NVidia 8400M - full frame?

[bugbear6502]

I have searched the web prior to posting, and I can find several posts (in various *nix versions) about the NVidia
8400M having trouble with full frame flash, which means (notably) Youtube, back in 2010-2012.

In my searching I didn't find a definitive cure (just a load of "try this" style posts).

Symptoms/report:

When watching youtube, if I go "fullscreen" it's very flickery to start with, then locks solid. Power sequence
is only way out.

Video card is essentially "good" (and quite fast); e.g. Stellarium runs at 59 f/s, fullscreen,

Machine;

lshw -c video
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: G86M [GeForce 8400M GS]
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: a1
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
       resources: irq:16 memory:fd000000-fdffffff memory:f4000000-f7ffffff memory:fa000000-fbffffff ioport:ef00(size=128) memory:fea00000-fea1ffff


dpkg -l | grep nvidia

nvidia-319-updates                            319.60-0ubuntu1                            amd64        NVIDIA binary Xorg driver, kernel module and VDPAU library
nvidia-settings-319-updates                   319.60-0ubuntu1                            amd64        Tool for configuring the NVIDIA graphics driver

So - is this (old) problem still unsolved?

BugBear

[bugbear6502]

I note that Geforce have a newer driver available;

http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/69372

331.20 vs my 319.60

BugBear

[SeijiSensei]

First, make sure that the VDPAU software is installed; check to see if there is a file called /usr/lib/vdpau/libvdpau_nvidia.so.1 on your system. It should have been installed along with the NVIDIA driver. This software provides support for hardware acceleration of certain types of video files, particularly ones distributed in the H.264 format.

Next, open a YouTube video in full-screen, right-click on the image and pick Settings. Is the "Enable Hardware Acceleration" box checked? If not, check it, then close and reopen the browser. Try the video again and see if it runs more smoothly.

[bugbear6502]

First, make sure that the VDPAU software is installed; check to see if there is a file called /usr/lib/vdpau/libvdpau_nvidia.so.1 on your system. It should have been installed along with the NVIDIA driver. This software provides support for hardware acceleration of certain types of video files, particularly ones distributed in the H.264 format.

Next, open a YouTube video in full-screen, right-click on the image and pick Settings. Is the "Enable Hardware Acceleration" box checked? If not, check it, then close and reopen the browser. Try the video again and see if it runs more smoothly.

VDPAU:

ll  /usr/lib/vdpau/libvdpau_nvidia.so.1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 55 Nov 14 16:46 /usr/lib/vdpau/libvdpau_nvidia.so.1 -> /etc/alternatives/x86_64-linux-gnu_libvdpau_nvidia.so.1
ll /etc/alternatives/x86_64-linux-gnu_libvdpau_nvidia.so.1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 54 Nov 14 16:46 /etc/alternatives/x86_64-linux-gnu_libvdpau_nvidia.so.1 -> /usr/lib/nvidia-319-updates/vdpau/libvdpau_nvidia.so.1
ll /usr/lib/nvidia-319-updates/vdpau/libvdpau_nvidia.so.1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 25 Oct  2 16:18 /usr/lib/nvidia-319-updates/vdpau/libvdpau_nvidia.so.1 -> libvdpau_nvidia.so.319.60
ll /usr/lib/nvidia-319-updates/vdpau/libvdpau_nvidia.so.319.60
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1813416 Oct  2 16:19 /usr/lib/nvidia-319-updates/vdpau/libvdpau_nvidia.so.319.60

Settings were fine. And, for a 30 second test, full screen TouTube was fine. I'll leave a longer test running.

Thanks for your help so far.

BugBear

[bugbear6502]

Damn. Ran the video again just after posting the above.

Flickered immediately, sound OK, for around 2 seconds
Then blank screen, sound OK.
Then the sound stopped.

Machine then immune to anything I tried except power button.

BugBear

[mc4man]

Maybe there is some other factor(s)??
I've still got an 8400m laptop here, while old it can play youtube vids @ fs, with or without full hw acceleration
( vdpau support in 8400m is remedial at best, though can help a bit with yt vids

As far as hwaccel with flash using Firefox - maybe ck. that you're actually getting both rendering & decoding
Open a yt vid (non fullscreen so it plays), right click in vid window > stats for nerds
It should show ' accelerated video decoding', see screen for example

If not & you wish to see if it helps - in terminal

sudo mkdir -p /etc/adobe

echo "EnableLinuxHWVideoDecode=1" | sudo tee /etc/adobe/mms.cfg

Then start up firefox & see

[bugbear6502]

Maybe there is some other factor(s)??
I've still got an 8400m laptop here, while old it can play youtube vids @ fs, with or without full hw acceleration
( vdpau support in 8400m is remedial at best, though can help a bit with yt vids

As far as hwaccel with flash using Firefox - maybe ck. that you're actually getting both rendering & decoding
Open a yt vid (non fullscreen so it plays), right click in vid window > stats for nerds
It should show ' accelerated video decoding', see screen for example

If not & you wish to see if it helps - in terminal

sudo mkdir -p /etc/adobe

echo "EnableLinuxHWVideoDecode=1" | sudo tee /etc/adobe/mms.cfg

Then start up firefox & see

Thanks - I shall try this when I get home (I'm posting from work, in the UK).

It's good to hear "I've still got an 8400m laptop here, while old it can play youtube vids @ fs, with or without full hw acceleration"

What Linux/Driver versions do you have?

BugBear

[bugbear6502]

Interesting - I tried and failed to take a screenshot with both Gimp and Shutter; in both cases the part of the screenshot that was the video was just a window onto the live, still playing firefox!!

So I'll just have to key it:

10 stage fps, 24 video fps, 63 dropped, 0kbps,
accelerated video rendering, software video decoding,
NaN db, 1 audio factor.

I should point out that I'm using 4 desktops under LXDE/Openbox, which may be relevant.

But the failure is quite variable - now I'm trying to TEST it, I can sometimes (but not always...) run full screen for a coupla' minutes. I suspect amount of interaction may be a factor.

BugBear

[bugbear6502]

I've found a site that REALLY breaks my Flash;

http://www.historic-maps.norfolk.gov.uk/mapexplorer/

Consistent and horrible full screen flashing.

BugBear