Video playback performance on AAO - Linpus Lite?

First post, so not sure I am using the correct sub-forum. Mods please move the post if it's not in the "correct" place.

I have an AAO - Linpus lite version which I recently purchased from the UK. I noticed that the video playback is not very smooth and I can almost notice the frames changing. Even the webcam preview is not smooth. Moreover, FLV vids - youtube, bbc iplayer etc. are a great pain to watch. The playback for FLV vids is quite far from smooth. The new HD vids from youtube are stuck on the 3rd or 4th frame and after that I can hear only the audio playback.

I have searched quite a lot on Google for any similar problems, but could not find much info.

Installing VLC may fix the issue for AVI, MPG files, but not the FLV files or the webcam preview.

My netbook is going to Acer support for a problem with the battery, should I ask them to look at the video playback performance.

How is the video playback performance on the Linpus lite version? Are there any known issues?

 

The playback performance isn't that good on linux or AAO with SSD unless you tweaked it. HD videos on youtube will definetly lag on AAO with SSD. In comparison, video playback performance for AAO 150 with HDD is great. 1080P, 720P 480P h.264, youtube HD video, 480P divx all play smooth as butter on my AAO 150 with 160GB hdd. 720P Hi-Def videos will even play at 24P on battery at 800mhz.

 

Hi
No problem for me with videos (DIVX and FLV files) with VLC on plain default Linpus. All is smooth and good. But if compiz or xcompmgr are enabled, of course videos run choppy. So I disable desktop effects before watching fullscreen videos.

TheTilde

 

Actually, I have the AAO Linpus Lite with 160GB HDD, I am just running Youtube or BBC Iplayer in Firefox with the default Flash player and Firefox installation which came with the machine. The video playback quality which I am getting with normal youtube videos (not even HD) is far from smooth.

Also, I have not installed VLC yet or tweaked any other video related package or setting.

Could there be anything wrong with the machine (Hardware), as the webcam preview is not very smooth as well.

 

Have you tried running FLV videos in the browser itself (like Youtube vids in Firefox). Do you get smooth playback in this case also?

Also, I don't know much about compiz or xcompmgr and whether these are enabled on my machine or not. Could you please help me on how to disable the desktop effects.

Thanks in advance.

 

It's definitely an issue with Linpus. Perhaps due to a driver for video that's not fully optimized. I had that problem on my SSD while on Linpus, but after I installed TinyXP the problem went completely away.

 

Is there a way to improve video playback performance on my AAO if I want to keep the Linpus lite installation. I installed skype today and had a video call with my friend. I noticed that even though my friend's webcam video was smooth, mine was not smooth and I could 'feel the frames'.

Is it possible to dual-boot my AAO with Linpus and TinyXP. I have the 160GB HDD version.

 

Hi,
You can disable compiz by unchecking the box in autostart, (bit of a pain tho) put the following into a terminal and reboot...

Code:

xfce4-autostart-editor

You can add other apps here to autostart when you boot up such as skype.
Update flash here
http://macles.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-01-02T17:12:00+01:00&max-results=12
and java...
http://macles.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-10-14T23:51:00+02:00&max-results=12
Hope it helps.

 

The choppy webcam is a hardware issue. Try pointing the webcam againsts bright background and the frame rates will improve.

 

My netbook is going to Acer technical support for a battery related problem, should I call them and ask to look at the webcam preview and video related problem as well.

Is there a description of any hardware related issue with the webcam and/or the video, if it is a 'known' issue. I will need background information on this issue to argue with them in case they say NO.

 

The choppy webcam is a sympton on all of the acer aspire ones.

 

After much searching I finally got iplayer to stop skiping, being jumpy or choppy whatever you want to call it. This also improved longer videos on sites like youtube etc. that were jumpy before. It seems to be the graphics memory and nothing to do with network conection or buffering, (i could tell this as the video had half downloaded whenI was only 10s in.

I am using the acer linux linpus desktop.

[be very careful you could stop linux booting so have a backup]
alt+f2
sudo mousepad /boot/grub/grub.conf
then add enable_mtrr_cleanup after quiet for the limpus linux lite section (not the rescue section)
the whole file should look like this {providing you have not changed anything in here yet}

Code:

default=0
timeout=0
splashimage=(hd0,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu

title Linpus Linux Lite
        rootnoverify (hd0,1)
   kernel /boot/bzImage ro root=LABEL=linpus vga=0x311 splash=silent loglevel=1 console=tty1 quiet enable_mtrr_cleanup resume=swap:/dev/sda3 nolapic_timer
     initrd /boot/initrd-splash-smallnew.img

title Linpus Linux Lite(rescue)
        rootnoverify (hd0,1)
   kernel /boot/vmlinuz rw root=/dev/ram0 ramdisk_size=128000 vga=0x315 init=/linuxrc quiet root_lp=/dev/sda2 d2d_lp=/dev/sda1 swap_lp=/dev/sda3 
     initrd /boot/initrd.bin

 

Almost everyone has this issue. So I doubt acer can do anything about it.