DVD Playback Problem - SOLVED
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote to the list saying that I was having problems with DVD playback. The playback was stuttering and very jerky. DMA was already enabled for the drive so that wasn't it. Well, last night I made a change to a setting that has solved the problem. DVD playback is now as smooth as silk. The setting I changed was as follows: In YAST2->SYSTEM->Powertweak Configuration, under the configuration options, I expanded the "Hardware" option. Then, I expanded the "Disk" choice followed by the "HDD" (my DVD drive device) choice. Two more choices then present themselves. The first, "hdd_ELEVATOR_READ_LATENCY" is the one that I adjusted. The default value was 128. I lowered it to 64. That did it. I just wanted to post this in case there's someone else out there having the same problem I had. First & foremost, make sure you have DMA set for your DVD drive. If it is, and you still have jerky playback, try the above. Rick
On Friday 06 Jun 2003 2:49 am, Rick Friedman wrote:
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote to the list saying that I was having problems with DVD playback. The playback was stuttering and very jerky. DMA was already enabled for the drive so that wasn't it.
Well, last night I made a change to a setting that has solved the problem. DVD playback is now as smooth as silk.
The setting I changed was as follows:
In YAST2->SYSTEM->Powertweak Configuration, under the configuration options, I expanded the "Hardware" option. Then, I expanded the "Disk" choice followed by the "HDD" (my DVD drive device) choice.
Two more choices then present themselves. The first, "hdd_ELEVATOR_READ_LATENCY" is the one that I adjusted. The default value was 128. I lowered it to 64. That did it.
I just wanted to post this in case there's someone else out there having the same problem I had. First & foremost, make sure you have DMA set for your DVD drive. If it is, and you still have jerky playback, try the above.
Rick
Thanks Rick, Your posting is very useful because I do still have a jerky playback despite having set the DMA. I'll give it a try later. Eddie
On Thursday 05 June 2003 18:49, Rick Friedman wrote:
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote to the list saying that I was having problems with DVD playback. The playback was stuttering and very jerky. DMA was already enabled for the drive so that wasn't it.
Well, last night I made a change to a setting that has solved the problem. DVD playback is now as smooth as silk.
The setting I changed was as follows:
In YAST2->SYSTEM->Powertweak Configuration, under the configuration options, I expanded the "Hardware" option. Then, I expanded the "Disk" choice followed by the "HDD" (my DVD drive device) choice.
Two more choices then present themselves. The first, "hdd_ELEVATOR_READ_LATENCY" is the one that I adjusted. The default value was 128. I lowered it to 64. That did it.
Thanks for the tip! That worked great! Steve
Thanks! I'll try it later tonight. /Lars Rick Friedman wrote:
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote to the list saying that I was having problems with DVD playback. The playback was stuttering and very jerky. DMA was already enabled for the drive so that wasn't it.
Well, last night I made a change to a setting that has solved the problem. DVD playback is now as smooth as silk.
The setting I changed was as follows:
In YAST2->SYSTEM->Powertweak Configuration, under the configuration options, I expanded the "Hardware" option. Then, I expanded the "Disk" choice followed by the "HDD" (my DVD drive device) choice.
Two more choices then present themselves. The first, "hdd_ELEVATOR_READ_LATENCY" is the one that I adjusted. The default value was 128. I lowered it to 64. That did it.
I just wanted to post this in case there's someone else out there having the same problem I had. First & foremost, make sure you have DMA set for your DVD drive. If it is, and you still have jerky playback, try the above.
Rick
On Thu June 5 2003 8:49 pm, Rick Friedman wrote:
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote to the list saying that I was having problems with DVD playback. The playback was stuttering and very jerky. DMA was already enabled for the drive so that wasn't it.
Well, last night I made a change to a setting that has solved the problem. DVD playback is now as smooth as silk.
The setting I changed was as follows:
In YAST2->SYSTEM->Powertweak Configuration, under the configuration options, I expanded the "Hardware" option. Then, I expanded the "Disk" choice followed by the "HDD" (my DVD drive device) choice.
Two more choices then present themselves. The first, "hdd_ELEVATOR_READ_LATENCY" is the one that I adjusted. The default value was 128. I lowered it to 64. That did it.
I just wanted to post this in case there's someone else out there having the same problem I had. First & foremost, make sure you have DMA set for your DVD drive. If it is, and you still have jerky playback, try the above.
Rick
Pure genius. THANKS. Smoothed my DVD playback where there used to be an occasional stutter. How did you find this tweak? What led you to think of it or try it? Stan
On Friday 06 June 2003 08:22, Stan Glasoe wrote:
On Thu June 5 2003 8:49 pm, Rick Friedman wrote:
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote to the list saying that I was having problems with DVD playback. The playback was stuttering and very jerky. DMA was already enabled for the drive so that wasn't it.
Well, last night I made a change to a setting that has solved the problem. DVD playback is now as smooth as silk.
The setting I changed was as follows:
In YAST2->SYSTEM->Powertweak Configuration, under the configuration options, I expanded the "Hardware" option. Then, I expanded the "Disk" choice followed by the "HDD" (my DVD drive device) choice.
Two more choices then present themselves. The first, "hdd_ELEVATOR_READ_LATENCY" is the one that I adjusted. The default value was 128. I lowered it to 64. That did it.
I just wanted to post this in case there's someone else out there having the same problem I had. First & foremost, make sure you have DMA set for your DVD drive. If it is, and you still have jerky playback, try the above.
Rick
Pure genius. THANKS. Smoothed my DVD playback where there used to be an occasional stutter. How did you find this tweak? What led you to think of it or try it?
Stan
What version of SuSE are you on? I looked in YAST2->SYSTEM->Powertweak Configuration, and all I have as options are Other->/etc/->powertweak->tweaks and hdd_ELEVATOR_READ_LATENCY is not one of them. Is there some "tweaks" file I'm missing? Or a different version of Powertweak? rpm -qa shows that I have yast2-powertweak-2.7.12-8 powertweak-0.99.4-212 Mark Almeida -- Powered by SuSE Linux 8.2/Kmail 1.5.2
On Fri June 6 2003 11:07 am, The Wizard wrote: <snip>
What version of SuSE are you on? I looked in YAST2->SYSTEM->Powertweak Configuration, and all I have as options are
Other->/etc/->powertweak->tweaks
and hdd_ELEVATOR_READ_LATENCY is not one of them. Is there some "tweaks" file I'm missing? Or a different version of Powertweak?
rpm -qa shows that I have
yast2-powertweak-2.7.12-8 powertweak-0.99.4-212
Mark Almeida
-- Powered by SuSE Linux 8.2/Kmail 1.5.2
Stan sez: powertweak-0.99.4-212 powertweak-extra-0.99.4-212 powertweak-gtk-0.99.4-212 yast2-powertweak-2.7.12-8 Fully YOU'd via SuSEWatcher 8.2, KDE 3.1.1, etc.
On Friday 06 June 2003 09:15, Stan Glasoe wrote:
On Fri June 6 2003 11:07 am, The Wizard wrote: <snip>
What version of SuSE are you on? I looked in YAST2->SYSTEM->Powertweak Configuration, and all I have as options are
Other->/etc/->powertweak->tweaks
and hdd_ELEVATOR_READ_LATENCY is not one of them. Is there some "tweaks" file I'm missing? Or a different version of Powertweak?
rpm -qa shows that I have
yast2-powertweak-2.7.12-8 powertweak-0.99.4-212
Mark Almeida
-- Powered by SuSE Linux 8.2/Kmail 1.5.2
Stan sez:
powertweak-0.99.4-212 powertweak-extra-0.99.4-212 powertweak-gtk-0.99.4-212 yast2-powertweak-2.7.12-8
Fully YOU'd via SuSEWatcher 8.2, KDE 3.1.1, etc.
Stan - Thanks! I went back and checked, I had never installed powertweak-extra-0.99.4-212 or powertweak-gtk-0.99.4-212, so I installed them from the DVD and all is well. Powertweak now shows all the additional values. Mark Almeida -- Powered by SuSE Linux 8.2/Kmail 1.5.2
Actually, I can't quite claim such genius. Basically, I was simply browsing through Powertweak to see what was there. I came upon the read latency option. as I read about what it does, it occurred to me that it might help with my DVD problem. The decription of the option said: "The read latency parameter controls how hard the kernel tries to group disk read-requests. Higher values mean better grouping and higher throughput from the disk, but longer latency." So, I thought I would try lowering the value. I cut it in half and it worked great. I wonder what would happen trying other values (either higher or lower)? Ahhh well... I'm happy with the value I have now. Rick On Fri, 2003-06-06 at 11:22, Stan Glasoe wrote:
On Thu June 5 2003 8:49 pm, Rick Friedman wrote:
I just wanted to post this in case there's someone else out there having the same problem I had. First & foremost, make sure you have DMA set for your DVD drive. If it is, and you still have jerky playback, try the above.
