How come Video looks so crappy compared to Windows ?

English Multimedia
1

Ok first of all im new to OpenSuse i have been using different distros since early 90’s if theres one i havent tried i would be very surprised anyway im very picky when it comes to sound and picture maybe its the fact that im a developer and also art director anyhoo i got tired of my HTPC ( windows ) i thought linux has to be able to do it just as well i mean i only use it for movies and music but was surprised to see how video works in linux picture is somewhat ok compared to Windows but movement is another story even vsync off it looks like a old VHS tape when it should be DVD … Cam-panning is even worse … How is this and can it be fixed?

I use VLC … Ive tried the built in stuff but that **** is just to wack …

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On 02/02/2011 03:36 PM, c0ola1d wrote:

> Ok first of all im new to OpenSuse i have been using different distros
> since early 90’s

really? how early??

> can it be fixed?

…-=welcome=-. first time poster…

playback is directly dependent on your graphics chip/hardware and its
ability to push the bits through the pipe to the monitor…

oh, and also greatly affected by the driver in use…i get great
playback…

suggest you make sure you are using the best driver for your chip (see
openSUSE Graphic Card Practical Theory Guide for Users
http://tinyurl.com/2vsv4rh)

and if that doesn’t make you happy then your choices are:

  1. use what you are used to, no matter the cost or lock-in
  2. buy stronger hardware (and make sure it has nVidia)
  3. complain that MS has better drivers…which happens because the
    hardware makers work directly with MS to build the drivers and the
    Linux hackers have to reverse engineer…but, the good news is we are
    catching up–

–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
[NNTP posted w/openSUSE 11.3, KDE4.5.5, Thunderbird3.0.11, nVidia
173.14.28 3D, Athlon 64 3000+]
“It is far easier to read, understand and follow the instructions than
to undo the problems caused by not.” DD 23 Jan 11

3

I started messing with Red Hat in 1994 on Amiga :smiley:

Thank you for replying so fast and making me fell welcome :smiley: … About the hardware if Linux cant produce a decent picture on a ATI HD5770 then i will start laughing and maybe think about dusting of my old amiga because even that old HW can do it … Also im running the latest ATI drivers aswell as latest VLC player , Refresh Rate is maxed out … Still im baffled by the lack of quality i refuse to believe that Linux programmers which are surposed to be in the clever end cant make a decent driver especially when 3d portion is good only 2d is lacking … When we started developing there was no tools at all we had to disassemble the machinecode there was nothing about instructionsets and what not … So either ppl are slacking or they just dont care about a decent picture !! ?

You say u get great playback is that 100% realtime with no stops in panning and what not ? ive seen videos of ppl’s videoplayers and they all look the same more or less … Its almost like the player itself lacks a buffer or maybe the codec is made using Comal80 …

Since im a developer i would NEVER buy Nvidia thats not really a card for a freak its merely a gamercard … ATI has way better picture also way more experience when it comes to development… The day a OS dictates my HW is the day i stop using it … For PC’s anyway … Commodore ftw :slight_smile:

4

That’s the spirit, and just how it should be.

Welcome to the arena. Oops, I should have said forum. :slight_smile:

5

I think DenverD has already stated what you needed to hear, and unfortunately you last post is very subjective (and opinions that mos here would disagree with anyway). Cutting to the chase, if you really want to get help on this, you need to supply details on your graphics chipset and drivers you’re using. If ATI or NVIDIA, proprietary drivers exist for the newer hardware which may help. Otherwise this looks more like a soapbox post…

6

Are you referring to “movement” when streaming video over internet with Flash? Or are you also having a problem with local video and VLC?

7

On 02/02/2011 07:06 PM, c0ola1d wrote:
> I started messing with Red Hat in 1994 on Amiga :smiley:

> You say u get great playback is that 100% realtime with no stops in
> panning and what not ?

if my adsl keeps the buffer full it runs smooth…full screen…well,
it did NOT run full screen at all…zero with the free/open driver,
but as soon as i installed the proprietary nVidia driver it got smooth
and crisp…

> Since im a developer i would NEVER buy Nvidia thats not really a card
> for a freak its merely a gamercard …

well, the seem MUCH more willing to in-house produce, and make
available, drivers which are GREAT…

for games i don’t much about that…there is a nice 3D tank game, but
that is all i have experience with…

> ATI has way better picture also way more experience when it comes to development…

maybe so, but their support for Linux is terrible and been getting
mostly worse lately…

especially for older hardware…they seem to want to force everyone
to move on (and spend money)

> The day a OS dictates my HW is the day i stop using it

like i said, use what works…if you want ATI you probably need to
stick that ring back in your nose and enjoy Redmond’s best…or, if
you wanna help the folks hammering on the free and open ati driver, i
guess they could use a really really REALLY early adopter…

you almost got to Red Hat before Marc Ewing did… :wink:

–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
[NNTP posted w/openSUSE 11.3, KDE4.5.5, Thunderbird3.0.11, nVidia
173.14.28 3D, Athlon 64 3000+]
“It is far easier to read, understand and follow the instructions than
to undo the problems caused by not.” DD 23 Jan 11

8

Well, that says it right there ! An ATI.

