H.264 VA-API Support For Intel Clarkdale/Arrandale

[phoronix]

Phoronix: H.264 VA-API Support For Intel Clarkdale/Arrandale

Intel's Zou Nan hai has published a patch for the Intel kernel DRM code that provides multiple ring buffer support for Clarkdale and Arrandale systems, in other words Intel's new IGPs that are embedded onto CPUs such as the new Core i3 530 and its stellar integrated graphics...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=ODEwNg

[[Knuckles]]

This is only for the new GPUs, ok I guess.

But what about the GMA X4500? Shouldn't the X4500/X4500HD/X4500MHD also be capable of offloading H.264 decoding?

[uwgandalf]

yep, I asked this in the VA mailing list, they said planned for Q2. Let's hope that's true. My acer timeline gets awfully hot watching HDs in bed

[curaga]

It will come later to G45.

edit: Hey forum software, would be nice to get a warning if new posts appear while you're writing :P

[[Knuckles]]

Good to hear that it is planned for a near-future.
I was eyeing a laptop like uwgandalf's timeline, and would very much like the support

Now, if we can get support for va-api into XBMC, that would be extra awesome.

[Kano]

That would be good right, but currently latest xbmc svn can not use plugins. I would like to test vaapi with vlc or mplayer first...

[DebianAroundParis]

People who have older IGPs (like my G33) would like to get some help from VA-API too, especially since we have older, slower CPUs.

[darkbasic]

edit: Hey forum software, would be nice to get a warning if new posts appear while you're writing :P

It is only able to complain about being out of time to edit your post or having wrote a post which is too short

[brent]

People who have older IGPs (like my G33) would like to get some help from VA-API too, especially since we have older, slower CPUs.

These old GPUs cannot accelerate anything except MPEG2 properly, so it won't happen.

[drag]

If supporting hardware decoding inspires people to go out and purchase new hardware to get that support then all the more power to Intel.

It's not like Intel does driver development out of the goodness of their own heart. It's all about capitalism. The fact that it's open source means that us, the users, can put the effort into supporting older hardware if that is our desire.

Everybody is happy, everybody is able to get what they want. Glorious.

For the record, you can find out easily if your hardware has decoding support through Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_GMA

They keep a nice table that has the different features that the hardware is suppose to support. And, ya, G33 does not support anything beyond MPEG2.

Man, I am looking forward to those CPU/GPUs. They may not be much faster then what I have now, but 14 hour battery life with hardware decoding probably will make them worth it!