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Preliminary VDPAU support in XBMC!

post #1 of 56
2/15/09 at 4:53pm
Thread Starter 
Currently only h264 support is working, and I haven't tested it yet, but to install --> http://xbmc.org/forum/showpost.php?p...&postcount=268

The thread is here --> http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=40362

Assuming the ION will be reasonably priced, that's going to make a perfect frontend.
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post #2 of 56
2/15/09 at 9:35pm
Is VDPAU supported on the GeForce 8200 motherboard onboard chipset?
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post #3 of 56
2/16/09 at 1:21am
Yes, the 8200 is a G98 card, full VDPAU support. You will need to allocate 512MB to it in the BIOS though.
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post #4 of 56
2/16/09 at 9:56am
If anyone's considering building a screen, I've just finished my Mega Screen, detailed over here.

Please don't mention this in the screens forum though, as that mod is censor-happy and very restrictive. He warned me not to post there again, so fair enough, I've put up my procedure on the forum which pioneered Black Widow.
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post #5 of 56
2/16/09 at 9:59am
Wow. Looks like the linux world is getting GPU-accelerated XBMC before the windows world.

VDPAU freaking rocks. A few weeks ago I got it set up with my ancient Athlon 64 + 8800gt rig, and 1080p h264 playback is perfect. I wanted to test VDPAU with my existing hardware before I bought a passive 9500gt. $50 later my otherwise-obsolete PC plays HD h264 encodes. Awesome.

I don't see VDPAU pushing nVidia's ION platform ... instead, I see a collective cheer as everyone's "spare" hardware is suddenly capable of HD playback with a a $30-$50 video card.

Now, if ION end up retailing for $30-50 ...
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post #6 of 56
2/16/09 at 10:37am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay_S View Post

Wow. Looks like the linux world is getting GPU-accelerated XBMC before the windows world.

VDPAU freaking rocks. A few weeks ago I got it set up with my ancient Athlon 64 + 8800gt rig, and 1080p h264 playback is perfect. I wanted to test VDPAU with my existing hardware before I bought a passive 9500gt. $50 later my otherwise-obsolete PC plays HD h264 encodes. Awesome.

I don't see VDPAU pushing nVidia's ION platform ... instead, I see a collective cheer as everyone's "spare" hardware is suddenly capable of HD playback with a a $30-$50 video card.

Now, if ION end up retailing for $30-50 ...

I agree. It's a good day to be a linux user.

Also, I wasn't implying that nvidia was using vdpau to push ion -- I'm just personally excited about having such a small form-factor available to use as a frontend, ESPECIALLY if I can use xbmc's awesome UI to "run the show". It's exactly what I've been looking/hoping for!
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post #7 of 56
2/16/09 at 11:08am
Thread Starter 
VC-1 is reported to be working now, as well.

I'll test within a day or so (still organizing after my move and much stuff left to do).
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post #8 of 56
2/16/09 at 11:19am
motd2k:

Is 512 MB a specific requirement to enable all functionality? I think that my motherboard will only allow me to allocate 256 MB.
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post #9 of 56
2/16/09 at 11:28am
I can't wait to hear your results. Right now, my "development" box is down and I'm not yet willing to commit anything new to my "production" PC's. It needs a PSU and I'm too cheap to spend any money on it. I keep hoping to "come across" a chassis or PSU in a dumpster.

It will be very interesting to see how nVidia prices ION. If ION is priced higher than the popcorn hour (and I expect it will be), it'll basically guarantee ION is not in my theater.

Granted, ION can do more than the PCH. So we'll have to see how it's priced.
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post #10 of 56
2/16/09 at 12:02pm
I haven't read all the VDPAU threads/posts, but does VDPAU enable tear-free video playback with compositing enabled (Compiz)?
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post #11 of 56
2/16/09 at 12:14pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rgb View Post

I haven't read all the VDPAU threads/posts, but does VDPAU enable tear-free video playback with compositing enabled (Compiz)?

