Linux, video frequency problem. banding? maybe video card recco thread?
#1
Brick 
I put together one box and was planing on using a i3, but decided to make an intermediary one now with an old P4 i had...

it is all working perfectly, except for a noticeable video refresh problem. It drives me and a few people crazy, but two others swear they can't see it... anyway, it is there :/

It shows a banding going down on the screen on fast scenes. perfectly fine on anything that is not action where the whole screen changes. I find it so distracting that i am only watching netflix via the wii just so i don't have to see it.

I'm outputing via VGA to my plasma TV, which have a VGA in. but I also outputted via DVI-D->HDMI and the same thing happens.

The card I am using is a geForce2 gtx something (will get the exact model and edit this)

I'm thinking of either biting the bullet and getting a new mother board + i3, or scrounging craigslist/ebay/newegg for a $20ish video card that will give me decent video out via VGA or HDMI. I don't care about audio via HDMI as i will be outputing 2.0 (mobo supports 5.1, but too much work, encoders, wires. nah.) audio to dumb amps.

This is the mobo i am using https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5GPLX...ifications

Any suggestions on what i should do to get rid of that? it is the only thing bothering me. sound is ok. i can capture 2 channels to HDD while watch a mp4 just fine. there is nothing bothering me to upgrade now besides this.

oh, and i am using the opensource linux drivers on untainted debian... i have a thing against binary blobs... i read a lot about this and i reached the conclusion that this should only affect 3D... but please do tell me if i'm wrong here.
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#2
What source material are you seeing this on?

Sounds like it could be either tearing or de-interlacing artefacts.

Tearing is where you see what looks like the top portion of the picture is from one frame and the bottom half from another (there can be a number of reasons for this - but "tearing" might be a good keyword to search for?), with a line dividing them. This can be related to v-sync issues or compositing settings in X ISTR - though I'm not an expert.

If you see wobbly edges or fine lines on moving content then that is the hallmarks of de-interlacing not being done properly (the banding happens when scaling is introduced prior to de-interlacing)

My first suggestion for anyone having issues with a set-up is to try running a USB Live stick with OpenElec on it. OpenElec avoids a lot of the issues you can meet when running XBMC within a standard distro.
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#3
Thanks, i will give openelec a try.

Thanks to your keyword suggestion i found this http://www.avsforum.com/t/1065480/ati-ra...o-playback

it does not have any useful info, but has a picture Smile I am not sure it is the same as OP on that thread, because i really only get this when there is a fast change of the entire image on the screen. even if something is moving fast but only on a small region, i get decent fluid video. Also, i am sure i am outputing on the same frequency as the TV mentions i should 60hz. lame. i know.

I am thinking i am not getting all the 2D video accl i need for 720p output. but that thread suggests that buying a top of the line card will not help. damn 3D games >:/

---
crazy idea, i will try to get a scope and attach to the green signal of the video card and see if scenes where everything moves, the frequency drops.... or is this a crazy idea altogether? maybe it simply can't keep up? maybe it is underpowered? ...it is a real 300+W PSU for a ancient system... but P4s and old nvidias are know to be hungry
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#4
(2013-12-08, 01:36)gcb0 Wrote: I put together one box and was planing on using a i3, but decided to make an intermediary one now with an old P4 i had...

it is all working perfectly, except for a noticeable video refresh problem. It drives me and a few people crazy, but two others swear they can't see it... anyway, it is there :/

It shows a banding going down on the screen on fast scenes. perfectly fine on anything that is not action where the whole screen changes. I find it so distracting that i am only watching netflix via the wii just so i don't have to see it.

I'm outputing via VGA to my plasma TV, which have a VGA in. but I also outputted via DVI-D->HDMI and the same thing happens.

The card I am using is a geForce2 gtx something (will get the exact model and edit this)

I'm thinking of either biting the bullet and getting a new mother board + i3, or scrounging craigslist/ebay/newegg for a $20ish video card that will give me decent video out via VGA or HDMI. I don't care about audio via HDMI as i will be outputing 2.0 (mobo supports 5.1, but too much work, encoders, wires. nah.) audio to dumb amps.

