XvMC support

[bridgman]

Well obviously we all want accelerated MPEG4 / H.264 / VC-1 but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't want to accelerate MPEG2 either!

Chrisr, all your points are valid. The question is whether the development community should invest their (limited) time in MPEG2 acceleration via XvMC or spend their time on MPEG4 instead.

My feeling is that our time is better spent working on MPEG4, where even some modern systems could use help.

[Kano]

Well VDPAU does not support MPEG4, only those codecs which are used by BlueRay.

[deneb]

Well VDPAU does not support MPEG4, only those codecs which are used by BlueRay.

You mean MPEG-4 ASP (DivX, XviD, ...). It does support MPEG-4 AVC.

[Kano]

Sure, but he mentioned MPEG4 and H264 - so I don't think he ment MPEG4 AVC twice.

[chrisr]

But that's the thing about development communities...

Chrisr, all your points are valid. The question is whether the development community should invest their (limited) time in MPEG2 acceleration via XvMC or spend their time on MPEG4 instead.

My feeling is that our time is better spent working on MPEG4, where even some modern systems could use help.

By all means, work on MPEG4 support; I can't help with that. However, with a small amount of guidance I could probably do something for MPEG2 - assuming that the GSoC has already written the shaders.

I managed to add zero-copy TFP support for R100/R200 using the exact same method, with a little help from Michel Danzer...

[_txf_]

Sure, but he mentioned MPEG4 and H264 - so I don't think he ment MPEG4 AVC twice.

Maybe it is just confusion between the container and the codec. It is almost as pointless to accelerate mpeg4-asp as it is to accelerate mpeg2.

[Dieter]

> XvMC is a bit hit and miss on the Via chipsets as to
> whether the drivers support it or not. It is being
> actively worked on for the openChrome drivers...

Is there a chart somewhere showing which features
openChrome supports on which Via chips? Perhaps similar to

http://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature

[RobbieAB]

Not that I am aware off...

Though that might be something I could manage to arrange if the openchrome devs don't kill me for all my questions...

[RobertCNelson]

Just a quick commit,

The MPEG-2 Stream off devices such as the HDHomerun (1) (1920x1080) or HD-PVR are not the easiest to decode on an age'ed cpu. I have a 10-20 second sample 16MB. (just pm me for link, (upload via slow cable modem))

1: http://www.silicondust.com/products/hdhomerun

Regards,

[Dieter]

> Both the European and North American TV standards now include
> MPEG4 as well as MPEG2. The move to MPEG4 seems to be happening
> very quickly, and right now XvMC only standardizes MPEG2 acceleration.

Show me a US TV station broadcasting mpeg4.

> Are you asking about MPEG2 (XvMC) or MPEG4 / H.264 / VC-1 ? They
> really are two different questions.

The immediate FCC created need is mpeg2, thus XvMC, which is what
I've been asking about. XvMC handles mpeg2 and there is talk about
having it do the newer stuff.

Out here in the real world, normal people don't buy a new computer
every three months to get the latest ueberphemon3++ 5.72 Ghz x16.
Full bitrate HD takes a lot more CPU than SD and computers in
the real world have trouble with it or can't do it at all.

Sure, longer term we will want support for the newer stuff.
But XvMC is the standard that the players already support,
It will take ages for the alphabet soup of proposed APIs
to get sorted out. Meanwhile the train wreck is scheduled
for 2009-02-17.

Maybe you should ask congress for bailout money to support the
DTV transition? :-/