Mplayer VDPAU auto codec selection script

[bal_zac]

I recently wrote a script such that I could easily playback files easily in mythtv. It just finds out which codec the file in question is using, and launches mplayer with the correct codec. Nothing much, but I thought someone might find it useful. Just change the $mplayerlocation to wherever it is on your computer and uncomment the last if fi statement to enable vc-1.

#!/bin/bash
#Script to automatically find out which codec a file is using and determine whether or not to use VDPAU.

#if no input display usage
if [ -z "$1" ]; then
	echo usage: $0 /path/to/file
	exit
fi

#remember to change this to the path of your mplayer binary
mplayerlocation=/usr/local/bin/mplayer-vdpau-3263604/mplayer-vdpau
cd $mplayerlocation

#kinda a lame way to do it, but bring up mplayer and pipe the output to a temporary file, then read which codec the file is
./mplayer -identify -vo vdpau $1 > /tmp/VIDEOCODEC &
sleep 0.5
killall mplayer
videocodec=`cat /tmp/VIDEOCODEC | grep ID_VIDEO_CODEC | cut -c 16-25`
rm /tmp/VIDEOCODEC

echo "VIDEO CODEC: $videocodec"

if [ $videocodec = "ffh264" ]; then
	codec='h264'
	echo \n Playing $1 with $codec codec \n
	./mplayer -vo vdpau -vc ffh264vdpau $1

	exit
fi

if [ $videocodec = "ffmpeg2" ]; then
	codec='MPEG2'
	echo \n Playing $1 with $codec codec \n
	./mplayer -vo vdpau -vc ffmpeg12vdpau $1

	exit
fi

if [ $videocodec = "ffwmv3" ]; then
	codec='WMV3'
	echo \n Playing $1 with $codec codec \n
	./mplayer -vo vdpau -vc ffwmv3vdpau $1

	exit
fi

#VC1 is not supported on most gpus
#uncomment if it is supported on your gpu
#if [ $videocodec = "ffvc1" ]; then
#	codec='VC1'
#	echo \n Playing $1 with $codec codec \n
#	./mplayer -vo vdpau -vc ffvc1vdpau $1
#
#	exit
#fi

#if it isnt one of those it is not supported by vdpau
#so we should play without vdpau
./mplayer $1
exit

[Kano]

Isn't it simpler to use the xine-vdpau solution?

[bal_zac]

Yes, it is probably simpler, but from what I can gather, the xine solution is much less stable at the moment, although I havent actually tried xine yet.

[deanjo]

Isn't it simpler to use the xine-vdpau solution?

xine-vdpau still doesn't support containers that are commonly used for HD (mkv,mov), mplayer already does. xine-vdpau is focusing first on the vdr stream playback part of things first

[iapitus]

I made a few minor changes to the script above, largely getting rid of the /tmp/ bits.
iapitus

#!/bin/bash
# Script to automatically find out which codec a file is using and determine whether or not to use VDPAU.
# Rev.0 - bal_zac original - posted on phoronix
# Rev.2 - largely stylistic changes - removed need for tmp files and changed if statements to a single case statement

IAM=$0
FILE=$1

#if no input display usage
if [[ -z "$FILE" ]]; then
	echo usage: $0 /path/to/file
	exit
fi

MPLAYER=/usr/bin/mplayer
MPLAYEROPTS="-fs -zoom -af volnorm=2 -ao pulse"
VCODEC=$($MPLAYER -identify -vo vdpau -frames 0 "$FILE" | grep ID_VIDEO_CODEC | cut -c 16-25)


echo "VIDEO CODEC: $VCODEC"

case $VCODEC in
 ffh264) 
  echo -e "Playing h.264 file $FILE:\n"
  MPLAYEROPTS="$MPLAYEROPTS -vo vdpau -vc ffh264vdpau"
;;
 ffmpeg2)
  echo -e "Playing MPEG2 file $FILE:\n"
  MPLAYEROPTS="$MPLAYEROPTS -vo vdpau -vc ffmpeg12vdpau"
;;
 ffwmv3)
  echo -e "Playing WMV3 file $FILE:\n"
  MPLAYEROPTS="$MPLAYEROPTS -vo vdpau -vc ffwmv3vdpau"
;;
 # VC-1 is largely unsupported by nvidia - uncomment this section if you're sure your card supports it.
 #ffvc1)
 # echo -e "Playing VC-1 file $FILE:\n"
 # MPLAYEROPTS="$MPLAYEROPTS -vo vdpau -vc ffvc1vdpau"
 #;;
 *)
  echo -e "Playing normal file $FILE:\n"
  MPLAYEROPTS="$MPLAYEROPTS -vo xv"
;;
esac

$MPLAYER $MPLAYEROPTS $FILE

[Kano]

You can always use -vo vdpau, also you can use

case $VCODEC in
ffh264|ffwmv3|ffmpeg12)
VCODEC=${VCODEC}vdpau
;;
esac

and then just execute - in that case you can add even more options.

$MPLAYER -vo vdpau -vc $VCODEC "$@"

[ashwb]

Why not just put a list of the video outputs and codecs you want to try in your ~/.mplayer/config file? As in:

# default to using vdpau output and codecs

# add ffvc1vdpau if your hardware supports it

# the trailing comma in each setting tells mplayer to
# fall back to standard codecs if necessary
vo=vdpau,xv,
vc=ffh264vdpau,ffmpeg12vdpau,

[mercurycc]

Why not just put a list of the video outputs and codecs you want to try in your ~/.mplayer/config file? As in:

# default to using vdpau output and codecs

# add ffvc1vdpau if your hardware supports it

# the trailing comma in each setting tells mplayer to
# fall back to standard codecs if necessary
vo=vdpau,xv,
vc=ffh264vdpau,ffmpeg12vdpau,

This works!

[z4ck9]

What is your expert opinion on the recent release of Nvidia 180 series featuring VDPAU in LINUX. Can it be taken as an equivalent with Pure video on Windows? Can VDPAU et hardware decoding of MPEG, VCI Video etc if we had installed a suitable driver and a proper video player. I heard that MPlayer works in VDPAU with some configuration done. Is it trustworthy? The latest NVidia driver is required for that. Am I correct?