This is the mobo i am using https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5GPLX...ifications

Any suggestions on what i should do to get rid of that? it is the only thing bothering me. sound is ok. i can capture 2 channels to HDD while watch a mp4 just fine. there is nothing bothering me to upgrade now besides this.

oh, and i am using the opensource linux drivers on untainted debian... i have a thing against binary blobs... i read a lot about this and i reached the conclusion that this should only affect 3D... but please do tell me if i'm wrong here.
You are very wrong, but I am still unclear what video card you have so hard to advise. Suffice to say if you have an nvidia card capable of vdpau and nvidia binary drivers and use hdmi, a p4 machine will do just fine. So tell us your card?
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#5
(2013-12-08, 04:14)nickr Wrote: if you have an nvidia card capable of vdpau and nvidia binary drivers and use hdmi, a p4 machine will do just fine. So tell us your card?

do i have any chance to have fluid video out if not using the binary drivers?

the label on the card says: 7300GT256MB 128bit GDDR2, ZO73GT-D
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#6
Well for a start that card doesn't support VDPAU, the nvidia video acceleration API.

If you want to use that machine get something like a PCIe Nvidia GT610 card, they make some fanless ones.

And install the binary drivers. You need them to get video acceleration.
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#7
(2013-12-08, 06:19)nickr Wrote: Well for a start that card doesn't support VDPAU, the nvidia video acceleration API.

If you want to use that machine get something like a PCIe Nvidia GT610 card, they make some fanless ones.

And install the binary drivers. You need them to get video acceleration.

thanks will look for one of those...

alternatively, do i have any chance with a non-nvidia card/chipset to keep my system untainted?
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#8
Intel have open source drivers I think, but I have never seen a graphics card that gives as good a result as nvidias do, or where the drivers are as mature.

Do intel even make discrete video cards? I dunno.

Avoid AMD/ATi.

EDIT: to add, there is some vdpau support in the open source (MIT licensed) nouveau driver, but it requires firmware extracted from the binary driver.

http://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/VideoAcceleration/

I know Stallman thinks closed source firmware is OK but binary blob drivers aren't, so you may consider such an arrangement to be "untainted". I did try to discuss this with Stallman once, but it is difficult to have a debate in question time during a public lecture.
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#9
(2013-12-08, 10:54)nickr Wrote: Intel have open source drivers I think, but I have never seen a graphics card that gives as good a result as nvidias do, or where the drivers are as mature.

Do intel even make discrete video cards? I dunno.

Avoid AMD/ATi.

EDIT: to add, there is some vdpau support in the open source (MIT licensed) nouveau driver, but it requires firmware extracted from the binary driver.

http://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/VideoAcceleration/

I know Stallman thinks closed source firmware is OK but binary blob drivers aren't, so you may consider such an arrangement to be "untainted". I did try to discuss this with Stallman once, but it is difficult to have a debate in question time during a public lecture.

I was thinking about using HD4000 integrated GPU from intel. I am using it on my desktop and video seems to not suffer from the same artifacts, with no binary blob drivers... i think i will just move this computer to the TV and make the other one become a dumb terminal...

yeah, hehe, stallman is something else. I mostly like to use all open source because i think this is the way to go. and if someone is working on the open source driver, i can live with some banding while helping them fix that. i know I'd be pissed if people used a lousy commercial alternative instead of helping the projects i contribute to with bug reports Smile

the archwiki claims the xf86-video-ati is garbage for 3d but excellent for 2d... i think i will buy a $20 card just to test and report back

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ATI

maybe this one if it supports XVBA?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...0600&cm_sp=
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#10
If you want to use AMD/ATi then this is the thread you need to read.

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=174854

Don't say I didn't warn you.

AMD may be improving their Open Source driver support, but the results still don't seem to be as good or as accessible.

I wholeheartedly agree with you regarding the desirability of Open Source drivers, however when it comes to watching movies/tv I want the best. The best is provided by the nVidia closed source driver, so I compromise.

The nouveau driver meets the Stallman test of [driver open/closed firmware OK], so you could try that I guess.
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Linux, video frequency problem. banding? maybe video card recco thread?0