MPV is jacked up on i7-3770 & xorg. I didn’t even realize until just now testing, always use VLC and haven’t had an issue with 18.04 LTS. It looks the same as @shemgp seems to be taking pieces off my desktop and shuffling in chunks.
Please log a bug for that using this command:
ubuntu-bug mpv
And attach screenshots/photos to it.
Hello
x11
Default Video Player runs smoothly, VlC runs smoothly
Processor is Intel Core i3-3120m ivybridge-mobile , lenovo e530,
vainfo:
vainfo
libva info: VA-API version 1.1.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/i965_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_0
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA-API version: 1.1 (libva 2.0.0)
vainfo: Driver version: Intel i965 driver for Intel® Ivybridge Mobile - 2.0.0
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
VAProfileMPEG2Simple : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileMPEG2Simple : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileMPEG2Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileMPEG2Main : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264StereoHigh : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVC1Simple : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVC1Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVC1Advanced : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileNone : VAEntrypointVideoProc
VAProfileJPEGBaseline : VAEntrypointVLD
xorg and totem issue
brent@XPS-13-9360:~$ vainfo
libva info: VA-API version 1.1.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/i965_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_0
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA-API version: 1.1 (libva 2.1.0)
vainfo: Driver version: Intel i965 driver for Intel® Kaby Lake - 2.0.0
- X11, totem, CPU Intel i7 4600M, HD4600 graphics card
- Totem takes up a lot of CPU resources. However mpv works well.
- And in many apps the GPU acceleration is diabled.
output of vainfo:
libva info: VA-API version 1.1.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/i965_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_0
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA-API version: 1.1 (libva 2.1.0)
vainfo: Driver version: Intel i965 driver for Intel(R) Haswell Mobile - 2.0.0
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
VAProfileMPEG2Simple : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileMPEG2Simple : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileMPEG2Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileMPEG2Main : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264MultiviewHigh : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264MultiviewHigh : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264StereoHigh : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264StereoHigh : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileVC1Simple : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVC1Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVC1Advanced : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileNone : VAEntrypointVideoProc
VAProfileJPEGBaseline : VAEntrypointVLD
We only support hardware accelerated video decoding in totem and mpv right now. And we are aware that totem is still less efficient than mpv. However, I would like to check that you’re not encountering a new totem bug we’re not already aware of. So please run this command to log a new bug:
ubuntu-bug totem
and include details of how much “a lot of CPU resources” is, as well as specific types of video files you are trying to play.
Intel Atom N255 @ 1.5GHz
Intel Corporation Atom Processor D4xx/D5xx/N4xx/N5xx Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02) using i915 driver.
$ vainfo
libva info: VA-API version 1.1.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/i915_drv_video.so
libva info: va_openDriver() returns -1
vaInitialize failed with error code -1 (unknown libva error),exit
Is there a typo in the model name there? I don’t think N255 exists.
Regardless, I would expect vainfo to fail on N-series (Pineview) Atom chips. They are a little bit too old (2010) to include Intel Quick Sync Video hardware.
Hi,
I thought it said 255, maybe it was 250, I don’t have the machine to hand at the moment.
They are a little bit too old…
That’s a shame, but I did wonder. The kicker is that it has a BCM970015 CrystalHD card but this is no longer supported in Ubuntu either. For a while I compiled the kernel module but the changes required now exceed my limited kernel knowledge so it looks like this machine is dead on two counts now 
Not completely dead.
I keep an Intel Atom N455 around for testing (and fixing) low-end performance. Although I haven’t used it in a while (because we have too many performance issues even on faster machines right now), I do expect to get back to it eventually.
That said, we can’t fix the hardware, and that hardware seemingly doesn’t support hardware-accelerated video decoding.
Oops, my mistake 
The PC’s model is D255 and it’s a dual core Atom N550! But probably still too old.
No problem. I got the gist that you were using a Pineview Atom. Same as mine.
Did anyone else find video playback smoothness regressed these past few months in 18.04? Particularly Totem in Xorg sessions?
I can’t tell for sure since I upgraded both software and hardware.
On my current (aged, Haswell lenovo ideapad) can’t say I have, at least in area’s that you focus on.
(- if I switch to nvidia drivers & use cuda/nvdec then lately I see judder in vids that vdpau or vaapi on intel don’t expose.
As far as totem have given it some reasonably challenging vids, seems ok.
Nevermind. I think I figured out the problem specific to Totem in Xorg sessions:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=795195
But it only becomes a visible on-screen problem if your CPU requirement exceeds about 20% for a video.
Don’t really see that here though was very hard pressed to find any vid that pushes totem with vaapi over 20%
(- as I’ve only a Haswell limited to h.264/AVC
Actually had to take a 250Mbps 2160p jellyfish vid & mux in a flac track to go over 20%, i.e to 25-27% or so.
None of my video applications work. I’m not much with the technical stuff but I think I’m running Xorg, Totem on an Intel i5-3320M @ 2.60GHz CPU. I had to install vainfo before it would run an then I got the following:
neil@neil-ThinkPad-T420:~$ vainfo
libva info: VA-API version 1.1.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/nvidia_drv_video.so
libva info: va_openDriver() returns -1
vaInitialize failed with error code -1 (unknown libva error),exit
Hope that helps.
Thanks. That is expected. We don’t officially support accelerated video playback on nvidia or radeon (yet). Only Intel.
To work around this shortcoming just do:
sudo apt remove mesa-va-drivers
So you will then have working software playback instead.