AMD Open-Sources VCE Video Encode Engine Code

[ChrisXY]

I just wonder if it's possible to encode to h264 right from framebuffer?

That's one of the question I would have had too: If yes, it could be used for streaming rendered 3d stuff and for finally having a good way to record 3d applications.

The other would be: Is the hardware h.264 only? Is h.265, vp9, daala, ... support a) possible b) likely to happen?

[Marc Driftmeyer]

Intel have supported video encoding via VA-API,
for a long time now. Just for your information.

Yes and it's nothing to brag about. In fact, having say an R9 290 with all that exposure for OpenCL 1.2 and soon OpenCL 2.x [read the spec] you can see how this code drop can be moved to OpenCL 2.0 and life gets very interesting, while the CPU is no longer hand-cuffed. Then extend this to the HSA platform and you'll realize that Intel's solution is sub-par.

[twriter]

Indeed, while releasing UVD was quite painfull and took us years to complete getting VCE out of the door was rather simple.

I would say simpler. We learned a lot from UVD which helped with this VCE release.

[twriter]

I just wonder if it's possible to encode to h264 right from framebuffer?

That's something we're working on. No ETA yet.

[_SXX_]

That's something we're working on. No ETA yet.

Thanks for answer. That would be awesome feature!

[guido12]

On the topic of hardware video encoding/transcoding. Anyone know of any easy to use software that can use or working towards hardware accelerated video transcoding? I'm not a video expert which is why I use HandBrake and they're only working on Windows hardware acceleration using Intel Quick Sync right now.

Also, does anyone know of any recent reviews that compare AMD and Intel hardware encoded videos to x264? I'm very behind in this area especially since I don't use any software that make use of it yet but the last time (years?) I looked into it, AMD/ATI encoded videos weren't that great looking. At least on Windows. It was probably when the ATI brand was still being used for GPUs.

Thanks!

[crshbndct]

So I am looking to upgrade my GPU very soon. Will an R7 260x support this? It is the card I want to switch to. I see the firmware file is BONAIRE_xxx_vce.bin and the chip on the 260X/7790 is Bonaire.

[agd5f]

On the topic of hardware video encoding/transcoding. Anyone know of any easy to use software that can use or working towards hardware accelerated video transcoding? I'm not a video expert which is why I use HandBrake and they're only working on Windows hardware acceleration using Intel Quick Sync right now.

For VCE bring-up we used gstreamer. It's pretty straight forward to build a media encode/decode/transcode pipeline with gstreamer.

[agd5f]

So I am looking to upgrade my GPU very soon. Will an R7 260x support this? It is the card I want to switch to. I see the firmware file is BONAIRE_xxx_vce.bin and the chip on the 260X/7790 is Bonaire.

Yes, all Sea Islands GPUs are supported.

[GreatEmerald]

Respect VCE code is very good, for example if simplescreen recorder support this, linux screencasting users appreciate that

SSR uses FFmpeg for encoding.

For VCE bring-up we used gstreamer. It's pretty straight forward to build a media encode/decode/transcode pipeline with gstreamer.

I find FFmpeg much easier to use (GStreamer has some weird syntax and piping rules...). It would be nice if this was available in FFmpeg. (Does FFmpeg support VA-API encoding, by the way?)