I think there may still be some issues on some gpus, so for now the recommendation is to have compositing disabled, but I'll test that with my setup, too, and let you know how it works for me.
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post #12 of 56
2/16/09 at 12:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rgb View Post

I haven't read all the VDPAU threads/posts, but does VDPAU enable tear-free video playback with compositing enabled (Compiz)?

If you are talking about VDPAU in general (ie, aside from XBMC), I had to disable compositing to get tear-free video with my 8800gt and mplayer. There are a few compiz features I miss, but not enough that I'd give up gpu acceleration.
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post #13 of 56
2/17/09 at 12:10am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay_S View Post

I can't wait to hear your results...

w00t! --> http://xbmc.org/forum/showpost.php?p...&postcount=303

Note that I don't get any tearing, but I do get mega-framedrops with compositing enabled. (I want to call it "composting", but it's just too cool, and I can't bring myself to do it )
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post #14 of 56
2/17/09 at 9:46am
Awesome news.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mythmaster View Post

mega-framedrops with compositing enabled.

Is this with xbmc windowed or full screen?

[EDIT] I forgot you're on Kubuntu. So... without compositing, what does KDE look like? Is it still beautiful?
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post #15 of 56
2/17/09 at 9:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by motd2k View Post

Yes, the 8200 is a G98 card, full VDPAU support. You will need to allocate 512MB to it in the BIOS though.

Quote:
Originally Posted by drkdiggler View Post

motd2k:

Is 512 MB a specific requirement to enable all functionality? I think that my motherboard will only allow me to allocate 256 MB.

any info on this? I've seen 512 mentioned several places as required.. but yet to be able to trace it back to a requirement in any VDPAU docs? I have the same concern.. my system only allows "auto" or 256M in BIOS. So I'm wondering what I will/won't see in terms of improvement.
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post #16 of 56
2/17/09 at 10:14am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay_S View Post

Awesome news.

Is this with xbmc windowed or full screen?

[EDIT] I forgot you're on Kubuntu. So... without compositing, what does KDE look like? Is it still beautiful?

Full screen and yes, I love it!

Quote:
Originally Posted by zim2dive View Post

any info on this? I've seen 512 mentioned several places as required.. but yet to be able to trace it back to a requirement in any VDPAU docs? I have the same concern.. my system only allows "auto" or 256M in BIOS. So I'm wondering what I will/won't see in terms of improvement.

The functionality is the same. The "set bios to 512" came from early-on testing with beta drivers -- it was needed for smooth playback. Whether or not this still holds true for 180.29, I don't know. It would be great i one of you guys would test it and let us know.
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post #17 of 56
2/17/09 at 10:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mythmaster View Post

Full screen and yes, I love it!

The functionality is the same. The "set bios to 512" came from early-on testing with beta drivers -- it was needed for smooth playback. Whether or not this still holds true for 180.29, I don't know. It would be great i one of you guys would test it and let us know.

Test any VDPAU, or XBMC in particular?

I did a quick test of mplayer-vdpau yesterday and saw total-offload.. CPU was in the low single digits.

I'll look at getting the new xbmc and give that a whirl as well, tho it might be a few days for results (busy week).
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post #18 of 56
2/17/09 at 10:52am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by zim2dive View Post

Test any VDPAU, or XBMC in particular?

I did a quick test of mplayer-vdpau yesterday and saw total-offload.. CPU was in the low single digits.

I'll look at getting the new xbmc and give that a whirl as well, tho it might be a few days for results (busy week).

I meant any vdpau. If playback was smooth for you in mplayer, then it will be with anything else vdpau-enabled.

So, it appears that you've answered the question -- the on-board 8200 works with 256MB RAM allocated.
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post #19 of 56
2/17/09 at 11:05am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mythmaster View Post

I meant any vdpau. If playback was smooth for you in mplayer, then it will be with anything else vdpau-enabled.

So, it appears that you've answered the question -- the on-board 8200 works with 256MB RAM allocated.

