Re: Pixelation in Totem and other Video problems
Craig Hagerman wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I use a Debian AMD64 Unstable/Sid machine as a home file / web server
> and media center. I did an apt-get upgrade yesterday and right
> afterwards noticed that a video I watched in Totem was pixelated. I
> thought perhaps it was just that one file, but after some checking
> today I have found that all videos I view through totem are pixelated.
> I am not sure how to begin troubleshooting this issue. Do you think
> this is a problem with a new version of Totem, or xorg or some other
> system? or a problem with codecs? Video looked fine before the
> upgrade.
>
> While on the topic of video software.... I have had problems with
> mplayer and vlc for ages now and just wondering if anyone else has
> these kinds of problems. With mplayer - I right click on a video file,
> chose "open with mplayer" and the program starts up with a smallish
> window. I want to view it full screen; however if I make it full
> screen it immediately crashes with error messages. For this reason i
> have never been able to make use of mplayer. Anyone else seen this?
>
> About vlc - I right click on a video file, chose to open with vlc ....
> and sometimes the program DOES start up. Most of the time it does not.
> Same story when chosing vlc from the application menu. When I try to
> start from the command line as a normal user it tells me just that
> there was a segmentation fault. When I start as root it fires up with
> no problems.
>
> Both VLC and mplayer are the vanilla apt-get versions. I hope I am not
> the only one with these problems. Does everyone have to compile a
> custom version for themselves?
I can't speak for the other players, but MPlayer does not exist in
Debian. If you're apt-getting mplayer, then the package is coming from
an unofficial source and as such is supported by neither Debian nor
MPlayer developers.
Still, if you're having video output issues, the first thing to try is a
different video output driver. If you're using the GUI, right click
somewhere, choose "Preferences", go to the "Video" tab and try some of
the other drivers. If you're not using the GUI, use 'mplayer -vo
something', where "something" is one of the available drivers.
To read about which driver is what, type these two lines into a terminal:
man mplayer
/VIDEO OUTPUT DRIVERS
-Corey
Reply to: