[HowTo!] Smooth youtube 1080p in Chromium

[ztealmax]

UPDATED 181012
Hi to get sm1080P smooth playback in youtube use this code

This script removes rpi-chromium-mods and adds new improved customizations

create file:
sudo nano chromium-mod.sh

Copy content from codebox and paste in file!

Code: Select all

# **********************************************************************
# * Project: 00-piws-vars                                    	   *
# * Created: 05/06/2018 22:27                                          *
# * Author: Martin Svensson aka ztealmax - pi-workbench.org            *
# * Info: create in /etc/chromium-browser/customizations/              *
# * Note: replaces rpi-chromium-mods                                   *
# **********************************************************************
#
PICHROMIUMMODS="/etc/chromium-browser/customizations/00-rpi-vars"

if [ -f "$PICHROMIUMMODS" ];
then
   echo "$PICHROMIUMMODS purge rpi-chromium-mods..."
      sudo apt-get remove --purge --autoremove -y rpi-chromium-mods
else
   echo "rpi-chromium mods not present all is good..." >&2
# -[10]-chromium-customizations.sh--------------------------------------
sudo -- sh -c "echo 'CHROMIUM_FLAGS=' >> /etc/chromium-browser/customizations/00-piws-vars"
sudo sed -i 's/'CHROMIUM_FLAGS='/''CHROMIUM_FLAGS="${CHROMIUM_FLAGS} --ignore-gpu-blacklist --enable-gpu-rasterization --enable-native-gpu-memory-buffers --enable-checker-imaging --disable-quic --enable-tcp-fast-open --disable-gpu-compositing --enable-fast-unload --enable-experimental-canvas-features --enable-scroll-prediction --enable-simple-cache-backend --answers-in-suggest --ppapi-flash-path=/usr/lib/chromium-browser/libpepflashplayer.so --ppapi-flash-args=enable_stagevideo_auto=0 --ppapi-flash-version= --max-tiles-for-interest-area=512 --num-raster-threads=4 --default-tile-height=512"''/g' /etc/chromium-browser/customizations/00-piws-vars

# -------------------------------------------------------------[10]-END-
echo "piws-chromium modifications is now installed..."

fi

Make file executable
sudo chmod +x chromium-mod.sh
Run file
./chromium-mod.sh

Works with both VC4 OpenGL and OpenGL ES *Need to rpi-update for GLES to work
Also add extension to chromium-browser h264ify
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... kgioiakgal

and in /boot/config.txt add gpu_mem=192

[TanyaStawicki]

thanks for this post! I am definitly interested in smooth youtube (720 or 1040) playback!
I have tried your settings for Chromium

I'm on a pretty fast clocked RP3

Code: Select all

arm_freq=1250
core_freq=500
over_voltage=3
#force_turbo=1
boot_delay=1

OpenGL is enabled on the Pi ( http://www.raspberryconnect.com/gamesso ... berry_pi_3 ) . And "glxgears" is running at a steady 60 FPS

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root@raspberrypi:/boot# glxgears
Running synchronized to the vertical refresh.  The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
297 frames in 5.0 seconds = 59.396 FPS
301 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60.002 FPS
301 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60.007 FPS
300 frames in 5.0 seconds = 59.996 FPS
300 frames in 5.0 seconds = 59.897 FPS

But it didn't work out for me: Can't get Chromium youtube-playback any faster then out of the box. Any suggestions??

[ztealmax]

thanks for this post! I am definitly interested in smooth youtube (720 or 1040) playback!
I have tried your settings for Chromium

I'm on a pretty fast clocked RP3

Code: Select all

arm_freq=1250
core_freq=500
over_voltage=3
#force_turbo=1
boot_delay=1

OpenGL is enabled on the Pi ( http://www.raspberryconnect.com/gamesso ... berry_pi_3 ) . And "glxgears" is running at a steady 60 FPS

Code: Select all

root@raspberrypi:/boot# glxgears
Running synchronized to the vertical refresh.  The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
297 frames in 5.0 seconds = 59.396 FPS
301 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60.002 FPS
301 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60.007 FPS
300 frames in 5.0 seconds = 59.996 FPS
300 frames in 5.0 seconds = 59.897 FPS

