[GMA X4500] GPU video decoding (VA-API?)

[whizse]

I think this is the latest word:

The G45 driver only supports MPEG-2 decoding at this time. The new target for H.264 decoder release is around Q2 of this year.

http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showpost.php?p=116023&postcount=11

No idea if Flash even uses va-api though.

[mendieta]

I think this is the latest word:

http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showpost.php?p=116023&postcount=11

No idea if Flash even uses va-api though.

Thanks! I think this should be a great machine (the V13), and worst case scenario I'll have to wait a bit for the drivers to catch up (and hopefully freakin' flash to die -- Apple already said NO to them!). But at least in medium resolution Flash should be fine. Thanks again!

[whizse]

I only have experience with the X4500HD, but the 4500MHD should be close enough I think?

I'd say that it's a great choice, the OpenGL support is both stable and probably the most feature complete there is when it comes to free/oss drivers. The developers are helpful and most reported bugs are fixed quickly.

(The real downside is performance of course, but unless you're really into gaming it shouldn't be a problem.)

[Nexx]

Thanks! I think this should be a great machine (the V13), and worst case scenario I'll have to wait a bit for the drivers to catch up (and hopefully freakin' flash to die -- Apple already said NO to them!). But at least in medium resolution Flash should be fine. Thanks again!

Hey mendieta, just got notified of your post in my old thread ^^

The 4500MHD in my laptop runs fantastically! KMS (kernel mode setting) makes console work a real pleasure. The composited desktop is fast and responsive and I've not found an effect I use regularly which slows it down noticeably.

There's currently only hardware acceleration for MPEG2 I believe, though more is apparently planned for the future (H264 / VC-1). Still, the T6400 in my laptop easily manages 720p, which is all the internal screen can do anyway (1280x800), I've got a desktop PC for 1080p video ^u^

I don't play many games on the machine, again due to having a desktop for that, but the few I've played run just fine at 1280x800. Most of the games I play are old windows games via WINE and are very easy on the GPU anyway.

Due to the low-power GPU, battery life is fantastic even when gaming. In full power-saving with my WiFi / etc turned off I can get about 4.5 hours, gaming with everything on manages around 3 to 3.5.

Currently running Ubuntu 9.10 with the xorg-edgers repo enabled for the latest X and Intel driver, it all runs perfectly.

Let me know if you have any other questions, I'll reply ASAP ^^

[mendieta]

Flash HD?

@whizse: thanks a lot, I feel more confident now And yes, OSS support is a great plus!

@Nexx: many thanks to you, too, for all the detailed info. I do have one more question: how is Flash HD working for you? (things like Hulu HD, or Youtube in HD mode). Again, Flash is f'ed up, so people generally get a lot more hardware than they need just to work around that.

I really appreciate your help, folks!

[Nexx]

@Nexx: many thanks to you, too, for all the detailed info. I do have one more question: how is Flash HD working for you? (things like Hulu HD, or Youtube in HD mode). Again, Flash is f'ed up, so people generally get a lot more hardware than they need just to work around that.

I really appreciate your help, folks!

No problem ^^

I just ran a quick test with a couple of HD YouTube vids, unfortunately I'm in the UK so I can't test Hulu HD for you.

Vid #1 - Big Buck Bunny @ 720p
Ran flawlessly throughout, though firefox was consuming 85-90% of the CPU constantly. There's definitely no hardware offloading going on right now, but the T6400 in my laptop handled it without issue.

Vid #2 - Dark Knight Trailer @ 720p
Again, flawless throughout the entire trailer, CPU usage was almost identical to video #1, even during fast motion.

Vid #3 - Dark Knight Trailer @ 1080p
Unsurprisingly, there was noticeable stutter in this test. Low-motion scenes seemed fluid but fast-motion led to dropped frames and stutter, the audio however was perfect throughout. CPU was almost continuously pinned at 100%, I dare say a stronger CPU might be able to manage it.

I would imagine you wouldn't be able to watch a 720p video in YouTube and do anything else, but why would you? If your watching a HD video it's not like you want to be paying attention to something else ^u^

Let me know if I can help with anything else ^^

[Kano]

mediainfo from your youtube 1080p clip:

Duration " : "2mn 30s
Bit rate " : "3" "426" Kbps"
Maximum bit rate " : "12.8" Mbps"

those rates are a joke when you compare it against "real" hd content.

Duration " : "2h 2mn
Overall bit rate " : "35.2" Mbps"
Maximum Overall bit rate " : "48.0" Mbps"

Only factor 10

[BlackStar]

I would imagine you wouldn't be able to watch a 720p video in YouTube and do anything else, but why would you? If your watching a HD video it's not like you want to be paying attention to something else ^u^

One word: Gentoo.

(Ok, not a Gentoo user myself, but there are legitimate background processes that can steal cycle. When a video uses up ~90% CPU, it will be very prone to stutter).

@Kano: yeah, but we are talking about youtube & flash player here. Neither will be able to handle 35.2MBps content any time soon. (Still, 100% CPU at 426kbps is just sad.).

@Nexx: can you please run a small test? Flash player on Linux downloads streams into /tmp. Visit the 1080p trailer again, pause flash player in your browser (so it doesn't take up any CPU) and play the flash file directly from /tmp. There's no reason to wait for it to download completely, if your internet connection is good enough you can double click it and let it play immediately (with Totem, VLC or whatever).

What's your CPU usage then? Does it still stutter?

[darkbasic]

In the meanwhile try mplayer with ffmpeg-mt: it can plays 1080p videos with a 1.4 Ghz Core2 duo ULV

[Kano]

@Blackstar it is 3426 kbps, the info is a bit hard to read. One of the problem with flash is that the scaling is very inefficent. vlc git can play youtube urls directly, i just have to figure out how to increase the prebuffering for "&fmt=37".