Open-source video drivers?

[raspberrypirocks]

Does the Raspberry Pi have open-source video drivers capable of playing 1080p smoothly? If so, do they accelerate inside and outside of xbmc?

[topguy]

Yes, but support must exist in the player software.

[jamesh]

Well, they are not technically Open Source as they run on the GPU, but they are available to use from open source applications - so for example XBMC uses them.

[ghans]

The drivers itself are open-source , but there is a GPU
firmware blob , which does a lot of work "behind the scenes".

But this approach already made it possible to port the
hardware -acceleration infrastructure to BSD from
Linux so far i know.


ghans

[raspberrypirocks]

Yes, but support must exist in the player software.

Do mplayer and vlc support it?

Are there no ARM devices with open-source video drivers that don't require player support for acceleration?

[ghans]

If you compile VLC from source , you can use it. Don't know about mplayer. gstreamer1.0 has support for the Pis HW acceleration , too.

ghans

[jamesh]

Yes, but support must exist in the player software.

Do mplayer and vlc support it?

Are there no ARM devices with open-source video drivers that don't require player support for acceleration?

Not that I am aware of. You need HW support to decode/encode H264 (depending on resolution, but assuming anything from SD to HD sizes) on ARM devices, the CPU isn't fast enough by itself to do it in real time. That usually means closed source drivers to talk to that HW.

That sai, Mmaybe Mali based devices are a bit more open, but they still require HW support to do that actual work.

[raspberrypirocks]

FWIW, my Pandaboard ES can decode 720p in software smoothly if I first re-encode the video with '-tune fastdecode' in ffmpeg.

I would grab a Pi (and I still may) but I'd really like a faster multi-core CPU. Is there such a board out there with accelerated video drivers (closed-source is OK) that work in programs such as mplayer, vlc, and xbmc?

[mimi123]

FWIW, my Pandaboard ES can decode 720p in software smoothly if I first re-encode the video with '-tune fastdecode' in ffmpeg.

I would grab a Pi (and I still may) but I'd really like a faster multi-core CPU. Is there such a board out there with accelerated video drivers (closed-source is OK) that work in programs such as mplayer, vlc, and xbmc?

The Pi has support of VLC and XBMC so it's fine.
Instead of that, CedarX is bad. I think that there is a board based on the Broadcom BCM21153 somewhere. It is a dual-core Cortex-A9.

[AndrewS]

gstreamer1.0 has support for the Pis HW acceleration , too.

As does the command-line omxplayer.

[topguy]

Yes, but support must exist in the player software.

Do mplayer and vlc support it?

Are there no ARM devices with open-source video drivers that don't require player support for acceleration?

Can you tell me of ANY hardware that has what you are asking for, ARM or not ?

Any hw that can accelerate mpeg4 decoding has to be accessed via an API. It can not automagically insert itself into any mpeg4 decoding algorithm. Nvidia, AMD, Intel, ARM, Broadcom all support such APIs ( vpdau, va-api, openmax, etc.. ) but it doesnt matter how "open" those API's (and drivers) are if the player software don't use them.

Maybe you should inform us what you are really wanting to do.

[raspberrypirocks]

I think I've found the solution:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813190005

Jetson TK1 with 4+1 cores at 2.3Ghz. Software decoding.

http://elinux.org/Jetson/Jetson_TK1_Pow ... a_heatsink

[jamesh]

What is your use case? Because that Tegra device is expensive, needs lot of power, and is not apparently available, and I don't understand why you cannot use the Raspi?

[ghans]

A mini-ITX board is in the same price-range and comes
with much better software compability (including software
video decoding).


ghans

[raspberrypirocks]

jamesh, it is available:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813190005

ghans, good point.

My use case is changing a bit and the RPi is looking more attractive. Can I stream video from a fast computer to the RPi over ethernet? I'd like to run an xfce4 session on the RPi with browser, xbmc, etc, but I'd like it to actually run on my laptop in the other room and be controlled from and displayed by the RPi. Can I do this?

That's a full HDMI port on the RPi?

[ghans]

So far i know you can't run XBMC under LXDE. AFAIK X11 has to
be stopped for XBMC to run.

With XBMC the Pi can playback from Windows and UPnP shares
(Samba and DLNA shares) easily. Use a wired connection for
better speed and stability .

Yes , the Pi has a full-sized HDMI port.

ghans

[raspberrypirocks]

I think xbmc can play from within X11 just fine. I started and stopped it from an xfce4 session on my laptop without issue.

I'm wondering about actually running xbmc and everything else on a separate fast system in another room and just using the Pi to display on the TV. Can that be done?

[jamesh]

I run a Raspi with a wireless adapter running OpenELEC (XBMC) attached to TV, no keyboard, I use the TV remote. I stream stuff from either PVR downstairs, or the NAS. Works fine.

[raspberrypirocks]

It sounds like you're streaming files but I'm wondering about streaming an entire X11 session from another system.

[ghans]

XBMC might run on your laptop within a X11 session -
but this might not be true for the Pi , i don't know if the
situation has changed since i last used it.

RDP / VNC / X11 forwarding sucks for videos IMHO , but clients
would be available if you insist. Even commercial
solutions like Airplay Mirroring or Miracast are very sensitive
and do not work pleasantly enough in corner cases
(i have heard about problems with WiFi).

ghans

[DougieLawson]

It sounds like you're streaming files but I'm wondering about streaming an entire X11 session from another system.

That's usually done with x11vnc (for the :0 console display) or tightVNC or xrdp for a user's display (:1 or :2, etc).

[raspberrypirocks]

So video doesn't work well with X11 forwarding or the like, even over a gigabit ethernet connection? Maybe the protocol has too much overhead?

I'd like to run a full xfce4 desktop on my TV with only a RPi in the living room. I can run a big system in another room and put them on the same gigabit ethernet network. Ideally, I would actually use my laptop as the "big system". Any ideas?

[fruitoftheloom]

The LAN9512 USB to Ethernet only supports 10/100 on the Pi

[raspberrypirocks]

OK good point. 100Mbps then?

[jamesh]

It might be feasible to stream the desktop to the Pi as H264, which could decode it easily. I'm not sure though what VLC or other desktop top systems actually use for encoding.

I doubt you could do it without going to something highly compressed like H264.