Here's my system:
2.0 dual core otperon
2 gigs memory
1.5 TB Seagate with updated firmware
Xine player
Nvidia card Tv Out to CRT Tv

I am having a problem when watching movies. There is alot of tiny stuttering. Not enough to throw the audio out of sync, but movements are not smooth. I did a hdparm -t and although I don't remember the number off the topof my head is was good. The problem exist on Windows but alot less and barely noticeable. On my linux system it's bad enough to where I don't want to watch the movie. Is there anything I can do to fix this problem?

Use KSysGuard or dstat to monitor the system. Hopefully we'll see the bottleneck.

Here's my system:
2.0 dual core otperon
2 gigs memory
1.5 TB Seagate with updated firmware
Xine player
Nvidia card Tv Out to CRT Tv

I am having a problem when watching movies. There is alot of tiny stuttering. Not enough to throw the audio out of sync, but movements are not smooth. I did a hdparm -t and although I don't remember the number off the topof my head is was good. The problem exist on Windows but alot less and barely noticeable. On my linux system it's bad enough to where I don't want to watch the movie. Is there anything I can do to fix this problem?

Have you tried using mplayer or vlc to see if it still stutters? I set all my nvidia cards to "sync to vblank" allows a more in sync with less tearing than wide open fps. My $0.02.

Michael, can you please check your xorg.conf and let us know what setting "sync to vblank" is in Device there? I'm getting deinterlace artifacts on Dish channel 101 when panning. Every third and fourth line seems late, and is too far right.

I think he is talking about in the nvidia-settings applet. That is where I set it. There are 3 different vsync settings in there. But then you probably need to restart any apps that want to use it... I think.

What app are you using to playback these video files?

Right, that's where you can set it, but that's not permanent. To make the settings stick on reboot you have to Save your settings, which modifies xorg.conf. However it takes massive liberties which I hate in rearranging xorg, such as removing all the carefully-constructed and learned comments I've entered. So I'd like to manually add that setting.

Sorry, Myth is my app. Happens while Watching TV on channel 101.

Right, that's where you can set it, but that's not permanent. To make the settings stick on reboot you have to Save your settings, which modifies xorg.conf. However it takes massive liberties which I hate in rearranging xorg, such as removing all the carefully-constructed and learned comments I've entered. So I'd like to manually add that setting.

Sorry, Myth is my app. Happens while Watching TV on channel 101.

If it doesn't keep for you can add

nvidia-settings --load-config-only

to your startup sequencing. Then you don't need to muck with xorg.conf. I don't know if I set this up a while ago or what but the settings stick for me...

Michael, can you please check your xorg.conf and let us know what setting "sync to vblank" is in Device there? I'm getting deinterlace artifacts on Dish channel 101 when panning. Every third and fourth line seems late, and is too far right.

I set it with nvidia-settings and it sticks in the nvidia firmware. If you run glxgears it should show the correct fps of the monitor you are attached to via the nvidia/xorg setup. If it is real fast then vblank is not on.

If it is real fast then vblank is not on.

I'm sorry, but I don't know how to interpret "real fast." glxgears reports frame rates in the 2600/sec range for my nVidia 6600 with a Sony KDL-40V3000 television using DVI->HDMI. Is that "real fast?"

nVidia-settings reports sync to vblank as enabled for textures, but not the "blitter." Should they both be enabled? What about sync to vblank in the OpenGL settings? Here mine is disabled.

Any clues about why there are so many "sync to vblank" settings?

I am having a problem when watching movies. There is alot of tiny stuttering. Not enough to throw the audio out of sync, but movements are not smooth. I did a hdparm -t and although I don't remember the number off the topof my head is was good. The problem exist on Windows but alot less and barely noticeable. On my linux system it's bad enough to where I don't want to watch the movie. Is there anything I can do to fix this problem?
Looks like he's absconded...

i'm sorry for taking awhile to get back...

i am not at home right now, but i am 99% there is no bottleneck. my system has way more than enough power to play movies. i was thinking it could be personality of the nvidia drivers for linux, but if other nvidia users aren't having it then it's something else.

i also feared it may be the firmware of my seagate 1.5 hd and the linux system, but i hope not. I'm getting great readings with hdparm -t, so maybe this can rule out the hd.

ya, i've messed with the vsync settings(all the settings available) in the nvidia control panel. doesn't seem to have any effect on the stuttering.

I tried vlc and had the same stuttering. i couldn't use mplayer since all my dvds have menus.

on xine, i tried the de-interlace and i can't tell...but it may help just a fraction.

what else can i check?

i am not at home right now, but i am 99% there is no bottleneck.
Oh, well if you're 99% sure, then there's no need to try any of our suggestions...

We shouldn't have bothered.

I'm sorry, but I don't know how to interpret "real fast." glxgears reports frame rates in the 2600/sec range for my nVidia 6600 with a Sony KDL-40V3000 television using DVI->HDMI. Is that "real fast?"

nVidia-settings reports sync to vblank as enabled for textures, but not the "blitter." Should they both be enabled? What about sync to vblank in the OpenGL settings? Here mine is disabled.

Any clues about why there are so many "sync to vblank" settings?

