AMD Catalyst 9.12 For Linux available

[GreekGeek]

9.12 + nopat = XvBa works?

Hi Yall,

can anyone else confirm, if Vi0L0's post about, 9.12 + nopat = XvBa works?

Vi0L0, can you post a link to the forum thread, where you read this?

Greekgeek :-)

[Vi0L0]

Vi0L0, can you post a link to the forum thread, where you read this?

Looks like i have just discovered this
More important for me is opencl support, this XvBa was just 'shooting in the dark' test.
It's working just like in 9.10 for me.

But still XvBa is not for me - no subtitles (but i can see those white progress bar and play/stop/pause signs on mplayer - havent seen this on 9.10) and colours arent right.

Im using archlinux and i have installed those packages to get XvBa to work: libva-sds xvba-video mplayer-vaapi-pulse
(if this can help anybody)

Edit: please also notice that ive tested all this with 9.12 hotfix, not 9.12. I dont know does it work with 9.12 (but i belive it is)
Edit2: Btw theres a testing watermark with this 9.12 hotfix, but old signature trick will fix it

[Kano]

There are subtitles now. They just don't look as perfect as when you use vdpau however. Maybe update all parts like xvba-video + libva + mplayer vaapi. For Debian/Ubuntu users:

http://kanotix.com/files/fix/mplayer-vaapi-latest.txt

[timmy]

Hi everyone,

Im a bit lost, what is XvBa?
Is it something to get rid of the awful tearing while playing videos?

In my opinion, the video tearing is a major issue which needs to be resolved, and I am desperately waiting to see this solved since the day I bought my laptop

[bridgman]

Are you using GL output with sync-to-vblank enabled ? GL is the recommended video output path for fglrx right now.

XvBA is something different - hardware acceleration of the higher level decoding operations, ie going from H.264 / VC-1 bitstream to YCbCr images.

You can think of the video stack as being divided into two parts - "decode" (going from bitstream to YCbCr at native resolution) and "render" (going from YCbCr to RGB at screen resolution, scaled and filtered). Xv and GL are options for the "render" part - XvBA is an option for the "decode" part.

[timmy]

Thank you for your explanations

If I understood what everyone is saying, XvBa is usefull for HD video only?

I am not using GL output + sync-to-vblank activated (+ compiz off?) for two main reasons:
- GL output is ugly
- Too many things to do before watching a video (Opening the video is the only thing we should have to do!!)

This situation is abnormal, why do we need one setting for desktop + games, and another one for video? This is ridiculous It works well with nVidia...

I have tried your solution, which seems to be the best so far, but I do not like it. Do you know any other way to proceed?

Thanks

[bridgman]

Can you give a bit more detail re: "GL output is ugly" ? There is a difference in the sense that Xv does not expand the dynamic range from 16:235 to 0:255 while GL output usually does (making Xv correct for most HDMI-attached TVs and GL output correct for regular computer monitors AFAIK) but that's the only difference I am aware of.

I have heard mention of filtering differences between GL and Xv but AFAIK they are player-specific, ie they depend on the filtering that each player app chooses to use when outputting to GL. Most players offer a few different GL output options and I find people have strong preferences between those options - might be worth checking on whatever player you are using.

When you say "too many things to do", are you referring to enabling / disabling sync-to-vblank so you can run games without vblank ?

Selection of video output should be something you can set persistently in the player, and the "don't redirect full screen apps" option in Compiz will cover you assuming your videos are full screen.

If you are playing videos in a window one common solution is to wrap your player in a script that disables compiz, starts the player, then re-enables compiz when the player stops. I don't know if aticonfig includes an option to enable/disable sync-to-vblank but if it does then you could flip those settings at the same time.

Anyways, check for GL output options on your player. Some have several options, others just one.

[Melcar]

While I don't like using GL for video playback, it seems to be the only choice right now. Anyone know how to use GL output with Dragon player?

[RealNC]

Are you using GL output with sync-to-vblank enabled ? GL is the recommended video output path for fglrx right now.

What about applications that don't support GL output? "tvtime" is a prime example. It uses Xv.

[Kano]

LinDVD too...