Just for knowledge.... I was able to avoid the 100% CPU usage doing these changes to the fakesrc example on the gst manual (note that I've used the directdrawsink and not the xvimagesink): static void cb_handoff (GstElement *fakesrc,         GstBuffer  *buffer,         GstPad     *pad,         gpointer    user_data) {     static gboolean white = FALSE;     GTimeVal gtime;     g_get_current_time(&gtime);     GstClockTime gstClock=GST_TIMEVAL_TO_TIME(gtime); //basetime is a static GstClockTime var     buffer->timestamp= gstClock-baseTime;     memset (GST_BUFFER_DATA (buffer), white ? 0xff : 0x0,       GST_BUFFER_SIZE (buffer));     white = !white; } gint main (gint   argc,       gchar *argv[]) {   GstElement *pipeline, *fakesrc, *flt, *conv, *videosink,*parDDSink;   GMainLoop *loop;   GstBus* bus;   /* init GStreamer */   gst_init (&argc, &argv);   loop = g_main_loop_new (NULL, FALSE);   /* setup pipeline */   pipeline = gst_pipeline_new ("pipeline");   fakesrc = gst_element_factory_make ("fakesrc", "source");   gst_base_src_set_format((GstBaseSrc*)fakesrc,GST_FORMAT_TIME);   flt = gst_element_factory_make ("capsfilter", "flt");   conv = gst_element_factory_make ("ffmpegcolorspace", "conv");   videosink = gst_element_factory_make ("directdrawsink", "directdraw");   parDDSink = gst_element_factory_make ("capsfilter", "ddSinkPar");   /* setup */   g_object_set (G_OBJECT (flt), "caps",           gst_caps_new_simple ("video/x-raw-rgb",                      "width", G_TYPE_INT, 384,                      "height", G_TYPE_INT, 288,                      "framerate", GST_TYPE_FRACTION, 1, 1,                      "bpp", G_TYPE_INT, 16,                      "depth", G_TYPE_INT, 16,                      "endianness", G_TYPE_INT, G_BYTE_ORDER,                      NULL), NULL);   g_object_set (G_OBJECT(parDDSink), "caps",         gst_caps_new_simple ("video/x-raw-rgb",         "width", G_TYPE_INT, 384,         "height", G_TYPE_INT, 288,         "framerate",GST_TYPE_FRACTION, 1, 1),         NULL);   gst_bin_add_many (GST_BIN (pipeline), fakesrc, flt,conv,parDDSink, videosink, NULL);   gst_element_link_many (fakesrc, flt, conv, parDDSink,videosink, NULL);   bus = gst_pipeline_get_bus (GST_PIPELINE (pipeline));   gst_bus_add_watch (bus, bus_call, loop);   gst_object_unref (bus);   /* setup fake source */   g_object_set (G_OBJECT (fakesrc),         "signal-handoffs", TRUE,         "sizemax", 384 * 288 * 2,         "sizetype", 2, NULL);   g_signal_connect (fakesrc, "handoff", G_CALLBACK (cb_handoff), NULL);   /* play */   gst_element_set_state (pipeline, GST_STATE_PLAYING);   GstClock *clock;   clock=gst_pipeline_get_clock ((GstPipeline*)pipeline);   baseTime=gst_clock_get_time(clock);   g_main_loop_run (loop);   /* clean up */   gst_element_set_state (pipeline, GST_STATE_NULL);   gst_object_unref (GST_OBJECT (pipeline));   return 0; } Simply I've done some add on the time management, unfortunately I can't reach the flow control of 1fps and the video is flickering as fast as it can with a strange behaviour: if I run the example with GST_DEBUG >= 3 the fps is exactly 1, this is a very mistery for me.... Hope that's helpfull for some of you. Regards. -- Riccardo Corona