How to improve HD TV and video?

[zero]

Hi. Former Windows user here, totally converted to Linux Lite after having tried several distros for many years. So, I'm quite happy with the OS, and I need advice with software and hardware.

My main usage of this machine is watching HD TV and video. My graphics card is a Radeon HD 4650, capable of full hardware H.264/MPEG-4 AVC and VC-1 decoding, according to Wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon_HD_...celeration>. However, many frames are sometimes dropped and artifacts appear when playing a video stream, which is especially annoying when watching a football game for example.

So, my first question is: Are there some settings I can check and change to improve HD TV and video?

Chris

[rokytnji]

How about posting from terminal in code tags. The output of

Code:

inxi -Fxxxzdpluor -! 31

So members can get details on your gear. Dropped TV frames can also be effected by ISP provider server speeds. Like Mine. Windstream sux for speeds for video page loading. .

[zero]

Thanks for your reply. I stripped from the output what looks irrelevant to my question. Let me know if more information is needed.

Code:

System:    Kernel: 3.19.0-33-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.8.2)
           Desktop: Xfce 4.11.8 (Gtk 2.24.23) info: xfce4-panel dm: lightdm Distro: Ubuntu 14.04 trusty
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core2 CPU 6300 (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 7466.38
           Clock Speeds: 1: 1600.00 MHz 2: 1600.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RV730 PRO [Radeon HD 4650] bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:9498
           X.Org: 1.17.1 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: [email protected]
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD RV730 GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.5.9 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card-1: Intel 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:284b
           Card-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RV710/730 HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 4000 series]
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:aa38
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.19.0-33-generic
Info:      Processes: 221 Uptime: 10:14 Memory: 1585.5/7983.2MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.4 alt: 4.4/4.6/4.7/4.9
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.11 running in x-terminal-emul) inxi: 1.9.17

In addition to that, I also have a DVB-T card:

Code:

Multimedia controller: Philips Semiconductors SAA7131/SAA7133/SAA7135 Video Broadcast Decoder (rev d1)

I'm using VLC as offline video player.

Code:

VLC media player 2.1.6 Rincewind (revision 2.1.6-0-gea01d28)
VLC version 2.1.6 Rincewind (2.1.6-0-gea01d28)
Compiled by buildd on lcy01-24.buildd (Aug 11 2017 14:21:28)
Compiler: gcc version 4.8.4 (Ubuntu 4.8.4-2ubuntu1~14.04.3)

And, for Web content:

Code:

Chromium    61.0.3163.79 (Built on Ubuntu , running on Ubuntu 14.04)
Flash plugin    27.0.0.130 /usr/lib/adobe-flashplugin/libpepflashplayer.so
--- GPU driver, more information ---
Vendor Id    0x1002
Device Id    0x9498
Driver vendor    Google Inc.
Driver version    3.3.0.2
Driver date    2017/04/07
Pixel shader version    3.0
Vertex shader version    3.0
GL_VENDOR    Google Inc.
GL_RENDERER    Google SwiftShader
GL_VERSION    OpenGL ES 2.0 SwiftShader
GL_EXTENSIONS

[Valtam]

Are you using VLC to watch football? If so, you should try a different Output from Tools, Preferences, Video.

[zero]

Nice, I didn't know that could be changed. I see a dozen of items in that list, do you remember which one works best for you?

Regarding hardware, since RAM is already maxed out and upgrading the CPU won't be an option, what features should I be looking for in a new graphics card?

[Valtam]

If you want a new graphics card, go nVidia. ATI has bad support historically speaking. VLC - experiment until you find the right one.

[zero]

Okay, will do. Thanks for your advices.