[mythtv-users] VDPAU CreateOutputSurface error

David Watkins watkinshome at gmail.com
Fri Aug 21 14:29:40 UTC 2020


On Thu, 20 Aug 2020 at 21:29, Roland Ernst <rcrernst at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Thu, Aug 20, 2020 at 4:24 PM David Watkins <watkinshome at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, 20 Aug 2020 at 13:26, Stephen Worthington <
>> stephen_agent at jsw.gen.nz> wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, 20 Aug 2020 11:23:39 +0100, you wrote:
>>>
>>> >Dear All,
>>> >
>>> >After a hard disk failure I'm trying to rebuild a frontend/backend on an
>>> >old Zotac Ion motherboard.
>>> >
>>> >It had been running Mythtv V25 and Fedora 16 on 2GB RAM with no problem,
>>> >making multiple HD recordings from DVB-T while playing HD at the same
>>> time.
>>> >
>>> >I installed lubuntu 20.04 over the weekend and Mythtv 31 from the repo
>>> >which instantly revealed that 2GB RAM no longer cut the mustard.  (100%
>>> of
>>> >CPU dedicated to kswapd)
>>> >
>>> >I scrounged 2x2GB of RAM and with 4GB I no longer see any swapping with
>>> >reasonable CPU and Memory loadings shown by 'top' .
>>> >
>>> >In fact after a couple of hours things were looking good.  I  had
>>> >recording and nice smooth HD video playback -  albeit without sound
>>> >because I hadn't configured that yet.
>>> >
>>> >I ran the frontend setup wizard, got sound working and both video test
>>> >samples (SD and HD) played fine with sound and picture.
>>> >
>>> >However, after exiting the setup wizard my recordings don't play
>>> anymore.
>>> >They play with sound but a black screen.
>>> >
>>> >Interestingly, cancelling the playback and immediately starting it again
>>> >sometimes produced the video, which then played perfectly with the
>>> sound.
>>> >(CPU at about 70%)
>>> >
>>> >Playback log from a failed startup is attached.  Lines of interest
>>> appear
>>> >to be:
>>> >
>>> >*...*
>>> >
>>> >*E CoreContext decoders/mythvdpauhelper.cpp:381 (CreateOutputSurface)
>>> >VDPAUHelp: Error at decoders/mythvdpauhelper.cpp:381 (#25, A catch-all
>>> >error, used when no other error code applies.)*
>>> >.....
>>> >
>>> >*E CoreContext opengl/mythvdpauinterop.cpp:196 (InitVDPAU) VDPAUInterop:
>>> >Failed to register VdpOutputSurface. Will retry.*
>>> >
>>> >*E CoreContext decoders/mythvdpauhelper.cpp:474 (MixerRender) VDPAUHelp:
>>> >Error at decoders/mythvdpauhelper.cpp:474 (#3, An invalid handle value
>>> was
>>> >provided.)*
>>> >...
>>> >
>>> >zotac ion with 4GB Ram
>>> >LUbuntu 20.04
>>> >MythTV v31 from repo
>>> >nVidia driver 340.108
>>> >Playback profile vdpau with both deinterlacers at basic.
>>> >
>>> >I've since tried LUBUNTU 18.04 with Mythtv v29 (compiled by me) which
>>> >suffers from the same problem in the log although this time the video
>>> >either plays with sound and video or it just immediately bounces back to
>>> >the frontend.  (Note the success:fail ratio is about 1:40)
>>> >
>>> >I've attached the playback log and if anyone can see anything useful in
>>> >there I'd be grateful.
>>> >
>>> >Also, if anyone is successfully running a frontend on similar hardware
>>> >please can you tell me your configuration  (OS version, Myth version,
>>> >nVidia driver, setup tweaks etc...)
>>> >
>>> >I realise I can't assume 10 year old hardware will work but this doesn't
>>> >quite feel like a hardware issue - and I don't want to throw the board
>>> away
>>> >unless I have to.  It's tantalising that occasionally it does work!
>>> >
>>> >I'm running out of ideas though.  I'm thinking to try:
>>> > - a different distro
>>> > - a 32 bit OS (I think I was running 32-bits before)
>>> > - a different nVidia driver version.
>>> >
>>> >I do have a suspicion that the sound setup might be causing the problem.
>>> >As I said, while I was setting up my tuner cards and channels I hadn't
>>> >configured a sound device, and I didn't notice any playback issues then.
>>> >It was only when I got audio playback working that the problems appeared
>>> >(The ion sound driver is nVidia too). This could all be coincidence of
>>> >course and I don't know how to investigate further anyway.
>>> >
>>> >Any help very welcome
>>> >
>>> >Regards,
>>> >
>>> >D
>>>
>>> MythTV v31 has new rendering code, so you may need to adjust your
>>> settings for that to work well.  Take a look at the release notes.
>>>
>>> I am still on v30, so I am not familiar with what the log output for
>>> playing a v31 recording looks like.  But the thing that struck me in
>>> your log was that it did not seem to be using VDPAU to render the
>>> recordings.  Instead it seems to be using opengl-hw.  Maybe it would
>>> work better if VDPAU was doing the rendering also, so it was offloaded
>>> onto the GPU.
>>>
>>
>> Thanks for the reply Stephen,
>>
>> I did read the v31 release notes and my interpretation was that opengl is
>> now always involved, even when using VDPAU?
>>
>> To be honest I think I tried all the playback settings and I can't
>> remember which one that log is from but I'm pretty sure that whenever VDPAU
>> was available as an option that's what I selected.  The problem is that
>> whenever VDPAU is selected I only seem to have a 1/40 chance of the
>> playback starting, whatever settings I use.  If the video does start then I
>> can see the settings make a difference, but they don't seem to affect the
>> chances of it starting in the first place.
>>
>> The changes in v31 were what made me try v29, but I had the same issue
>> with that one.  I'm tending to think it's a lubuntu issue or maybe an
>> nVidia one.
>>
>>
>>
> I have a frontend v29 running on ATOM 330 and Nvidia ION 1st gen:
> Works perfect on h.264 HD recordings ( 720p and 1080i with mpeg h264
> transport stream )
>
> Below, some notes I did during installation:
>
> General Note:
> For ATOM CPUs, it is important that the 2 memory sticks run in "Dual
> Channel Mode":
> Check boot messages for correct size and mode of the RAM modules
>
> Some notes I did during installation of Ubuntu 18.04 LXDE installation:
> See https://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/Minimalinstallation/
>
> On tasksel, select minimal lubuntu
>
> Install nvidia drivers 340
> From Menu, run "Preferences" -> "Additional Drivers"
> Select "Additional Drivers" from Lubuntu Menu and select nvidia 340
> (it takes some time to react and finish)
>
> reboot
> - install nvidia-settings vdpauinfo
>
> Setup mythbuntu ppa:
> $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mythbuntu/0.29
> $ sudo apt-get update
> $ sudo apt-get install mythtv-frontend
>
>
> MythTV Frontend Configuration:
> Tab Playback settings:
>   Select 'vdpau normal' as profile
>   Within that profile:
>      Enable 4 CPUs (Max CPUs) for ATOM 330: 2 + 2 HT Cores
> Tab General Playback:
>   Deselect Big Audio Buffer, otherwise playback is very jittery
>
>
> Check the frontend logs after start of a playback and follow the
> instructions
> to raise the audio buffer.
> See log message:
> ALSA: Try to manually increase audio buffer with: echo 192 | sudo tee
> /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0/prealloc
>
>

Thanks,

That gives me some hope, and some help.

I'll see how I get on.

D
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