old.

derobert

Well, it's probably not helping (doing hardware decoding), but it shouldn't be hindering either...

Faheem Mitha

8:35 PM

maybe 3 yrs. it might have been second hand too - i forget

@derobert ok

derobert

and it sounds like you should have the CPU power to decode it, unless this is something like 1080p@60

even then you might

Faheem Mitha

@derobert ok

derobert

which codec is it using? also, the VIDEO: [H264] 1280x720 24bpp 25.000 fps 5997.0 kbps (732.1 kbyte/s) line

Faheem Mitha

VIDEO: [XVID] 624x336 12bpp 25.000 fps 1050.3 kbps (128.2 kbyte/s)

Selected video codec: [ffodivx] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg MPEG-4)

derobert

@FaheemMitha is it just this video, or all videos? Because even a Pentium 4 ought to be able to play that easily.

Heck, Pentium II, maybe even...

Faheem Mitha

8:40 PM

@derobert When I have problems (which are intermittent) they seem to afflict videos generally

i particularly noticed it with another video recently. not sure what it was now

derobert

You could try -vo x11, which disables the little bit of acceleration that you video card is providing (primarily scaling and maybe colorspace conversion). If that helps, it probably indicates a bug in the video driver.

Faheem Mitha

@derobert ok

derobert

You could also have a sound issue, video playback is sync'd to the audio, so if the sound card is reporting BS, it'll break video playback

Finally, you could try mplayer2 or (my new favorite) mpv. Both are based on the mplayer1 codebase.

Faheem Mitha

@derobert sounds possible. my sound card is not the greatest inthe world

@derobert ok. are either of these in debian?

derobert

@FaheemMitha Well, it'd normally be a question of how good the ALSA support is...

@FaheemMitha yes, both are, at least in testing/unstable

they're also both in deb-multimedia, of course

Faheem Mitha

8:43 PM

@derobert its the soundblaster live. about as bog standard as sound cards get. a second hand one though

@derobert i try to avoid that

derobert

@FaheemMitha Probably not the sound card, then. I suspect that is well-supported.

Faheem Mitha

@derobert ok

derobert

Anyway, the mplayer options to play with if you suspect it might be sound are -mc and -autosync

Faheem Mitha

@derobert ok. you seem to know a lot about this

derobert

Been using mplayer for a long while...

Faheem Mitha

8:45 PM

@derobert so have I. don't know any of this stuff, though

derobert

Starting on said Pentium II. :-P

Faheem Mitha

@derobert :-)

Faheem Mitha

8:56 PM

mplayer and mplayer2 conflict in debian

Graeme

@Faheem, I think mplayer2 is dead, mpv I think is the most developed fork in that direction

Faheem Mitha

@Graeme ok. probably not installable on wheezy without some effort

Graeme

@Faheem, I think I had it on wheezy back when wheezy was testing. Should be no problems installing alongside mplayer

@terdon, I think your grub answer is a good catch all for a quite a lot of boot problems. Just linked it from here -

0

Q: Linux doesn't boot after update-grub

I had a problem with my HDMI without sound and I found this fix. Edit /etc/default/grub and change this line: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" to this line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash radeon.audio=1" Now run "sudo update-grub", then reboot your computer. Now, the boot...

I think it also needs more of a warning against numpties who just copy the commands and install on /dev/sdb1 when their root filesystem is somewhere else. I had someone do exactly this on a similar answer I posted a couple of days ago.

derobert

9:14 PM

@FaheemMitha Hmmm... I wasn't aware. The deb-multimedia versions don't...

Braiam

@FaheemMitha you sure?

testing doesn't have mplayer

apt-cache policy mplayer{,2}
mplayer:
  Installed: 3:1.1.1+20140215+svn36838-dmo2
  Candidate: 3:1.1.1+20140215+svn36838-dmo2
  Version table:
 *** 3:1.1.1+20140215+svn36838-dmo2 0
        500 deb-multimedia.org testing/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
mplayer2:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 1:2.0~git20130706-dmo3
  Version table:
     1:2.0~git20130706-dmo3 0
        500 deb-multimedia.org testing/main i386 Packages
     2.0-701-gd4c5b7f-2 0
        500 http.debian.net/debian testing/main i386 Packages

derobert

its in sid still

bugs.debian.org/732159

but yeah, its being removed

I think the issue is libav

Braiam

@derobert I think that would change to mplayer2 being removed

and ffmpeg being added again

derobert

if ffmpeg comes back, then presumably so will mplayer.

