Adobe Rants Over Linux Video Acceleration APIs

[eokiahn]

So instead of actually doing work and improving Flash on Linux, this guy sits at his desk and bitches about Linux video APIs on this blog? What I want to know is, why hasn't somebody stepped up to the plate with a real alternative to Flash and finished it off by now? HTML5 is great, I tried the YouTube beta and it uses nowhere near as much CPU as Flash does. The only problem with HTML5 is the h264/Ogg battle. Hey I'm all for open-source but sometimes I just want to watch videos and not be scrutinized for using a non-free codec.

[garytr24]

xvideo

Why don't they start with implementing something like xvideo? That would help the cpu tremendously. I don't understand why flash has to avoid using overlays and take more cpu for decoding than any other compiled video decoder.

[3rdalbum]

I think Adobe lost all credibility by having this guy rant for them about video acceleration.

ATI's video acceleration API is undocumented and unimplemented, so you can't target it.
XVideo and XV-MC don't help the CPU much and probably aren't worth the effort.
VDPAU is rapidly becoming the standard video acceleration API on Linux, being supported by Nvidia GPUs and some minor players, supported as a backend for Broadcom's CrystalHD chip, and probably eventually being supported by Intel GPUs

Hmmm..... I wonder which one they should choose?

[hubick]

Look at all the work Mozilla has done to improve the GNU/Linux platform API's - from Pango to Cairo. At this rate, Mozilla will fix Video before Adobe finishes whining about it.

[bridgman]

ATI's video acceleration API is undocumented and unimplemented, so you can't target it.

XvBA is documented, just under NDA. It was originally designed for use with binary players.

XVideo and XV-MC don't help the CPU much and probably aren't worth the effort.

They actually save a lot of CPU time, probably more than any other level step in the playback stack. Try playing a typical video with X11 output rather than Xv and look at the CPU difference. That said, Adobe is already using GL for render acceleration so Xv wouldn't save much CPU relative to GL. If that's what you meant then "carry on"

[movieman]

So wait, this is the company that for Flash has not been able to produce a stable 64bit release (That one version for Linux was just officially just some alpha testing version).

I've been running 64-bit Flash for a year and it's no worse than any other version of Flash. Ubuntu even handles it through the update manager so there's no need to manually download new versions anymore.

[sp82]

I don't want anymore the flash plugin(and other closed source code) into my linux box.
But from the Adobe perspective: why Flash Plugin is not expandable by plugins?
If Adobe release an intelligent FlashAPI the opensource community can create the code needed to the plugin for work well on linux, solaris, *bsd, macosx, ecc..
For example the Api can permit to create Video Acceleration Api backends, graphic output backends, audio output backends, in a more deep collaboration with the community is possible to create an efficient 2D acceleration.
Adobe open the doors. Release the FlashPlugin like a kernel and let's the community a free api for create the "drivers".

[[Knuckles]]

Maybe this guy needs to spend LESS time on m$ paint, and more time, you know, CODING.

It's easy to arrive later at the party and say "meh, I don't like these APIs, they don't work". Why don't they work? How can they be improved? Where are you getting problems? -- Those are the lame, technical questions. Bitching and drawing a box graphic attacks the real issue, that is: er.., if I knew I'd be working for adobe.

So there you go.

[unimatrix]

and that argument will be finished eventually. however im still waiting on 64 bit flash. Lets see what comes first .

Huh?
http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flas...r10_64bit.html

[rhdunn]

I agree with the points made here.

Adobe should work with the various communities and help them instead of complaining. You didn't see Mozilla complain that pango or cairo were no good. No, you have them working to improve the associated libraries to meet their needs.

So, stepping back a little, what is the reason behind this?
1/ Adobe being closed source does not want to contribute code to Open Source projects?
2/ Adobe does not know where to talk about this in the respective communities (sound, pulseaudio, video)?
3/ The developers are lazy?
4/ They feel that their work will become yet another sound API or video acceleration API, or not get accepted upstream?
5/ Pressure from management/the business to get a product out that supports the features, and not wanting to wait to get community approval, get the changes into the upstream projects and have them being adopted by the various distributions?
6/ Adobe does not want to help Open Source projects because of their ties to Microsoft?
6/ A combination of the above?

If we don't know, then it just becomes another meaningless rant which will blow over, nothing will be done about it and will help colour peoples perception of Linux.

And it's not like Microsoft change their graphics APIs (GDI, GDI+, DirectDraw, Direct2D, System.Drawing, System.Windows.Shapes, ...) or sound APIs and architecture (Vista) creating a confusing landscape on Windows is it? Yet Abobe does not rant about that, do they?