Boxee crashes when starting MP4

[ubun2Junky]

Boxee crashes whenever I try to start an MP4 file. I've got it running on ubuntu Jaunty. Everything else seems to be working in fine order except for the MP4 playback. Anyone run into this? Any suggestions? Thx!

[sdnick484]

Can you post the logs (in /tmp). Also please run Boxee from a terminal and post any error messages that come up (stderr).

[ubun2Junky]

This is what I'm getting when I run Boxee manually.

20/08/09 23:51:46#DEBUG#bxbgprocess.cpp:147(Start)#bg process initialized. 1 worker threads created.
20/08/09 23:51:46#DEBUG#bxcurl.cpp:70(Initialize)#curl initialized. version <7.18.2>

Running Boxee test...
And the log goes to... /tmp/nadia-boxee.log
is rtorrent running: 0
TIFF IMAGE: Not a TIFF or MDI file, bad magic number 26684 (0x683c).
TIFF IMAGE: Not a TIFF or MDI file, bad magic number 26684 (0x683c).
X Error of failed request: BadDrawable (invalid Pixmap or Window parameter)
Major opcode of failed request: 139 (NV-GLX)
Minor opcode of failed request: 12 ()
Resource id in failed request: 0x3c00002
Serial number of failed request: 499
Current serial number in output stream: 499
Segmentation fault

The log files show this:
17:54:03 T:2685467536 M:739983360 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: Opening: smb://******@192.168.0.10/movies/kids/Barnyard.mp4
17:54:04 T:2685467536 M:748204032 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(player)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
17:54:04 T:2677074832 M:748204032 NOTICE: Creating InputStream
17:54:04 T:2677074832 M:748204032 INFO: CDVDFactorySubtitle::GetSubtitles, searching subtitles
17:54:04 T:2677074832 M:748244992 INFO: CDVDFactorySubtitle::GetSubtitles, searching subtitles done
17:54:04 T:2677074832 M:748244992 NOTICE: Creating Demuxer
17:54:05 T:2677074832 M:734658560 INFO: ffmpeg: Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'smb://******@192.168.0.10/movies/kids/Barnyard.mp4':
17:54:05 T:2677074832 M:734658560 INFO: ffmpeg: Duration: 01:29:41.27, start: 0.-50083, bitrate: 1692 kb/s
17:54:05 T:2677074832 M:734658560 INFO: ffmpeg: Stream #0.0(eng): Video: h264, yuv420p, 720x480, PAR 853:720 DAR 853:480, 48k tbr, 48k tbn, 96k tbc
17:54:05 T:2677074832 M:734658560 INFO: ffmpeg: Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16
17:54:05 T:2677074832 M:734658560 INFO: ffmpeg: Stream #0.2(eng): Subtitle: text / 0x74786574
17:54:05 T:2677074832 M:734658560 NOTICE: Opening video stream: 0 source: 256
17:54:05 T:2677074832 M:734658560 ERROR: CDVDPlayerVideo::OpenStream - Invalid framerate 48000, using forced 25fps and just trust timestamps
17:54:05 T:2677074832 M:734658560 NOTICE: Creating video codec with codec id: 28
17:54:06 T:2677074832 M:734613504 NOTICE: CDVDVideoCodecFFmpeg::Open() Creating VDPAU(720x480)
17:54:06 T:2677074832 M:734613504 NOTICE: CDVDVideoCodecFFmpeg::Open() Failed to get VDPAU device
17:54:06 T:2677074832 M:734613504 NOTICE: (VDPAU) ~CVDPAU
17:54:06 T:2677074832 M:734613504 INFO: GLX: Destroying glPixmap

[sdnick484]

Which video card are you using? I see it's trying VDPAU, but I believe there's a bug that's causing a crash if you don't have a supported card (NVidia 8800GT and up I believe).

[ubun2Junky]

I'm using a MSI NVIDIA GF FX 5200 128 MB Video Card. It works just fine on mythTV that I also ran on the same box (different hard drive).

[sdnick484]

That model does not support VDPAU (see here), so at best MythTV just ignored that setting and failed over gracefully to the default (xv would be my guess).

Anyways, you should be able to disable VDPAU under Video in Settings (I think it's listed with something like Hardware Acceleration -- just uncheck it). From there MP4 should work.

[ubun2Junky]

I'll give that a try... thx for the recommendation! I do find that the image on the avi's that do work are really pixelated. The image is really jerky and video and audio get out of sync at times. I'll remove the hardware acceleration off and see if it also resolves some of these other issues. What video card would you recommend for Boxee?

[ubun2Junky]

Very cool... that did the trick... It's playing mp4's now. Unfortunately it's very jerky and unwatchable. The pc I have has a 2.8Ghz CPU with 1Gb or RAM. The video card is nvidia gforce 5200. What kind of hardware are other linux users using to get decent video playback quality?

[sdnick484]

I'd suggest trying to determine your limiting factor (e.g. are you CPU bound, memory bound, IO bound, etc.).

CPU should be easy, because you can press a button (something like i, but I don't recall off the top of my head) and it will show much CPU you're consuming). If you're hitting 100% (or averaging close to it), that's probably your limiter.

You can measure your RAM usage in other tools (top, look at the VIRT & RES columns for Boxee as well as Mem, but 1GB should be sufficient (assuming you're just running X windows and Boxee).

Disk IO is a little harder to check unless you're familiar with tools like sar or iostat/vmstat. Chances are it's not the problem unless you're on a really slow laptop drive (e.g. 4200 RPM).

Network IO is probably only limited on the external end of your connection, but if you're on cable and even most DSL, it should be sufficient. Internally, I'd only be concerned if you're on 802.11b wifi (g is definitely sufficient).

I've run Boxee on several Linux machines, ranging from a four year old Pentium-M's to new C2D's & a C2Q.