Firefox 80 Available With VA-API On X11, WebGL Parallel Shader Compile Support

[ferry]

If it doesn't make an obvious difference that you can actually see, then why would you even care? Just sayin'

On certain platforms it has a large effect, that you can note indirectly.

For instance I have a Intel NUC with Baytrail (Silvermont Atom 1.5GHz) processor. The CPU can only decode 1080p H.264 videos at 5fps. GPU decoding (through vaapi) manages 30fps. The results, firefox playback is terrible, mpv and Kodi work fine, vlc with vaapi somewhere in between.

So, vaapi is essential for good decode/playback, but not enough. If fps improved with new FF probably it's because vaapi, but if it didn't that could be because vaapi is disabled or because something else is going on, like with vlc.

[jacob]

On certain platforms it has a large effect, that you can note indirectly.

For instance I have a Intel NUC with Baytrail (Silvermont Atom 1.5GHz) processor. The CPU can only decode 1080p H.264 videos at 5fps. GPU decoding (through vaapi) manages 30fps. The results, firefox playback is terrible, mpv and Kodi work fine, vlc with vaapi somewhere in between.

So, vaapi is essential for good decode/playback, but not enough. If fps improved with new FF probably it's because vaapi, but if it didn't that could be because vaapi is disabled or because something else is going on, like with vlc.

That's kind of my point. The OP was asking how to check if it's using it, implying that whether it's used or not doesn't make any clear difference in his situation.

[cipper]

Not really. There's still chromium, which is opensource browser.

Also, what synchronization integrations Firefox supports out of the box? Chromium and Google Chrome support history, bookmarks, passwords synchronization via Google account.

actually it's many years that firefox provides out-of-the-box synchronization of: bookmarks, hystory, open tabs, logins and passwords, addons, and preferences.

where do you live?

[grigi]

Not really. There's still chromium, which is opensource browser.

Also, what synchronization integrations Firefox supports out of the box? Chromium and Google Chrome support history, bookmarks, passwords synchronization via Google account.

Firefox supports sync of all that too, but it doesn't store the data in the cloud for you. I prefer that, but others prefer cloud persistence.
Also Chromium isn't free in spirit. It's tightly controlled by a single entity, with regular code drops. We don't really have an ability to reject code as by the time we see it, it's already in.

[Mthw]

I tried this:

MOZ_LOG="PlatformDecoderModule:5" firefox 2>&1 | grep -i 'VA-API'

And got:

Child 18134: MediaController #2]: D/PlatformDecoderModule DMA-Buf/VA-API can't be used, WebRender/DMA-Buf is disabled

I set these to true:

media.ffmpeg.dmabuf-textures.enabled
media.ffmpeg.vaapi-drm-display.enabled
media.ffmpeg.vaapi.enabled

Do I need anything else?

You might need to set MOZ_X11_EGL=1, media.ffvpx.enabled disabled, and gfx.webrender.all; You don't need media.ffmpeg.dmabuf-textures.enable nor media.ffmpeg.vaapi-drm-display.enabled.

[FireBurn]

Hardware video decode now works with Angle on Chrome 86, and can be enabled from chrome://flags if it was enabled when built, from the text in the code it looks like vaapi might be enabled as default in version 90

[Alexmitter]

Many didn't move, due to Wayland session being still bad in KDE. So X11 is still very necessary.

Why do you expect a legacy desktop to support a modern display server? Plasma does not even have a working X11 window manager / compositor.

[Alexmitter]

I don't give two fucks about who did it. Open source should not be about fame-hunting for devs, nor it should be about cultist behavior and worshipping false deities for the users.

I rather worship that redhat guy then the usual cruel villain monsters other people call god.

[Mike Frett]

Many of us have moved on from X11

Speaking for yourself, of course.

[leigh123linux]

I don't give two fucks about who did it. Open source should not be about fame-hunting for devs, nor it should be about cultist behavior and worshipping false deities for the users.

All religions worship false deities, gods were invented to keep the stupid masses compliant