Drivers for linux are rubbish

[kazetsukai]

WHO DOES THAT?
Sure you CAN, but there is literally ZERO MOTIVATION for it. MPEG2 is dead and relegated primarily to SD content. And if it's sucking up massive amounts of your CPU, then you're doing something wrong, like applying too many filters to the video post-decode.

Actually, several Blu-Ray releases were done using MPEG2. And really, having the ability to put the load on your hardware really isn't a bad thing, especially on systems with little CPU resources.

Low power CPU... sure. My netbook has an atom Z520. Low enough for you? On THAT machine, it takes NEGLIGIBLE CPU to decode MPEG2. Even HD MPEG2...

Sure, its not -required-, but does it really hurt to put the load on the GPU? You're probably measuring only CPU usage, rather than CPU and bus usage. Low power systems still struggle to push HD resolutions, no matter what the codec. By having the GPU do the work, you're sending the encoded stream, not a decoded raw stream to the GPU. Overall, beneficial to performance.

But just to put that into perspective, my CELLPHONE has a qualcomm MSM7201, which is an ARMv5 topping out at a whopping 528 MHz. EVEN IT will happily decode mpeg2 in software!

Oh, I wonder why these mobile chipset makers are putting GPUs and DSPs designed for video decoding in them.

Personally I think all video decoding, regardless of codec should go on the GPU. What else do I pay it for?

[IsawSparks]

MPEG-II is not efficient in HD. People are pulling CPU usage figures out of their bum and taking MPEG-II rendered via VLC in non HD resolutions on netbooks as some kind of measure of performance.

MPEG-II in HD can use well over 40% of an i5-750 when rendered 1080P proper.

Also, droidhacker, your Qualcomm MSM7201 is ARMv6 and has hardware MPEG2 decoding built in.

[barkas]

You don't really want to decode a 40mbit/sec stream in software, regardless of codec.
The HD files that are spoken of usually in such statements are most often HD grabs from TV or some other relatively low bitrate stuff - TV over satellite is 14mbit last I checked.
Blu-Ray is an entirely different proposition.

No one in their right might seriously claims that fglrx works as well as the nvidia blob. It's a pain to install, it doesn't work very well last I checked (not only video, but also 3D), and you need old kernel and X versions for it.

[IsawSparks]

barkas, there are some here who claim that decoding x264 in level 5 profile via CPU is 'just fine' and as good as hardware decoded output via VDPAU too.

It takes all sorts, even the crazies.

[barkas]

barkas, there are some here who claim that decoding x264 in level 5 profile via CPU is 'just fine' and as good as hardware decoded output via VDPAU too.

It takes all sorts, even the crazies.

Well, it sort of is fine, on my i7 920 (probably).
It's not fine for older computers, and it is not fine for a htpc or a laptop where you want to keep cpu utilization low for power and heat reasons.

[IsawSparks]

Sure, it is kinda fine, but it doesn't look nearly as good in my opinion.

[energyman]

You don't really want to decode a 40mbit/sec stream in software, regardless of codec.
The HD files that are spoken of usually in such statements are most often HD grabs from TV or some other relatively low bitrate stuff - TV over satellite is 14mbit last I checked.
Blu-Ray is an entirely different proposition.

No one in their right might seriously claims that fglrx works as well as the nvidia blob. It's a pain to install, it doesn't work very well last I checked (not only video, but also 3D), and you need old kernel and X versions for it.

emerge ati-drivers
emerge nvidia-drivers

exactly the same for both. Oh wait, you are using crap as a distribution? Well...

[IsawSparks]

emerge ati-drivers
emerge nvidia-drivers

exactly the same for both. Oh wait, you are using crap as a distribution? Well...

Right because Gentoo's way of working is just so user friendly. It's really put Desktop Linux on the map.

Don't get me wrong, Gentoo is great, especially for those who are reasonably experienced in building Linux from the ground up and want a more unified, modern approach, but it's not simple to use and its reliance on terminal sessions does scare many noobies off.

Desktop Linux has to be simple and streamlined and essentially almost entirely GUI. Gentoo has two out of three.

[pingufunkybeat]

barkas, there are some here who claim that decoding x264 in level 5 profile via CPU is 'just fine' and as good as hardware decoded output via VDPAU too.

It's just fine in the sense that you can watch the content just fine.

Of course that a native hardware support is better and preferable.

But for many people, it's not a good reason to abandon an open platform for a closed one.

You yourself are arguing that it's perfectly OK to do software sound mixing and other things on the CPUs because CPUs are so powerful today, but don't accept that doing HD decoding on CPUs is not a huge deal when the CPUs are so powerful today.

[pingufunkybeat]

Right because Gentoo's way of working is just so user friendly. It's really put Desktop Linux on the map.

You don't need Gentoo for this. You just need your distribution to provide good driver packages. Any distribution with a package manager can do this. You can do the same with .deb and .rpm packages too.