Video playback hiccups with Fedora 35 on RockPro64

[whitecat23]

Lately I've been downloading videos to test playback on Fedora 35. These videos all range in quality from standard definition, to high definition to 4k. In all cases, playback in VLC exhibits hiccups (i.e. stuttering) at various points, enough to distract from those long, evolving cinematic sequences which had become a hallmark of Kubrick.
I have little to no experience in the world of video and find myself unable to correct the problem, even after downloading a bunch of gstreamer codecs and whatnot. For comparison, these same videos play flawlessly using VLC on an AMD-based Windows computer circa 2012. Now, I realize there are Linux distributions specifically tailored to maximizing video quality, but they are specialist in nature (i.e. LibreElec), and not tailored to general personal computing. As a result, I'm looking for advice on tweaking Fedora for best quality video on the RockPro64.

[Rocklobster]

Lately I've been downloading videos to test playback on Fedora 35. These videos all range in quality from standard definition, to high definition to 4k. In all cases, playback in VLC exhibits hiccups (i.e. stuttering) at various points, enough to distract from those long, evolving cinematic sequences which had become a hallmark of Kubrick.
I have little to no experience in the world of video and find myself unable to correct the problem, even after downloading a bunch of gstreamer codecs and whatnot. For comparison, these same videos play flawlessly using VLC on an AMD-based Windows computer circa 2012. Now, I realize there are Linux distributions specifically tailored to maximizing video quality, but they are specialist in nature (i.e. LibreElec), and not tailored to general personal computing. As a result, I'm looking for advice on tweaking Fedora for best quality video on the RockPro64.

Funny you should mention LibreElec. I installed it a few months back and video playback is rock solid in all resolutions. In fairness it is optimised to do the job. I don't rate SBC's for general all round computing using a typical desk top UI like Fedora, Ubuntu etc when streaming video. Again you'll have to dig a little deeper here and other sources to find answers to your problem. In the meantime just pop LibreElec onto an SD card fire the board up and it boots in 15 seconds. for an excellent video experience.

[whitecat23]

Funny you should mention LibreElec. I installed it a few months back and video playback is rock solid in all resolutions. In fairness it is optimised to do the job. I don't rate SBC's for general all round computing using a typical desk top UI  like Fedora, Ubuntu etc when streaming video. Again you'll have to dig a little deeper here and other sources to find answers to your problem. In the meantime just pop LibreElec onto an SD card  fire the board up and it boots in 15 seconds. for an excellent video experience.

I'll give LibreElec a whirl, just to see what the machine's capabilities are. If 'dual-booting' between µSD and eMMC storage is what it takes to get the job done, well, I'm okay with it for now. I'll continue searching for a Fedora-specific solution, and post back if I find one.

[dukla2000]

... just to see what the machine's capabilities are. If 'dual-booting' between µSD and eMMC storage is what it takes to get the job done, well, I'm okay with it for now. I'll continue searching for a Fedora-specific solution, and post back if I find one.

I can't offer anything for Fedora and doubt I have any 4k files. But for me mpv is great, runs about 25% CPU of one of the little cores playing one of my videos full-screen. (So in my case appears bags of horsepower left and I don't ever have stuttering.)

Code:

$ lsb_release -a
LSB Version:    1.4
Distributor ID:    Arch
Description:    Arch Linux
Release:    rolling
Codename:    n/a
chris@RPro64:~$ uname -a
Linux RPro64 5.16.3-1-MANJARO-ARM #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Jan 28 00:39:47 CET 2022 aarch64 GNU/Linux

[whitecat23]

... just to see what the machine's capabilities are. If 'dual-booting' between µSD and eMMC storage is what it takes to get the job done, well, I'm okay with it for now. I'll continue searching for a Fedora-specific solution, and post back if I find one.

I can't offer anything for Fedora and doubt I have any 4k files. But for me mpv is great, runs about 25% CPU of one of the little cores playing one of my videos full-screen. (So in my case appears bags of horsepower left and I don't ever have stuttering.)

Code:

$ lsb_release -a
LSB Version:    1.4
Distributor ID:    Arch
Description:    Arch Linux
Release:    rolling
Codename:    n/a
chris@RPro64:~$ uname -a
Linux RPro64 5.16.3-1-MANJARO-ARM #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Jan 28 00:39:47 CET 2022 aarch64 GNU/Linux

Thanks, but unfortunately it seems MPV has serious issues with Wayland and Gnome. I tried playing a couple of short videos in 4k, and they were unwatchable. I came across a suggestion that's supposed to get things going with nVidia hardware, and thought to myself, would it also work with Mali? But it didn't make a difference on my kit. After reading on it a bit, I'm beginning to think that Gnome might just be the problem. Next week I'll have some time to check out LibreElec and look into other options. I'm almost now certain this isn't a RockPro64 problem, rather a software one.