Choppy video playback

Postings relating to old VirtualBox pre-releases
...don
Posts: 33
Joined: 24. May 2012, 18:00
Primary OS: openSUSE
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: Windows

Choppy video playback

Post by ...don »

V6 RC1. Linux host. Windows 10 guest. Long standing issue of YouTube sound being out of sync with video seems to be fixed. However, now the video playback seems very choppy with numerous brief pauses.
socratis
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Re: Choppy video playback

Post by socratis »

...don wrote:V6 RC1. Linux host. Windows 10 guest.
Can you describe the details of your host and guest? Linux host isn't quite... detailed. ;)
Same with Win10. Which version, which flavor (32- or 64-bit), Home/Pro/Enterprise/Other?
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
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mpack
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Re: Choppy video playback

Post by mpack »

What video resolution? And a VM log file is needed too.
...don
Posts: 33
Joined: 24. May 2012, 18:00
Primary OS: openSUSE
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: Windows

Re: Choppy video playback

Post by ...don »

Host: 64 bit OpenSuSE Leap 42.1 with current patches. Guest: 64 bit Windows 10 w 1809 feature upgrade. Hardware: quad core ASUS laptop w Nvidia GeForce GM204M video. Using dual ASUS monitors with VboxVGA drivers. Using Firefox, Chrome, Edge

Seems to work much better in a 64 bit Windows 10 1803 guest.

will post log later.
...don
Posts: 33
Joined: 24. May 2012, 18:00
Primary OS: openSUSE
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: Windows

Re: Choppy video playback

Post by ...don »

Log attached
mpack
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Re: Choppy video playback

Post by mpack »

There seems to be a misunderstanding. I asked for the resolution of the youtube video, that other stuff can be had from the log.

Speaking of which, the file you provided is not the log, that is the VM control file. The log is is called "VBox.log" and is hidden away in the cunningly misleading "Logs" subfolder of the VM.
...don
Posts: 33
Joined: 24. May 2012, 18:00
Primary OS: openSUSE
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: Windows

Re: Choppy video playback

Post by ...don »

Was responding to "Can you describe the details of your host and guest? Linux host isn't quite... detailed."

'Just went to YouTube and selected a random video. The one I just tested was 480p - Screenshot attached.

Correct log file attached.
Attachments
VBoxLog.zip
(51.62 KiB) Downloaded 30 times
Screenshot - 18_12_12 , 10_20_29.jpg
Screenshot - 18_12_12 , 10_20_29.jpg (12.57 KiB) Viewed 7730 times
mpack
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Posts: 39156
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Primary OS: MS Windows 10
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Re: Choppy video playback

Post by mpack »

00:00:37.902666 Display::handleDisplayResize: uScreenId=0 pvVRAM=00007f4a70000000 w=1920 h=1080 bpp=32 cbLine=0x1E00 flags=0x1
...
00:00:02.195379 GUI: 2D video acceleration is disabled
...
12:08:20.498020 VMMDev: Guest Log: crUtil DLL loaded.
12:08:20.860128 VMMDev: Guest Log: OpenGL Warning: crPixelCopy3D: simply crMemcpy'ing from srcPtr to dstPtr
12:08:20.860912 VMMDev: Guest Log: OpenGL Warning: crPixelCopy3D: simply crMemcpy'ing from srcPtr to dstPtr
12:08:20.861977 VMMDev: Guest Log: OpenGL Warning: crPixelCopy3D: simply crMemcpy'ing from srcPtr to dstPtr
12:08:20.862987 VMMDev: Guest Log: OpenGL Warning: crPixelCopy3D: simply crMemcpy'ing from srcPtr to dstPtr
12:08:20.863725 VMMDev: Guest Log: OpenGL Warning: crPixelCopy3D: simply crMemcpy'ing from srcPtr to dstPtr
12:08:20.864643 VMMDev: Guest Log: OpenGL Warning: crPixelCopy3D: simply crMemcpy'ing from srcPtr to dstPtr
12:08:20.865348 VMMDev: Guest Log: OpenGL Warning: crPixelCopy3D: simply crMemcpy'ing from srcPtr to dstPtr
12:08:20.865977 VMMDev: Guest Log: OpenGL Warning: crPixelCopy3D: simply crMemcpy'ing from srcPtr to dstPtr
Your problem seems to be a combination of fullhd video (at 32bpp) coupled with no hardware graphics. For smooth video overlays in a Windows guest you need to enable 2D acceleration.
...don
Posts: 33
Joined: 24. May 2012, 18:00
Primary OS: openSUSE
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: Windows

Re: Choppy video playback

Post by ...don »

1) A slight improvement with 2d Acceleration. The video still briefly pauses approximately every 2 seconds.

