[mythtv-users] MythNetvision (Flash) + ION Status?

[Michael T. Dean]

On 05/10/2012 10:12 AM, Raymond Wagner wrote:
> On 5/10/2012 08:58, Robert Siebert wrote:
>> Am 2012-05-10 14:23, schrieb Brian Long:
>>
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I have a couple of ION-based frontends and in the past it was
>>> impossible to play Flash videos due to CPU utilization.  Back in Dec.
>>> 2010 Adobe starting releasing VDPAU-accelerated Flash (10.1 beta, I
>>> believe) and people were discussing using it with MythNetvision.
>>> http://www.mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/2010-December/304389.html
>>> With Flash 11.x being mainstream now and I assume VDPAU support fairly
>>> well-baked, how well are ION-based frontends able to play Flash sites
>>> (i.e. Hulu, Youtube, etc)?
>>> Thanks.
>>> /Brian/
>>
>> Hi Brian,
>>
>> I have an Atom 1,6GHz (330, dualcore) on a gentoo system and still use
>> the flash version 10.3.183.10. Flash videos from Youtube and other
>> content is playing fine via firefox or mythnetvision. But I can only say
>> that for videos up to 720p. I didn't test higher resolutions.
>
> The problem isn't trying to decode the content, but trying to actually 
> render the content.  The content available through youtube is nearly 
> all low bitrate, that even a lowly Atom should have no trouble with.  
> That's why if you download it and run it through a proper video player 
> even without VDPAU, it does fine.  Flash must convert the content to 
> RGB, scale it to the proper size, composite it with other UI elements, 
> and flush the whole thing to the display buffer.  This is all done by 
> the graphics card with any proper video player.
>
> Flash has actually been able to operate "properly" for years, but no 
> one ever used it, because it imposed severe limitations on the UI.  
> Better to be non-functional than non-pretty.

Meaning it's the site--and not MythTV code--that determines whether 
Flash is allowed to use "Stage Video" (which includes VDPAU 
acceleration) or not.

Mike