The UVD/UVD2 thread.

[deltatux]

To get around the CPU rendering issue, I use opengl to do the video rendering so that the CPU decodes and the GPU does the rendering.

deltatux

[Mattster]

Confused...

We were talking about open source, but you're right this was an fglrx thread.

AFAIK we have not announced any UVD support for Catalyst yet. Xv (render acceleration) is already supported, of course.

Hi Bridgman,

2 things from me - firstly I wanted to thank you for your (often incredibly) patient and informative contributions to this forum

Secondly... unfortunately I'm still pretty confused! I'm trying to spec up a mythtv box. One major reason for going this way rather than a consumer box is futureproofing - i.e. capability with HD as it becomes more available over the next year or so (Blu-Ray and BBC HD, etc.).

With that in mind, I figure AMD is the way to go - was thinking of something like a X2 5050e. I had been pretty excited to read about the (windows) HD performance of the 780G which also seemed ideal. However I'm trying to work out what level of support is likely any time soon, like over the next few months.

I don't think I much care if that support is open or closed source in the first instance (should I?) Also I don't really understand all this rendering, motion compensation, IDCT, etc. malarkey on a sufficiently practical level to understand the impacts of it all. What I'd like to be able to do is know if and when (approximately) a 780G will be able to decode HD (from Blu-Ray and BBC broadcast) under linux, and which processor it would need in order to do so.

Right now I'm beginning to think maybe Windows is the way forward... please dissuade me as I hoped I'd left it behind! (happy Mac user & linux tinkerer)

Thanks again for all the support, and best wishes with the thrust which it seems to me is pushing you inevitably ahead of "the other GPU guys" in terms of linux support. Which is great, obviously, as it means loads of linux types will end up going for AMD boards and CPUs for both their own tinkering and when building (often inevitably windows) boxes for friends and relatives.

Best regards,

Matt

[forum1793]

I don't know much about Blu-ray but I can say that I currently am using the 780g with mythtv with ATSC (over the air HD). It's not perfect and it could be better but it's working pretty well.

[TechMage89]

@Mattster:

I'm not bridgman, but I can give you a sufficiently simple explanation of how it stands, I think.

Basically, what the graphics card concerns for your mythtv box is the performance you get playing videos. Xv exists right now for all the ATI gpus on closed-source drivers (and should exist for all of them on the open source drivers as soon as they finish up with the current work on them). What it does is use the graphics card to draw the video on screen, removing that load from the CPU.

Video decode acceleration is a separate story: it uses the graphics card to actually decode the video, removing that load from your CPU as well. With a full video decode acceleration (like the XvBA that is being developed for the closed-source drivers), you will see almost no CPU use at all to play video.

However, all this only really matters to you if you need one of two things:

1.) The ability to multitask while watching high-definition video.

2.) The ability to reduce power usage on your box (but only if you buy a lower-end, quiet graphics card and use thermal throttling on your CPU), for example, so your system can run quieter.

If neither of these two criteria hold true, it really doesn't matter very much to you, because any decent mid-end CPU you buy today will be able to decode and display high-definition video without any performance problems.

[Kjella]

@Mattster:
If neither of these two criteria hold true, it really doesn't matter very much to you, because any decent mid-end CPU you buy today will be able to decode and display high-definition video without any performance problems.

May I ask what kind of setup you're using? Because on my Q6600 I can play 720p/1080p encodes, but on raw Blu-Ray rips with video of up to 40Mbit/s it chokes under any version of mplayer/xine/vlc I try. It works under Windows/CoreAVC, I've heard there's some hacks to install it under Linux but they're not updated and CoreAVC is closed source payware. There's a few other funny bits with the M2TS/EVO containers and audio formats as well, so IMO the HD support under Linux is far from ready.

[Kano]

You can use ocreavc with a patched mplayer.

http://code.google.com/p/coreavc-for-linux/

[gsmd]

Any news?
Having this pretty XBMC thing and not being able to play 1080p movies on a pretty decent pc (780g + 4850e) really .. you know.

[bridgman]

gsmd, are you already using the Xv output on your player ?

[gsmd]

I believe I am (or at least I was as I've tried all various combinations with pretty much the same result). 720ps are no problem.
How do I make sure I'm using Xv though?

EDIT:
Xv is enabled in xorg.conf

        Option      "VideoOverlay" "on"
        Option      "OpenGLOverlay" "off"

[bridgman]

I think you want VideoOverlay off and TexturedVideo on.