AMD Releases UVD Video Decode Support For R600 GPUs

[brent]

We are talking about an implementation of OpenGL extension GL_NV_vdpau_interop, correct?

Yes. Like I said, the API is field-based, and field output apparently isn't supported by those old R600 GPUs. I guess it should be possible to make this work with some additional overhead (buffer copies) though.

[opensource]

Sure there are also non-mobile versions but for mobile users this is absolutely great!

Right, but as I wrote, you can sell your old hardware, otherwise it would be of course be more expensive.

[schmidtbag]

I think it's pretty cool they did this. At this point most of this older hardware is only good for video decoding anyway so it can help breathe life into these old systems that many may have considered retiring. I think it's more important to get UVD and VDPAU completed before optimizing or adding anything else to these older cards; anything related to gaming I'd prefer be focused on newer cards. Now all they need to do is complete VDPAU.

[Guest]

AMD and other devs, if developing for older hardware does not help support new hardware then please don't waste your time writing code for old hardware. New and newer hardware has more users and new hardware is also faster/better. Get over it and sell your old hardware and buy new hardware (200$ extra per 3years is nothing). Intel has great open source drivers BTW, they even have a team called The Intel Open Source Technology Center. Unfortunately they don't have AM/NV like graphics cards but regarding CPU I'd buy Intel.

Find me an AMD GPU for $10 that's newer than a Radeon HD 2400 PRO, and I may be interested in your proposal to buy newer hardware.

Also, who cares what CPU you'd buy? If I was going to buy some soft drink, I'd go for Pepsi

I think it's pretty cool they did this. At this point most of this older hardware is only good for video decoding anyway so it can help breathe life into these old systems that many may have considered retiring. I think it's more important to get UVD and VDPAU completed before optimizing or adding anything else to these older cards; anything related to gaming I'd prefer be focused on newer cards. Now all they need to do is complete VDPAU.

I have an older desktop with a Radeon HD 2400 PRO that could use some VDPAU; I run Plex Home Theater on it. Although I'm interested in:

rv6xx is everything but the r600: the HD2900, which upon announcement supposedly had uvd, but two days later this was correct. Apparently that block was broken on r600. So you're talking hd2400, hd2600 (if synapses serve, as this 7y old info is purely off the top of my head) and such as well.

So does that mean this news doesn't apply to a 2400? I assume the 2400 and 2400 PRO are the same?

[whitecat]

I assume the 2400 and 2400 PRO are the same?

On the desktop side, HD 2400 doesn't exists. There is only 2400 Pro and 2400 XT.
And both are RV610.

So does that mean this news doesn't apply to a 2400?

So HD 2400 is concerned by this news.

[Hibbelharry]

I had some short look on the code changes and annotations I could find. As far as I see VDPAU-GL interop should be working on UVD2 and up, so Radeon HD4xxx should be able to run XBMC with hardware accelerated Video, which would be a nice plus. No warranty though....

[blackiwid]

Excuse me, but some of us have laptops and we can't just REMOVE THE GPU.... unless you want to pay to buy laptops for people.

Sure there are also non-mobile versions but for mobile users this is absolutely great!

you have a 7 year old laptop? I find it always funny how old is intel atom again? Maybe its their a hardware limitation but who cares if its the software or the hardware that fucks it up... there was also no vdpau or something equivalent for it. But hey intel is godness they make the best drivers for linux.

Of course if your hardware cant do nothing has very few features its easier to support this few features good.

And btw, whats this garbage with 32bit uefi in baytrail computers that hinders installing of every linux distribution...

[liam]

VDPAU-GL interop is required for some software that implements custom video postprocessing or scaling, like XBMC or mpv. The interop API is based on fields, even for progressive content.

I couldn't find any info about fields and progressive video. Is it just a matter of naming (for progressive:field=frame), or do they actually interlace progressive content?
Regardless, this seems like it would only be an issue if you want to avoid copies. So, take two fields, deinterlace (using whatever method) to gl_texture->post-process->display (the universal planes/atomic pageflip could help to avoid a copy here).

[halfmanhalfamazing]

Crossfire and a GUI

This is such great news! The to do list keeps getting smaller and smaller and smaller!

Now, if only they would prioritize Crossfire support and put together some sort of easy to use, updated configuration GUI, this driver would be perfect!

[Nuc!eoN]

You mean... "Damn it! My company of choice isn't supporting my 7+yr hardware!" ? There is NOTHING that says they HAD TO put out this support. They did it purely out of the goodness of their heart (even profit isnt an issue since anyone working on this couldve been working on other stuff, NEW cards that AMD is still making money on). No card is supported forever, and no driver is perfect.

Lol Eric are you actually kidding? I bought my Radeon HD 4770 at the end of 2009; in april 2012 AMD announced the buggy HD 4xxx series will from now on be considered as legacy (for Windows and Linux). They also made clear that there will be no Windows 8 support.

So what?? Should I consider those two and a half years of support as a "goodness of their heart"? If truth be told - this is a f*ckin' shame. I as a customer felt really betrayed by AMD. It cannot be denied that AMD sucks in long term driver support and that NVIDIA does a much better job there (my previous card was NVIDIA so I goddman know what I'm talking about...).


Considering the current poor (Windows) driver state for my new R7 260x, I'm also rather pessimistic that it will ever reach a stable state.

Buggy unsupported crap.