But it didn't work out for me: Can't get Chromium youtube-playback any faster then out of the box. Any suggestions??

is the extension h264ify installed in chromium also? and check that you have atleast 192mb in file /boot/config.txt

you can check if all switches is enabled in chromium by typing chrome://gpu check how it looks there, any red text thats not enabled you can report back and ill try and help you, also if you could paste your config.txt it would be good

I could also upload an .img where its all set if you want?
//Martin

[quatro_por_quatro]

A fast Internet is also important, Wifi users may require installing an external Wifi USB dongle to enhance the speed.

The original swap capacity of 100 MB is not sufficient, when we open several tabs the browser requires a swap of more than 500 MB. A large swap of 1GB or 2GB should be recommended. That implies that a 8GB card is really short, we must use at least 16GB.

vc4 is the fastest video option and works, Raspbian will enable it when we load the overlay in config.txt and add the corresponding option in cmdline.txt. Therefore reboot the system and check via lsmod, also test using mesa-utils.

config.txt

Code: Select all

#gpu_mem=128
dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d,cma-256
gpu_mem=16

# Enable audio (loads snd_bcm2835)
dtparam=audio=on

hdmi_force_hotplug=1
hdmi_group=1
hdmi_mode=16
disable_overscan=1

cmdline.txt

Code: Select all

cma=256M cgroup_disable=cpuset,cpuacct,blkio,memory,devices,freezer,net_cls,perf_event,net_prio,pids dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 console=serial0,115200 console=tty1 root=PARTUUID=????????-02 rootfstype=ext4 elevator=deadline fsck.repair=yes rootwait

00-rpi-vars must be aware that the variable CHROMIUM_FLAGS may already contain a value, so the script should append to it. The flag "--enable-fast-unload" is only for users that want fast interrupt of the browser processes and don't care about saving the latest status of the browser tabs. Also we can borrow some of the Debian customization already released in testing,

Code: Select all

CHROMIUM_FLAGS="$CHROMIUM_FLAGS --disable-quic --enable-tcp-fast-open --disable-gpu-compositing --ppapi-flash-version=27.0.0.187"

# fast close the browser, interrupting all pending tasks
#CHROMIUM_FLAGS="$CHROMIUM_FLAGS --enable-fast-unload"

# use EGL
#CHROMIUM_FLAGS="$CHROMIUM_FLAGS --use-gl=egl"
#CHROMIUM_FLAGS="$CHROMIUM_FLAGS  --enable-remote-extensions --enable-native-gpu-memory-buffers"

# proxy flags, let chromium use the system configured proxy or enable one of the following flags, according to your network setup.
# look for a proxy script in http://wpad/wpad.dat
#CHROMIUM_FLAGS="$CHROMIUM_FLAGS --proxy-auto-detect"
# use this proxy for all protocols
#CHROMIUM_FLAGS="$CHROMIUM_FLAGS --proxy-server="192.168.1.1:8080"

# From Debian testing
# Do not hide any extensions in the about:extensions dialog
CHROMIUM_FLAGS="$CHROMIUM_FLAGS --show-component-extension-options"
# Don't use the GPU blacklist (bug #802933)
CHROMIUM_FLAGS="$CHROMIUM_FLAGS --ignore-gpu-blacklist"
# Don't display any warnings about not being the default browser
CHROMIUM_FLAGS="$CHROMIUM_FLAGS --no-default-browser-check"
# Disable pinging
CHROMIUM_FLAGS="$CHROMIUM_FLAGS --disable-pings"
# Disable the builtin media router (bug #833477)
CHROMIUM_FLAGS="$CHROMIUM_FLAGS --media-router=0"

[quatro_por_quatro]

The flag to disable GPU compositing means that the compositing will be done via software, so we must not disable it.