2) A slight additional improvement with 3d Acceleration except a) There are still noticeable pauses, b) There is about a 2 second delay between scrolling the mouse and the screen responding, and c) all the open windows randomly blink on and off ( this problem was also happens in VB 5 ).

With VB 5 and Windows 10 < 1809 and 2d Acceleration off the video playback did not have noticeable pauses but there were issues with the sound (Ticket #15853). The video in the ticket - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap-JvvU0xV4 is also useful to show the choppy playback - in VB 5 the rings unwind smoothly, in VB 6 they look more like a packman game.
Last edited by socratis on 13. Dec 2018, 00:11, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Added missing URL.
...don
Posts: 33
Joined: 24. May 2012, 18:00
Primary OS: openSUSE
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: Windows

Re: Choppy video playback

Post by ...don »

Update:

Today Windows automatically applied KB4471331 (Flash) and KB4469041 (.NET) for 1809. Do not know if it is related, but the choppy playback has cleared up and that is the only thing that has changed.
socratis
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Re: Choppy video playback

Post by socratis »

...don wrote:Today Windows automatically applied ... the choppy playback has cleared up
So, it was Windows, it has always been Windows... ;)

Joking aside, that's a good thing to know. But, aren't YouTube videos HTML5 and not Flash anymore these days? Just wondering...
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
...don
Posts: 33
Joined: 24. May 2012, 18:00
Primary OS: openSUSE
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: Windows

Re: Choppy video playback

Post by ...don »

<???>

Maybe I spoke too soon.

I wanted to see if there was any change with the VBoxSVGA controller so I brought up the system with VBoxSVGA and with and without 2d acceleration but there were still issues as related above. I also tested with one and two displays. I restored the system to a snapshot taken just before starting the testing, returned the VM configuration to the previous settings and retested the video playback watching several training clips which played fine. I shutdown the guest system, cleaned up the various snapshots that I had taken over the last several days in case of problems during the testing, checked that I had the configuration set at two displays, VBoxVGA controller, and 2d Acceleration, checked for any host system security updates (there were none), shutdown the host laptop and went to dinner. I returned from dinner, restarted the systems, and brought up a news video - and the choppy playback was back, and retesting the clips that I had watched earlier. they were again choppy.

As far as I can tell the only changes were: 1) removal of a child snapshot and three earlier parent snapshots and taking a new snapshot, 2) shutting down the VirtualBox Manager, 3) Shutting down (power off) and restarting the host (with the expected flushing of buffers and cleanup of temporary files).

</???>
...don
Posts: 33
Joined: 24. May 2012, 18:00
Primary OS: openSUSE
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: Windows

Re: Choppy video playback

Post by ...don »

Log attached.
Attachments
VBoxLog2.zip
(42.32 KiB) Downloaded 29 times
...don
Posts: 33
Joined: 24. May 2012, 18:00
Primary OS: openSUSE
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: Windows

Re: Choppy video playback

Post by ...don »

I will post a follow up if I can figure out any correlation between some activity and the choppy video. Thinking that it could be related to disk activity from something like a virus scan or rebuilding snapshots in the background, I monitored disk activity with Task Manager and iotop, and the disks were basically quiet both when the video was choppy, and when it was not. It is a wired network connection, and I can play the same video on the host machine without issue, so I do not think that it is a network issue. It does appear that the video is either choppy or not choppy for an entire session, and will not change without restarting the VM, but that could be a coincidence.
mpack
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Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
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Re: Choppy video playback

Post by mpack »

This.
VBox.log wrote: 00:00:01.255602 NumCPUs <integer> = 0x0000000000000004 (4)
...
00:00:01.763330 CPUM: Logical host processors: 8 present, 8 max, 8 online, online mask: 00000000000000ff
00:00:01.763438 CPUM: Physical host cores: 4
You can't expect any tasks to run smoothly when you starve the host of CPU by assigning all 4 cores to the VM. I assume you understand that VirtualBox itself is a host application and needs CPU. On this host I would assign 2 cores to the VM.
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