[mythtv-users] Lots of confusion as to which card(s) to buy for vdpau

[Isaac Richards]

On Sunday 01 February 2009 2:35:30 pm Yeechang Lee wrote:
> Isaac Richards <ijr at case.edu> says:
> > Strangely enough, I'm running a 8400gs in my production system with
> > vdpau.  Works just fine - it can't do the nicest deinterlacers with
> > 1080i sources, but it does bob2x (which looks *much* nicer than the
> > software bob2x with Xv) perfectly well at 1080i, and all the
> > deinterlacers work at lower source resolutions.
>
> Exact same experience with my 8400GS and 180.22, except that so far I
> prefer Xv software bob to VDPAU's, contrary to your and Jean-Yves'
> accounts. The former offers, as has been my experience for the past
> three years, rock-solid video during pans; the latter often tears
> and/or leaves ghost images. I wonder what I'm overlooking?

Make sure you disable the composite extension when using vdpau:

(in xorg.conf)

Section "Extensions"
        Option  "Composite"     "Disable"
EndSection

That'll fix any tearing, and likely smooth things out as well.

If you're using trunk, and not the incomplete backport, you can also try 
enabling the vdpau vsync timing method (uncomment the line 97 of 
libmythtv/vsync.cpp) - feature's disabled by default because it's not quite 
finished yet in that it works for some and not for others, but it produces 
perfectly smooth scrolls for me.

Isaac