Gray screen on playback of VC-1 video codec

[ardirtbiker]

Hi gang,
    I 'obtained' a media file (mkv) that has video codec of 'Microsoft VC1'.   The audio plays but the video screen is solid gray.   I can play this file on Kubuntu 11.10 just fine.  I am running LMCE 1004, latest build.

On the MD, the Hardware Acceleration is set to 'auto' ... tried at 'vdpau' also, but didnt change anything.

Here is a snippet from the Xine log file on the MD:

Code:

========== NEW LOG SECTION ==========
1 10/16/11 09:53:38 40 (spawning-device) Starting... 1
1 10/16/11 09:53:38 40 (spawning-device) Found ./Xine_Player
05 10/16/11 9:53:38.955 Xine_Player::GetConfig default zoom 100 <0xb7785ab0>
05 10/16/11 9:53:38.958 Warning: libxine.so.1 is not loaded yet (?) <0xb7785ab0>
05 10/16/11 9:53:38.958 Custom xine functions status:  xine_seek=(nil), xine_start_trick_play=(nil), xine_stop_trick_play=(nil). Trickplay and seeking support: absent <0xb7785ab0>
05 10/16/11 9:53:39.528 Count of screens at this display: 1 <0xb7785ab0>
05 10/16/11 9:53:39.528 XMapWindow returned: 1 <0xb7785ab0>
05 10/16/11 10:01:31.764 Xine_Player::CMD_Play_Media() called for id 1003 filename: /home/public/data/videos/WDC_WD15EARS-00Z5B1 (sdc1) on [34]/bluray/Dune (Original).mkv () <0xb6d03b70>
05 10/16/11 10:01:31.765 Xine_Player::CMD_Play_Media() stopping PSS <0xb6d03b70>
05 10/16/11 10:01:31.765 Xine_Stream_Factory::GetStream streamID is 0 <0xb6d03b70>
05 10/16/11 10:01:32.287 Created new stream with ID=1003 deint 0  100 0 <0xb6d03b70>
05 10/16/11 10:01:32.287 Xine_Player::CMD_Play_Media() set stream 1003 as last rendering to screen. <0xb6d03b70>
05 10/16/11 10:01:32.287 Xine_Player::CMD_Play_Media() called for id 1003 filename: /home/public/data/videos/WDC_WD15EARS-00Z5B1 (sdc1) on [34]/bluray/Dune (Original).mkv () with corresponding stream 0x8b89410. <0xb6d03b70>
05 10/16/11 10:01:32.294 Opening media without chapters/title position: 'file:///home/public/data/videos/WDC_WD15EARS-00Z5B1 (sdc1) on [34]/bluray/Dune (Original).mkv'  <0xb6d03b70>
05 10/16/11 10:01:32.789 Xine_Stream::changePlaybackSpeed no running seekers found <0xb6d03b70>
05 10/16/11 10:01:32.789 Xine engine set new zoom level to X:100, Y:100 <0xb6d03b70>
05 10/16/11 10:01:32.797 Read media A/V information: [DTS 5.1]/[VC1/WMV9 (vdpau), 1918x1080] => [dts 5]/[959:540] <0xb1346b70>
05 10/16/11 10:01:32.797 Xine_Player::EVENT_Playback_Started(streamID=1003) <= AV info <0xb1346b70>
05 10/16/11 10:01:32.797 Read media A/V information: [DTS 5.1]/[VC1/WMV9 (vdpau), 1918x1080] => [dts 5]/[959:540] <0xb1346b70>
05 10/16/11 10:01:32.797 Xine_Player::EVENT_Playback_Started(streamID=1003) <= AV info <0xb1346b70>
05 10/16/11 10:01:32.798 Read media A/V information: [DTS 5.1]/[VC1/WMV9 (vdpau), 1918x1080] => [dts 5]/[959:540] <0xb1346b70>
05 10/16/11 10:01:32.798 Xine_Player::EVENT_Playback_Started(streamID=1003) <= AV info <0xb1346b70>
05 10/16/11 10:01:32.798 Read media A/V information: [DTS 5.1]/[VC1/WMV9 (vdpau), 1918x1080] => [dts 5]/[959:540] <0xb1346b70>
05 10/16/11 10:01:32.798 Xine_Player::EVENT_Playback_Started(streamID=1003) <= AV info <0xb1346b70>
05 10/16/11 10:01:33.008 Read media A/V information: [DTS 5.1]/[VC1/WMV9 (vdpau), 1918x1080] => [dts 5]/[959:540] <0xb6d03b70>
05 10/16/11 10:01:33.008 Xine_Player::EVENT_Playback_Started(streamID=1003) <0xb6d03b70>
05 10/16/11 10:01:33.008 Xine_Player::CMD_Play_Media() ended for filename: /home/public/data/videos/WDC_WD15EARS-00Z5B1 (sdc1) on [34]/bluray/Dune (Original).mkv with stream 0x8b89410. <0xb6d03b70>
05 10/16/11 10:01:33.694 [ID: 1003]  CHAPTER:0 POS:667 TITLE:0 SUBTITLE:-1 AUDIO:-1

The video will play without failing... with only the gray screen.  

any suggestions?