Pure genius. THANKS. Smoothed my DVD playback where there used to be an occasional stutter. How did you find this tweak? What led you to think of it or try it?
Stan
On Friday 06 June 2003 12:29, Rick Friedman wrote:
Actually, I can't quite claim such genius. Basically, I was simply browsing through Powertweak to see what was there. I came upon the read latency option. [stuff deleted] So, I thought I would try lowering the value. I cut it in half and it worked great. I wonder what would happen trying other values (either higher or lower)? Ahhh well... I'm happy with the value I have now.
Rick
Well, Rick you must be a genius. You found it and then were smart enough to post it. I made the value 32 on a PII-400 and DVD playback seems very smooth now. I guess given the definition, my data throughput has probably dropped, but hey, I would rather watch DVDs nicely than get a few extra bytes of throughput. -- Kelly L. Fulks Home Account near Huntsville, AL
On Thursday 05 June 2003 18:49, Rick Friedman wrote: <snip>
In YAST2->SYSTEM->Powertweak Configuration, under the configuration options, I expanded the "Hardware" option. Then, I expanded the "Disk" choice followed by the "HDD" (my DVD drive device) choice.
Two more choices then present themselves. The first, "hdd_ELEVATOR_READ_LATENCY" is the one that I adjusted. The default value was 128. I lowered it to 64. That did it.
I just wanted to post this in case there's someone else out there having the same problem I had. First & foremost, make sure you have DMA set for your DVD drive. If it is, and you still have jerky playback, try the above.
I'm running 8.1. I didn't have powertweak installed, so I downloaded and installed it, -extra, -gtk, and yast2- for 8.1. I now have powertweak as an option in Yast, yet I am not able to change any values. My ELEVATOR_READ_LATENCY default is set to 1024. I also only have DMA setting available as IDE DMA mode, and only for hda. Any suggestions? Bernd -- "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea." Antoine de St. Exupery
Bernd wrote:
I'm running 8.1. I didn't have powertweak installed, so I downloaded and installed it, -extra, -gtk, and yast2- for 8.1. I now have powertweak as an option in Yast, yet I am not able to change any values. My ELEVATOR_READ_LATENCY default is set to 1024.
I also only have DMA setting available as IDE DMA mode, and only for hda.
Any suggestions?
Bernd
I might be mistaken, but isn't it so that there are no pull-down menues or boxes or anything like that in 8.1, you simply type the drives you want to enable DMA for: "hda, hdb, hdc" I have DMA enabled for all drives and ELEVATOR_READ_LATENCY set to 32 for hdc (DVD) but it still doesn't work -- my guess is that it's due to the CD-R (hdd) on the same IDE channel which is slower than the DVD. /Lars
On Wednesday 11 June 2003 15:44, Lars Norén wrote:
Bernd wrote:
I'm running 8.1. I didn't have powertweak installed, so I downloaded and installed it, -extra, -gtk, and yast2- for 8.1. I now have powertweak as an option in Yast, yet I am not able to change any values. My ELEVATOR_READ_LATENCY default is set to 1024.
I also only have DMA setting available as IDE DMA mode, and only for hda.
Any suggestions?
Bernd
I might be mistaken, but isn't it so that there are no pull-down menues or boxes or anything like that in 8.1, you simply type the drives you want to enable DMA for: "hda, hdb, hdc"
Although I do have pulldown menus, I am unable to change anything. I can't alter the default settings at all. I can highlight the entry, but cannot delete the contents of the value box, or enter any new values. Having the powertweak feature in Yast is useless if I can't make any changes on any of the sections listed in powertweak. It just shows me the default info. How do I set DMA for my drives? How can I change the read-latency? Bernd -- "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea." Antoine de St. Exupery
Bernd wrote:
Although I do have pulldown menus, I am unable to change anything. I can't alter the default settings at all. I can highlight the entry, but cannot delete the contents of the value box, or enter any new values. Having the powertweak feature in Yast is useless if I can't make any changes on any of the sections listed in powertweak. It just shows me the default info.
