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

[LinuxID10T]

Video Decode (XvMC/VDPAU/VA-API) using the 3D engine = TODO
Video Decode (XvMC/VDPAU/VA-API) using UVD = TODO

Wow, I hate to criticize, but is NOBODY interested in rectifying this problem?!? It doesn't even look like anybody has started on it...

[smitty3268]

Video Decode (XvMC/VDPAU/VA-API) using the 3D engine = TODO
Video Decode (XvMC/VDPAU/VA-API) using UVD = TODO

Wow, I hate to criticize, but is NOBODY interested in rectifying this problem?!? It doesn't even look like anybody has started on it...

I think we've been told that the distros have zero interest in having their paid guys working on it, and it seems like there's no one in the volunteer community who has the ability. It seems like we need someone from the video side to step up and do the work - maybe somebody working on ffmpeg, or something similar?

[gbeauche]

I know decoding a movie in opencl is not as good as dedicated hardware. But how hard do you think it would be to write a h.264 opencl implementation, which uses the vaapi api?

I don't think an OpenCL implementation would be efficient, I'd rather say it's a waste of time to focus on that. First, OpenCL implementations are not good enough. e.g. a customer is getting seriously bored of ATI's slow implementation for certain parts. Second, it's not widely supported. e.g. OpenCL on RS780 does not exist. So, in the end, you'd need high-end GPUs. High-end GPUs tend to consume more energy than CPUs nowadays... You'd need to write shader programs specifically. i.e. bypass the OpenCL layer.

Someone wrote GLSL code for the FFmpeg H.264 decoder. I don't know the performance results. The code is available somewhere in the XBMC repo, IIRC. Interested parties may want to have a look at it, fix the TODO, the bugs and do some performance improvements.

FWIW, it took more than 6 months to Intel to write an H.264 decoder with GPU assembly and 1 to 2 people. Note that they have a specific unit to do bitstream decoding, so they are only doing motion compensation with shaders.

[gbeauche]

I think we've been told that the distros have zero interest in having their paid guys working on it, and it seems like there's no one in the volunteer community who has the ability. It seems like we need someone from the video side to step up and do the work - maybe somebody working on ffmpeg, or something similar?

I think the general reason for it, at least for Red Hat, is that they don't want to ship with patented codecs. So why would they dedicate someone on this task if they won't be shipping his work? The rationale here is that a shader based implementation would have licensing costs, not supported by the HW vendor, since they only pay for their dedicated HW. That was the reason why they didn't ship libVA: there was an Open Source decoder for G45 platforms.

[Kano]

As this is the XvBA thread i guess it would be more interesting if hd 5 cards work with vaapi/xvba now. That direct2d is boring for me, i guess thats primary an ubuntu problem - which i do not use normally

[Hans]

catalyst 10-6 will have direct2D in the standard setting!

there is a 10-6 beta with direct2D enabled as the standard right now!

(right now means right now)

and no i do not have this driver

Please pm me with a download link ;-)

[chronniff]

As this is the XvBA thread i guess it would be more interesting if hd 5 cards work with vaapi/xvba now. That direct2d is boring for me, i guess thats primary an ubuntu problem - which i do not use normally

Is that true, the awful 2d is mainly an ubuntu problem? I've only had this card a few months, and it never dawned on me it could be a distro problem, hence I haven't tested out other distros on this new system....what do you mainly run kano, your a debian admin right?

PS I agree that XvBA functionality on my 5770 would be a welcome surprise, not that I really need as my 3.2GHz i7 960 quad-core barely flinches decoding 1080p video...but still, it would be nice to get ONE of the new features that the the card advertises

[Hans]

As Q says. Feel free to give me a "present".

[smitty3268]

The slow 2d affects any xserver that doesn't have the backclear patch applied. Not sure which distros do that by default and which don't.

[chronniff]

oh, nevermind, I wasn't talking about that, I have been using the backclear patch for a long time....mistakingly thought there was talk of all the bloody tearing being an issue with ubuntu's kernel version or something...no such luck I guess