Code: Select all

#CHROMIUM_FLAGS="${CHROMIUM_FLAGS}  --disable-gpu-compositing"

Check the actual status of the GPU flags in the URL "chrome://gpu/"

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Graphics Feature Status
Canvas: Hardware accelerated
CheckerImaging: Disabled
Flash: Hardware accelerated
Flash Stage3D: Hardware accelerated
Flash Stage3D Baseline profile: Hardware accelerated
Compositing: Hardware accelerated
Multiple Raster Threads: Enabled
Native GpuMemoryBuffers: Hardware accelerated
Rasterization: Hardware accelerated on all pages
Video Decode: Hardware accelerated
Video Encode: Hardware accelerated
WebGL: Hardware accelerated
WebGL2: Hardware accelerated

[quatro_por_quatro]

Sorry, I was wrong in my previous message, the flag --disable-gpu-compositing is imperative to make vc4 work flawlessly.

[Trash_Can_Man]

and if you want to do it manualy open in nano from console
sudo nano /etc/chromium-browser/customizations/00-rpi-vars

and pase the following

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CHROMIUM_FLAGS="--show-component-extension-options --ignore-gpu-blacklist --disable-background-networking --use-gl=egl --enable-remote-extensions --enable-native-gpu-memory-buffers --disable-quic --enable-fast-unload --enable-tcp-fast-open --disable-gpu-compositing --force-gpu-rasterization --enable-zero-copy"'

There is an extra ' at the end of the code to paste manually, im not an expert at any level but i think those are used only on scripts and can cause problems on that config file...

[ztealmax]

and if you want to do it manualy open in nano from console
sudo nano /etc/chromium-browser/customizations/00-rpi-vars

and pase the following

Code: Select all

CHROMIUM_FLAGS="--show-component-extension-options --ignore-gpu-blacklist --disable-background-networking --use-gl=egl --enable-remote-extensions --enable-native-gpu-memory-buffers --disable-quic --enable-fast-unload --enable-tcp-fast-open --disable-gpu-compositing --force-gpu-rasterization --enable-zero-copy"'

There is an extra ' at the end of the code to paste manually, im not an expert at any level but i think those are used only on scripts and can cause problems on that config file...

You are correct ive moded it somewhat now, ill paste a new howto soon or im doing a .deb package for this that removes rpi-chromium-mods and adds my settings instead!

[robins250]

Hey Guy's

I spend a few days digging through all your awesome posts on this topic. This code is an amalgamation of the above advice. I formalised this code as it got me streaming HD with decent success and thought others might find it useful. I'd still like to improve, but this is a great start as compared to my out of the box experience... Thanks to all above for your help.

Also regarding RAM. I am using 192mb for graphics, 256 didn't seem to improve quality in my tests. I also changed to 128 from default 64 which made a decent improvement before these additions.

Also note: I don't know if the lines starting with rm and chmod are required, but I entered them and it seems to have worked.

Code: Select all

#The following Lines were entered into terminal after entering "sudo su" in terminal
#For noobs the above lets you enter into root. 
 
rm  /etc/chromium-browser/customizations/00-rpi-vars
echo 'CHROMIUM_FLAGS="--show-component-extension-options --ignore-gpu-blacklist --disable-background-networking --use-gl=egl --enable-remote-extensions --enable-native-gpu-memory-buffers --disable-quic --enable-tcp-fast-open --disable-gpu-compositing --force-gpu-rasterization --enable-zero-copy --disable-pings --media-router=0 -ppapi-flash-version=27.0.0.187 --proxy-auto-detect"' >> /etc/chromium-browser/customizations/00-rpi-vars
chmod 655 /etc/chromium-browser/customizations/00-rpi-vars

#This resulted in good HD video streaming playback

Background: my application is to replace my haswell i7 intended for CAD and CFD as it is currently providing streaming services for my family.

[ztealmax]

robins250 Im really glad you like it, thank you for all your work also

[topguy]

The guide should mention if it is meant to work if the experimental OpenGL drivers for X turned ON or OFF.

[ztealmax]

works with both experimental VC4 OpenGL and GLES

Think i stated that in begining

But if GLES i think you have to do a sudo rpi-update

ill update my guide soon with netter script and more info

[ztealmax]

A fast Internet is also important, Wifi users may require installing an external Wifi USB dongle to enhance the speed.

