Poor playback quality of video files under Kubuntu 7.04.

Hi, I've been using Feisty Fawn on my HP Omnibook 6000 (256mb, 80GB HDD, P3 600mhz) for several months now and there is just one issue that I cannot seem to resolve: graphics.

Whenever I playback video clips and films they always suffer from jerkiness, heavy pixellation and reduced quality compared to when they're run on the same laptop under Windows, where the same video files play perfectly.

I have tried various workarounds, searched endlessly and posted thorough detailed descriptions of my problem on specialist Linux video forums but no-one seems to have any answers.

Has anyone else encountered a similar problem or can offer any suggestions? Thanks for reading my post.

Jay

It sounds like you need the ATI legacy accelerated drivers for the onboard VGA, which happens to be a 7-8 year old ATI Mobility II with 8MB VRAM.

You may also need to tweak some settings and turn off some eye candy.

http://www.ima.umn.edu/~arnold/omnibook6000-linux.html


Keep in mind this laptop was designed for windows 95, maybe 98, Kubuntu 7.04 is only 6 months old.

As good as Linux is for older hardware your mileage will vary on a 7-10 year old laptop.

GL

Which should be done automatically with 7.10 through the restricted drivers control under the System->Preferences->Restricted Drivers. Given the low resources I'd suggest looking at XUbuntu based on XFCE as is it uses far less resources than KDE.

I have Kubuntu 7.10 installed on my desktop. It's an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ with an ATI X300SE card.

I did the comparison check, too. Windows is on another partition. Videos played in Windows look crisper, sharper. I don't think it's always the computer but rather the drivers and video card configuration. But, I'm only speculating.

Hey, thanks for all the replies!

I'd been searching for ages for any possible leads. No-one else really had any experience with this issue, but thankfully you guys have all the answers.

I haven't tried DSL yet but I've downloaded Xubuntu 7.10 and I'm using the Live CD right now. I see what you mean about the performance difference, it seems to work better with the laptop too (wireless connectivity feels more reliable and stable).

Once I've installed it onto the hard disk I'll post back with the results so that others in the same situation can use the information too. Thanks again...

Jay

Why a script? Just change the driver to "ati". For Mach64 the opensource drivers are way better than Ati's; the current ati driver won't even support cards that old.