[mythtv-users] Sandy Bridge / Intel HD 3000 support?

[Phil Linttell]

On 11-02-24 07:00 AM, mythtv-users-request at mythtv.org wrote:
> Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2011 09:16:25 +0000
> From: Tom Hill <tom at ninjabadger.net>
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Sandy Bridge / Intel HD 3000 support?
> To: Discussion about MythTV <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
>
> On Thu, 2011-02-24 at 08:29 +0800, Mark Kendall wrote:
>> > Hardware decoding for the HD 2/3000 series is via  VAAPI. I have an
>> > outstanding ticket for adding VAAPI support to mythtv but, to be
>> > honest, the chances of me continuing to work on it in the near future
>> > are remote (anyone interested?).
>> > 
>> > The last time I looked, the Intel/upstream libva library was out of
>> > date, the recommended library version was provided and maintained by a
>> > third party and the two had API inconsistencies. The intel support
>> > seemed flaky at best (though that was just as likely my code), ATI/AMD
>> > support was a joke (I don't know why they bothered to be honest) and
>> > the implementation as a whole is weak in comparison to VDPAU or DXVA2
>> > (e.g. none or notional deinterlacing support).
> This is a shame, especially given the working support for VA-API in XMBC
> already. There will be a lot of users looking to use these new chipsets
> (and the previous generation GMA HD) with Myth, whom will be coming-up
> short when it comes to H.264.
>
> The Gallium3D offshoot of Mesa may well hold more promise for AMD, one
> day (but that is OT).
>> > Fingers crossed it will improve (it may well have done so already).
> Here's hoping. 
>
> Tom

My sons each purchased $300 single-core laptops at Christmas with AMD
HD4250 video and HDMI ports.  I was able to get VAAPI (0.32.2-1+sds1)
running over XVBA (0.7.8.pre1-1) with Catalyst 11.2 on Kubuntu 10.10
using the packages from http://www.splitted-desktop.com/~gbeauchesne .  
Acceleration works for H.264 (high profile) and  VC-1 (although I
haven't tested VC-1.)

I had to build ffmpeg, mplayer,VLC, and kdenlive from sources, but I'm
able to get smooth 1080i and 720p video recorded from an HD-PVR with
highest quality settings.   VLC in particular has very good support for
VAAPI acceleration now and works well with XVBA... mplayer had some
issues with 1080i, but played 720p cleanly.   kdenlive works for
playback, but has some seeking issues (which it also has with VDPAU).  
XBMC works from binary packages, although I believe there are some new
patches going into 10.1.

I can capture directly from the HD-PVR in VLC (with preview) and edit in
kdenlive.

I think VAAPI is far enough along with AMD (judging from what VLC is
capable of) that it would be worth the effort of supporting.  Certainly,
I was hoping mythtv 0.25 would be far enough with VAAPI support that I
could help with testing at release candidate stage.

Phil