[mythtv-users] Vaapi use on Sandy Bridge

[Keith Pyle]

On 01/26/12 15:46, William Otten wrote:
> I'm just getting started in understanding the VAAPI use in Mythtv and have
> a couple questions concerning it's use. I have read through countless posts
> and basically understand that VAAPI isn't complete but should be usable
> without deinterlacing. I'm currently using a core i5 2405S and an Intel
> DH67CFB3 motherboard itx and Ubuntu 11.10 64 bit via Mythbuntu with fixes.
> I setup a playback profile for VAAPI using VAAPI Acceleration for the
> decoder, Openglvaapi for the render and opengl2 for the osd render and none
> for deinterlacing. When I try to play a tv recording either 720 or 1080p, I
> hear audio for a second then I get a blank screen then Mythtv restarts. I
> have attached the frontend log but I don't see any error when the problem
> happens. Now a bit of history. I followed this post:
>
> http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/501091
>
> Which follows an XBMC post to get an Ubuntu system working with VAAPI. The
> user says he has a working mythtv .25 with VAAPI (The user has been very
> helpful). I followed the steps which were pretty simple:
> Install
> sudo apt-get install libbluray1 i965-va-driver vainfo libmad0
> gtk2-engines-pixbuf
> Mythtv .25
>
> So my questions:
> My attempt at get VAAPI working has failed...what is the problem / error in
> Mythtv?
> Does Ubuntu 11.10 come with all the needed software to support VAAPI?
> Is there a way other than the VAAPI selection in Mythtv to know if VAAPI is
> being used?
> Any advice would be appreciated.
William,

I have not experimented with VAAPI as yet.  However, I do have an i5
2405S running Myth 0.24 quite successfully.  My experience is described
in this thread:

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/501137

I had an initial problem with mythfrontend crashing whenever I attempted
to use OpenGL.  The crash was as you experienced.  We identified the
cause as a null pointer reference in the mesa 3D driver, reported the
problem to freedesktop.org, and patched mesa with their proposed fix. 
Since that time, we have had no crashes and video quality is excellent
using OpenGL.  The fix to this bug was committed to the mesa repository
last week and can be seen at:

http://cgit.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/commit/?h=7.11&id=9b3ac17991b3b421591111f863f0583ef2f06a01
<http://cgit.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/commit/?h=7.11&id=9b3ac17991b3b421591111f863f0583ef2f06a01>

The patch is quite simple and involves one function in
mesa/drivers/dri/intel/intel_screen.c.  Another person on this list
reported that the patch solved an identical crash for him.  Before
diving into much debugging, I suggest you apply this patch to the mesa
7.11.2 code, recompile it, and give it a test.

Keith