Firefox Nightly Tries For VA-API Video Acceleration For Mesa Users

[OneTimeShot]

I can't help thinking that disabling VA-API in Firefox simply delayed the bugs getting fixed. Just add a "if Mesa version >2.22 enable by default" and force VA-API to get fixed before they release version 2.23...

...it's not like webbrowsers aren't the primary users of video codecs these days... Seems pointless for VA-API to exist if it can't be used for web.

[M@GOid]

More than 10 years after Windows and Mac. It's strange how GNU/Linux usually supports the latest processors and graphics but it took so long to implement something so basic

I don't think it was 10 years, at least for Firefox on Windows. Unless you are counting Flash based video streaming. In that case, Flash on Linux also supported acceleration.

[Danny3]

Maybe too late. Lost a lot of users because of this lack of funcionality, in Linux.

Indeed, I think the same.

And not only users, but also developers of distro which chose some other browser as default instead of Firefox.

The most recent example of that being linux Lite:

https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/release-announcements/linux-lite-6-0-final-released/

[sinepgib]

And do you think Chrome / Chromium based browsers are better than this? I think they're all much worse in supporting Linux. Their VAAPI support is much more abysmal, their startup time is much slower on Linux than on Windows (at least it seems like Mozilla optimized Firefox startup time on Linux within the last year, so now it's more or less comparable to Windows). And Wayland support is also more mature in Firefox.

Having somebody care less doesn't make them care. Besides, if you advocate for free software as Mozilla does it's much more ironic that you ignore free platforms than when you're either a company or a byproduct of said company.

[aufkrawall]

Given that 1) FFMEG's VA-API support is partial (while NVENC/NVDEC support is complete) (https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/HWAccelIntro), 2) OBS Studio hides VA-API encoding option in advanced options (and you can select NVENC right away) 3) some distros (checked Ubuntu and Arch) don't even enable FFMEG VA-API via --enable-vaapi configure flag, I'm inclined to think that VA-API is not that good.

Nonsensical post. It's not VAAPI's fault that it's poorly supported by weird projects like obs or Handbrake when it has been working in ffmpeg and mpv for many years without severe issues (at least not more severe than the constant driver crashing issues of Chrome on Windows due to whatever API).

Hope it gets enabled for beta too in the not too distant future, that should prevent even more regressions from reaching stable versions.

[Quackdoc]

I hope it's ready, vaapi has consistently given me issues with firefox

Given that 1) FFMEG's VA-API support is partial (while NVENC/NVDEC support is complete) (https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/HWAccelIntro), 2) OBS Studio hides VA-API encoding option in advanced options (and you can select NVENC right away) 3) some distros (checked Ubuntu and Arch) don't even enable FFMEG VA-API via --enable-vaapi configure flag, I'm inclined to think that VA-API is not that good.

well it's a good thing that vaapi is an auto detect feature then isn't it. yes, arch does have vaapi ffmpeg... in fact im pretty sure I don't remeber a time not having vaapi...

vaapi decoding and encoding is perfectly fine. it's not as performant as others in all cases. but with apps that actually support it it's fine.

[birdie]

More than 10 years after Windows and Mac. It's strange how GNU/Linux usually supports the latest processors and graphics but it took so long to implement something so basic

Alder Lake is still not properly supported by Linux and I don't think it's going to get supported as well as W11 does it in the next three years.

DEs in Linux barely support any GPUs in the world, I mean Windows has had its UI almost fully GPU accelerated since Windows Vista or something? What about Linux? Well, rendering using the CPU mostly. Linux is fast to support something, right. It's damn slow in actually implementing the same thing. And then to make it all worse there are multiple competing ways of doing the same thing and then often times things become deprecated and it takes ages for applications to switch to new things. VDPAU? Still working perfectly for 99.99% of video clips out there? Nah, let's create VAAPI because we can.

[Awesomeness]

More than 10 years after Windows and Mac. It's strange how GNU/Linux usually supports the latest processors and graphics but it took so long to implement something so basic

As you can see from the screenshot, the contribution isn't even by Mozilla. As usual, it's an external developer (this time Red Hat).

[aufkrawall]

Alder Lake is still not properly supported by Linux

Something tells me this isn't entirely accurate...

DEs in Linux barely support any GPUs in the world

DEs don't support any GPUs at all because it's not their job.

I mean Windows has had its UI almost fully GPU accelerated since Windows Vista or something?

Most UIs in Windows are basic GDI stuff that are hardly GPU accelerated at all.

Stop believing in unicorns.

[erniv2]

The main problem with those video APIs is that the opensource versions are basically unusable or illegal, want to watch a copy protected BLUE RAY to get the Full HD expierence on Linux good luck, you´ll be breaking the law if you are in US EU, same for HDTV, basically every HDTV stream is encrypted and you need special hardware usually found in media recivers, standard PC Hardware does not provide that functionality except you use Illegal Software decryption wich of course is not part of those APIs else all the coders would be in Jail by now.

Even Microsoft no longer plays that DRM game Windows 11 Media Player simply does not play BD anymore, and you need to buy the AV1 HEVC Codec in the Store to use it.

The only Software out there that is working is VLC and that only works for unencrypted HD content.

Of course if you just want to watch youtube those restrictions dont apply to everthing but if it´s AV1 it may aswell dunno.