The reason we had to switch to VDPAU with Ubuntu 16.04 is that we saw
a major regression with mpeg2 playback using va-api.
What regression was that? The difference between VDPAU and VA-API is
only marginal for codec support.
During our testing we put Ubuntu 19.10 on one of these boxes and
noticed that full software acceleration has improved to the point that
VA-API nor VDPAU was required for VLC to render the mpeg2 and mpeg4
streams correctly.
Well how was the stack configured then? Pure software playback?
As long as you don't do any high resolution H264 decoding the CPU in
that package should be capable of decoding both MPEG2 and MPEG4 with
software decode.
In general I would also try with mpv instead of vlc to rule out player
issues.
Regards,
Christian.
Am 02.12.19 um 15:06 schrieb Will DeBerry:
well that's the very first APU generation and unfortunately nobody
is working on that old hardware any more.
Agreed, definitely old hardware. Unfortunately we have 10,000 of these
things in production and they have been playing hardware accelerated
mpeg2 fine until we upgraded to Ubuntu 16.04 and the new mesa package.
Now to be specific, our previous version of linux on these systems we
were using an older software stack and video acceleration pipeline but
it worked perfectly, so we know the hardware is capable.
*Old Software Stack:*
* vlc 2.1.5
* mesa 11.0.6
* va-api hardware acceleration
* libva info: VA-API version 0.38.1
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/va/drivers/r600_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_0_35
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA-API version: 0.38 (libva 1.6.2)
vainfo: Driver version: Splitted-Desktop Systems VDPAU backend for
VA-API - 0.7.4
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
VAProfileMPEG2Simple : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileMPEG2Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileMPEG4Simple : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileMPEG4AdvancedSimple : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264Baseline : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVC1Simple : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVC1Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVC1Advanced : VAEntrypointVLD
*New Software Stack:*
* vlc 2.2.2
* mesa 18.2.8-2~bpo9+1
* vdpau hardware acceleration
The reason we had to switch to VDPAU with Ubuntu 16.04 is that we saw
a major regression with mpeg2 playback using va-api. It was capable of
playing back mpeg4 without any issues. Now that we have switched to
VDPAU however, we are seeing this GPU thread lockup bug and thus
causing X and other GUI related programs to crash and requiring a
reboot to recover.
Changing out hardware for the next best thing is not an option at our
scale and we know that the hardware is capable due to past
experiences. We are just in need of assistance with someone or some
party that knows that stack a lot more than us to help dig to the core
issue of the lockup or help us get VA-API working for mpeg2 in 16.04.
So the best approach is probably to not use hardware acceleration
for MPEG2 clips in general.
With software decoding, the performance doesn't produce something that
is watchable. One interesting tidbit to note. During our testing we
put Ubuntu 19.10 on one of these boxes and noticed that full software
acceleration has improved to the point that VA-API nor VDPAU was
required for VLC to render the mpeg2 and mpeg4 streams correctly. Is
this something that could potentially be backported to Ubuntu 16.04? I
know this is a much bigger task that the one sentence ask alludes to,
but figured I'd ask anyway.
We are more than welcome to work together on this, especially since
the hardware is older and probably hard to find. Just needing to find
a solution so we can move forward on upgrading the software and on
these older hardware.
On Thu, Nov 28, 2019 at 7:15 AM Christian König
<ckoenig.leichtzumer...@gmail.com
<mailto:ckoenig.leichtzumer...@gmail.com>> wrote:
Hi Will,
well that's the very first APU generation and unfortunately nobody
is working on that old hardware any more.
MPEG2 is known to not be fully supported by that chipset in
general. So the best approach is probably to not use hardware
acceleration for MPEG2 clips in general.
Regards,
Christian.
Am 27.11.19 um 18:35 schrieb Will DeBerry:
Hi all,
I am reaching out hoping to get some assistance with resolving a
bug/crash that we see with the GPU when using VDPAU hardware
acceleration on Ubuntu 16.04. This is specific to the r600
drivers interacting with VDPAU when trying to playback certain
mpeg2 content.
*GPU in question per lscpi: *
00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
[AMD/ATI] Wrestler [Radeon HD 6320]
We are highly invested in this GPU and would love to get this
addressed as soon as possible and are also willing to
sponsor this work if needed.
*Steps to Recreate:*
1. Launch VLC with VDPAU hardware acceleration and deinterlacing
enabled
2. Play the attached piece of known bad content
3. Wait for GPU lockup
Per dmesg, the GPU thread gets locked up within the kernel and
thus breaks all GUI related activities until the PC is rebooted.
*Mesa Version Tested:*
18.0.5-0ubuntu0~16.04.1
18.2.8-2~bpo9+1
Let me know if you have any questions or are interested in
discussing this further.
Thanks,
--
*Will DeBerry*
Manager, Client Devices
GetWellNetwork
o: 240.482.4237 | m: 813.330.0121 | getwellnetwork.com
<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.getwellnetwork.com%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cchristian.koenig%40amd.com%7C36f9952a3d504940e82c08d77730d203%7C3dd8961fe4884e608e11a82d994e183d%7C0%7C0%7C637108923906349531&sdata=iS6WwpRpq4rCFVu8mpKuohVVILL%2Biuv7feM66Pmsgo4%3D&reserved=0>
_______________________________________________________
Join us for GetConnected 2020! REGISTER TODAY
<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.getconnected2020.com%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cchristian.koenig%40amd.com%7C36f9952a3d504940e82c08d77730d203%7C3dd8961fe4884e608e11a82d994e183d%7C0%7C0%7C637108923906359486&sdata=%2B3e3AgeJMIumIheea5TdTixV4EMNZEoCSAzM5lj33ng%3D&reserved=0>
_______________________________________________
mesa-dev mailing list
mesa-dev@lists.freedesktop.org <mailto:mesa-dev@lists.freedesktop.org>
https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/mesa-dev
<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flists.freedesktop.org%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Fmesa-dev&data=02%7C01%7Cchristian.koenig%40amd.com%7C36f9952a3d504940e82c08d77730d203%7C3dd8961fe4884e608e11a82d994e183d%7C0%7C0%7C637108923906359486&sdata=bTEUS8%2FnzkCA7vPyiabYzkjBaGfdK24CDzdFWSrLxOA%3D&reserved=0>
--
*Will DeBerry*
Manager, Client Devices
GetWellNetwork
o: 240.482.4237 | m: 813.330.0121 | getwellnetwork.com
<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.getwellnetwork.com%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cchristian.koenig%40amd.com%7C36f9952a3d504940e82c08d77730d203%7C3dd8961fe4884e608e11a82d994e183d%7C0%7C0%7C637108923906369447&sdata=%2BRvmP3vJ4yhskJfQEe1fxXrl9PtiztAuOGhhBL3jNY4%3D&reserved=0>
_______________________________________________________
Join us for GetConnected 2020! REGISTER TODAY
<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.getconnected2020.com%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cchristian.koenig%40amd.com%7C36f9952a3d504940e82c08d77730d203%7C3dd8961fe4884e608e11a82d994e183d%7C0%7C0%7C637108923906369447&sdata=MhjxxW1ToOH%2Fuxb%2FbVOxNz2omDLWShFcjwCPV7yeR9g%3D&reserved=0>
_______________________________________________
mesa-dev mailing list
mesa-dev@lists.freedesktop.org
https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/mesa-dev
