AMD's UVD2-based XvBA Finally Does Something On Linux

[non7top]

I got mplayer crashing. Both current svn mplayer and the one provided by script checkout-patch-build.sh.

Gentoo users can try mplayer ebuild from arcon overlay with vaapi USE flag.

Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
[VD_FFMPEG] VA API accelerated codec.
[VD_FFMPEG] Trying pixfmt=0.
Unsupported PixelFormat -1
Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vf scale...
Opening video filter: [scale]
The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec.
Try appending the scale filter to your filter list,
e.g. -vf spp,scale instead of -vf spp.
[VD_FFMPEG] Trying pixfmt=1.
Unsupported PixelFormat -1
Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vf scale...
Opening video filter: [scale]
The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec.
Try appending the scale filter to your filter list,
e.g. -vf spp,scale instead of -vf spp.
Unsupported PixelFormat -1
Unsupported PixelFormat -1
Selected video codec: [ffh264] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg H.264)


Starting playback...
[h264 @ 0x8987120]decoding to PIX_FMT_NONE is not supported.
[h264 @ 0x8987120]decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x8987120]no frame!
Error while decoding frame!
[h264 @ 0x8987120]decoding to PIX_FMT_NONE is not supported.
[h264 @ 0x8987120]decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x8987120]no frame!
Error while decoding frame!

Too many audio packets in the buffer: (4099 in 4123594 bytes).
Maybe you are playing a non-interleaved stream/file or the codec failed?
For AVI files, try to force non-interleaved mode with the -ni option.

FATAL: Could not initialize video filters (-vf) or video output (-vo).

[energyman]

We all know how well front end and backend efforts like this have played out in the past. *cough* pulseaudio *cough*

Using a bandaid solution is just bad project planning and is probably linux's greatest flaw.

how about you stop posting crap?

va-api is a good choice because it abstracts away the backend.
There are a lot of these constructs. Like gcc.

And it has nothing in common in any way with pulseaudio which is a sounddaemon. completly different stuff.

[energyman]

Really? Because I can tell you as a matter of fact even including bumpgate effected cards the ATI's have a higher failure rate then the Nvidia cards. For every Nvidia card that was replaced ATI cards were replaced 10 x more. These include the 7500, 2600HD, X1900, X850, 9000 Pro.

In fact there is a whole section in Apple engineering notes to agents under the heading "ATI distorted video" that all say "Replace the card". In fact most of the extended beyond warranty coverage on some machines such as the eMac had to do with ATI graphics failing.

and of course you have some source to support your claims? Or are you just talking out of your a??

Nvidia is currently tied up in three lawsuits thanks to bumpgate. Ati? How many?

And Apple was so unhappy with ATI that they just bought two complete month of production. Yeah, that spells 'unhappiness'.

[mirv]

and of course you have some source to support your claims? Or are you just talking out of your a??

Nvidia is currently tied up in three lawsuits thanks to bumpgate. Ati? How many?

And Apple was so unhappy with ATI that they just bought two complete month of production. Yeah, that spells 'unhappiness'.

This particular "sub-thread" of the discussion should probably be dropped, or moved somewhere else. And I say this even though I contributed a little to it (so I kinda think I should be responsible and keep the thread on-target for XvBA discussion).

[Ant P.]

Just because PulseAudio is crap (though according to the PA dev's blog, Ubuntu shares half the blame for its reputation), doesn't mean everything like it is. And VA-API isn't even remotely like it.

[droidhacker]

Just because PulseAudio is crap (though according to the PA dev's blog, Ubuntu shares half the blame for its reputation), doesn't mean everything like it is. And VA-API isn't even remotely like it.

I think it *must* be ubuntu at fault. I use PA with fedora and it is pretty much perfect. Some of the older versions were a little weird (periodic clicks, etc.), but those problems seem to be ironed away admirably. Compared to what came before... esd, PA is great. Amazing flexibility.

As with any complex system, sometimes it does take time to iron out the bugs, and sometimes you need to just need to know what you're doing in order to make it work the way you want it to, i.e., PA was missing a lot of the tools needed to make easy configuration changes, and yes, it is quite clear that ubuntu did make some retarded changes to it.

[gururise]

Has anyone been able to install the libamdxvba1.deb package that comes with FGLRX 9.10 on Ubuntu Koala Karmic (9.10)???

There is an unsatisfied dependency on libstdc++5, which does not come with Ubuntu 9.10. Does that mean all new Karmic users will not have video acceleration with ATI? Are there any ways around this issue?

Thanks

[Kano]

Just fetch the package from jaunty. Maybe I patch the dependency out of the package later.

[gururise]

Just fetch the package from jaunty. Maybe I patch the dependency out of the package later.

Thanks, after doing that everything works perfectly!! I downloaded the Rise of the Silver Surfer h264 (720p) clip posted above:

Mplayer (w/o vaapi): 78% CPU
Mplayer (w vaapi): 8% CPU

This on a dual core Athlon x2 2.3Ghz box using the IGP on my 780G motherboard.

Now, I'm just hoping AMD or SDS adds support for more formats, such as h263 and MPEG2, and gets the Va-api patches integrated into upstream ffmpeg and mplayer!! Then VA-API would become more ubiquitous.

[rjwaldren]

It's not an XvBA limitation but a limitation of the underlying HW. The API won't magically implement something if the underlying HW doesn't support it.

What exactly does that mean? Will MPEG2/4 see any benefit from XvBA in the near term or at all? Most of my use (>95% by percentage of play time) is MPEG2.

/RANT ON
As a user I don't care about all of they gray areas and "I know something you don't know" that flies around at Phoronix. I'm just looking for a solution. This is the only place that has any info at all regarding the status of ATI on linux, but nothing real is ever said. I understand NDA but it would be nice to see some type of roadmap for where we are going. But all we get is grey noise. And right now neither ATI or OSS drivers can provide a complete workable solution, with only rumor suggesting it's coming, and only occasional out of the blue progress.
/RANT OFF

Back to the code itself... Is any effort going into integrating it into project mainlines - libva, FFMPEG, Mplayer, MythTV, VLC etc? I realize acceptance is project dependant but are the sources being marketed to them or is it destined to stay in the SDS tree for some long closed development cycle.