Playing a DVD is choppy

[bigmoose]

I have Knoppix 3.3 (11-19 release) and libdvdcss1.2.7 on a Sony Vaio PCG-FX300. It's a P-III at 1 ghz with 256 megs of ram and an 8 meg i815 video card. What setting do I need to change to get DVD"s to play smoother?

I have had this problem on my other laptop (sony vaio pcg-f350) and that is a P-II 366Mhz with 128 megs of ram and a 4 meg neomagic card. That was running a Knoppix 3.2 release me thinks early april or so. I thought it was choppy due to being slow but that wasn't the problem as it is replicated on the faster laptop.

I can't find anywhere a newer version of libdvdcss or an olderone that doesn't have the same problem.

Does anybody have a similar problem?

Any help is appreciated.

~bigmoose

[baldyeti]

You could try to enable dma (http://home.t-online.de/home/c.ehbrecht/WebWiki/EnableDma.html) for the dvd device. Knoppix has a "dma" cheatcode, but I am not sure if it's only for hard disks or not...

[tearinghairout]

You need X video extensions enabled to get good dvd playback.

It is not a factor of cpu speed, or dvd player speed or player dma, but more of having the right video enabled X server present.

Run the xvinfo command.

if you get something like
X-Video Extension version 2.2
screen #0
no adaptors present

then you are out of luck (which I am almost certain is the case for you, otherwise you wouldn't be complaining about choppy DVD playback).

I have too many meat-space commitments to follow this up for you just at the moment, but perhaps tomorrow I can investigate this more for you.

[tearinghairout]

You can find more info about xvideo exensions at http://dvd.sourceforge.net/xine-howto/en_GB/html/howto-9.html#ss9.3

It says Intel i815 should work.

[bigmoose]

This Fixed the problem. It even worked on the P-II 366. Now I'll watch Die another Day from start to finish without any skips.


You could try to enable dma (http://home.t-online.de/home/c.ehbrecht/WebWiki/EnableDma.html) for the dvd device. Knoppix has a "dma" cheatcode, but I am not sure if it's only for hard disks or not...


I will checkout the xvideo extension for better performance later on tonite.


Thanks guys.
~ryan

:lol:

[tearinghairout]

Oh, ok
Well, I stand corrected.
I'm glad you found an easy solution.

[Cuddles]

TearingHairOut,

I too, have choppy video on playing a DVD - mine is a Sony, which I hear is natorious for needing to be dma enabled (said so in the manual)

I did the xvinfo - and whoa!!!!!
A TON OF STUFF scrolled over the screen, and ran almost three screen-fulls. I not only have multiple formats, but lots of window sizes, depth planes, etc...

Is the whole DMA thing a all-or-nothing kinda thing? Like its either enabled on everything, or its not? Or is it specific to only the hard drives? Just some background on the subject, thats all -=- I wouldn't want to tax you -=- you have been so helpful, courteious [yessh I need a spell checker for this thing :) ] and very patient with me all this time, and with many issues - I wouldn't want you to get brain-drain or something :D

Cuddles

[tearinghairout]

Hi Cuddles

I am not really an expert in dma, but I have a few - let's call them "inspired guesses".

I seem to recall once seeing a knoppix cheatcode in which you specified dma for specific drives (but I can't seem to find it now). From this, I would infer that if you simply say "dma", then it attempts to enable dma for all your drives.

I believe that dma can be used for any kind of drive, hard disc, cd-rom, dvd.

If you get lots of stuff returned from the xvinfo command, then basically you can forget about this. It's all on and working for you, and you don't need to do anything more (this relates to your video card and X server, and is a separate issue from dma enabled drives).

If you are getting choppy dvd playback, I would suggest you follow baldyeti's advice and enable dma for your dvd drive. I think he (she?) is refering to a boot time cheatcode, which will be a drag for you to have to enter each time you boot. It is probably possible to specify this permanently somewhere, but I don't actually know how to do this.

BTW, I just found this on the net. It is from a web site specifically for a DVD player called ogle, but this stuff should be general to all systems.

Check with hdparm (hdparm -d <device name>) if you have enabled DMA on the DVD drive.
hdparm -d 1 <device name> to turn dma on. The link above will explain in more detail.
If you have a VIA chipset or have similar problems see FAQ 44 also.
If you have enabled DMA and it still is choppy and you have an nVidia card see also FAQ 38.
If you have enabled DMA and it still is choppy or dma keeps turning off and you have a VIA chipset (mostly amd users) try with hdparm -d 1 -X34 <device name> to use another dma mode.
NOTE: In redhat7.3 DMA is default OFF for cd/dvd drives
The official way to turn change this is to create a file named /etc/sysconfig/harddiskhdc (the hdc at the end should be replaced with the device name for you DVD). Use the contents of /etc/sysconfig/harddisks as a template. The rc.sysinit script will apply the contents of /etc/sysconfig/harddisks to hard drives only, but if it sees a file for a specific drive, it will apply it to that drive even if it is not a hard drive.

NOTE (ide-scsi): If you are using ide-scsi on a drive you must still use the ide device node with hdparm to turn on/off dma. Example: you use ide-scsi on your dvd drive that is /dev/hdc, it turns up as /dev/sr0, /dev/dvd should point to /dev/sr0 but to turn on dma you should write 'hdparm -d 1 /dev/hdc'.

NOTE (devfs and ide-scsi): If you use devfs and ide-scsi you won't get any /dev/hdc device to run hdparm on (if /dev/hdc is the dvd drive using ide-scsi). Instead you need to use 'hdparm -d 1 /dev/ide/host0/bus1/target0/lun0/generic'.
Hope all this stuff helps
sorry I couldn't be a bit more specific.
THO

[Dave_Bechtel]

--DMA is kernel- and device-specific. Try ' hdparm -c1 -d1 /dev/hdc ' if your DVD drive is secondary master.


TearingHairOut,

I too, have choppy video on playing a DVD - mine is a Sony, which I hear is natorious for needing to be dma enabled (said so in the manual)

I did the xvinfo - and whoa!!!!!
A TON OF STUFF scrolled over the screen, and ran almost three screen-fulls. I not only have multiple formats, but lots of window sizes, depth planes, etc...

Is the whole DMA thing a all-or-nothing kinda thing? Like its either enabled on everything, or its not? Or is it specific to only the hard drives? Just some background on the subject, thats all -=- I wouldn't want to tax you -=- you have been so helpful, courteious [yessh I need a spell checker for this thing :) ] and very patient with me all this time, and with many issues - I wouldn't want you to get brain-drain or something :D

Cuddles

[Cuddles]

Thanks THO - you are worth a million :D BTW Hows that flu going? You are seriously burnin yourself if your still sick - I'd hate to think I was hampering your getting better.

Cuddles