How do I set DMA for my drives? How can I change the read-latency?
Unfortunately I don't know anything about Powertveak in SuSE 8.1 and how you can change the read-latency, but when it comes to the DMA settings I think they can be found in the same place as in SuSE 8.2: YaST2 (Control Center) - Hardware - IDE DMA mode. /Lars
Bernd wrote:
I'm running 8.1. I didn't have powertweak installed, so I downloaded and installed it, -extra, -gtk, and yast2- for 8.1. I now have powertweak as an option in Yast, yet I am not able to change any values. My ELEVATOR_READ_LATENCY default is set to 1024.
I also only have DMA setting available as IDE DMA mode, and only for hda.
Any suggestions?
Bernd
I might be mistaken, but isn't it so that there are no pull-down menues or boxes or anything like that in 8.1, you simply type the drives you want to enable DMA for: "hda, hdb, hdc"
I have DMA enabled for all drives and ELEVATOR_READ_LATENCY set to 32 for hdc (DVD) but it still doesn't work -- my guess is that it's due to the CD-R (hdd) on the same IDE channel which is slower than the DVD.
/Lars
On Friday 13 June 2003 11:02, Lars Norén wrote:
Bernd wrote:
Although I do have pulldown menus, I am unable to change anything. I can't alter the default settings at all. I can highlight the entry, but cannot delete the contents of the value box, or enter any new values. Having the powertweak feature in Yast is useless if I can't make any changes on any of the sections listed in powertweak. It just shows me the default info.
How do I set DMA for my drives? How can I change the read-latency?
Unfortunately I don't know anything about Powertveak in SuSE 8.1 and how you can change the read-latency, but when it comes to the DMA settings I think they can be found in the same place as in SuSE 8.2: YaST2 (Control Center) - Hardware - IDE DMA mode.
/Lars
Control Center - IDE DMA only allows me to change DMA on/off for hda! Any other suggestions for PowerTweak, DMA, and latency changes??? Bernd -- "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea." Antoine de St. Exupery
Bernd wrote:
Bernd wrote:
I'm running 8.1. I didn't have powertweak installed, so I downloaded and installed it, -extra, -gtk, and yast2- for 8.1. I now have powertweak as an option in Yast, yet I am not able to change any values. My ELEVATOR_READ_LATENCY default is set to 1024.
I also only have DMA setting available as IDE DMA mode, and only for hda.
Any suggestions?
Bernd
I might be mistaken, but isn't it so that there are no pull-down menues or boxes or anything like that in 8.1, you simply type the drives you want to enable DMA for: "hda, hdb, hdc"
I have DMA enabled for all drives and ELEVATOR_READ_LATENCY set to 32 for hdc (DVD) but it still doesn't work -- my guess is that it's due to the CD-R (hdd) on the same IDE channel which is slower than the DVD.
/Lars
On Friday 13 June 2003 11:02, Lars Norén wrote:
Bernd wrote:
Although I do have pulldown menus, I am unable to change anything. I can't alter the default settings at all. I can highlight the entry, but cannot delete the contents of the value box, or enter any new values. Having the powertweak feature in Yast is useless if I can't make any changes on any of the sections listed in powertweak. It just shows me the default info.
How do I set DMA for my drives? How can I change the read-latency?
Unfortunately I don't know anything about Powertveak in SuSE 8.1 and how you can change the read-latency, but when it comes to the DMA settings I think they can be found in the same place as in SuSE 8.2: YaST2 (Control Center) - Hardware - IDE DMA mode.
/Lars
Control Center - IDE DMA only allows me to change DMA on/off for hda!
Any other suggestions for PowerTweak, DMA, and latency changes???