The original swap capacity of 100 MB is not sufficient, when we open several tabs the browser requires a swap of more than 500 MB. A large swap of 1GB or 2GB should be recommended. That implies that a 8GB card is really short, we must use at least 16GB.

vc4 is the fastest video option and works, Raspbian will enable it when we load the overlay in config.txt and add the corresponding option in cmdline.txt. Therefore reboot the system and check via lsmod, also test using mesa-utils.

config.txt

Code: Select all

#gpu_mem=128
dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d,cma-256
gpu_mem=16

# Enable audio (loads snd_bcm2835)
dtparam=audio=on

hdmi_force_hotplug=1
hdmi_group=1
hdmi_mode=16
disable_overscan=1

cmdline.txt

Code: Select all

cma=256M cgroup_disable=cpuset,cpuacct,blkio,memory,devices,freezer,net_cls,perf_event,net_prio,pids dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 console=serial0,115200 console=tty1 root=PARTUUID=????????-02 rootfstype=ext4 elevator=deadline fsck.repair=yes rootwait

00-rpi-vars must be aware that the variable CHROMIUM_FLAGS may already contain a value, so the script should append to it. The flag "--enable-fast-unload" is only for users that want fast interrupt of the browser processes and don't care about saving the latest status of the browser tabs. Also we can borrow some of the Debian customization already released in testing,

Code: Select all

CHROMIUM_FLAGS="$CHROMIUM_FLAGS --disable-quic --enable-tcp-fast-open --disable-gpu-compositing --ppapi-flash-version=27.0.0.187"

# fast close the browser, interrupting all pending tasks
#CHROMIUM_FLAGS="$CHROMIUM_FLAGS --enable-fast-unload"

# use EGL
#CHROMIUM_FLAGS="$CHROMIUM_FLAGS --use-gl=egl"
#CHROMIUM_FLAGS="$CHROMIUM_FLAGS  --enable-remote-extensions --enable-native-gpu-memory-buffers"

# proxy flags, let chromium use the system configured proxy or enable one of the following flags, according to your network setup.
# look for a proxy script in http://wpad/wpad.dat
#CHROMIUM_FLAGS="$CHROMIUM_FLAGS --proxy-auto-detect"
# use this proxy for all protocols
#CHROMIUM_FLAGS="$CHROMIUM_FLAGS --proxy-server="192.168.1.1:8080"

# From Debian testing
# Do not hide any extensions in the about:extensions dialog
CHROMIUM_FLAGS="$CHROMIUM_FLAGS --show-component-extension-options"
# Don't use the GPU blacklist (bug #802933)
CHROMIUM_FLAGS="$CHROMIUM_FLAGS --ignore-gpu-blacklist"
# Don't display any warnings about not being the default browser
CHROMIUM_FLAGS="$CHROMIUM_FLAGS --no-default-browser-check"
# Disable pinging
CHROMIUM_FLAGS="$CHROMIUM_FLAGS --disable-pings"
# Disable the builtin media router (bug #833477)
CHROMIUM_FLAGS="$CHROMIUM_FLAGS --media-router=0"

you only have 16Mb of GPU mem, i would alter that first to be atleast 192MB

[Rascas]

@ztealmax your script has a lot of typos/errors. Even if corrected, does it still really make a difference to stock raspberrypi.org chromium config ?

[ztealmax]

@ztealmax your script has a lot of typos/errors. Even if corrected, does it still really make a difference to stock raspberrypi.org chromium config ?

Noticed i pasted wrong code last time but its now updated and correct and working.

