Possibly-related video problems

[Ben Novack]

> > At any rate, the low quality of video playback remains... any ideas on
> > how to troubleshoot that one?
> >
> > ---Ben
> >
> Most likely you're not using the XVideo device/driver (instead, you're
> using the plain X11 driver).  This is weired!  As by default most media
> player (even under other OSes like Windows) prefer to use the Xv (a.k.a
> Overlay) to the normal plain graphics API (which is not optimized for
> media playback).
> 
> First, make sure XV is working properly on your system.  Run "xvinfo"
> and see what you get.  Here is the result on my system (after removing
> unneeded lines):
>         X-Video Extension version 2.2
>         screen #0
>           Adaptor #0: "NV17 Video Overlay"
>             ...
>             maximum XvImage size: 2046 x 2046
>             Number of image formats: 4
>               id: 0x32595559 (YUY2)
>                 guid: 59555932-0000-0010-8000-00aa00389b71
>                 bits per pixel: 16
>                 number of planes: 1
>                 type: YUV (packed)
>               id: 0x32315659 (YV12)
>                 guid: 59563132-0000-0010-8000-00aa00389b71
>                 bits per pixel: 12
>                 number of planes: 3
>                 type: YUV (planar)
>               ...
>         ...
> 
> The first line is important.  Also, most media player _require_ the
> support of "YUY2 Packed" (or as it also known as "YUV Packed") *and*
> "YV12 Planar" (it's other name is "YUV Planar").
> 
> If you have MPlayer run it from a terminal and use the option "-vo xv".
> 
> If you use Totem (with the Xine back-end) quit all running Totem
> instances and remove the file "~/.gnome2/totem_config" and try again.
> If that didn't work, edit the file "~/.gnome2/totem_config" and search
> for the lines that reads:
>         # video driver to use
>         # string, default: auto
>         #video.driver:auto
> and change the 3rd one to become:
>         # video driver to use
>         # string, default: auto
>         video.driver:Xv
> 
> Now try that.  I hope it'll fix your problem.  Again, if that didn't
> help, just repost here.
> Ziyad.
> 


My xvinfo output's the same as yours; I made the edit to totem_config
to no avail. I still have heavy pixelation that I don't see on the Mac
sitting next to my Ubuntu machine. VLC is fine, but has no sound.
xfmedia looks good, but it's unacceptably short on features; I can't
deinterlace. I wouldn't have a strong objection to VLC if I could get
it to output any sound, but I'd rather just get totem looking nice.

---Ben