Braiam

ain't they fighting to bring back ffmpeg since libav is utterly broken?

derobert

9:20 PM

I don't know what the current status of the fight is... I just install it from deb-multimedia and not worry about it.

Braiam

bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=729203

> > Are you still interested in packaging FFmpeg for Debian?

Yes.

OH YES!

derobert

Clearly Jonathan hasn't maintained multimedia packages for long.

I'm pretty sure, from watching the various ffmpeg/libav, mplayer.*, etc. fights that if he had been, that would have been written:

"Yes, you pig-$#@!# dimwit"

That level of civility seems to be required to maintain a multimedia package.

Faheem Mitha

@Graeme mpv is not in stable/wheezy now. maybe it was removed.

@derobert I can't see any reason why they should. some daft packager decision, no doubt.

derobert

@FaheemMitha mplayer2 is in wheezy. mpv is not (but you might be able to rebuild it for stable)

Faheem Mitha

@Braiam i'm on stable

@derobert right. i might be able to

backporting can be a pain on debian though. maintainers don't typically make it a priority.

sometimes i think i should try gentoo. though no doubt it has its own problems

@derobert you follow upstream multimedia? or debian quarrels?

Michael Mrozek

9:37 PM

@FaheemMitha I updated media-libs/libjpeg yesterday and destroyed my system, so yes, it has a few annoyances

derobert

Probably worth a trivial attempt (install build-deps, dch -l, dpkg-buildpackage) to see if it works. Or maybe you could ask on debian-backports for a backport?

Faheem Mitha

@MichaelMrozek ah, so you are a gentoo user too? could i coax you into an answer to the getting to know you question?

derobert

@FaheemMitha seems like you'd try testing/unstable first...

Graeme

@Faheem, probably just me. I definitely started using it sometime last year round about wheezy's release though. Is it on dmo?

Faheem Mitha

@derobert i'm reasonably adept at backporting. it is just a question of priorities

derobert

9:38 PM

@FaheemMitha sometimes I've followed both. Mainly when I have nothing better to do.

Faheem Mitha

@derobert hmm, good point.

@derobert :-)

derobert

@Graeme its in deb-multimedia testing, I'd guess stable too, but I haven't checked.

Faheem Mitha

@Graeme not sure what you are replying to. DO THE REPLY THINGY

Braiam

@FaheemMitha you need the last statement in bold and uppercase ;)

@Graeme DO THE REPLY THINGY

Graeme

@FaheemMitha like this?

Faheem Mitha

9:40 PM

@Braiam Ok. how do I do bold?

Braiam

@FaheemMitha chat use the same markdown magic that comments ;)

Faheem Mitha

@Braiam hmm, you will need to remind me. :-)

@Graeme Correct

Michael Mrozek

@FaheemMitha chat.stackexchange.com/faq#formatting

Braiam

@FaheemMitha **bold**

Graeme

I thought the notifications here worked the same way as in comments

Faheem Mitha

9:42 PM

@Braiam Ok. thanks

The main problem with Debian packaging is when the ftpmasters decide they hate you.

2

That can make things difficult.

wow, 729203 is one hell of a thread

so, what is the deal with mplayer in testing then?

Graeme

@FaheemMitha I saw some of the emails that went back and forth between the dmo guy and Debian developers before he changed his domain name.

Faheem Mitha

so there is something called libav which is broken. hmm

@Graeme oh, yeah. they totally hate him.

though in fairness he is not exactly a team player.

though devs is different from ftpmasters. the latter are debian's gatekeepers. they can be a little... autocratic.

there is the ITP about qmail, for example

Graeme

@FaheemMitha ITP?

Faheem Mitha

> Aside from these technical - and possibly fixable - problems, we (as in the
ftpteam) have discussed the issue, and we are all of the opinion that qmail
should die, and not receive support from Debian. As such we *STRONGLY*
ask you to reconsider uploading those packages.

from bugs.debian.org/457318

@Graeme Intent To Package

Braiam

wait, thunderbird allows me to limit the character width to 80?

Graeme

9:50 PM

Oft, harsh

Faheem Mitha

People don't like Bernstein.

