VLC issue: no sound, no video... nothing

[oldcpu]

Originally Posted by baobob

Desktop: Gnome, with or without desktop effects, it doesn't change anything in the quality (is it that you call 3D desktop?)

I don't think this is the case. I think it does make a difference.

I have never tried to activate special desktop affects. I've also never had the video problems many users (who have activated, and then later tried to disable, to varying degrees of success) have reported. Its possible having activated your "special desktop affects" prior to sorting your audio/video, you do not have a baseline to compare against (and hence your statement about "it doesn't change anything")

[baobob]

Originally Posted by RedDwarf

- When we say you to remove "alsa-plugins-pulse" is to use the ALSA output in VLC.

At first view, it's not very logic, but ok ^^

Originally Posted by RedDwarf

- "I can't find vlc-plugin-pulse with the software manager, in the packman reposery". Yes, that's normal. That's why I said "ask Packman to package", that's it... Packman could *create a package* if you ask them.

???
Keep in mind that I'm a new newbie. How I am supposed to ask "them" to create a package for me? And afterwards, I know to how to install anything without the software manager!

Originally Posted by RedDwarf

- "there're a lot of big pixels" can be explained if your are using X11 without XVideo extension ("X11" output instead of "Xv"). Have you changed the video output in VLC options???

I've just tried to remplace X11 by Xvideo, and it makes VLC crash.

[oldcpu]

Originally Posted by baobob

Nop: since VLC embeds all the codecs needed, I have not to install such a codec pack.

OK, so you perked my curiousity. I flashed up my WinXP for the first time, in "I don't remember when". It was an incredible pain to boot, as the anti-virus definitions were horribly out of date, as was the firewall horribly out of date, ... and I had a reboot forced on me by the firewall , and I had to wait an incredibly long time (in addition to the already slow WinXP boot time) for those to sort themselves.

Anyway, that WinXP boot/update stuff finally finished. I then played an flv video file and an mpeg video file with vlc under WinXP.

Frankly, quality in WinXP was very pixelated compared to what I get in openSUSE. My openSUSE vlc was far superior in video quality to that on WinXP. ... The audio quality was the same.

Why the difference? I suspect video drivers, but I'm not really that curious to waste time in WinXP to try tune. I proved a point to my satisfication, which is what ever OS one takes the time to tune, is likely to get that last bit of performance. Clearly in my case, since I use openSUSE 99.99% of the time, and I have done so for over 10 years now, it is kept tuned, and is significantly superior to Windows for me.

New Linux users (but old hand Windows users) will mostly likely have a different experience. It takes time to learn the "tricks of an OS". And that is true whether one's OS is Linux, MacIntosh, or Windoze.

[baobob]

linux-dxu6:~ # grep -i driver /etc/X11/xorg.conf
  Driver       "kbd"
  Driver       "synaptics"
  Driver       "mouse"
  Driver       "intel"

Nice to meet you!

So, it's too late to compare with or without the special effects?
But you're right, there's actually one difference: remember the small issue about the picture that doesn't fill the screen in full screen mode? It doesn't happen when the desktop effects are activated!

[oldcpu]

Originally Posted by baobob

I've just tried to remplace X11 by Xvideo, and it makes VLC crash.

Thats because you had special desktop effects enabled when you tried this. I always run with XV (xvideo) and it works great, but I have NEVER tried to enable 3D effects.

[baobob]

but, okay, let's do a break if you don't mind. I'll compare the same movie in vista and in suse. I'm maybe wrong about the low quality, after all.

And, congratulation for your excursion in the wild world of xp . You made me laugh a lot!

It makes me think that, even in IT, there is not absolute truth: you're probably gonna have a heart attack, but I've never got such I number of bugs since I've tried to change my OS.
Whereas I think Vista is quite stable (no blue screen of death). But I admit: it is too too big. Almost a half of my 100Go HD is occupied with the system!

Anyway, Thank you a lot for your help and your kindness, to RedDwarf as well.

Have a nice... day? Evening?

bob

[RedDwarf]

Up to where I can see here there are two problems, but both have been reported previously and have workarounds.
a) intel driver version 2.1.1, from X.org 7.3, has problems using XVideo at the same time than compiz. This has been reported a lot of times in this forum.
You can update to version 2.3.2 from my personal repository (I'm still waiting for someone with an intel graphic chip to report it to Novell so we can have a proper solution).
Alternatively you can use X11 without XVideo. But the XVideo extension was created to play videos... if you use plain X11 you will have "lower quality" or higher CPU usage.
Or you can disable 3D effects/compiz...
b) VLC alsa output has problems when alsa redirects the sound to PulseAudio. This was reported by John Anderson in his blog.
You workaround this uninstalling "alsa-plugins-pulse", so the output sent to alsa doesn't passes through PulseAudio. Problem? Since PulseAudio uses the "hw" device, you probably will have sound problems if you start an application while PulseAudio is running (it autostops after some inactivity time).

[ivom66]

It is interesting to see more or less the same problems discussed in so many threads.

RedDwarf, I believe you should push for your intel video driver. As I reported to you earlier, it worked for me, but since I uninstalled it now I am using X11 without Xv (I like to have desktop effects).

[baobob]

Hey there!

The tests I did on Sunday (when it worked more or less) were as root user, in order to modify the "sound" file.
But when I log under my normal account, I've nothing anymore: no video, no sound in VLC, and nothing as well in banshee (a red cross appears next to the title when opening a file).
I'm wondering... Since I had started to try to fix my multimedia problems before to ask for help here. Maybe I should start from a blank sheet, that is, recover the initial setup. What do you think? And if it's a good idea, how to to this properly, without reinstall all the OS?

thanks!

[oldcpu]

Originally Posted by baobob

The tests I did on Sunday (when it worked more or less) were as root user, in order to modify the "sound" file.

Tests as root user? Do you mean you logged in X as root? or you opened a konsole as root?

I'm rather taken aback here.

I've always recommended users never log into X as root, and to use root in a konsole only very briefly, and sparingly.

The reason being in many cases configurations and permissions need to be setup as a regular user, and not as root. Setting them up as root can mess up things in some cases, ... and when one does mess up their permissions, it can be a nightmare to sort.

Anyway, I will now bow out of this thread. I do not want to get involved in sorting permissions that may have been messed up, or maybe not setup properly, because an inappropriate user account (ie root) was used. But no worries, as there are many qualified contributors to this thread who can likely sort anything that came amiss here.