VLC 1.1 XV Video Overlay not working well on Linux

[Dilip Talreja]

Every time when I try to see any video file in vlc 1.1.*versions. It automatically launches a black screen on my machine and when I use to close that black screen my vlc also stops working. I can’t understand the problem because it does not happen with the vlc 1.0 versions. So send me the reason if you are aware about it. I enclose an ATI Radeon 9200 card with free driver and with that grouping there are two XV adaptors are given

[Dwarner]

In my thinking it might be the problem of your X driver. Either it is not working properly, or it is not persistent errors. Which should be prompt if the vlc is not working properly? But it rarely seen that Xorg driver give a bad response. All so that VLC is using the same chroma in both cases (I420). That is way there is no point in saying that vlc is working well in one case and is not working in other case as they are same. Or else there may be other process which is grabbing the overlay. Or the reason may be the CRTC may be the wrong one, if you have more than one display.

[DotNetUser]

According to you there is no problem with version 1.0, the problem of overlay is with the versions like 1.1 and further. As per as me start the X window and clean the start up programs of X and make sure that no other program is using or trying to use video output. VLC do well with all XV adaptors like XV Video Overlay and XV Textured Video. In this situation I will suggest you to use xvideo adaptor 0 or xvideo adaptor 1 with no problems, OK. Then at the moment that other program or application uses the first XV adaptor after VLC shows a black screen with the XV adapator “XV Video Overlay" and in this situation if you want to keep continue with VLC you will have to use "XV Textured Video". When I say other applications or programs means mplayer, gxine, totem gstreamer etc. All of them should launch and closed in a clean way and all of them to free the XV adaptor when they stop. I am talking on 4 multimedia programs with multimedia engines but completely different they are VLC, mplayer, gxine libxine, and totem gstreamer that are the unique with the problems with VLC. And from my point of view your driver is working properly. As per as my suggestion your vlc is perfect if there is any problem it just need to fix. That you can perform easily.

[CodGuru]

I am also using the same device of XV adaptor with the same driver. But I have never faced a problem of the pop up of black screen while watching video. If want to give blame to the X driver if that make you feel happy but the X driver version is the same from a number of months and it has been running well with previous versions of VLC 1.1.0. The problem doesn't emerge that would need a change in the X driver version there are lot of things that are related to vlc. And I haven't had any problems with the "XV Video Overlay" till now.
I am giving you details regarding my XV driver in that I am not getting any trouble. Details are given below: mplayer -vo xv:adaptor=<number> <whatever> and I can state the same about libxine-based players like gxine, xine-ui, totem.
Code for X things

ii xorg 1:7.5+6 X.Org X Window System
ii xserver-xorg-core 2:1.7.7-2 Xorg X server - core server
ii xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.13.0-2 X.Org X server -- AMD/ATI display driver wrapper
ii xserver-xorg-video-radeon 1:6.13.0-2 X.Org X server -- AMD/ATI Radeon display driver

Code for XV things

$ COLUMNS=110 dpkg -l | grep -i "vlc"
ii libvlc5 1.1.0-1 multimedia player and streamer library
ii libvlccore4 1.1.0-1 base library for VLC and its modules
ii vlc 1.1.0-1 multimedia player and streamer
ii vlc-data 1.1.0-1 Common data for VLC
ii vlc-nox 1.1.0-1 multimedia player and streamer (without X support)
ii vlc-plugin-zvbi 1.1.0-1 VBI teletext plugin for VLC

$ COLUMNS=110 dpkg -l | grep -i "qt"
ii libqt4-network 4:4.6.3-1 Qt 4 network module
ii libqt4-opengl 4:4.6.3-1 Qt 4 OpenGL module
ii libqt4-xml 4:4.6.3-1 Qt 4 XML module
ii libqtcore4 4:4.6.3-1 Qt 4 core module
ii libqtgui4 4:4.6.3-1 Qt 4 GUI module

$ COLUMNS=110 dpkg -l | grep -i "xcb"
ii libx11-xcb1 2:1.3.3-3 Xlib/XCB interface library
ii libxcb-atom1 0.3.6-1 utility libraries for X C Binding -- atom
ii libxcb-aux0 0.3.6-1 utility libraries for X C Binding -- aux
ii libxcb-event1 0.3.6-1 utility libraries for X C Binding -- event
ii libxcb-keysyms1 0.3.6-1 utility libraries for X C Binding -- keysyms
ii libxcb-randr0 1.6-1 X C Binding, randr extension
ii libxcb-render-util0 0.3.6-1 utility libraries for X C Binding -- render-util
ii libxcb-render0 1.6-1 X C Binding, render extension
ii libxcb-shape0 1.6-1 X C Binding, shape extension
ii libxcb-shm0 1.6-1 X C Binding, shm extension
ii libxcb-xv0 1.6-1 X C Binding, xv extension
ii libxcb1 1.6-1 X C Binding
ii libxcb1-dev 1.6-1 X C Binding, development files