[mythtv-users] FYI - New HW video accellAPI from NVIDIA

[Nicolas Will]

On Fri, 2008-11-14 at 10:28 -0800, Andy Ritger wrote: 
> I'm pleased to announce a new video API for Unix and Unix-like platforms,
> and a technology preview implementation of this API from NVIDIA.
> 
> The API is called VDPAU (Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix).
> 
> The current API documentation is here:
> 
>      ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/vdpau/doxygen/html/index.html
> 
> Some highlights of VDPAU:
> 
>      * Defines an API for GPU-accelerated decode of MPEG-1, MPEG-2, H.264, and
>        VC-1 bitstreams.
>      * Defines an API for post-processing of decoded video, including
>        temporal and spatial deinterlacing, inverse telecine, and noise
>        reduction.
>      * Defines an API for timestamp-based presentation of final video
>        frames.
>      * Defines an API for compositing sub-picture, on-screen display,
>        and other UI elements.
> 
> Note that VDPAU does not address content protection.
> 
> Some highlights/limitations of NVIDIA's current implementation:
> 
>      * Supported on NVIDIA GPUs with the NVIDIA second generation video
>        processors (see the end of this announcement for a complete GPU list).
>      * Currently, only one video stream can be decoded at a time; we hope
>        to lift this restriction eventually.
>      * Available in the 180.06 NVIDIA public beta release:
>          http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_ia32_180.06.html
>          http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_amd64_180.06.html
>          http://www.nvidia.com/object/freebsd_180.06.html
>          http://www.nvidia.com/object/solaris_display_180.06.html
> 
> The VDPAU support in the NVIDIA 180.06 beta release is still very
> preliminary.  We are aware of cases of visual corruption and in some
> cases GPU hangs.  We will be working on these issues over the next
> several NVIDIA driver releases.
> 
> While NVIDIA's VDPAU implementation is not ready for end user use yet,
> it should be far enough along that interested application developers
> can begin working with it.
> 
> Additionally, NVIDIA has developed patches to ffmpeg and MPlayer to
> demonstrate a video player using VDPAU:
> 
>      ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/vdpau/mplayer-vdpau-3076399.tar.bz2
> 
> These patches include changes against libavcodec, libavutil, ffmpeg,
> and MPlayer itself; they may serve as an example of how to use VDPAU.
> 
> Once we do some further testing, bugfixing, and cleanup, we will
> contribute the MPlayer patches to the MPlayer developers.
> 
> 
> If other hardware vendors are interested, they are welcome to also
> provide implementations of VDPAU.  The VDPAU API was designed to allow
> a vendor backend to be selected at run time.
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> Andy Ritger
> Manager, NVIDIA Linux Graphics Driver
> 
> 
> 
> VDPAU is currently supported on the following NVIDIA GPUs:
> 
>      Desktop GPUs:
>       GeForce 200 Series
>       GeForce 9 Series
>       GeForce 86xx Series
>       GeForce 85xx Series
>       GeForce 84xx Series
>       GeForce 8800 GTS 512
>       GeForce 8800 GT
>       GeForce 8800 GS
> 
>      Mobile GPUs:
>       GeForce 98xxM
>       GeForce 9700M
>       GeForce 96xxM
>       GeForce 9500M
>       GeForce 9300M
>       GeForce 9200M
>       GeForce 8800M
>       GeForce 8800M GTS
>       GeForce 8800M GTX
>       GeForce 8600M
> 
>      Motherboard GPUs:
>       GeForce 9400
>       GeForce 9300
>       GeForce 9100
>       GeForce 8300
>       GeForce 8200
> 
> VC-1 support in NVIDIA's VDPAU implementation currently requires GeForce
> 9300 GS, GeForce 9200M GS, GeForce 9300M GS, or GeForce 9300M GS.
> 
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