Thanks,
Dennis (the menace)

[wombiroller]

Same problem started appearing on 0810 final for me actually... Are we missing some codecs?

[ardirtbiker]

as far as I can tell.. all codec packages are installed.   MKV files can play fine as long as they are MPEG video.   

[wombiroller]

as far as I can tell.. all codec packages are installed.   MKV files can play fine as long as they are MPEG video.    

Did you get anywhere on this? Seems to be happening more often for me... Not sure where to look...

[ardirtbiker]

I am stumped as well.  it has to do with xine, but Im not sure about where to determine and how to fix (even if Im smart enough to fix).

Dennis

[DragonK]

Same problem started appearing on 0810 final for me actually... Are we missing some codecs?

Same problem here too.... 

[tschak909]

we need someone to look into libxine and its codec stack. I am far too swamped at the moment to be able to look at it.

[ardirtbiker]

Thom,
   Does LMCE use a modified libxine and codec stack?   or can one compile a newer libxine?

That C and C++ stuff is just a tad bit hard for me to comprehend..    this stuff isnt anything like the 'hello world' programs they always use for an example!!!!!


Dennis

[tschak909]

We use the standard libxine that is provided by ubuntu. And provided that the API calls haven't changed, a newer version can be compiled and used.

-Thom

[ardirtbiker]

sweet.. I'll give it a shot with the latest available

[ardirtbiker]

this is going to take some effort... i recompiled a newer ffmpeg, then recompiled the 1.1.19 xine-lib... however, the system always reverts to the existing libxine.so.2.0.0 and libxine.so.1.27.0... is there something i need to do to force LMCE to use the newer libxine.so.1.29.0?   


I think the system is using the libxine.so.2 linked to libxine.so.2.0.0, but if i try to link libxine.so or libxine.so.1 to libxine.so.1.29.0, nothing changes.. if i link libxine.so.2 to libxine.so.1.29,0, the system resets libxine.so.2 to libxine.so.2.0.0...


Dennis

[phenigma]

This has been done before:

A newer (although not the newest) libxine1.2 is here:

http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php/topic,11497.0/topicseen.html

You can use the xineplayer that is included there as well but it is older source and there have been some additional bug fixes in 0810 Final.
If you're really keen you can install the newer libxine1.2 on an 0810 build system and build the xineplayer against the newer libxine1.2 to create a more recent xineplayer.

I will be building a newer one as soon as I have time and now that 0810 is Final.

J.

[ardirtbiker]

phenigma,
     according to the linked document, 1004 is supposed to have the libxine1.2 baked in.   Im running 1004, and all .mkv files play... with the exception of those with the VC1 video format.. the screen is gray...   The link appears to mostly apply to 0810.

is there something Im missing that you're saying?   

Dennis

[phenigma]

I apologize.  There *was* a 1004 version there, it's been removed.  Here is the 1004 libxine2 that I built at that time,  it is a little newer than the libxine2 that lmce1004 uses but not extremely recent.

lmce1004 does NOT use the ubuntu stock libxine 1.1.XX.  lmce1004 uses libxine2 (libxine 1.2hg) from early February 2011 from the yavdr project.   lmce will only use libxine 1.1.19 if you setup a builder and recompile pluto-xine-player against it.

Looks like you are you using vdpau?  If so then the nvidia driver/video card is doing the vc-1 decode not libxine...  Have you tried newer nvidia drivers?  Ubuntu 11.10 will be using newer nvidia drivers.

J.

libxine2: http://www.4shared.com/file/nQ6GiZKK/1004libxine2tar.html
Latest nvidia drivers: http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/285.05.09/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-285.05.09.run

[ardirtbiker]

thanks for the info.

Yes, I have installed the 285.05.09 Nvidia driver... it has cleared up alot of 'noise' on video.

Yes, I have vdpau set for Hardware Acceleration.

I will try the libxine2 you have posted and see if it helps with the VC-1 video codec in the mkv files.


Dennis




I was thinking about trying to install lmce on 11.04 or 11.10... just to see what would happen... heck I got it partly working on Gentoo before.