Yep. I've got xbmc compiling in the background (ssh to house)
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post #20 of 56
2/18/09 at 1:27pm
Sweet!
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post #21 of 56
2/18/09 at 5:56pm
Having trouble with "./configure"...

I followed the directions here:
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=45525
Code:
cd ~ 
svn co https://xbmc.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/xbmc/branches/xbmc-vdpau xbmc-vdpau 
cd xbmc-vpdau/XBMC 
./configure 
make
But I get the following error upon issuing ./configure
Code:
jay@jay-desktop:~/xbmc-vdpau/XBMC$ ./configure
configure: Ensuring config.guess and config.sub exist and is executable
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking for ccache... none
checking for g++... g++
checking for C++ compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C++ compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables... 
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes
checking whether g++ accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc... gcc
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether ln -s works... yes
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking how to run the C preprocessor... g++ -E
checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep
checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... yes
checking for string.h... yes
checking for memory.h... yes
checking for strings.h... yes
checking for inttypes.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... yes
checking boost/shared_ptr.hpp usability... no
checking boost/shared_ptr.hpp presence... no
checking for boost/shared_ptr.hpp... no
configure: error: ERROR: Could not find a required library. Please see README.linux
I am too inexperienced to understand what to do with this error. Anyone have any ideas? I am not registered on the xbmc forums, but I will if no one has any ideas.
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post #22 of 56
2/18/09 at 6:37pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay_S View Post

Having trouble with "./configure"...

I followed the directions here:
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=45525
Code:
cd ~ 
svn co https://xbmc.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/xbmc/branches/xbmc-vdpau xbmc-vdpau 
cd xbmc-vpdau/XBMC 
./configure 
make
But I get the following error upon issuing ./configure
Code:
jay@jay-desktop:~/xbmc-vdpau/XBMC$ ./configure
configure: Ensuring config.guess and config.sub exist and is executable
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking for ccache... none
checking for g++... g++
checking for C++ compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C++ compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables... 
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes
checking whether g++ accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc... gcc
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether ln -s works... yes
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking how to run the C preprocessor... g++ -E
checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep
checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... yes
checking for string.h... yes
checking for memory.h... yes
checking for strings.h... yes
checking for inttypes.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... yes
checking boost/shared_ptr.hpp usability... no
checking boost/shared_ptr.hpp presence... no
checking for boost/shared_ptr.hpp... no
configure: error: ERROR: Could not find a required library. Please see README.linux
I am too inexperienced to understand what to do with this error. Anyone have any ideas? I am not registered on the xbmc forums, but I will if no one has any ideas.

If you already were using XBMC (and the repository is still added), then run:
Code:
sudo apt-get build-dep xbmc
That will pull in the dependencies. Then run configure again.
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post #23 of 56
2/18/09 at 7:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mythmaster View Post

If you already were using XBMC (and the repository is still added), then run:
Code:
sudo apt-get build-dep xbmc
That will pull in the dependencies. Then run configure again.

What if I already removed xbmc? I removed it by un-checking all the xbmc entries in synaptic. I also unchecked the xbmc sources in software sources.

I guess I'm know in a minute - I re-checked the xbmc sources and apt-get build-dep xbmc

[EDIT] Compiling now... thanks again mythmaster
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post #24 of 56
2/18/09 at 8:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay_S View Post

Having trouble with "./configure"...

I followed the directions here:
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=45525
.....
checking boost/shared_ptr.hpp usability... no
checking boost/shared_ptr.hpp presence... no
checking for boost/shared_ptr.hpp... no
configure: error: ERROR: Could not find a required library. Please see README.linux

Section 3.1 of the README.linux, located in xbmc-vdpau/XBMC/.
libsdl-stretch-dev wasn't found (using ubuntu 8.10), removed it without any consequences, compiled successfully.