I vaguely remember that some debian multimedia person arbitrarily chose the libav fork because he was involved with its development

ffmpeg is in stable. why did it get pulled?

Graeme

lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-multimedia-maintainers/…

Faheem Mitha

Hmm, I see mplayer depends on libav in debian stable

i knew these issues once - i've forgotten

yes i think this Reinhard Tartler guy is to blame

from that ITP, everyone hates libav

Graeme

I haven't had any problems with it tbh

Not really clued up on the technical differences between the two

Probably takes a lot of digging to get through the propoganda

Faheem Mitha

@Graeme there seems to be remarkable unanimity in that ITP in hating libav. not a single person saying anything good about it. gets called a virus too

Graeme

10:06 PM

@FaheemMitha Yeah, that's basically because mplayer decided to stay with ffmpeg and so doesn't work well with libav

Libav

Libav is a free software project that produces libraries and programs for handling multimedia data. The most notable parts of Libav are libavcodec, an audio/video codec library used by several other projects, libavformat, an audio/video container mux and demux library, and the avconv command line program for transcoding multimedia files. The Libav source code is published under the GNU Lesser General Public License 2.1+. Libav is developed for many operating systems, including GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, AmigaOS and its heir MorphOS. Most computing platforms and microprocess...

Faheem Mitha

@Graeme so you don't think there is anything wrong with libav per se?

Graeme

These guys are probably massive mplayer fans and so hate libav

@FaheemMitha No idea. I guess the main thing that it seems to be boiling down to is whether it works well with your favourite software.

Faheem Mitha

@Graeme ok

Graeme

@FaheemMitha I'm sure there are many other issues, but likely the only way to get the unabridged truth is to compare the code for yourself

Faheem Mitha

@Graeme maybe true

Graeme

10:11 PM

@FaheemMitha The message Debian (and even Ubuntu) had at one point about ffmpeg being deprecated was pretty aggressive though

Faheem Mitha

@Graeme yes, that's in stable. really misleading

*** THIS PROGRAM IS DEPRECATED ***
This program is only provided for compatibility and will be removed in a future release. Please use avconv instead.

from ffmpeg in Debian stable

Graeme

That's the one

I don't think it would be beyond Debian to come to some solution that had both ffmpeg and libav if they really wanted to

Faheem Mitha

@Graeme i think they would need to pick one. it doesn't sound like anyone wants libav except the relevant maintainer(s). Maybe this Tartler guy.

unfortunately debian's package maintainers have their own little feudal kingdoms.

Most of the time they do the right thing, but no always. for example, the auctex maintainer is kind of useless, and tends to ignore bug reports

Graeme

@FaheemMitha Debian is huge though, and has varying amounts of participation on different packages

Faheem Mitha

@Graeme of course

Graeme

10:24 PM

some don't get touched for a long time, then a sudden burst of activity

Faheem Mitha

@Graeme yes, it is not a perfect system.

the real problem is that packages don't get passed on if its maintainer doesn't have time to maintain i properly

they get all possessive about it, which is mad

well, some do

terdon

11:12 PM

Could someone else try and help here, I had a bit of back and forth with the OP on AU and he seems to be pissed at me:

1

Q: On 13.10 mint graphic periodically freezes after recent updates

laptop lenovo idea pad u430p, Linux Mint 16. Like I said in the title occasionally graphic freezes while all other systems continue to work normally (music plays, for example). Sometimes it unfreezes after minute or so, sometimes not and I had to hard reset the machine. lspci -v 00:00.0 Host ...

linux-mint drivers nvidia

@Graeme not sure how much clearer I can make it, it already states:

> Mount the partition you will be using as / (I will call the drive /dev/sdb and the / partition sdb1, change as appropriate) somewhere :

I'll try

mikeserv

11:52 PM

@terdon Pretty sure I helped your guy. I haven't got the time t do anything with it. If you read my comments and they're ok, could you write one for him?

terdon

@mikeserv ah, yes, that's a reasonable suggestion but blacklisting nouveau won't be enough, he also needs to install the nvidia drivers, configure them, set up an xorg.conf...

mikeserv

there's no xorg anymore. blacklisting nouveau will do it - he doesn't need nvidia, but if he does, the package manager should handle it. or whatever, he's not my friend, i just thought it was bad formto comnment without answer.

well, no very detailed one. nvidia-xconfig (apparently) or something is an executable that will make one for you at the cli.

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