[mythtv-users] Intel i965 video buffers errors on frontend

[faginbagin]

On 7/6/2017 7:35 AM, evade at internode.on.net wrote:
> Hello,
> I'm having difficult problems with playback in the frontend version 
> 0.28.1-3 and would love some help please!
> 
> 
> I've been building a new media PC which will mainly be used for MythTV.  
> I deliberately chose to use intel graphics, to avoid the trouble of 
> binary proprietary drivers, for lower power consumption and as no 
> additional noisy cooling fans are required.
> 
> I first tried using VDPAU but the frontend refuses to work with it, 
> erroring out each time with an unhelpful A/V sync error.  (Packages 
> installed include libva-vdpau-driver-0.7.4-14, libvdpau-va-gl-0.4.2-2 & 
> libvdpau-1.11-3 )
> 
> So I switched to VAAPI, despite it lacking deinterlacing.  I'm still 
> having playback problems with stuttering, especially with live TV.  My 
> PC also has Intel HD audio (Realtek ALC892).
> 
> Although playback works, when I enable debug logging I see multiple 
> occurrences of both:
> 
> <date> <time> I  Player(0): Waiting for video buffers...
> 
> and:
> 
> <date> <time> I  Player(0): Video is 3.54437 frames ahead of audio,
>                          doubling video frame interval to slow down.
> 
> I've searched the internet, including archives of this mailing list, and 
> these problems have previously been called driver issues.  Kodi doesn't 
> seem to have any issues though.  I'm running Fedora 25 with a recent 
> kernel which should contain the latest stable Intel drivers anyway.  I'm 
> not sure what I can do?  Do you have any ideas, please?
> 
> Thanks in advance!
> evade.
> 
> ---------------------------
> Relevant packages:
> 
> mythtv-frontend-0.28.1-3.fc25.x86_64 (and local backend of the same 
> revision)
> Kernel 4.11.6-201fc25.x86_64
>      (Using VAAPI: Driver : Intel i965 driver for Intel(R) Skylake - 1.7.3)
> libva-intel-driver-1.7.3-2.fc25x86_64
> xorg-x11-drv-intel-2.99.917-26.20160929.fc25.x86_64
> ---------------------------
> Relevant devices:
> 
> Intel H170M chipset, Intel i5-6500 CPU with HD Graphics 530
> 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 530 
> (rev 06) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
>      Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd Device d000
>      Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 126
>      Memory at ee000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
>      Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
> <...>
>      Kernel driver in use: i915
>      Kernel modules: i915
> 
> Intel "HD Audio" (Realtek ALC892)
> 00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H HD Audio (rev 31)
>      Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd Device a182
>      Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 32, IRQ 128
> <...>
>      Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
>      Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel
> 

I suggest trying an OpenGL playback profile. That's what I'm using on 
mythtv 0.27 with an i3-3220. My CPU with HD graphics 2500 should be far 
less capable than your i5-6500 with HD graphics 530. FWIW, I had to 
create a custom playback profile that I called "OpenGL Slimmer" because 
I needed to change the primary deinterlacer from Linear Blend (2X, HW) 
to Kernel and the fallback from Linear Blend (HW) to One field. Looks 
fine on a 32 inch TV in the bedroom. I would imagine your system can use 
a better deinterlacer.

HTH,
Helen