[MPlayer-users] Jerky 1080p h264 playback

[Dark Shadow]

On Sun, May 16, 2010 at 5:26 AM, Muzer <muzerakascooby at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Hi all,
>
> I'm trying to watch Avatar (a rip from the BD that I made myself with
> makemkv) with mplayer. I have added a load of options to try to improve
> the playback quality, as it was extremely jerky and stuttering before -
> now it's watchable, but still not perfect.
>
> The command-line I use is:
>
> mplayer title00.mkv -channels 6 -vo vdpau -vc ffh264vdpau -lavdopts
> threads=3:skiploopfilter=all:fast
>
>
> I have disabled compositing in kwin - that makes a difference.
>
> I have tried using xv instead of vdpau, and the quality is virtually the
> same, which raises the question of whether vdpau is actually doing its job.
>
> The exact nature of the jerkiness is that it runs reasonably smoothly
> for about a second, then does a little freeze in the picture and jumps -
> all within about half a second. Sound remains smooth. This repeats. This
> is unnoticeable during most scenes, but really distracts you from the
> large, sweeping panoramic views.
>
> I am using mplayer from the Ubuntu Lucid repo - I will try the SVN if
> you think it might help.
>
> I am using pure ALSA as my sound output, but with a custom plugin that
> downmixes 5.1 surround to 4.0 (for my 4.0 surround system). I am pretty
> sure there is no interference from pulseaudio anywhere along the line.
>
> My CPU is an "Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     E7300  @ 2.66GHz"
>
> My GPU is an "nVidia Corporation G96 [GeForce 9500 GT]" - actually
> branded PNY. I am using the proprietary nvidia driver from the Ubuntu
> Lucid repo - again, if there is a newer one and you think it might help,
> I'll try grabbing that.
>
> I have tried enabling the cache and framedrop, all making no difference.
>
> My monitor's resolution is somewhat lower than 1080p, so it has to scale
> the video down. However, even if I try to watch it fullsize (with some
> of it falling off the edge of the monitor obviously), it still jerks along.
>
> Playing lower-resolution films (though I have not tried any other h264
> videos) does not exhibit this problem. I have not tried any other HD
> videos either.
>
> Anyone got any clue? Is my computer too poor to play it, or is it a
> software issue? If it's a hardware issue, do you think it's the GPU or
> the CPU that needs an upgrade?
>
>
>
> Thanks a lot,
>
> Muzer.

I am not to sure about the limitations of older vdpau hardware but it
seems that you have a feature set A card which states full h264
decoding but maybe they where not expecting such a large file (I have
heard the movie is the full 50 gigs) considering most movies I have
ripped are only 25-30 gigs, so Avatar may have a way higher bitrate.

Here is some info on the feature sets and which cards use which one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_PureVideo