[mythtv-users] vaapi doesn't work on mythtv-frontend, but works on Kodi 16.0

Wed Mar 2 19:39:27 UTC 2016

> On Mar 2, 2016, at 2:10 PM, James Abernathy <jfabernathy at outlook.com> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> On Mar 2, 2016, at 9:41 AM, James Abernathy <jfabernathy at outlook.com> wrote:
>> 
>> I have a frontend system built on a NUC D332127GKE board with a Intel Core i3-3217U CPU at 1.80GHZ
>> 
>> It was originally built with Kodibuntu 14, but has been upgraded to Kodi 16.0 kernel is 3.13.0.79 x86_64
>> 
>> When I have Kodi play a recorded OTA TV program, I can use ssh to run top and I see ~10% CPU for the Kodi.bin. I have acceleration set to vaapi and it’s obviously working.
>> 
>> I also run Mythtv-frontend fixes/0.27(v0.27-193-g8ee257c)
>> 
>> I can’t get vaapi to work on mythtv frontend.  As a test I start the frontend and go to the setup wizard to the Video Configuration and set Video Playback Profile to VAAPI Normal (the only vaapi I have a choice of). I play the HD test video, and I get a big red X in the upper right corner.  I then exit and go to the log. I’ve attached the log in pastebin from the time I started the session until I exited.  I have a number of errors, but the vaapi is what I’m interested in.
>> 
>> http://pastebin.com/EKmD1bK2
>> 
>> If I play the HD test video with Normal or High Quality profile, I see ~20% CPU utilization. For OpenGL High quality I see ~ 27% But VAAPI doesn’t work at all.
>> 
> 
> FYI, I have another Intel system; the mythtv backend/frontend.  It’s is a straight Mythbuntu system.  It will do VAAPI with Mythtv Frontend.  Maybe Kodibuntu doesn’t install some VAAPI piece that Mythbuntu does??
> 
> Jim A
> 

Well I think I solved this.  I went looking for VAAPI differences and found the required packages from VAAPI on the Mythtv wiki. It listed for Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install libva1 i965-va-driver libva-intel-vaapi-driver vainfo

I didn’t have libval, which is really libval-bin.  Everything else was right.

I also saw in the wiki:

1)  Make sure you are using OpenGL or Auto as painter:

 	MythFrontend -> Setup -> Appearance, make sure Painter is set to Auto or OpenGL (not Qt)

 2) Select VAAPI Playback Profile from Mythfrontend:  

	MythFrontend -> Setup -> Video -> Playback -> (Screen 3/8) -> Select "VAAPI normal" profile in list

I had Qt set.  So I set it to Auto and now VAAPI works with very low CPU utilization. 

Jim A

>> A shorter log is below:
>> 
>> Mar  2 09:12:37 Kodibuntu mythfrontend.real: mythfrontend[1879]: E CoreContext videooutbase.cpp:315 (Create) VideoOutput: Not compiled with any useable video output method.
>> Mar  2 09:12:37 Kodibuntu mythfrontend.real: mythfrontend[1879]: E CoreContext mythplayer.cpp:496 (InitVideo) Player(0): Couldn't create VideoOutput instance. Exiting..
>> Mar  2 09:12:37 Kodibuntu mythfrontend.real: mythfrontend[1879]: E CoreContext mythplayer.cpp:2808 (StartPlaying) Player(0): Unable to initialize video.
>> Mar  2 09:12:37 Kodibuntu mythfrontend.real: mythfrontend[1879]: E CoreContext playercontext.cpp:455 (StartPlaying) playCtx: StartPlaying() Failed to start player
>> Mar  2 09:12:37 Kodibuntu mythfrontend.real: mythfrontend[1879]: I CoreContext tv_play.cpp:2550 (HandleStateChange) TV: Main UI disabled.
>> Mar  2 09:12:37 Kodibuntu mythfrontend.real: mythfrontend[1879]: I CoreContext tv_play.cpp:411 (StartTV) TV: Entering main playback loop.
>> Mar  2 09:12:37 Kodibuntu mythfrontend.real: mythfrontend[1879]: I CoreContext screensaver-x11.cpp:149 (DisableDPMS) ScreenSaverX11Private: DPMS Deactivated 1
>> 
>> 
>> 
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