Regards
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post #25 of 56
2/18/09 at 8:35pm
Success:

17% CPU usage with an Athlon 64 @ 2.4GHz, 2x512 DDR400, and a 8800gt. This motherboard, cpu and ram is about to become my new media server, and will get a 9500gt (or 9600 if I can find a passive one on sale). I'm skipping the G98 8400GS that is so popular because I need a little more horsepower for 1080i deinterlacing (I suspect the 8400gs doesn't have enough power for post processing). I have a 9500gt in my theater PC that works perfectly, and will likely buy the same card since it's currently on sale.

[EDIT] So, when I pause and un-pause, the sound continued at normal speed but the video starts playing in fast-forward! Only after I skip back and forth does it 're-sync' to the correct speed. I've tried this on a few ATSC encodes and some downloaded movie trailers.
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post #26 of 56
2/19/09 at 6:13am
Has anyone run into any heat issues with VDPAU on account of the typically small and poorly mounted chipset heatsinks found on most motherboards? I'm just wondering if I should maybe purchase a aftermarket heatsink prior to using this.

Also, just to verify, if you compile XBMC to support VDPAU, and don't run the install script, you can keep both versions on your machine correct?
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post #27 of 56
2/19/09 at 8:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by drkdiggler View Post

Has anyone run into any heat issues with VDPAU on account of the typically small and poorly mounted chipset heatsinks found on most motherboards?

I assume you're referring to boards with integrated graphics. Based on the 8x00 and 9x00 motherboard threads in the main HTPC AVSforum, it seems that these chipsets do run quite hot. The Zotac 9300 board is the only one I know of that has a fan on the chipset. I assume yours has no active chipset cooling. Can you find a way to direct some air across the heat sink? Via case fans? From the other AVS threads and similar threads on SPCR, it seems just getting some air movement is enough to reduce temps considerably.
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post #28 of 56
2/19/09 at 9:36am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay_S View Post

So, when I pause and un-pause, the sound continued at normal speed but the video starts playing in fast-forward! Only after I skip back and forth does it 're-sync' to the correct speed. I've tried this on a few ATSC encodes and some downloaded movie trailers.

Do you have "Adjust refresh rate" enabled in video player settings?
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post #29 of 56
2/19/09 at 9:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by drkdiggler View Post

Has anyone run into any heat issues ...

Is there any way (zip ties, etc) to attach something like this 40mm Scythe fan for $3.45 (jab-tech.com)? As beautiful as the Thermalright chipset coolers are, it might be easier (and cheaper!) to add a small fan.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mythmaster View Post

Do you have "Adjust refresh rate" enabled in video player settings?

If I remember correctly, I looked at that I remember it being un-checked.

By the way, another slight issue I encountered is that XBMC wants to use the desktop refresh rate reported by gnome - regardless of the actual refresh rate (as reported by nvidia-settings). nVidia knows about this and offers this workaround:
Quote:


Why is the refresh rate not reported correctly by utilities that use the XRandR X extension (e.g., the GNOME "Screen Resolution Preferences" panel, `xrandr -q`, etc)?



You can use `nvidia-settings -q RefreshRate` to query the actual refresh rate on each display device.

This behavior can be disabled by setting the X configuration option "DynamicTwinView" to FALSE.

In my case, although nvidia-settings (and my monitor) reported 60Hz, gnome thought 50Hz. Thus, the default mode in XBMC was 1680x1050 @50Hz. After adding the above line to xorg.conf, gnome and XBMC both say 60Hz.
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post #30 of 56
2/19/09 at 10:13am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay_S View Post

In my case, although nvidia-settings (and my monitor) reported 60Hz, gnome thought 50Hz. Thus, the default mode in XBMC was 1680x1050 @50Hz. After adding the above line to xorg.conf, gnome and XBMC both say 60Hz.

Same thing here (kde/xbmc say 50, nvidia says 60) -- thanks for the tip.

I had av sync probs until I turned on "Adjust refresh rate". Now, all is good after pausing/seeking.
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