VLC 3.0 Released

[jpg44]

It's a Windows vs. Linux thing.

On Windows, VLC is one of the best, because it bundles the FFMPEG implementations of all of the codecs that are notoriously troublesome to get setup and working together (Hence the decision to use ffdshow for most of the heavy lifting in packs built around MPC-HC, like CCCP.) and the stuff it doesn't bundle comes with the OS.

On Linux, VLC doesn't have that benefit, often lags when it comes to supporting the newest codecs that Just Work™ on Windows, and didn't have support for using GStreamer plugins for the longest time, making it more complicated for end users to add patented codecs. (I'm still not 100% sure it does support GStreamer. Google was unclear.)

Gstreamer is an API between the player and codecs, among other things. So Gstreamer support would open up more codecs to VLC. A little shocking VLC doesnt support it yet since this is the obvious solution to the dillemma on Linux

[Veto]

No, *you* are saying all that. Worst case of putting words in a person's mouth I've seen in a long time...

OK, you are absolutely right. Sorry about that.
But then please educate me about how to make these magic 5 lines of text to get hardware acceleration in a jiffy. I am still curious
(Just an observation: --hwdec has 24 possible options for the <api> where: --hwdec=<api>)

[Gusar]

But then please educate me about how to make these magic 5 lines of text to get hardware acceleration in a jiffy. I am still curious
(Just an observation: --hwdec has 24 possible options for the <api> where: --hwdec=<api>)

Start with --hwdec=auto. Simple, isn't it?

If that won't do, use vaapi on Intel, vdpau on AMD and nvdec on proprietary Nvidia. Once the new vaapi interface is available in released versions of software, vaapi will be a better choice for AMD.

[tomtomme]

Isnt Auto the default? I never used any command line Option and was under the impression accel worked fine all the years with mpv...

[Gusar]

Isnt Auto the default? I never used any command line Option and was under the impression accel worked fine all the years with mpv...

Nope, mpv defaults to software decoding (hwdec=no), except on the RPi where hwdec=mmal is the default. Software decoding is more robust, so mpv defaults to that, it's better to give the user properly decoded video even if in software, than to give the user corrupt video or a hang or whatever can go wrong with hardware decoders.

[Mike Frett]

So what's the word on the Seek slider lockup? Fixed?

[linuxgeex]

He's settings for nice hwdec using vaapi and vaapi as output back-end, which results in minimal CPU usage, great for laptops.

Note the two options masked off as comments. On desktops you can comment these options in to get frame interpolation. It will disable hardware accelerated output and it will use software filtering of frames which will increase the CPU dramatically on large video streams, but it's really nice on typical 1080p HEVC action movie files to reduce the super annoying slideshow effect in high motion scenes. This is similar to the frame interpolation that your high-end TV does that makes movies look like soap operas, so if you hate high framerates you may not want to enable it.

The cache control options are there to enable stutter-free playback of sshfs-mounted remote media folders. They're harmless if you aren't using remote media, but really nice if you are.

The audio options are for a laptop so that 5.1's center and rear channels are not lost on a device that has no center and rear channels, but the subwoofer channel is lost intentionally so that it doesn't cause bass clipping on laptop speakers. Also works well when using HDMI audio with a TV that only supports 2.1 in reality. Comment it out if you really do have a 4.1 or 5.1 setup.

NOTE: gamma controls are disabled with VAAPI. Use xgamma.

$ cat ~/.mpv/config
# Write your default config options here!

audio-channels=2.1
hwdec=vaapi
vo=vaapi
#vo=opengl:interpolation
#video-sync=display-resample
no-cache-pause
cache-default=7500
cache-backbuffer=7500
cache-secs=60

[bwat47]

So, you are saying that I'll need to spend 5 hours of reading man pages to make a 5 line command line or a magic config file tuned to the actual capabilities of my graphics drivers and specific brand of GPU to get it to work...?! Yeah, that is impressive and sounds just like MPV

literally all I needed to do to get hardware decoding in mpv was adding hwdec=vaapi to the config file. It took an arduous 30 seconds of googling

[ssokolow]

Gstreamer is an API between the player and codecs, among other things. So Gstreamer support would open up more codecs to VLC. A little shocking VLC doesnt support it yet since this is the obvious solution to the dillemma on Linux

The fact that the Hacker Guide/Core page on their wiki says "VLC is, in fact, a complete multimedia framework (like DirectShow or GStreamer)" might be a clue into the mindset which produced said situation.

[kaprikawn]

Is it bad that one of the biggest reasons my main machine is running Windows is because of Windows Media Player? The interface is just so much better than anything else I've tried. Is it so hard to have a video player with a library that's just a grid of thumbnails?