lists at whitehouse
Jan 1, 2010, 11:09 PM
Post #3 of 3
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Re: AMD UVD2 support expected through VA-API
[In reply to]
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Nick Rout wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 22, 2009 at 11:15 AM, Aaron Whitehouse wrote:
>> http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd_xvba_vaapi&num=1
>>
>> It looks as though VA-API will be the way to get AMD/ATi's UVD2 support
>> in Gnu/Linux.
> One thing I have learned in relation to computers - any platform, any
> functionality - don't rely on promises of what is just around the
> corner. So in the meantime I will continue to recommend nVidia and
> vdpau :)
Further to my earlier email
(http://lists.ourshack.com/pipermail/mythtvnz/2009-November/008557.html )
UVD2 support on ATi cards through VA-API is now working in Gnu/Linux.
Some results of this are found here:
http://oscarbg.blogspot.com/2009/11/about-xvba-vaapi-backend.html
where he played 1080p H.264 with 3% CPU use.
Mplayer-vaapi seems to already support VA-API.
The full thread about this is here:
http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19983
I spent two hours reading through all the posts, but I wouldn't bother
doing the same. The long and the short of it is that the feature works
with freely and publicly-downloadable files, but has not yet been
officially announced.
The AMD employee who works on Free drivers put it quite well:
http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showpost.php?p=101503&postcount=370
He also summarised the architecture:
http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showpost.php?p=101627&postcount=383
The differences between ATi's Free and closed drivers are discussed by
him here:
http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showpost.php?p=100289&postcount=293
As a MythTV user and owner of a 780G (which has a UVD2 video decoder), I
would obviously be keen to see support make its way into MythTV.
From the perspective of someone who doesn't know much about actually
working with the libraries, the most sensible option in the long term
seems to be to replace the VDPAU support with VA-API and use the
VDPAU-VA-API library (vdpau-video) to translate to VDPAU (so that only
the VA-API code was in MythTV etc. and any VDPAU quirks etc. are handled
in the translation library). I would be keen to hear everybody's views
on that, especially as it sounds like the VDPAU support in MythTV works
brilliantly. I understand that VA-API was designed to be easy to
implement in programs and to support multiple-vendor's hardware, while
VDPAU was more an nVidia-specific effort. I don't, however, know a lot
about it. From general mailing-list chatter, the feeling that I get is
that generic efforts in Gallium3D etc. are also much more likely to use
VA-API than VDPAU. Intel obviously also currently uses VA-API.
I would be very keen to hear from anybody who tries out this hardware
acceleration with FreeviewHD streams.
> We have had promises of working acceleration in intel graphics chpsets
> and working open source drivers for AMD/ATI for ages now. Result? nix.
> nothing.
ATi/AMD's Free drivers are working fine for me (I don't use 3D on my
Myth box) and they have made huge strides forward since the specs were
released (when AMD bought the company). Detail of AMD/ATi's support of
Free drivers is here:
http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showpost.php?p=100269&postcount=285
I am very keen to see VA-API GPU-acceleration in Free drivers (and will
happily donate to such an effort), but expect that it may be a while yet
(though Bridgman's comments above are encouraging).
Regards,
Aaron
--
FSF Associate Member: 5632
http://www.fsf.org
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