My RP3 B+ Keeps Frame Dropping using VLC

[grahammiranda13]

Hello,

My CPU Usage is around 20% and I play my movies from a USB Drive

While watching a movie Recently I noticed I suffer from split second but noticeable frame drops while watching a movie.

The movie file form: .mkv

Can anyone advice me what to do?

I'm using VLC that was bundled along the previous update and my GPU memory is 256MB

Thank you,
Graham Miranda

[HawaiianPi]

VLC is does not support hardware video decode on the Pi by default. There are instructions to build it yourself with hardware support (somewhere on these forums), or you can use OMX Player, which is included in Raspbian and does support hardware decode.

OMX Player is a command line application, but you can configure it to launch from the file manager when you double click on a video. There is also something called OMX Player GUI, which might be your simplest option.

To get the file manager to correctly launch OMX Player with a double-click on the file.

1. Right-click on the file you want to play, go to open with, and select custom command.
2. Under Command line to execute: enter, omxplayer %f -b
3. Check, Execute in terminal emulator
4. Add an application name, and check Set selected application as default action for this file type.

You will have to do this once for each file type (mkv, mp4).

After that, double-clicking on any file of the same type will launch it in OMXplayer. Hot keys work when configured this way. Hit "q" to quit playback early (omxplayer --help, or man omxplayer for more info).

[gkreidl]

VLC is does not support hardware video decode on the Pi by default. There are instructions to build it yourself with hardware support (somewhere on these forums), or you can use OMX Player, which is included in Raspbian and does support hardware decode.

OMX Player is a command line application, but you can configure it to launch from the file manager when you double click on a video. There is also something called OMX Player GUI, which might be your simplest option.

To get the file manager to correctly launch OMX Player with a double-click on the file.

1. Right-click on the file you want to play, go to open with, and select custom command.
2. Under Command line to execute: enter, omxplayer %f -b
3. Check, Execute in terminal emulator
4. Add an application name, and check Set selected application as default action for this file type.

You will have to do this once for each file type (mkv, mp4).

After that, double-clicking on any file of the same type will launch it in OMXplayer. Hot keys work when configured this way. Hit "q" to quit playback early (omxplayer --help, or man omxplayer for more info).

The Foundation repository now includes a HW accelerated version of VLC, which is also contained in recent images.

[gkreidl]

Hello,

My CPU Usage is around 20% and I play my movies from a USB Drive

While watching a movie Recently I noticed I suffer from split second but noticeable frame drops while watching a movie.

The movie file form: .mkv

Can anyone advice me what to do?

I'm using VLC that was bundled along the previous update and my GPU memory is 256MB

Thank you,
Graham Miranda

Do you get the same frame drops when you switch to full screen mode?

[grahammiranda13]

VLC is does not support hardware video decode on the Pi by default. There are instructions to build it yourself with hardware support (somewhere on these forums), or you can use OMX Player, which is included in Raspbian and does support hardware decode.

OMX Player is a command line application, but you can configure it to launch from the file manager when you double click on a video. There is also something called OMX Player GUI, which might be your simplest option.

To get the file manager to correctly launch OMX Player with a double-click on the file.

1. Right-click on the file you want to play, go to open with, and select custom command.
2. Under Command line to execute: enter, omxplayer %f -b
3. Check, Execute in terminal emulator
4. Add an application name, and check Set selected application as default action for this file type.

You will have to do this once for each file type (mkv, mp4).

After that, double-clicking on any file of the same type will launch it in OMXplayer. Hot keys work when configured this way. Hit "q" to quit playback early (omxplayer --help, or man omxplayer for more info).

The Foundation repository now includes a HW accelerated version of VLC, which is also contained in recent images.

So I don't need to do this?

[grahammiranda13]

Hello,

My CPU Usage is around 20% and I play my movies from a USB Drive

While watching a movie Recently I noticed I suffer from split second but noticeable frame drops while watching a movie.

The movie file form: .mkv

Can anyone advice me what to do?

I'm using VLC that was bundled along the previous update and my GPU memory is 256MB

Thank you,
Graham Miranda

Doyou get the same frame drops when you switch to full screen mode?

I think I only get Frame Drops when I switch to full screen mode.

[gkreidl]

I think I only get Frame Drops when I switch to full screen mode.

That's not logical, if you have selected the right kind of video output!
Go to Tools/Preferences, select "Video" and then select "MMAL x11 splitter for Raspberry Pi" as video output.
This will reduce the CPU use considerably in window mode and even much more in full screen mode (using an overlay).

[grahammiranda13]

I will try it and update you!

For now I solved it by using Kodi and OMXPLayer

[grahammiranda13]

I think I only get Frame Drops when I switch to full screen mode.

That's not logical, if you have selected the right kind of video output!
Go to Tools/Preferences, select "Video" and then select "MMAL x11 splitter for Raspberry Pi" as video output.
This will reduce the CPU use considerably in window mode and even much more in full screen mode (using an overlay).

It was on Automatic before