Video tearing on second monitor using TwinView

[AaronP]

In that case, it's up to Compiz and not the video player to sync to vblank. You could try using the __GL_SYNC_DISPLAY_DEVICE option when starting Compiz to choose which display it syncs to. Otherwise, I'd suggest disabling Compiz to see if it works better for you.

[khoma]

Bumping this to ask if there's been any progress made by anyone, nVidia or Compiz or whoever is currently holding the ball? Still no way to watch videos on my plasma tv without making my desktop fairly... ugly... by disabling GL effects?

Tried setting the environment variable mentioned above, but it doesn't seem to do anything, and even if it did work, wouldn't that just mean I'll get tearing issues on my primary monitor instead?

[scottdeagan]

I have a GTX460, running Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit, Compiz with wobbly windows switched on, my second monitor is a 42-inch Sony TV.

When in TwinView mode, there is noticeable (annoyingly noticeable) tearing on the Sony TV. The tearing starts from the top and moves slowly to the bottom. I'm not interested in getting rid of the tearing for a video playback application - I want to get rid of the tearing even when I'm using the second monitor as a monitor (dragging windows around etc).

I have tried to use the other option (separate X window instead of TwinView), but all I get is a grey screen and an "X" cursor.

I've tried all the 295.x drivers and the 302.x beta drivers, nothing gets rid of the tearing (I'm also tried all combinations of vsync in the driver and CCSM, and manually setting the refresh rate).

It works perfectly on Windows 7 using the 301.42 driver, but I don't want to use Windows. I tried copying the ESID information from Windows 7 and loading it in Ubuntu 12.04 via xorg.conf, but the tearing persists.

It breaks my heart that this one issue has pushed me back to Windows. I understand that Linux gets a lot less love because it's the little guy, but would it not be possible to produce a driver that provides ALL the same basic functionality as the Windows counterpart? Why does dual monitor support work so flawlessly in Windows 7, but not in Linux?

[johnc]

Originally Posted by scottdeagan

I have a GTX460, running Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit, Compiz with wobbly windows switched on, my second monitor is a 42-inch Sony TV.

When in TwinView mode, there is noticeable (annoyingly noticeable) tearing on the Sony TV. The tearing starts from the top and moves slowly to the bottom. I'm not interested in getting rid of the tearing for a video playback application - I want to get rid of the tearing even when I'm using the second monitor as a monitor (dragging windows around etc).

I have tried to use the other option (separate X window instead of TwinView), but all I get is a grey screen and an "X" cursor.

I've tried all the 295.x drivers and the 302.x beta drivers, nothing gets rid of the tearing (I'm also tried all combinations of vsync in the driver and CCSM, and manually setting the refresh rate).

It works perfectly on Windows 7 using the 301.42 driver, but I don't want to use Windows. I tried copying the ESID information from Windows 7 and loading it in Ubuntu 12.04 via xorg.conf, but the tearing persists.

It breaks my heart that this one issue has pushed me back to Windows. I understand that Linux gets a lot less love because it's the little guy, but would it not be possible to produce a driver that provides ALL the same basic functionality as the Windows counterpart? Why does dual monitor support work so flawlessly in Windows 7, but not in Linux?

Is it definitely a driver problem?

Have you tried GNOME Shell or Unity 2D or even GNOME Classic (without effects)?

[johnc]

Originally Posted by scottdeagan

I have a GTX460, running Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit, Compiz with wobbly windows switched on, my second monitor is a 42-inch Sony TV.

When in TwinView mode, there is noticeable (annoyingly noticeable) tearing on the Sony TV. The tearing starts from the top and moves slowly to the bottom. I'm not interested in getting rid of the tearing for a video playback application - I want to get rid of the tearing even when I'm using the second monitor as a monitor (dragging windows around etc).

I have tried to use the other option (separate X window instead of TwinView), but all I get is a grey screen and an "X" cursor.

I've tried all the 295.x drivers and the 302.x beta drivers, nothing gets rid of the tearing (I'm also tried all combinations of vsync in the driver and CCSM, and manually setting the refresh rate).

It works perfectly on Windows 7 using the 301.42 driver, but I don't want to use Windows. I tried copying the ESID information from Windows 7 and loading it in Ubuntu 12.04 via xorg.conf, but the tearing persists.

It breaks my heart that this one issue has pushed me back to Windows. I understand that Linux gets a lot less love because it's the little guy, but would it not be possible to produce a driver that provides ALL the same basic functionality as the Windows counterpart? Why does dual monitor support work so flawlessly in Windows 7, but not in Linux?

Ok I've read your cries for help over on the Ubuntu forums (as I was looking to solve my own tearing problems).

Are you getting tearing on both displays or just one, and do the displays use the same refresh rate?

If they are different refresh rates then I'd think you could only sync one of them. I'm surprised if this works on Windows since I thought the concept was the same.

But, fwiw, I have two displays of the same refresh rate and while my desktop is fine, I have tearing out the wazoo in both games and video playback in 12.04 with both unity+compiz and gnome-shell. But I did NOT have this problem in 11.04 (using gnome2 w/ compiz), even with the same video drivers (302.17). So in theory it should be possible from a hardware / driver perspective.