Gallium3D VDPAU On Radeon Starts Working

[RealNC]

I'm not sure if r300 GPUs have the capability to do this, since they lack unified shaders. My guess is they can't be programmed for this task.

[agd5f]

We should be able to support this on r300g with a little work. There's nothing fundamentally r6xx specific, it's just that the author happens to be using newer hardware.

[peapa]

Great ! It would be amazing to decode HD videos on such old hardware !
These old computers shouldn't be left taking dust in a corner

[Qaridarium]

Indeed it is good news, keep up the good work !

Still, I think it is just sad that this isn't being worked on for R300 cards, where i think it would be the most needed because CPUs from that era can't handle HD video.
I know that Gallium based stuff is supposed to be easily shared between drivers, so I hope it would simplify an eventual port to R300g.

Also, I understand that R300 is old and doesn't necessarily drags interest now, but until a few months ago I had an old pentium 4 rig that did everything I asked perfectly fine, let alone... high def video

r300 is a point of interest ask "marek" he will fix that for r300g..

[droidhacker]

Indeed it is good news, keep up the good work !

Still, I think it is just sad that this isn't being worked on for R300 cards, where i think it would be the most needed because CPUs from that era can't handle HD video.
I know that Gallium based stuff is supposed to be easily shared between drivers, so I hope it would simplify an eventual port to R300g.

Also, I understand that R300 is old and doesn't necessarily drags interest now, but until a few months ago I had an old pentium 4 rig that did everything I asked perfectly fine, let alone... high def video

I think where this will shine is really in HTPC scenarios... budget and/or low energy consumption (quiet) machines. For instance, my HTPC has a single core sempron 140, IGP Radeon 4200 -- the CPU is NOT strong enough to decode HD h264, so I have a crystalhd decoder in it. A bit of G3D decoding and the crystalhd may be obsolete.

[curaga]

CrystalHD - 1 watt
GPU running all its shaders - two to three number watts

[pingufunkybeat]

CPU cracking BluRay encryption under Linux = even more Watts.
The system + Wifi power costs needed to download a 9GB HD movie = more than a KWh.

The extra 20W or whatever needed to decode the movie in software is a red herring IMHO.

The shaders are not the biggest problem you have if you want to legally watch HD contents. The whole video decoding problem is not technological, it is legal, and Linux will ALWAYS consume more power than Windows doing this.

There is a law which stipulates that you should be punished for watching movies on Linux. If you defeat that law, there are no technological issues left. It's not a G3D/AMD/Nvidia/UVD/h264 discussion, you are using more watts because the media industry made you.

[curaga]

@pingufunkybeat

I think we agree here, I was just replying because I do not understand a switch away from a superior solution that's also FOSS. Perhaps droidhacker cares about the firmware on the device, I don't know.

[pingufunkybeat]

Yeah, if he already has a CrystalHD, then why not keep using it?

I'm happy about the shader decoding, it's a nice tool to have, and it's a flexible solution. Personally, given the power of my CPU, I don't find it all that important for me, but it might save some people with weaker CPUs.

[droidhacker]

Yeah, if he already has a CrystalHD, then why not keep using it?

I'm happy about the shader decoding, it's a nice tool to have, and it's a flexible solution. Personally, given the power of my CPU, I don't find it all that important for me, but it might save some people with weaker CPUs.

The point isn't to quit using it, its to not need one to begin with. They aren't exactly free.