[mythtv-users] mplayer doesn't work when started by mythfrontend

Andrew Junev a-j at a-j.ru
Mon Dec 7 21:34:57 UTC 2009


Hello Fedor,

Tuesday, December 8, 2009, 12:02:17 AM, you wrote:

> On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 12:58 PM, Andrew Junev <a-j at a-j.ru> wrote:
>> Hello Nick,
>>
>> Monday, December 7, 2009, 10:53:04 PM, you wrote:
>>
>>> On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 8:43 AM, Andrew Junev <a-j at a-j.ru> wrote:
>>>> Hello Fedor,
>>>>
>>>> Monday, December 7, 2009, 7:19:55 PM, you wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I've heard about mplayer getting confused and trying to use wrong
>>>>> codec (i.e. applying a codec from -vc even when it should use its own
>>>>> choice of codec). The following script was created for early versions
>>>>> of VDPAU, it shows how to detect codec outside of mplayer and
>>>>> customize the command line. You may be able to hack it to change -vc
>>>>> in a way which makes your setup work.
>>>>
>>>>> #!/bin/bash
>>>>
>>>>> <skipped>
>>>>
>>>> I think I saw this script already.
>>>>
>>>> As I understand, mplayer writes to the terminal about its codecs in
>>>> use when playing a file. In my case it selects the same codecs when
>>>> starting from both, plain terminal window and from mythfrontend.
>>>> So in here there is no difference, at least according to the log.
>>>>
>>>> Perhaps I'll try to run mplayer from mythfrontend without forcing it
>>>> to use VDPAU, maybe there will be some difference. But even if there
>>>> will - it doesn't solve my problem, as I do want to use VDPAU...
>>
>>> But not for that file perhaps (its an avi, which can contain h.264,
>>> but is more likely to be xvid or divx)
>>
>>
>> Ummm, I tried it with a regular xvid file, using a regular '-vo xv'
>> (meaning, without VDPAU). The result is absolutely the same - still
>> image when started from mythfrontend, and a normal playback when
>> started from a terminal window.
>>
>> Here's the corresponding part of the mythfrontend log:
>>
>> MPlayer SVN-r29800-4.4.2 (C) 2000-2009 MPlayer Team
>>
>> Playing /video.archive/AMovie.avi.
>> AVI file format detected.
>> [aviheader] Video stream found, -vid 0
>> [aviheader] Audio stream found, -aid 1
>> VIDEO:  [XVID]  640x352  12bpp  25.000 fps  1844.0 kbps (225.1 kbyte/s)
>> Clip info:
>>  Software: VirtualDubMod 1.5.10.2 (build 2540/release)
>> ==========================================================================
>> Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
>> Selected video codec: [ffodivx] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg MPEG-4)
>> ==========================================================================
>> ==========================================================================
>> Opening audio decoder: [liba52] AC3 decoding with liba52
>> No accelerated IMDCT transform found
>> AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, floatle, 384.0 kbit/12.50% (ratio: 48000->384000)
>> Selected audio codec: [a52] afm: liba52 (AC3-liba52)
>> ==========================================================================
>> AO: [pulse] 48000Hz 2ch floatle (4 bytes per sample)
>> Starting playback...
>> [mpeg4 @ 0x87475c0]Invalid and inefficient vfw-avi packed B frames detected
>> Movie-Aspect is 1.82:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
>> VO: [xv] 640x352 => 640x352 Planar YV12  [fs] [zoom]
>>
>>
>>
>> So it doesn't seem to be caused by VDPAU, right?
>> What else it can be?!
>>

> When you run mplayer by itself, is mythfrontend also running? Log into
> the machine, set  display to the primary display, and fire mplayer
> "over" the frontend. May be you don't have enough memory for both.
> Also try to run mplayer from frontend (or over frontend) with "-ao
> null", i.e. disable sound. If this helps, frontend is hogging the
> audio device.

Ah!
Yes, the problem is there only when mythfrontend is running.
And '-ao null' solves the problem, if I may say so. :)
With '-ao null' I get a good video playback within mythfrontend as
well, of course with no sound.

Probably my mythfrontend occupies pulseaudio, so that all other
processes trying to generate some sound have to wait... I'll check if
I could change some audio settings in my frontend setup (will do it
some other day - it's quite late here already). Or maybe it'll be a
good idea to remove pulseaudio completely (I'm using Fedora 12 now).

Thanks a lot for your help!

-- 
Best regards,
 Andrew



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