I recently upgraded all packages needing upgrading in yast, and it seems this has negatively affected my video players. When I try to watch an mkv/avi file in Xine, MPlayer or VLC, the video is very choppy, and my computer starts to heat up (70C instead of 50C).
Does anyone know why this is happening, and how to fix it? This didn’t used to happen until fairly recently.
Thanks
First check you have followed this:
Multi-media and Restricted Format Installation Guide - openSUSE Forums
I do not know why your computer starts to heat up. Just how racy are those videos? rotfl!
But refering the jerkiness, what are you using for an output video module? Most players will let you select that. See if you can try another setting, … possibly if ‘x11’ is selected, select instead ‘xv’.
Also, what graphic driver are you using? If a proprietary graphic driver, have you rebuilt it since the last kernel update?
rotfl! Now that’s funny - quote of the week so far.
@dkvasnic, some hardware details would be helpful and assuming you are using openSUSE, its release level, KDE or Gnome level (or other DE) and any other mentioned software release levels would be a start. 
Hmm, for some reason I didn’t see the stuff at the bottom of @dkvasnic’s post, and I specifically looked for it. :\ Anyway, what is the processor utilization during the choppy video?? Running the command “Top” in a terminal will show it.
So I followed the instructions in that thread, and after numerous adding/removing/vendor changing of packages and repositories, I’m still having the same issue.
I have the output video module set to default, however I tried selecting xv and x11 (and restarting the program to enable them), which didn’t fix the problem.
My graphics driver is from the opensuse repository: x11-video-nvidiaG02
The choppiness is worse in fullscreen then non-fullscreen.
Here is what Top gives me (when xine was NOT in fullscreen):
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
3182 root 20 0 481m 135m 59m R 96 3.5 3:58.01 Xorg
4876 david 20 0 722m 125m 67m S 42 3.2 0:08.68 xine
3719 david 20 0 258m 10m 9740 S 3 0.3 0:02.72 pulseaudio
3720 david 20 0 137m 13m 8880 S 1 0.3 0:05.06 knetworkmanager
4370 david 20 0 489m 97m 25m S 1 2.5 0:19.37 firefox
4785 root 20 0 370m 84m 25m S 0 2.2 0:06.01 y2base
1 root 20 0 1064 388 324 S 0 0.0 0:00.54 init
2 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kthreadd
3 root RT -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/0
4 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.08 ksoftirqd/0
5 root RT -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/1
6 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.02 ksoftirqd/1
7 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.08 events/0
8 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.08 events/1
9 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 khelper
10 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kintegrityd/0
11 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kintegrityd/1
I don’t know what that is. … I think it is the openGL driver and its quiet possible the openGL driver does not handle your nVidia Quadro FX 570M on your Intel Core 2 Duo T9500 PC very well. When I first installed openSUSE-11.1 on my Intel Core i7 920 with a nVidia GTX 260, I found the graphic performance pathetic, with the sort of jerkiness you describe. Turns out back then the openGL driver did not work well with my PC. but the proprietary graphic driver worked well.
How good is your Linux knowledge? You could install the proprietary nVidia graphic driver. I prefer to do this “the hardway” which is not hard. Guidance is here: NVIDIA/The hard way - openSUSE
In essence:
mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.mybackup
I say backup so you can restore it later.
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-190.42-pkg2.run -q
nvidia-xconfig
which will create a new /etc/X11/xorg.conf file (it may complain it can’t find the old). Note, you probably do NOT have to run " sax2 -r -m 0=nvidia " as the file created by “nvidia-config” should be good enough.
If you end up with no GUI, restart, type ‘3’ again in grub boot menu, logon to text prompt as a regular user, then type “su” to get root/admin permissins, restore the backed copy of /etc/X11/xorg.conf (which you called xorg.conf.mybackup) and then restart and you are back to where you were before with nothing lost for your efforts, but some lost time.
To confirm you are not using the proprietary driver yet, please type:
grep -i driver /etc/X11/xorg.conf
and post here the output.
If it says driver “nv” you are using an openGL driver. If it says driver “nvidia” you are using a nvidia proprietary driver. If it says driver ‘vesa’ you are using a vesa driver.
grep -i driver /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Driver "kbd"
Driver "synaptics"
Driver "mouse"
Driver "nv"
Driver "nv"
Driver "nv"
Yes, “nv”. Your PC is using the openGL driver, which is a free open source driver. But its performance is significantly worse than the nVidia proprietary driver. I provided a short guide above as to how you can update to the proprietary driver.
I will try my best to follow your guide :).
However, I won’t get around to it for a day or two since I have some exams coming up. Thanks for your help, I’ll let you know as soon as I try it!
If the cpu utilization is extremely high, you will get choppy video, and 96% for Xorg is very high, and will help to generate extra heat. Not good.
You could also take a look at the readable file /var/log/Xorg.0.log that’s re-written at system startup. Specifically look for lines starting (EE) for errors, and note any (WW) warning lines. In that log, you will see various modules being loaded, e.g. “drm” and “dri” for direct rendering, and your video driver being loaded followed by information about the settings of driver options. Familiarize yourself with it as best you can for now, and tell us about any (EE) errors found, and/or (WW) warnings (but not missing fonts). We may need you to post parts of that log file here.
In addition to my previous:
BTW googling “nVidia Quadro FX 570M heat choppy” does find a few others on various operating systems having problems with that video card, and lenovo laptop H/W.
In the log file there are a bunch of these:
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/local" does not exist.
Entry deleted from font path.
One of these:
(II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules//fonts/libfreetype.so
(II) Module freetype: vendor="X.Org Foundation & the After X-TT Project"
compiled for 1.5.2, module version = 2.1.0
Module class: X.Org Font Renderer
ABI class: X.Org Font Renderer, version 0.6
(II) Loading font FreeType
(II) LoadModule: "type1"
(WW) Warning, couldn't open module type1
(II) UnloadModule: "type1"
(EE) Failed to load module "type1" (module does not exist, 0)
And a couple of these:
(WW) NV(0): Unknown vendor-specific block f
My knowledge of linux is quite limited, so I’m not really sure if any of those warnings/errors are relevant/significant.
When I first got my system, I had chopiness issues for which I found solutions for using google/OpenSuse forums. However those issues related to particular programs not being configured properly. This new choppy issue is across all programs, and seems to have appeared recently with upgrades I made to my system (I upgrade my system often). So I figured it wasn’t a problem with my system, but a new bug that perhaps other people were encountering…I’m going to try oldcpu’s suggestion and see what happens.
Thanks oldcpu. Installing the nvidia graphics driver has solved my problem. My video playing is much smoother and not as intense on the cpu!
Super. You can indirectly also thank user microchip who kept nagging me until I finally followed his advice and started using the proprietary nVidia driver on my Intel Core i7 920 with the GeForce GTX260. Until I started using the proprietary nVidia driveer on that PC, I was actually getting superior graphical performance on an ancient 32-bit athlon-1100 with a GeForce FX5200.
Its truely amazing the difference a good graphical driver can make.
Thanks for responding re the log info. I always look there first for a video driver problem and have had a few (not on nvidia though).
Glad you got it sorted. I was interested in your comments about those other googled problems. I am about to get a new laptop and Lenovo is high on the list (or possibly a MacBook).