A Hackfest To Improve Linux Video Playback

[phoronix]

Phoronix: A Hackfest To Improve Linux Video Playback

When it comes to video playback on Linux, the premiere choice for video acceleration is currently using VDPAU with its CPU-efficient, GPU-accelerated capabilities that even has no problems playing 1080p video files with extremely low-end hardware. However, VDPAU is not yet widespread in all Linux video drivers, and other free software developers have been working on improving other areas of the Linux video stack too...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=NzY0Mg

[m4rgin4l]

This is a fantastic opportunity for AMD to get its shit together regarding video acceleration.

[bridgman]

This work seems to be more about making the render part of the pipe more efficient (reducing # of copy operations etc.) when going through Cairo/pixman rather than through Xv. It's not really a decode acceleration initiative AFAICS.

I'm not sure how this work aligns with discussions about building a video decode pipeline into Gallium3D, since the Gallium3D effort is also trying to keep all the processing "in one place" but keeping it in Gallium3D rather than in Cairo/Pixman.

[RealNC]

VDPAU in Catalyst pretty plz plz pretty plox? :P

[Zhick]

I don't get what this work is about?
Something about playing back videos in a webkit-browser (epiphany as far as I could gather) with gstreamer... that seems like a rather exotic corner case which maybe affects 5% of the linux-user base (Gnome users which don't use Firefox).

[KellyClowers]

I don't get what this work is about?
Something about playing back videos in a webkit-browser (epiphany as far as I could gather) with gstreamer... that seems like a rather exotic corner case which maybe affects 5% of the linux-user base (Gnome users which don't use Firefox).

It is about video with GStreamer, period. And other players could presumably hook into the same Cairo/Pixman infrastructure, once it is ready.

[highlandsun]

Hmm. I dunno 'bout others, but when I think of "linux desktop video experience" I think of a lot of things, like mplayer, totem, whatever, but "webkit" definitely doesn't leap to mind.

I guess you might want to improve the experience when playing videos in a web browser. Me, I'd prefer to play videos outside the browser, after downloading them to a tmpfs so that I can control the playback and not worry about stuttering due to network slowdowns/congestion/whatever.

[Yfrwlf]

I'd just be happy having a tear-free desktop experience especially with video playback. I have yet to witness such a desktop on Linux. Videos are usually OK until there are quick movements, then you can really see the tearing, and this is on both nvidia and ATI with both closed and open source drivers and always on high-resolution screens (1920x1080 or higher). I've even tried VDPAU through Mplayer using NVidia hardware and the closed driver with the same results. I thought this was one of the things Wayland was supposed to correct but it would be nice to fix it for Xorg which 99.9999999999999999% of Linux users use.

[krazy]

I'd just be happy having a tear-free desktop experience especially with video playback. I have yet to witness such a desktop on Linux.
Tear free video works here on the open source radeon driver. HD 4850, 1920x1200 screen, 1080p video.

[kersurk]

Should this also improve Adobe Flash video playback?

[timmydog]

Hmm. I dunno 'bout others, but when I think of "linux desktop video experience" I think of a lot of things, like mplayer, totem, whatever, but "webkit" definitely doesn't leap to mind.

There is a new "video" tag in HTML 5, which WebKit supports (or at least will soon); if you google for "html 5 video tag" you'll see plenty of info... :)

HTH

Tim

Edit: but yes, I agree, mplayer, totem, etc do spring to mind first...

[MartjeB]

I thought this was one of the things Wayland was supposed to correct but it would be nice to fix it for Xorg which 99.9999999999999999% of Linux users use.
I don't think there are 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 Linux users.. :D

[DeepDayze]

I don't think there are 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 Linux users.. :D

Well you never know ;)

Improving the overall video experience on Linux is worthwhile, as you'd get more users and developers interested.

[crumja]

From my understanding, this effort will only apply to software that uses gstreamer for piping video playback. What about the rest of us who use xine, mplayer, or vlc? It's much better to just expose a video out interface like xv, xvmc, or vdpau the way Gallium is moving towards. That will be framework neutral.

[val-gaav]

Linux video playback engines used : mplayer, vlc ........ then long silence :D gstreamer xine etc.

Mplayer is the main player people use vlc is second ... Some GNOME using people may use gstreamer with totem but for example people running kde will most liekely not even have it installed ... so is it really A Hackfest To Improve Linux Video Playback or a A Hackfest To Improve GNOME/Gstreamer Video Playback ??
Oh and nothing wrong in improving it, just that things should be named correctly.

[kraftman]

Afaik Gstreamer can be used in KDE thanks to Phonon.

[_txf_]

Afaik Gstreamer can be used in KDE thanks to Phonon.

The gstreamer backend blows chunks. Even phonon itself is an open question. Qt software are no longer actively developing it so it seems like it is becoming another orphaned piece of kde tech.

[kraftman]

The gstreamer backend blows chunks. Even phonon itself is an open question. Qt software are no longer actively developing it so it seems like it is becoming another orphaned piece of kde tech.

So, any real alternative to xine, right? :>

[RealNC]

Gstreamer itself blows chunks, so I see no problem if its phonon back-end does too :D

[krazy]

Even phonon itself is an open question. Qt software are no longer actively developing it so it seems like it is becoming another orphaned piece of kde tech.
What? It's actively backed by Nokia as part of Qt, they had a stable release less than a month ago and are planning a new one before the end of the year.

[benmoran]

I end up using VLC from time to time, but these days Gstreamer handles most things fine. It's certainly become a lot more capable in the last year, especially when it comes to MKV containers. While mplayer/xine/etc. can be argued to be technically better, who cares as long as it plays my files.

[Kano]

mplayer currently falls behind ffplay when you want to see m2ts subtitles. I hope mplayer will support those soon.

[val-gaav]

I would like to know what other orphaned kde techs are out there...

The only example that comes to my mind is ARTS. Khtml may be dropped orphaned with kde5 just as arts was with kde4, however khtml will still live on as webkit.