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

[PGHammer]

XvBA and Evergreen

Yaeh. Maybe it's time for phoronix to do an article about XvBA or more general video decode acceleration on Linux. And point out how broken it is on Evergreen cards. Something like "The Evergreen XvBA disaster".

In case you haven't noticed, there is *no* support in the FOSS driver for the Evergreen GPU family (HD5xxx); therefore, if you are using the FOSS driver and have one of these GPUs, you have no 3D, no DRI, and therefore no acceleration of anything. Further, while Linux Catalyst (proprietary) 10.5 and 10.6 do support these GPUs, they don't support the latest/greatest Xorg (which means no XvBA, which is developed with either Xorg 1.8 or a later version from git).

Therefore AMD must improve the Linux proprietary driver to support the latest Xorg and (eventually) supply enough documentation on Evergreen so the FOSS driver can gain support for it.

I have an HD5450 (therefore, I am directly affected by this issue), and find that I have to stay one version behind if I want any acceleration (video or otherwise).

[Kano]

I had 10-6 running with Xserver 1.8.1 (maverick). Did YOU test it?

[Dandel]

The decode works well for standard mpeg4 (xvid/divx) however, when you use the 5.1 mpeg4 compression (h264/x264) it has a lot of problems with decoding.

If ya want to test it out, look at the two blender projects that where videos that where released, namely project Orange and project Peach and use the latest subversion repo for xbmc.

also, for a quick system overview:
Radeon HD5770
Athlon II x4 630
4gb ddr3 memory
Ubuntu 10.04
Catalyst 10.6
xvba-video v0.7.1-1
libva1 v0.31.1-1+sds3
xbmc revision 31717

[gbeauche]

The decode works well for standard mpeg4 (xvid/divx) however, when you use the 5.1 mpeg4 compression (h264/x264) it has a lot of problems with decoding.

MPEG-4 ASP decoding is not accelerated so this is the XBMC/FFmpeg decoder that tackles with it. For MPEG-4 AVC, you will have to define "a lot of problems".
1) You use an Evergreen card, so you will probably see visual corruption or video squares
2) You use XBMC, so you will probably get lots of jittering unless you show the controls panel up
3) You use a very high profile and probably won't see many things in your configuration
4) ... define your problems ...

All those are naturally due to the ATI driver.

[Dandel]

MPEG-4 ASP decoding is not accelerated so this is the XBMC/FFmpeg decoder that tackles with it. For MPEG-4 AVC, you will have to define "a lot of problems".
1) You use an Evergreen card, so you will probably see visual corruption or video squares
2) You use XBMC, so you will probably get lots of jittering unless you show the controls panel up
3) You use a very high profile and probably won't see many things in your configuration
4) ... define your problems ...

All those are naturally due to the ATI driver.

1) No, not with the latest release... I helped the devs get a patch that fixes that in the latest subversion repository, so i no longer see a large single colored square.
2) I don't notice a lot of jitter when playing video back with vaapi disabled.
3) I watch Standard def and high def videos.
4) With double checking things... my problem is actually hardware accelerated decoding if anything... I just didn't notice much because h264 and mpeg4 decoding doesn't cause my cpu to go over the lowest power rating of my cpu.

[Panix]

Does the Evergreen still have a lot of issues with the fglrx driver compared to a Nvidia card, such as the GTS 250?

What I'm trying to say, is if I compare like this (sorry, it's a bit simplified):

Hardware Acceleration
Evergreen + FGLRX v.s. GTS 250 + Nvidia driver

viewing 2D - video quality - options OpenGL or xv
3D graphics - software? difference?
video editing - any app

everyday tasks - moving windows, compiz use, fullscreen to minimize and vice versa.... - any difference to note?

I'm just asking if the Nvidia card excels in each dept. or area...

I guess there are tweaks in the settings you can use for improving the performance of the Evergreen card but I'm wondering if the Catalyst 10.6 driver means the Nvidia card is a more pleasant experience in terms of things 'working.' I.E. less hassle?

I am not talking about either:
A) hardware differences - 'know enough about that
B) ease of driver install - I think both have their ADV. and DISADV.

I tried to pose the questions as briefly and direct as possible... I hope it made some sense... :-/

[Kano]

Man, buy a GTX 460 and be happy. The few bucks you could save with a 5770 are not worth to play with the Linux driver bugs.

[mugginz]

Man, buy a GTX 460 and be happy. The few bucks you could save with a 5770 are not worth to play with the Linux driver bugs.

If 10.7 isn't fully functional then I'd be taking Kano's advice.

Not only are nVidia's Linux drivers quite good, but they've also addressed the power draw issues somewhat with this rev of the GPU.

• Good power draw
• Good drivers
• Fairly speedy
• Good price

The 460's lookin pretty good.

[monraaf]

Does the Evergreen still have a lot of issues with the fglrx driver compared to a Nvidia card, such as the GTS 250?

Panix Your post has no relevance to the topic. Can you please keep your trolling out of this?

There are all kinds of characters on (...) discussion forums. One character is frequently called the ?concern troll?. The concern troll is basically a troll, a person there to raise hell or cause trouble but their angle of attack is different. Here?s an example of what a concern troll post on the POG might look like, ?I?ve been a Prius owner for about three months and I love the car but I?m worried that it really has made me into a jerk. I drive in the car pool lane. I?m smug about when I talk to friends and co-workers. And whenever possible I?m rude to other drivers on the road. I think Prius makes act this way. I?m also worried about my batteries exploding. I?ve been reading about that online and I think Toyota is hiding something from us.?

You get the drift, I?m sure. The idea is that the concern troll is ?one of us? but has concerns. Valid concerns, sort of. The idea is to create dissent and discontent through misinformation but to have it accepted because you?re really not against whatever the general group there is for.

[Kano]

@Panix

Evergreen+XvBA does nothing usefull at all. Very unlikely that you can use it with a shortly released driver update. Some ppl always spread the hope for a fix for this or that issue in a future - if i NEED a feature it should work NOW not maybe next year. Also there is absolutely no reference that Evergreen will work with XvBA soon, only 10-7 for win should be compatible with vlc 1.1.1 - wow that's impressive. vlc 1.1 git still misses the needed patch(es) for vaapi+xvba/intel, thats only in vlc (1.2) git.