AMD's UVD2-based XvBA Finally Does Something On Linux

[mirv]

To cut in here: if Apple didn't provide sufficient cooling for the graphics chip, that is no fault of ATI/AMD. If it was a manufacturing process error, that's different, but all hardware comes with various specifications with regards to operating boundaries - now if Apple stuck to those specs, again it's the fault of ATI/AMD, but poor air flow resulting in overheating....that one falls on Apple.
Note that my comments here have little to do with nvidia vs ati - I'm just pointing out that the failing ATI cards linked in this discussion are more the fault of Apple.

[deanjo]

To cut in here: if Apple didn't provide sufficient cooling for the graphics chip, that is no fault of ATI/AMD. If it was a manufacturing process error, that's different, but all hardware comes with various specifications with regards to operating boundaries - now if Apple stuck to those specs, again it's the fault of ATI/AMD, but poor air flow resulting in overheating....that one falls on Apple.
Note that my comments here have little to do with nvidia vs ati - I'm just pointing out that the failing ATI cards linked in this discussion are more the fault of Apple.

It was a stock ATI cooler on the card and the Nvidia cards had no issue with the cooling in the same systems. This is why Apple had to update firmware to the ATI cards compensate with a much higher fanspeed on the ATI cards, who were manufactured by ATI for Apple using the exact same specs that Nvidia were presented with.

This isn't a one time only thing, you can see many ATI graphics updates over the course of years that Macs have featured ATI cards in their systems. A firmware update is rarely needed for a nvidia card.

[Heiko]

Qaridarium and deanjo, please cut the crap. There is no point in hijacking this thread to start a childish nvidia vs. ati flamewar.

Go back on topic: uvd (sorta) useable on ati hardware now.

Personally I'm glad we are finally seeing some results. Hopefully we'll see more improvements (which, looking at the responses here, are necessary). Hoping for support of older plain UVD hardware was well, that would show AMD cares for their customers.

[mirv]

I can surely add those in if you want.

Such as this article:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/ATI-Radeon-3870-Cards-Reported-Failing-94081.shtml

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...ati-3870s-fail

From the first link:
"What is interesting is that these cards are not the reference design made by ATI."
So people change ATI's design....and suddenly it's ATI's fault?

[TeoLinuX]

As a side note, an ATI card was also responsible for killing a dog. Long story short, Apple sent out a replacement ATI card, the courier rang the bell, nobody was home, so he left it in the dog pen (at the owners request). Dog ate the packaging and card and choked on it.

Darwin Award for that dog
LMAO

[deanjo]

Darwin Award for that dog
LMAO

Ya, we sent him another card at no charge but unfortunately replacing "man's best friend" doesn't have a SKU number.

[evanjfraser]

This seems appropriate.

[droidhacker]

I don't understand your question. I'm talking about the R600 (aka HD2900) but you linked to the HD3000 Series page (ie different chips).

The R600 did not have UVD. The RV610/HD2400, RV630/HD2600, RV620/HD34xx, RV635/HD36xx and RV670/HD38xx all had the UVD1 block. 780G and RV7xx parts have UVD2-family decoder blocks.

The primary difference between 780G and 780V is that the 780G has UVD while the 780V does not -- the 780V is aimed at business systems where efficient video playback is a drawback, not a benefit

NM, I think I'm understanding now... there is a distinction between R600 *family* vs R600 *specifically* (i.e. RHD2900).

Also, I found this document here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_ATI_Graphics_Processing_Units#IGP_.28HD_3xxx.2C_HD_4xxx.29

*** shows that RHD3200/780G is an RV610 (UVD1), not a UVD2. Or is that a "special" RV610 with UVD2? Because this document: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UVD#UVD_enabled_GPUs claims that 780G is a UVD1 also...

not that wikipedia is infallible though....

[bridgman]

Yeah, we normally refer to 6xx for the family (HD2xxx, HD3xxx) and 600 for the chip. The potentially confusing part is Mesa HW drivers, where "r300" handles the 3xx-5xx plus rs6xx and "r600" handles 6xx-7xx and probably Evergreen.

The 3D core of 780 comes from rv610, but the UVD is different - closer to the UVD2 in the other 7xx parts than the UVD1 in 6xx parts. In general the IGP parts have the newest display controller and UVD hardware available at the time, plus a 3D engine from an earlier generation and a totally different memory subsystem.

[SP8472]

I've got it to work (sort of) on a Debian amd64 box with a Radeon HD 4350 card. Video plays, and looking at CPU usage in htop makes it very clear that there is in fact hardware acceleration in use.

However, there are color issues with the video. The colors aren't completely wrong, but there are green and red blotches moving over the image, most noticeable on people's faces. The video looks fine with software decoding, and this happens with different video files (all files I've tested were H.264, though).

Is this a known issue? With a known workaround, maybe?