# Problem playing DualDiscs.mov - playback doesn&#39;t show the first ~2 seconds

**URL:** <https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/problem-playing-dualdiscs-mov-playback-doesn-39-t-show-the-first-2-seconds/450>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [February 28, 2012, 6:38pm UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/problem-playing-dualdiscs-mov-playback-doesn-39-t-show-the-first-2-seconds/450 "2012-02-28T18:38:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Allen\_Ingling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Allen\_Ingling](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/Allen_Ingling)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2012, 6:38pm UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/problem-playing-dualdiscs-mov-playback-doesn-39-t-show-the-first-2-seconds/450/1 "2012-02-28T18:38:30Z")

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Background motivation for this question:

  

We are experiencing major platform-dependent problems opening and playing movies in Psychtoolbox, and we would really appreciate some help. &nbsp;In the course of trying to establish reliable movie behavior, we've tried many combinations of software: &nbsp;Win7/WinXP (Gstreamer Winbuilds 0.10.7 beta and 0.10.6 stable on each), and Ubuntu 11.10 64-bit and 32-bit, and Ubuntu 10.04, both Matlab and Octave. &nbsp;We have tried 2 different video cards and also a separate laptop system. &nbsp;But on all these systems we have varying file-dependent problems where our files won't open, or will open 1 time but not the 2nd time in a script, or we have problems with short bits of sound being dropped. &nbsp;So we are trying to establish a solid baseline of proper movie playback on 64-bit Ubuntu 11.10. &nbsp;For now we are focusing on DualDiscs.mov. &nbsp;Since our problems with our own movies and operating systems have been so varied, I will limit the rest of this question to 1 specific problem on 1 specific system: &nbsp; playback of the standard DualDiscs.mov that comes with PTB, on 64-bit Ubuntu 11.10. &nbsp;

  

The problem is:  

  

When playing DualDiscs.mov in Matlab or Octave, playback starts near the end of the movie, 2-2.5 seconds into it, instead of at the beginning as expected. &nbsp;I attached a .png that shows about where the movie starts. &nbsp;To demonstrate the movie timing for you, I have supplied the output a modified version of PlayMoviesWithoutGapDemoOSX that calls Screen('GetTimeIndex') and prints it before each call to Screen('GetMovieImage'...). &nbsp;It is in&nbsp;the attached logfile: &nbsp;"log-gstreamer.txt". &nbsp;You can see the time of the first frame output near the lines that start with "ITER=1" "ITER=2" etc. &nbsp;I have also attached modified demo file that created this output: PlayMoviesWithoutGapDemoOSX\_gettimeindex.m. &nbsp;Note that we use Screen('Preference', 'Verbosity', 10) in the logfile.&nbsp;

  

  
We can reproduce this problem on this machine using 2 different video cards: &nbsp;Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 and Nvidia GeForce 6800. &nbsp;Details about the specific system that generated the logfile output are at the end of this message. &nbsp;And&nbsp;I have also reproduced the behavior on a completely separate system: a i5-2435M Intel-based laptop that uses an Intel integrated graphics controller (64-bit Ubuntu 11.10, using Octave 3.2.4, haven't tried Matlab).&nbsp;  

  

We can play DualDiscs.mov fine outside of Psychtoolbox using totem or vlc, on both the desktop system and the laptop system.

  
One extra request: &nbsp;Mario, can you supply standard movies for testing that are known to play with no problems in Psychtoolbox, but in formats other than what's used by DualDiscs.mov? &nbsp;For example, the formats that correspond to .avi, .mp4, etc? &nbsp;For this testing purpose, we would prefer not to convert DualDiscs.mov to other formats ourselves (not even with ffmpeg -strict) since we don't know yet if some of our problems are caused by the movie encoders we have tried!  

  

Thanks for any help you can give!

  

Tim Edmondson

  

  

--

The attached logfile log-gstreamer.txt was generated by Matlab, with the following system configuration:

  

  

Ubuntu:

11.10 64-bit

Linux machine 3.0.0-16-generic #28-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jan 27 17:44:39 UTC 2012 x86\_64 x86\_64 x86\_64 GNU/Linux

  

CPU:

Intel Core i7-2600 quad-core 3.40GHz

  

Graphics card:

Nvidia GeForce GTS 450

  

Graphics driver:

nvidia-current-updates 280.13-0ubuntu5

  

Matlab:

7.13.0.564 (R2011b)

  

Psychtoolbox:

PsychtoolboxVersion

3.0.9 - Flavor: beta - Corresponds to SVN Revision 2450

  

gstreamer:

gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg 0.10.12-1ubuntu1

gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly 0.10.18-3ubuntu1

gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad 0.10.22-2ubuntu4

gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse 0.10.21-1

and other various plugins from the standard repositories
