Experimental VA-API Implemented Over NVIDIA's NVDEC - Allows Firefox Video Acceleration

[Quackdoc]

well this is nice for those who need it

[evilryry]

I'd be happy if VA-API just worked reliably out of the box on Intel in Firefox.

[sl1pkn07]

another gscancerware....

[smitty3268]

I never understood why Nvidia felt like removing VDPAU. They could have just kept it as it was, perhaps in deprecated/legacy mode or something

I have my suspicions it's because AMD started using it on Linux, and it was a way for them to screw with AMD.

[piotrj3]

So much work just to work around nvidias shitty proprietary driver and its shitty custom interfaces.
If I had a shot for every driver bug workaround in desktops/compositors/display-servers and programs just to get it working on this shitty non compliant driver, I would have fully destroyed my liver and probably be dead from alcohol poisoning not even half way through.

Too bad.

so much work - relativly small codebase.

So much work *checks what you need to do to make Firefox/Chromium based browsers work with hardware acceleration on AMD and Intel and compares that to additional work that Nvidia needs* ... oh gosh so basicly 5 steps tutorial becomes 7 steps! Soooo much tiring work for Nvidia users here. I am sooo damn tired.

Seriously, the biggest issue is that neither Firefox, neither Chromium supports Vaapi (or any other) decoding on linux by default, only with specially crafted settings you mostly set yourself and this is one of the biggest gatekeepers from making linux a mainstream desktop.

[aufkrawall]

this is one of the biggest gatekeepers from making linux a mainstream desktop.

Are you aware that there is exactly 0 hardware decoding in the Windows version of Chrome for (laughably) copy protected content on streaming sites? Widevine decoding is entirely on the CPU. Hardware decoding doesn't even work for Disney+ even in Edge, you need the Microsoft Store app. It is not a clusterf*ck only on Linux.

I probably should try out this wrapper, but I hate NVDEC putting the GPU into energy wasting CUDA pstate 2. And I also hate booting Linux with Nvidia in general...

[Mark Rose]

I just want to watch 4k YouTube videos smoothly.

[Quackdoc]

I just want to watch 4k YouTube videos smoothly.

Same, but I have an rx580, thankfully I also have a r5 2600

[DanL]

I have my suspicions it's because AMD started using it on Linux, and it was a way for them to screw with AMD.

Maybe, but I think the real issue was that Intel never adopted VDPAU, even on the Linux/opensource side. The VDPAU mesa driver worked very well on my RadeonHD 4550. It was so much better than the fglrx/Catalyst driver. Even Adobe/Flash tried the VDPAU route (VAVDA?), but it didn't gain much traction when Intel said no joy.
Intel had no reason to push VA-API other than selfishness and NIH BS.

[piotrj3]

Maybe, but I think the real issue was that Intel never adopted VDPAU, even on the Linux/opensource side. The VDPAU mesa driver worked very well on my RadeonHD 4550. It was so much better than the fglrx/Catalyst driver. Even Adobe/Flash tried the VDPAU route (VAVDA?), but it didn't gain much traction when Intel said no joy.
Intel had no reason to push VA-API other than selfishness and NIH BS.

As far as I know API wise VAAPI doesn't provide anything above VPDAU. They are both simple APIs that only pass information to relevant low level code where real things are happening. Introducing VAAPI basicly gave us fragmentation.