ATI provide graphic drivers for MS-Windows that support a technology that they call “avivo” that provides the MS-Windows operating system the capability to offload the decoding of the video from the CPU to the GPU. On PCs this can make a SIGNIFICANT difference in the smoothness of the video and audio playback (where a busy CPU can not play back audio properly).

For Linux, ATI will NOT support in their video driver offloading of the decoding from the CPU to the GPU. For what ever political, or manpower reasons, ATI do NOT provide the same support. Ergo, Linux is a second class citizen when it comes to ATI hardware for video playback.

That is why many of us use nVidia (where nVidia have ‘vdpau’ as the Linux equivalent of the nVidia MS-Windows ‘pure video’). Intel also provide information for their drivers to off load video decoding from CPU to GPU.

Its only ATI that have not made this easily available for Linux.

Plain and simple, its your hardware selection. You picked hardware where the manufacturer does NOT provide the best drivers (ie NOWHERE NEAR what they give to MS-Windows users).

9

Oh im not even talking about streaming im just talking about playback on DVD / Blueray media’s or mkv’s … It runs fine in a window but fullscreen is another story but i guess you hit the nail on the head regarding the proprietary drivers but then again like i said my win games are running fine through wine so its not the 3d its about the same as i got with other distros like chakra , sabayon , pclinux , gentoo & arc. then again regarding the prorietary driver it ought to be the same although it isnt the case fx k/Ubuntu has terrible 3d …

I do not hate Nvidia they make the fastest cards around but for my use they are overkill which is why i use ATI also due to heat / power consumption … I might consider my current card with an older GT model i have just to see if i get a increase performance wise it certainly cant hurt…

About ATI hardware my card is fairly new but then again if they dont bother to update their drivers because they feel that 2d is outdated well then im fairly screwed it seems …

Well im not giving up yet … If i was lazy i would stick it on windows but that would suck who wants to pay for a virus with a silly name … but i must admit its times like this i miss the FatAgnus !! Blitter ftw …

10

I’m not talking streaming either. I’m talking playback. ATI drivers in the most part for Linux are significantly worse than what they provide for MS-Windows. For MS-Windows for PLAYBACK (NOT STREAMING) they provide ‘avivo’ but they do NOT for Linux.

Don’t believe me on this. Look it up on the Internet. It is fairly common knowledge.

They update their drivers. BUT they do NOT offer the same capability for Linux as they do for MS-Windows.

Go to the Phoronix site and read up on this if you wish to learn more.

11

Aw dang it … Well thanks for that i guess even though it stings abit it makes me somewhat happy i mean i felt like i have tried everything and it still wouldnt work … I really didnt know ATI was being such prats but then again even windows drivers has sucked ever since AMD bought em… Well atleast i didnt bin my 8600GT :smiley:

Thanks alot ! ;D

12

You should also make sure you follow the multimedia guide
Multi-media and Restricted Format Installation Guide

13

One thing you could also check is the output mode of your video player. Typically the ‘xv’ (xvideo) output mode gives the best performance on ATI hardware … although it still will not be up to the performance that ATI give MS-Windows users by the superior graphic drivers they provide for the MS-Windows operating system.

14

And if you’re using kde4 then disabling 3D Effects during playback (ALT+SHIFT+F12) usually helps.

15

This was a typo. I will edit the above for WEB based posts.

In this context I meant to type “avivo”. ATI provide “avivo” technology for MS-Windows operating systems to offload the decoding of the video from the CPU to the GPU. There is NO Linux wide equivalent, although ATI have been purportedly working on this for some time.

“pure video” is the nVidia technology.

ATI efforts in this area for Linux include Video Bitstream Acceleration and VaAPI but thus far there has been no wide spread Linux implementation to the same scale that we are seeing with vdpau for nVidia cards. Many of us hope to see an improvement here as time goes on.

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So I guess a HTPC with ATI graphics card and Linux do not belong in the same sentence?