I was referring to the fps as being "real fast" and 2600fps is fast. If you set the vblank check box in "open gl settings" in nvidia-settings you will see something more like 60fps. It matches its vertical blanking with the monitor.

Oh, well if you're 99% sure, then there's no need to try any of our suggestions...

We shouldn't have bothered.

This is while a movie is playing off of the HD to my crt tv. Standard definition:



GentooSys [7045\503] one # iostat 1 5 ; mpstat 1 5; free
Linux 2.6.25-gentoo-r8 (GentooSys) 01/05/09

avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle
9.85 0.00 17.38 0.73 0.00 72.04

Device: tps Blk_read/s Blk_wrtn/s Blk_read Blk_wrtn
sda 2.00 269.31 0.00 523233 0
sda1 1.99 269.22 0.00 523049 0
sdb 0.26 10.93 0.00 21242 0
sdb1 0.25 10.84 0.00 21058 0
sdc 6.59 139.03 61.96 270113 120370
sdc1 0.01 0.76 0.00 1480 0
sdc2 0.02 0.48 0.01 932 10
sdc3 6.44 133.28 61.95 258954 120360
sdc4 0.11 4.42 0.00 8595 0
sdd 0.02 0.83 0.00 1616 0

avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle
18.78 0.00 16.43 0.94 0.00 63.85

Device: tps Blk_read/s Blk_wrtn/s Blk_read Blk_wrtn
sda 28.00 7168.00 0.00 7168 0
sda1 28.00 7168.00 0.00 7168 0
sdb 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdb1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdc 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdc1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdc2 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdc3 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdc4 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdd 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0

avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle
25.70 0.00 12.15 0.00 0.00 62.15

Device: tps Blk_read/s Blk_wrtn/s Blk_read Blk_wrtn
sda 23.00 5888.00 0.00 5888 0
sda1 23.00 5888.00 0.00 5888 0
sdb 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdb1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdc 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdc1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdc2 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdc3 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdc4 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdd 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0

avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle
22.69 0.00 14.35 0.46 0.00 62.50

Device: tps Blk_read/s Blk_wrtn/s Blk_read Blk_wrtn
sda 29.00 7168.00 0.00 7168 0
sda1 29.00 7168.00 0.00 7168 0
sdb 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdb1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdc 2.00 0.00 16.00 0 16
sdc1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdc2 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdc3 2.00 0.00 16.00 0 16
sdc4 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdd 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0

avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle
23.96 0.00 13.36 0.92 0.00 61.75

Device: tps Blk_read/s Blk_wrtn/s Blk_read Blk_wrtn
sda 30.00 7680.00 0.00 7680 0
sda1 30.00 7680.00 0.00 7680 0
sdb 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdb1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdc 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdc1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdc2 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdc3 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdc4 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0
sdd 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0

Linux 2.6.25-gentoo-r8 (GentooSys) 01/05/09

07:52:30 CPU %user %nice %sys %iowait %irq %soft %steal %idle intr/s
07:52:31 all 26.54 0.00 12.32 0.95 0.00 0.00 0.00 60.19 139.00
07:52:32 all 23.29 0.00 14.61 0.91 0.00 0.46 0.00 60.73 174.00
07:52:33 all 22.33 0.00 13.95 0.47 0.00 0.00 0.00 63.26 151.00
07:52:34 all 23.64 0.00 11.82 0.45 0.00 0.00 0.00 64.09 179.00
07:52:35 all 22.17 0.00 16.29 1.36 0.45 0.45 0.00 59.28 150.00
Average: all 23.57 0.00 13.81 0.83 0.09 0.18 0.00 61.51 158.60


total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 2073680 933968 1139712 0 257836 408364
-/+ buffers/cache: 267768 1805912
Swap: 0 0 0


GentooSys [6920\502] one # hdparm -t /dev/sda1

/dev/sda1:
Timing buffered disk reads: 358 MB in 3.00 seconds = 119.24 MB/sec





Everything looks good to me, unless I am missing something.
If it is agreed that there is no bottleneck, then I need suggestions on where to problem solve to find the root cause of this problem please.

Yes, CPU and disk look fine. But there's still memory, paging, network, and video. Notice at the bottom of your code:
total used free
Mem: 2073680 933968 1139712 0
Apparently it's paging like mad.

Use KSysGuard or dstat to monitor the system. Hopefully we'll see the bottleneck.

Yes, CPU and disk look fine. But there's still memory, paging, network, and video. Notice at the bottom of your code:
total used free
Mem: 2073680 933968 1139712 0
Apparently it's paging like mad.

Paging to what? Ain't no swap!
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 2073680 933968 1139712 0 257836 408364
-/+ buffers/cache: 267768 1805912
Swap: 0 0 0

Gotta be to level 2 cache. Yeah, he has no swap so there is nothing else. It's taking emergency measures.

So far he needs to add memory and turn on swap.

Wait...he has 1139712 free -- labels aren't tabbed right in that post.

Oh for heaven's sake...

Use KSysGuard or dstat to monitor the system. Hopefully we'll see the bottleneck.

Wait...he has 1139712 free -- labels aren't tabbed right in that post.

Correct.


I don't use swap- don't need it. Plenty of real memory free.

Which video card and driver version are you using?