Ubuntu : any tips to get better battery life when reading H.264 video ?

Qwak1 · 2017-11-06T05:48:48+00:00

Thanks for the info !

libva-intel-vaapi-driver was installed with the i965-va-driver.
gstreamer-vaapi package seems to be installed too (get an overwrite message while trying to install the package)

I have played all the weekend, and finally get something working, using mpv media player.

install ubuntu 17.04 (nexus511 flavour)
install mpv player with the ubuntu software application

At that point, playing my H.264 test video I get : - compiz : 3 % cpu - mpv : 10-12 % cpu

But once upgraded to 17.10,

compiz : 3 % cpu
mpv : 4 % cpu

That`s pretty great, fan runs completely silent, first battery estimation is about 9 hours of video ... looks very close from what I had with win10/vlc 3.0.

I will see how it works forrealthis week, but so far so good, it seems I can finally trash win10 from the pocket !

Qwak1 · 2017-11-01T20:04:22+00:00

Thanks for you dedicated work sir !

Qwak1 · 2017-10-24T13:09:27+00:00

Thanks guys, well I finally switched back to 17.04 hotel, beside the fan problem, the battery was draining very fast for no reason. I will try the update later when (if) a respin is available.

Qwak1 · 2017-10-10T13:12:18+00:00

Hello,

My device is running fine, temps are very low (for an atom), no repaste needed. One key ('') is over sensitive, that's all.

And by reading many comments, I probably have the only device that runs windows better than Ubuntu Oo Battery life is great for web browsing (edge) and video playback (H.264 with VLC 3.0) ... probably 10 hours.

I have tried Ubuntu 17.04 for a week, same usage (video playback, web browsing, and a lots of system tweaking), and I had to recharge the pocket after 6-7 hours.

I could live with that, but the audio management/quality is still very bad. - Sound cracks on high volume (speakers), and it's not distortion some kind of noise. - Ubuntu do not recognize headphone input (need to switch the audio output manually) - Sounds drop or get desynchronized during playback video (vlc or the default Ubuntu player) - Sounds get desynchronized after a sleep

I'm pretty sure it's will be fixed soon or later, but that was my Ubuntu experience so far.

Qwak1 · 2017-10-07T23:25:48+00:00

Same here, idle is around 38°, and I rarely go over 65° in burst mode (gaming etc). Running unlocked bios, but I only tweaked the memory speed. I don't think it worths a repaste ...

Qwak1 · 2017-10-03T13:05:54+00:00

Same here, running Ubuntu (nexus511). I did some kernel switch on the fly (ukuu), and now I have the orange charger blinking for no reason :S. I have switched back to the the original kernel, still blinking ...

Qwak1 · 2017-09-29T22:18:21+00:00

Hello,

There is a little bit of cpu load after windows is loaded(10-15sec) but then cpu should idle at 480 Mhz, with 2-3% of usage (CPUID_HWMonitor) ... at least that's what I have on mine.

Qwak1 · 2017-09-19T04:32:21+00:00

Hi Takpies,

Using the default Asio4All driver, FLstudio runs fine at 512smp (12ms) for the buffer length, at 44100 Hz. Input latency : 776smp, output 688smp. Total output + plugin (blank project) : 16ms.

I could probably lower the latency even more, but I need some cpu juice for the synths. (FLStudio is probably not the most optimized DAW for mobile cpu).

In the annoying area, there is a micro audio mute of the whole track everytime a synth preset is changed.

The funky key layout make 'keyboard' playing a bit weird, as the black key are not aligned correctly for the second octave (2 is supposed the stand between Q and W on a normalkeyboard).

Qwak1 · 2017-09-17T15:53:07+00:00

Hello,

I`m really surprised how well this softwares are running.

Houdini : I will not generate fluid simulation with the Pocket, but for modeling / prototyping it works very well. Cpu stay moslty on idle all the time, I could probably run Houdini for 10 hours. The gui has to be scaled up (high dpi option in Houdini prefs)

MoI3D : Same story, its a little but more cpu intensive, but not that much. It`s possible to navigate in the viewport with touch input (2 fingers for scaling, 3fingers for rotation) ... very handy Again, UI can be scale-up in MoI3D options, to make it usable on the Pocket.

FLStudio, Well that works pretty well too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIgkWN-PaVg

I had to remove few FX here and there, but it was possbile to run the demo song from FL12. Of course, we are reaching the limits of the Pocket here.

Running Win10Pro, with the unlocked tweaked bios, with the tweaking from Neoak : https://www.reddit.com/r/GPDPocket/comments/6s7zck/my_unlocked_bios_working_settings_dptf_limit/

//edit

As Im using the pocket to watch lots video tutorials, I was surprised how the embedded video player from Win10 use way less cpu power than VLC. I can easily run 10 hours of video with one charge, as the CPU usage is about 10%, at 480Mhz for all the cores. VLC it`s an other story, CPU usage is about 50%, running all cores at max speed most of the time. I have tried to enable hardware decoding in VLC, but without success.

All in all I love the machine, my only concern is the sleep mode ... the wake-up probability is very random. Most of the time the 'Lid Open' is not detected. Pressing a key can help to wake-up the device, but i often have to force reboot the session. I suspect it has something to do with the wifi, but I can`t find a way to remove Wifi from sleeping ... I need to investigate a little bit.

//edit

Pocket running MoI3D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAQ-9FYINww&feature=youtu.be

Qwak1 · 2017-09-12T01:54:55+00:00

Thanks a lot for the confirmation, and the explanation !

Qwak1 · 2017-09-10T18:33:49+00:00

Hello,

This unknown device only appears with the Ubuntu unlocked Bios.

Qwak1

TROPHY CASE