VLC Video output

[DeMus]

Hi,
I mostly use VLC as movieplayer and I just tried to play a blu-ray movie using it, but it is as if I am looking at a slide show. I see picture by picture passing, instead of a fluent movie.
As you can see in my specs at the bottom of this post, my computer should be well prepared to play a movie like that.
When I look at the system monitor I see VLC is using one of the CPU cores at 100%. I have tried to select another output in VLC but it only gets worse when I choose anything else than Default. I was hoping I could use the nVidia vdpau system, but I can not select it in VLC.
Is there a way to do so and let the GPU do all the work instead of the CPU? If so, who can tell me how to do this?
I use LinuxMint 9 Isadora, based on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, in a 64-bits version, I have kernel 2.6.32-21, nVidia driver 195.36.24. VLC version is 1.1.2 The Luggage.
If you need more info please ask and I try to give it.

[P4man]

install libvdpau1 and I think VLC also needs vdpau-va-driver but Im not entirely sure.
vdpau support in vlc is a bit hit and miss though, may I suggest trying smplayer? Or xbmc. Either support vdpau pretty well, especially xbmc.

[DeMus]

install libvdpau1 and I think VLC also needs vdpau-va-driver but Im not entirely sure.
vdpau support in vlc is a bit hit and miss though, may I suggest trying smplayer? Or xbmc. Either support vdpau pretty well, especially xbmc.

Thanks P4man. I have installed libvdpau-1 but can not find the vdpau-va-driver.
I just tried XBMC which does play the movie correctly, although when I start it the screen is completely green with stripes. After a while the movie is visible and stays visible. In XBMC I chose vdpau as output so that seems to work.
I must say that I do not like XBMC that much, the interface is so different than other programs, and is so slow. When I want to click a button with my mouse it seems I have to move it several meters before the cursor finally reaches the button.
I will also try smplayer to see if that plays the movie also, including the Dutch subtitles.
Thanks again for your answer.

[P4man]

XBMC is really intended for a TV to be used with a remote. Thats where its absolutely brilliant. I agree as player on the desktop its a bit overkill and the interface not very intuitive with a mouse (use keyboard and it works great though), but since vdpau support is top notch I suggested it so you can see where the problem is.

Anyway, look again for vdpau-va-driver, it should be in synaptic and you do need it for VLC. More info here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1037625

[DeMus]

I tried playing the movie with smplayer but it tells me I don't have the latest mplayer. Well, I added several ppa's for mplayer, nvidia, vdpau and I must have the latest version. Still I get no sound and no subtitles.
In the audio menu there is no choice for any audio stream, for subtitles it is the same. Only video works.
Yes, I know XBMC is for use on TV's. But I only use it on the computer and using the mouse is a pain in the ....
I'll try to learn how to control it by keyboard because it does play the movies other players don't, so I will have to use it.
Thanks again for your answer.

[P4man]

smplayer is a gui over mplayer. I seem to remember in older versions it sometimes had issues identifying the version of mplayer installed, and that does cause problems with subs and audio (I think the popup even says that, doesnt it?)

Can you report the version of mplayer you have?

mplayer -v

IN smplayer also check options > pref > general > mplayer executable.
Does it just say "mplayer" or something else (like an absolute path) ?

Is smplayer working correctly with non bluray rips?

[DeMus]

smplayer is a gui over mplayer. I seem to remember in older versions it sometimes had issues identifying the version of mplayer installed, and that does cause problems with subs and audio (I think the popup even says that, doesnt it?)

Can you report the version of mplayer you have?

mplayer -v

IN smplayer also check options > pref > general > mplayer executable.
Does it just say "mplayer" or something else (like an absolute path) ?

Is smplayer working correctly with non bluray rips?

mplayer -v gives me:

MPlayer SVN-r1.0~rc3+svn20090426-4.4.3 (C) 2000-2009 MPlayer Team
CPU vendor name: GenuineIntel  max cpuid level: 10
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU    Q6600  @ 2.40GHz (Family: 6, Model: 15, Stepping: 11)
extended cpuid-level: 8
extended cache-info: 268468288
Detected cache-line size is 64 bytes
CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNowExt: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1 SSSE3: 1
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.
get_path('codecs.conf') -> '/home/username/.mplayer/codecs.conf'
Reading /home/jan/.mplayer/codecs.conf: Can't open '/home/username/.mplayer/codecs.conf': No such file or directory
Reading /etc/mplayer/codecs.conf: Can't open '/etc/mplayer/codecs.conf': No such file or directory
Using built-in default codecs.conf.

In smplayer the reference to mplayer is: mplayer (without a path)

I just started another movie and although less menus are greyed-out, I still don't hear sound and I still don't get subtitles. I am able to choose something now, it just doesn't work.
I hope you have more ideas because I can use all the help I can get.

[P4man]

Thats definitely not the latest version of mplayer. Mine is from 2010 and is version 1.0rc4-4.4.5

Perhaps try adding this PPA for mplayer:
https://launchpad.net/~rvm/+archive/smplayer

Its not bleeding edge but I think that one ought to work with smplayer. If you want bleeding edge, including support for multiple threads, try this one (havent tested myself);
https://launchpad.net/~ripps818/+archive/coreavc

[DeMus]

Something has changed: I do have subtitles now but still no sound.

mplayer -v
MPlayer UNKNOWN-4.4.3 (C) 2000-2010 MPlayer Team
CPU vendor name: GenuineIntel  max cpuid level: 10
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU    Q6600  @ 2.40GHz (Family: 6, Model: 15, Stepping: 11)
extended cpuid-level: 8
extended cache-info: 268468288
Detected cache-line size is 64 bytes
CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNowExt: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1 SSSE3: 1
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.
get_path('codecs.conf') -> '/home/jan/.mplayer/codecs.conf'
Reading /home/username/.mplayer/codecs.conf: Can't open '/home/username/.mplayer/codecs.conf': No such file or directory
Reading /etc/mplayer/codecs.conf: Can't open '/etc/mplayer/codecs.conf': No such file or directory
Using built-in default codecs.conf.
Usage:   mplayer [options] [url|path/]filename

I get reports about not being able to find codec.conf in 2 folders. Are they necessary and if so what do I need to install to get either one of them?

[P4man]

Looks different but I dont like the UKNOWN and its still 4.4.3
Maybe you can install the mplayer package from maverick?

As for the rest of the output, I have the same, so that seems normal. I think you can make config file to use external codecs, but you dont have to, it will use its own.