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OpenGLOverlay vs. Xvideo. Which one is better?

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  • #11
    Originally posted by Zibi1981 View Post
    Is there a benchmark or something, which could be used to compare these overlays?
    well, try out gtkperf and glxgears. the first should give you the seconds to complete a test and the second the fps you get. the first gives better results with lower values while the second with higher.
    also you could test out your favourite apps behavior in the different overlays and decide based on their functioning. this is the best test in my opinion.

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    • #12
      Thanks much

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      • #13
        For an X800 and any GPU before 690 or HD1xxx I would go with :

        - Textured video off (Textured Video is primarily for GPUs with the AVIVO display controller, which don't have the older overlay)

        - OpenGL overlay off (OpenGL overlay is for workstation apps only, and I believe it's ignored when Video overlay is enabled)

        - Video overlay on (the pre-5xx overlay included a lot of video processing HW -- on the later chips we used the silicon for a more flexible display controller and shaders instead)

        ... and go with Xv.
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        • #14
          Here's my xorg.conf's device section

          Code:
          Section "Device"
          	Identifier  "aticonfig-Device[0]"
          	Driver      "fglrx"
          	Option	    "VideoOverlay" "on"
          	Option	    "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
          	Option	    "FSAAEnable" "on"
          	Option	    "FSAAScale" "4"
          #	Option      "Textured2D" "true"
          	Option      "TexturedXrender" "true"
          EndSection
          Should I comment TexturedXrender?

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          • #15
            You might want to turn it off while you're experimenting with video settings but I believe TexturedXRender is independent of TexturedVideo.

            I believe you just need something like Option "TexturedVideo" "off" to make sure it is disabled. Of course it may be disabled by default on your card in which case you wouldn't see any difference. I'm not sure what the results are if you have both TexturedVideo and VideoOverlay enabled.

            Remember that there are two ways of setting options in fglrx -- the conf file and the amdpcsdb file. I'm fairly sure (but not 100% sure) that amdpcsdb "wins" in the event of a conflict between the two files. My understanding is that the aticonfig utility will set both files but I haven't played with it myself yet.
            Last edited by bridgman; 09 February 2008, 06:46 PM.
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            • #16
              Here's a question, should I just leave those options out of xorg.conf, remove /etc/ati/* and reinstall the driver? Will this let the driver choose the best option?

              I'm guessing since you have two different technologies, it has to choose one automatically since someone is bound to screw up.

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              • #17
                My guess is that running aticonfig with the right options would do the job as well. I don't have the options in front of me but I think there's an aticonfig command line option that dumps 'em out. Matthew showed me a few weeks ago but I'm not remembering...
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                • #18
                  xv is the one to choose if it works. For me, xv is pretty much broken with the latest driver, though, so I'm using the opengl overlay, which kinda sucks. Lots of video tearing, and in general just annoying.

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                  • #19
                    Originally posted by Zibi1981 View Post
                    Here's my xorg.conf's device section

                    Code:
                    Section "Device"
                    	Identifier  "aticonfig-Device[0]"
                    	Driver      "fglrx"
                    	Option	    "VideoOverlay" "on"
                    	Option	    "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
                    	Option	    "FSAAEnable" "on"
                    	Option	    "FSAAScale" "4"
                    #	Option      "Textured2D" "true"
                    	Option      "TexturedXrender" "true"
                    EndSection
                    Should I comment TexturedXrender?
                    Something I have been trying to find out for a while. The options to fglrx, what ones exist and what do they mean. Is there any document that describes them? All I really have is VideoOverlay "on" and OpenGLOverlay "off". I added the TexturedVideo "on" as well but as for some of the others above, I dont' even know what they mean.

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                    • #20
                      OpenGLOverlay is for specific workstation apps which "float" a second layer of display information over the work area. It should be turned off on consumer cards.

                      You don't need OpenGLOverlay to play video through OpenGL, btw.

                      VideoOverlay is for pre-5xx cards which had video acceleration hardware built into the overlay block. For more recent cards (5xx and higher GPUs), or when you are running Compiz, you need to use TexturedVideo.

                      There is an aticonfig option which dumps out the commands, probably --help, but I don't think it goes into detail about when/how/why you would use each option.
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