Re: [Trisquel-users] DVD Playback Problem: How Do I Configure the Buffer?

[dhunt]

Thanks for the observations re:  totem and video playback; I'm trying to play  
video dvds on Trisquel 6.0, with an Asus netbook and external usb optical  
drive.  When using vlc, I get very chopped audio.  With mplayer, I get audio  
with a strange buzzy artifact.  I cannot get past the menus with the  
keyboard, using either player.  I installed libdvdcss as instructed at  
https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/enable-dvd-playback also installed  
gstreamer-plugins-good, bad and ugly.  If I wanted to just rip the audio and  
forget the video, what would you suggest I use?  

Re: [Trisquel-users] DVD Playback Problem: How Do I Configure the Buffer?

[virx61]

I've now tried both MPlayer (but not yet SMPlayer) and VLC to watch DVDs.

VLC doesn't work very well for me because when I pause it continues playing  
audio for a few seconds, and when I unpause it's out of sync for a while.  
Also, VLC doesn't have very good keyboard or media-key playback controls by  
default.


MPlayer, I'm happy to report, does much better for me than Totem. Although  
DVD nav by keyboard is terrible, mouse works fine. Keyboard playback controls  
work, but best of all MPlayer doesn't skip after hitting the end of the  
buffer after I pause. Instead it pauses for a second and resumes from the  
same spot.

Re: [Trisquel-users] DVD Playback Problem: How Do I Configure the Buffer?

[Sachin Dey]

On 21/08/2013 06:17 AM, vir...@hotmail.com wrote:

I've been watching DVDs using Trisquel a whole lot lately. I'm using
Totem  (and sometimes other players) to play them back, and I've
noticed if I ever  pause or rewind, my optical drive spins down and
doesn't start back up again  until playback reaches the end of the
buffer. This causes playback to freeze  for a few seconds, and then it
jumps ahead a few seconds requiring me to  rewind to catch what I
missed. It doesn't make things unwatchable, but it  results in
not-very-good performance.

Has anyone else run into this problem? Are there settings somewhere I
can  tweak to see if I can mitigate it?


Well I use smplayer to watch videos and it has cache settings which you 
can increase that might help.

Re: [Trisquel-users] DVD Playback Problem: How Do I Configure the Buffer?

[holger . beetz]

@lembas: what is the point in replying when one has nothing to reply ? ;)
/me seriously asking...

@EricxDu:
totem does not exactly have the best reputation as media player. I also  
usually use either SMPlayer or VLC. They both provide sufficient buffering to  
get a got experience when playing back files from optical media. Be it DVDs  
or HD stuff burned to BDs.


Sometimes though the optical drive and / or the media might have issues with  
quick spin up time. Even when using a standalone DVD player on the cheap  
models there is often a small hickup when you have paused the video and  
restart it.


I do not know if you have any special options to finetune the behaviour of  
VLC / SMPlayer in regard of buffering / read ahead.


HTH,
Holger

Re: [Trisquel-users] DVD Playback Problem: How Do I Configure the Buffer?

[virx61]

Thanks, sachin, for the suggestion of SMPlayer. I've looked for such options  
in Totem and don't think there are any at all.


Darksoul71: thanks for the info and two reasons I might be having this  
problem. I'll definitely give SMPlayer and/or VLC a go, and see if my optical  
drive has slow spinup and still causes issues. I suppose Trisquel includes  
Totem by default because it's the Gnome standard app, so any shortcomings it  
may have is why we have choices available.

Re: [Trisquel-users] DVD Playback Problem: How Do I Configure the Buffer?

[virx61]

I just did a quick check and realized that MPlayer (which SMPlayer is a  
front-end to) and VLC don't depend on the GStreamer plugin, which is what  
Totem is based on. Perhaps GStreamer is what doesn't buffer well (and perhaps  
that's what I should try to configure if I wanted to continue using Totem).

Re: [Trisquel-users] DVD Playback Problem: How Do I Configure the Buffer?

[holger . beetz]

AFAIK GStreamer is a multimedia framework / backend to make developing AV  
applications easier. Both mplayer and VLC share libav for decoding videos.


I just mentioned that totem does not exactly have a good reputation because I  
have seen several complaints in various message boards about different issues  
(stuttering, async audio  video and so on). It also never worked to my full  
convenvience.


Especially HD stuff usually stutters in Totem for me.

[Trisquel-users] DVD Playback Problem: How Do I Configure the Buffer?

[virx61]

I've been watching DVDs using Trisquel a whole lot lately. I'm using Totem  
(and sometimes other players) to play them back, and I've noticed if I ever  
pause or rewind, my optical drive spins down and doesn't start back up again  
until playback reaches the end of the buffer. This causes playback to freeze  
for a few seconds, and then it jumps ahead a few seconds requiring me to  
rewind to catch what I missed. It doesn't make things unwatchable, but it  
results in not-very-good performance.


Has anyone else run into this problem? Are there settings somewhere I can  
tweak to see if I can mitigate it?

Re: [Trisquel-users] DVD Playback Problem: How Do I Configure the Buffer?

[mikko . viinamaki]

Don't watch DVDs so don't have any experience.

Maybe one could use hdparm as a workaround. But don't destroy your system  
with it! :)