Cant play videos with mplayer/mplayer2

[linuxyogi]

tux@mypc:~$ df
Filesystem     1K-blocks     Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda4       89514184 12503560  72463552  15% /
udev             1016700        4   1016696   1% /dev
tmpfs             410200      804    409396   1% /run
none                5120        0      5120   0% /run/lock
none             1025496       84   1025412   1% /run/shm
/dev/sda2       61337596 30270280  31067316  50% /media/E6B8B6F8B8B6C5F9

root@PartedMagic:~# e2fsck -f /dev/sda4
e2fsck 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
/dev/sda4: 221081/5685248 files (0.3% non-contiguous), 3482530/22735360 blocks

Then tried playing again but same thing.

[sudodus]

The file system looks good, it did not cause the problem. We still hope it is a software error. So boot again from an external drive, but not from the parted magic rescue drive, but from the Ubuntu install drive (ideally from a version 12.04.2 drive). Run a live session and install the nvidia driver into the live session (using jockey-gtk).

I don't remember if it is necessary to restart the graphics (the x-session) to get the new driver active, but in that case, start a text screen with ctrl + alt + F1 and from there run

sudo service lightdm stop

sudo service lightdm start

You will probably find the graphic screen with ctrl + alt + F7

Try to run mplayer/mplayer2 with vdpau in this live session. If it works, you can be sure there is a software error in your installed system.

[linuxyogi]

@sudodus

I have a xubuntu 12.04 cd with me so it booted in live mode & started jockey-gtk but strangely it didn't detect my card.

[sudodus]

I'll try with my old install CD (not sub-version .2). So I will be off-line for a while.

[linuxyogi]

I'll try with my old install CD (not sub-version .2). So I will be off-line for a while.

Okay.

[linuxyogi]

I just booted in Win7, played a game, played the same HD videos in WMP. CPU usage ranged from 5-22% so it means it is utilizing pure video hd (the equivalent of vdpau).

[andrew.46]

Try reinstalling your nvidia driver and vdpau. As a sidenote: You might actually find that if you have a reasonably fast cpu hardware acceleration from the GPU is not such a big deal, although gaming tends to be a deal breaker for this. I have quite a fast processor:

andrew@skamandros~$ uname -p
AMD FX(tm)-8350 Eight-Core Processor

and for video clips etc vdpau does not seem to be critical.

[mc4man]

Maybe ck. your vdpau status -

sudo apt-get install vdpauinfo
vdpauinfo

[andrew.46]

This alias works for me now with an up-to-date Ubuntu 12.04.2 running lubuntu-desktop

alias mplayervdpau='mplayer -vo vdpau -vc ffh264vdpau -lavdopts skiploopfilter=nonref -use-filename-title -fs'

Which version of Ubuntu and the proprietary nvidia driver are you running?

You might be interested in adding this to ~/.mplayer/config rather than running a bash alias? My own setting is reasonably conservative:

# If I use vdpau I prefer these video codecs:
#--------------
[vo.vdpau]
vc=ffmpeg12vdpau,ffwmv3vdpau,ffvc1vdpau,ffh264vdpau,ffodivxvdpau,

but you could add your own settings in as well. I do it this way as I do not necessarily want to run vdpau by default...

[linuxyogi]

I reinstalled Xubuntu. Vdpau is working now. Thanks to both.