Bernd
Hmmm, strange -- is DMA enabled in BIOS, for all drives? I can't seem to find that particular option in my present BIOS, but I remember seeing it in the BIOS of my old motherboard, and I think you were able to choose between 'OFF', 'AUTO', PIO-mode 1, 1, 3, 4' or 'DMA-16, -33, -66' or something like that. /Lars
You can set DMA using hdparm. Probe the drives first with hdparm to see what settings they support. Read the man too as I've read it is possible to hose your data and/or drives if you get it wrong (although I've never had any real problems). I eventually settled for the following (Thinkpad T23): hdparm -c 1 -d 1 -u 1 -m16 -X69 /dev/hda hdparm -c 1 -d 1 -u 1 -X34 /dev/hdc After a bit of testing to ensure these settings would cause no problems, I added them to my startup script. At 07:46 PM 6/13/2003 -0700, you wrote:
I'm running 8.1. I didn't have powertweak installed, so I downloaded
and
installed it, -extra, -gtk, and yast2- for 8.1. I now have
Bernd wrote: powertweak as
an option in Yast, yet I am not able to change any values. My ELEVATOR_READ_LATENCY default is set to 1024.
I also only have DMA setting available as IDE DMA mode, and only for hda.
Any suggestions?
Bernd
I might be mistaken, but isn't it so that there are no pull-down menues or boxes or anything like that in 8.1, you simply type the drives you want to enable DMA for: "hda, hdb, hdc"
I have DMA enabled for all drives and ELEVATOR_READ_LATENCY set to 32 for hdc (DVD) but it still doesn't work -- my guess is that it's due to the CD-R (hdd) on the same IDE channel which is slower than the DVD.
/Lars
On Friday 13 June 2003 11:02, Lars Norén wrote:
Bernd wrote:
Although I do have pulldown menus, I am unable to change anything. I can't alter the default settings at all. I can highlight the entry, but cannot delete the contents of the value box, or enter any new values. Having the powertweak feature in Yast is useless if I can't make any changes on any of the sections listed in powertweak. It just shows me the default info.
How do I set DMA for my drives? How can I change the read-latency?
Unfortunately I don't know anything about Powertveak in SuSE 8.1 and how you can change the read-latency, but when it comes to the DMA settings I think they can be found in the same place as in SuSE 8.2: YaST2 (Control Center) - Hardware - IDE DMA mode.
/Lars
Control Center - IDE DMA only allows me to change DMA on/off for hda!
Alan Wardroper wrote:
I eventually settled for the following (Thinkpad T23):
hdparm -c 1 -d 1 -u 1 -m16 -X69 /dev/hda hdparm -c 1 -d 1 -u 1 -X34 /dev/hdc
Hey Alan: Are your drive all on the Primary IDE cable? I have two WD drives on a 80 wire cable (Primary master and slave) running them from /etc/init.d/boot.local /sbin/hdparm -X66 -d1 -c3 -m16 /dev/hda /sbin/hdparm -X66 -d1 -c3 -m16 /dev/hdb /dev/hda: setting 32-bit IO_support flag to 3 setting multcount to 16 setting using_dma to 1 (on) setting xfermode to 66 (UltraDMA mode2) multcount = 16 (on) IO_support = 3 (32-bit w/sync) using_dma = 1 (on) /dev/hdb: setting 32-bit IO_support flag to 3 setting multcount to 16 setting using_dma to 1 (on) setting xfermode to 66 (UltraDMA mode2) multcount = 16 (on) IO_support = 3 (32-bit w/sync) using_dma = 1 (on) However, on SuSE 8.2 I seem to have a multcount time out problem on one drive. The system is a ATA 66 system with a 80 wire cable. Have you are anyone else seen a similar problem? If I could get a long enough 80 wire cable so that I coulds hook up them on different (Primary HD+CD, Secondary HD+CD-RW(scsi-ide)) I would try that. -- 73 de Donn Washburn __ " http://www.hal-pc.org/~n5xwb " Ham Callsign N5XWB / / __ __ __ __ __ __ __ 307 Savoy St. / /__ / / / \/ / / /_/ / \ \/ / Sugar Land, TX 77478 /_____/ /_/ /_/\__/ /_____/ /_/\_\ LL# 1.281.242.3256 a MSDOS Virus "Free Zone" OS Email: n5xwb@hal-pc.org Info: http://www.knoppix.net
participants (10)
-
Alan Wardroper -
Bernd -
Donn Washburn -
eddie -
Kelly Fulks -
Lars Norén -
Rick Friedman -
Stan Glasoe -
Steve -
The Wizard