This page is new (14 May 2007), so please contribute your wisdom.

General challenges

• Video requires a lot of network bandwidth (which scales up with video resolution), so the video may be choppy.
• LTSP 4.2 generally uses ESounD which doesn't provide A/V sync, so the A/V may be out of sync. (See Sound.)
• Video players like to use special video card access (shared memory? X.org extensions?? hardware overlays?) for high performance which may not (?) be compatible with LTSP.
• Some terminals are not very powerful.

General tips

First, make sure your video software is setup properly for direct (non-terminal) use. For example, make sure the correct codecs and plugins are properly installed. (This page is mostly concerned with the LTSP-specific video player issues.)

Second, make sure your terminals can play audio (without video) using a complaint audio player. See Sound and SoundCards.

Third, you may need to check your video card (hardware) setup.

FIXME: Are there any X.org extensions that are helpful to load? Does XVideo work remotely?

As local applications

You may try running video players as LocalApps, but this page generally describes remote applications.

Mplayer

In general, try:

mplayer -vo x11 -ao esd video.mpg

General troubleshooting:

• Disable audio

  mplayer -vo x11 -ao null video.mpg

• Disable video

  mplayer -vo null -ao esd video.mpg

Problem: No video except solid blue screen
Solution: ??

RealPlayer

See RealPlayer under Sound.

Totem

Problem: solid green screen (maybe a hardware overlay?)
Solution: ??

VideoLAN

1. Settings->Preferences
2. Enable Advanced Options
3. Video->Output modules
4. Change to X11 or OpenGL
5. Video->Output modules->X11
6. Disable shared memory
7. Audio->Output modules
8. Change to EsounD

Problem: solid green screen (maybe a hardware overlay?)
Solution: Change video output settings.

Xine

-- AndrewZ - 14 May 2007