Yes it makes world of dirrerence, you get 1080P smooth playback, and with stock config raspberry pi you dont get it

Corrected code this one work as it should

Code: Select all

# **********************************************************************
# * Project: 00-piws-vars                                     	   *
# * Created: 05/06/2018 22:27                                          *
# * Author: Martin Svensson aka ztealmax - pi-workbench.org            *
# * Info: create in /etc/chromium-browser/customizations/              *
# * Note: replaces rpi-chromium-mods                                   *
# **********************************************************************
#
PICHROMIUMMODS="/etc/chromium-browser/customizations/00-rpi-vars"

if [ -f "$PICHROMIUMMODS" ];
then
   echo "$PICHROMIUMMODS purge rpi-chromium-mods..."
      sudo apt-get remove --purge --autoremove -y rpi-chromium-mods
else
   echo "rpi-chromium mods not present all is good..." >&2
# -[10]-chromium-customizations.sh--------------------------------------
sudo -- sh -c "echo 'CHROMIUM_FLAGS=' >> /etc/chromium-browser/customizations/00-piws-vars"
sudo sed -i 's/'CHROMIUM_FLAGS='/''CHROMIUM_FLAGS="--disk-cache-size=0 --use-gl=egl --gles --disable-quic --enable-fast-unload --enable-checker-imaging --enable-tcp-fast-open --enable-native-gpu-memory-buffers --enable-gpu-rasterization --enable-zero-copy"''/g' /etc/chromium-browser/customizations/00-piws-vars

# -------------------------------------------------------------[10]-END-
echo "piws-chromium modifications is now installed..."

fi

Forgot to add " fi " at end of script, its sorted now

Copy this to a new file for example: chromiummod.sh
then sudo chmod +x chromiummod.sh
./chromiummod.sh

*Remember to have gpu mem at atleast 192Mb and check that you hae extension in chromium-browser: h264ify

//Martin

[fjleon]

i bought a rb pi 3 b + intended to use it as a video player from earning money online. Maybe you have heard of smores, it pays you a tiny portion each 3 ads seen.

However the pi is unusable for me. I am running stock raspbian besides disabling HDMI and forcing 1920x1080 resolution in the config. I also ran apt-get update and upgrade. Video stops playing randomly, or the whole system freezes and i lose VNC connection so i must recycle power.

So i found this thread and it actually made everything worse. Now when the video starts to play the chromium tab crashes.I even tried enabling the fake and full KMS driver (the latter somehow changed my resolution despite trying to force it on the config.

[ztealmax]

i bought a rb pi 3 b + intended to use it as a video player from earning money online. Maybe you have heard of smores, it pays you a tiny portion each 3 ads seen.

However the pi is unusable for me. I am running stock raspbian besides disabling HDMI and forcing 1920x1080 resolution in the config. I also ran apt-get update and upgrade. Video stops playing randomly, or the whole system freezes and i lose VNC connection so i must recycle power.

So i found this thread and it actually made everything worse. Now when the video starts to play the chromium tab crashes.I even tried enabling the fake and full KMS driver (the latter somehow changed my resolution despite trying to force it on the config.

Ok this is what you need to do:
1 - Download latest raspbian-stretch and write it to sdcard
2a - if you use VC4 Full KMS activate it in raspi-config (dont do a rpi-update)
2b - if using GLES "native GL" (do rpi-update and restart)
3 - copy script on top post and follow instructions.
4 - Dont forget to add H264ify extension to chromium-browser
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... kgioiakgal
5 - Important (sudo nano /boot/config.txt and add gpu_mem=192) or alter it from raspi-config
6 - reboot

So you playing videos via VNC, could you please explain
Havent heard of smores im affraid but allways intrested to know more

Please let me know more how you intend to use it so i can replicate it and try it out to see if anything craches here
as i use my RPI3 as my main computer and stream videos all day without any problems!

[fjleon]

i did all that, tried combinations of the driver (full, fake, legacy), added the memory line to the config, tried the script... I got tired of it so i decided to try DietPi instead and it's working much better, no freezes, although chromium is still crashing every 30 min - 1 h.

Dietpi has a terrible wifi setup (very unreliable) but once you get it going it has some cool out of the box mods for the pi. It automatically adds 128mb to the graphics chip if it detects a desktop use (can use 192 if you want). It doesn't come with X by default but it's easy to add.

