[mythtv-users] Seeking Motherboard Advice

[Mark Kendall]

On 14 December 2011 23:15, Kenneth Emerson <kenneth.emerson at gmail.com> wrote:
> So, can I use the Intel graphics on this mobo for H.264 playback as
> well as mpeg2 1080p files without stuttering?  Does the va-api support
> within MythTV provide any GPU acceleration similar to VDPAU?  Is this
> a wise choice for a FE?

Picking up on your query and some of the other responses, my thoughts
on all things OpenGL, VAAPI and VDPAU in current master (and what will
hopefully soon become 0.25)...

My master backend runs on an i3-530 with whatever HD Graphics
processor that ships with.

OpenGL Video

I made a raft of changes in the OpenGL video code recently and it is
now significantly more efficient. For example I've just tested a
recent ITV HD recording (full 1080i, h264) and it plays back fine
using the double rate OpenGL linear blend deinterlacer. As ever, your
mileage may vary but OpenGL video is functioning consistently for me
on ubuntu with intel and nvidia cards and on OSX. I've not tested
windows or linux AMD for a while.

VAAPI

VAAPI appears to be stable but as has been mentioned before, the
feature set is not as rich as VDPAU. Acceleration is limited to h264
and mpeg2 (on Clarkdale at least) (I can't remember what AMD
accelerate). There is no working deinterlacing that I've seen -
although I may try to add a simple shader based deinterlacer before
0.25 is out (which will necessarily operate on the frame after
colourspace conversion - and hence will not be as high quality). No
VC1 support means falling back to CPU decoding for some bluray discs
and no deinterlacing is a show stopper for many people. There is an
outstanding bug with VAAPI on AMD and it probably needs a little extra
work generally to better handle some h264 videos.

VDPAU

VDPAU is as stable as it has ever been. 0.25 has improved support for
certain h264 streams (automatic buffer sizing) but is otherwise
largely unchanged. It works and the nvidia binary drivers are, by and
large, stable and offer a variety of HTPC friendly features and
configuration options.

So in summary, I would still go for something VDPAU based for a
dedicated frontend (especially if you value picture quality above all
else). If it were an occasional use frontend (e.g. in my desktop pc or
combined be/fe) then I'd probably be happy with the intel solution.

regards

Mark