[Bug 981803] [NEW] 720P video lagging, massive framedrops and out of sync

[Launchpad Bug Tracker]

You have been subscribed to a public bug by James M. Leddy (jm-leddy):

[ Impact ]

This affects the entire distribution, on any laptop with a camera. The
default "camera app" doesn't work well on Ubuntu. Cheese takes up all
most all cpu cycles, and even so the recorded video is choppy. This
reflects poorly on Ubuntu as an OS

[ Test Case ]

* Record video with cheese. t
* Play back in Totem
* Notice how choppy it is

[ Regression Potential ]

Low: The patch just adds another profile to gstreamer that makes it a
higher priority process, and then tells cheese to use that profile. It's
just a configuration change. I have tested and the patches have the
intended result, the video is smoother than before.

The side effect is that, on a fully loaded system, other processes will
not be able to get cpu time as effectively. This should not be a problem
because it's assumed that when you're recording the video, you won't be
using other applications on your machine.

[ Original Report ]

When recording a video with Cheese with a 1280x720 resolution, the image
is blurry whenever there is motion (this might be a webcam limitation)
but after a few seconds there are also massive framedrops. This results
in a jerky video at best, where the audio is at times completely out of
sync with the video.

When scaling back to 640x480 (the next 'best' thing), things are
smoother (at least there are no massive framedrops). But 640x480 is not
widescreen and not even close to HD, making Cheese useless for my aim of
being able to create quick-yet-good-enough-looking headshot videos for
online use.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: cheese 3.4.0-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-23.36-generic 3.2.14
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-23-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sat Apr 14 20:30:34 2012
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/cheese
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Beta amd64 (20120328)
MachineType: Hewlett-Packard HP ProBook 6550b
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
RelatedPackageVersions:
 cheese        3.4.0-0ubuntu1
 cheese-common 3.4.0-0ubuntu1
SourcePackage: cheese
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 10/04/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.bios.version: 68CDE Ver. F.03
dmi.board.name: 146D
dmi.board.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.board.version: KBC Version 73.11
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnHewlett-Packard:bvr68CDEVer.F.03:bd10/04/2010:svnHewlett-Packard:pnHPProBook6550b:pvr:rvnHewlett-Packard:rn146D:rvrKBCVersion73.11:cvnHewlett-Packard:ct10:cvr:
dmi.product.name: HP ProBook 6550b
dmi.sys.vendor: Hewlett-Packar

** Affects: cheese
     Importance: Medium
         Status: Expired

** Affects: oem-priority
     Importance: Medium
     Assignee: James M. Leddy (jm-leddy)
         Status: Incomplete

** Affects: cheese (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: Fix Released

** Affects: gst-plugins-bad0.10 (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: Fix Released

** Affects: cheese (Ubuntu Precise)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

** Affects: gst-plugins-bad0.10 (Ubuntu Precise)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: Confirmed


** Tags: amd64 apport-bug gstreamer-ok precise rls-q-incoming
-- 
720P video lagging, massive framedrops and out of sync
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/981803
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