Smores is a video platform that pays you to watch their videos. There are a lot of video categories to choose from (science, news, food, gaming, apps, etc). Each 3 ads that play (not actual content videos. ads) you get 1 cent in your site account.

You need to open an account with any of their partners. I use Branded Surveys as they pay the most (1 cent) whether others pay 0.7 or 0.8 cents.

If you want to join, here's my referral link: https://surveys.gobranded.com/users/reg ... 25f67b78af

After you sign up, go to the Offers tab on the left, choose Adwall and then Videos, then choose any video category that interests you.

Smores has a 3 device limit, so i am using it on my laptop and thought the raspberry pi would be a cool second device to add to the mix. But i have to babysit it a lot as it crashes. I use VNC to avoid having to use a monitor / keyboard / mouse to check it.

My guess is that chromium is leaking memory so it crashes.

EDIT: forgot to mention: the extension is added automatically, i didn't need to do it.
Also, what driver do you use? You mention 2a and 2b however you must be using only one option yourself.

[ztealmax]

i did all that, tried combinations of the driver (full, fake, legacy), added the memory line to the config, tried the script... I got tired of it so i decided to try DietPi instead and it's working much better, no freezes, although chromium is still crashing every 30 min - 1 h.

Dietpi has a terrible wifi setup (very unreliable) but once you get it going it has some cool out of the box mods for the pi. It automatically adds 128mb to the graphics chip if it detects a desktop use (can use 192 if you want). It doesn't come with X by default but it's easy to add.

Smores is a video platform that pays you to watch their videos. There are a lot of video categories to choose from (science, news, food, gaming, apps, etc). Each 3 ads that play (not actual content videos. ads) you get 1 cent in your site account.

You need to open an account with any of their partners. I use Branded Surveys as they pay the most (1 cent) whether others pay 0.7 or 0.8 cents.

If you want to join, here's my referral link: https://surveys.gobranded.com/users/reg ... 25f67b78af

After you sign up, go to the Offers tab on the left, choose Adwall and then Videos, then choose any video category that interests you.

Smores has a 3 device limit, so i am using it on my laptop and thought the raspberry pi would be a cool second device to add to the mix. But i have to babysit it a lot as it crashes. I use VNC to avoid having to use a monitor / keyboard / mouse to check it.

My guess is that chromium is leaking memory so it crashes.

EDIT: forgot to mention: the extension is added automatically, i didn't need to do it.
Also, what driver do you use? You mention 2a and 2b however you must be using only one option yourself.

Driver is built in OpenGL ES its allready active dont activate anything in config except GPU mem

Ill check it and try it and get back to you

[fjleon]

did more testing on dietpi. activating either the fake or full vc4 driver in the config results in an instant crash once the video starts playing (smores and youtube included)

the only combo that works is to disable it and use half hd resolution. then chromium plays the video, appears to be in software rendering mode but it works. (until it crashes randomly in 30 min- 1h)

[ztealmax]

did more testing on dietpi. activating either the fake or full vc4 driver in the config results in an instant crash once the video starts playing (smores and youtube included)

the only combo that works is to disable it and use half hd resolution. then chromium plays the video, appears to be in software rendering mode but it works. (until it crashes randomly in 30 min- 1h)

Extremly weird that it craches but i will have a go at it this weekend not before im affraid got lots of work during weekdays

[fjleon]

i think we have different hardware, i'm using the newest b+ version of the rpi3. i will try to launch chromium tomorrow inside a terminal window so if it crashes maybe i will se the error.

at least with dietpi (which is based of raspbian) i am not getting whole system freezes.

[ztealmax]

i think we have different hardware, i'm using the newest b+ version of the rpi3. i will try to launch chromium tomorrow inside a terminal window so if it crashes maybe i will se the error.

at least with dietpi (which is based of raspbian) i am not getting whole system freezes.

I have all versions of RPI so yes im runnung on RPI3B+ Great let me know if you get any errors

[fjleon]

not a crash, but after running a while without rebooting videos just stop playing, here's the log

Untitled1111.png (41.66 KiB) Viewed 39173 times

[ztealmax]

Ill dive in to this at weekend