[Robertyu]

I tried searching getting help on the OpenElec VAAPI (Intel) forum Section, and got zero replies in the last three days, so I'm casting a wider net here. I have found some references to a faulty ffmpeg (sp?) problem, but would like some more concrete information.

I've been using Eden (with HD audio) on a boocamped mac mini running W7, and all has been well with that setup. It even played my HD-DVD rips I made with MakeMKV (VC-1 Interlaced 1080i), and did that with no problems.

I later tried an updated Froto release candidate, and that worked well, but did not play my interlaced VC1 (HD-DVD rips) files anymore. They stuttered around 4-9 FPS while not producing audio. Not wanting to spend any real troubleshooting time beyond experimenting with settings, I gave up and went back to Eden on that machine, and all was well again.

I've added another player to the house in the form of an Intel i3 NUC, and since Openelec now supports HD Audio, I want to use it. I've installed it no problems and it does everything very well..... except play those damn interlaced VC-1 rips! Same problems with 4-10 fps (depending on settings like hardware/software renderer). I'm willing to change this machine to Windows and load the latest Frodo release, but would hate to spend that time, and find my self in the same boat as the last time I tried Frodo (not sure if this is a Frodo issue).

Is there a fix for this, and can I get playback on my Intel NUC under Frodo using 1080i VC-1 files?? I'd hate to either stay in the Eden dark ages, or transcode 20+ rips.

Here is another data-point that makes this even more confusing. My Raspberry PI running the current Openelec/Frodo release plays these interlaced VC1 1080i files just fine!

[Ned Scott]

This is just a guess, but it sounds like for some reason Frodo on your MacMini Windows7 HTPC is trying to use software decoding and Eden was using hardware decoding. ffmpeg, which handles our software decoding, didn't handle interlaced VC-1 when it was last updated in XBMC. Hardware video decoding won't use ffmpeg, and in theory should playback when used.

I'm guessing it's a bug in how XBMC detects if something should be hardware or software decoded. I'll try to find some sample files and see if we can get some others to reproduce the issue to confirm.

[FernetMenta]

HW decoders using vaapi, vdpau, or dxva depend on ffmpeg. VC-1 interlaced is broken, or never was implemented properly, in our current version of ffmpeg. There's coming a couple of fixes with ffmpeg update which we expect soon.

[Robertyu]

So from what I hear from FernetMenta, it appears that ffmpeg is somehow broken on all Frodo releases for Intel, but was still working on Eden releases, and that this issue affects playing VC1 interlaced files whether I use hardware decoding or software (I tried all setting and nothing worked for me at least).

Anyone have any idea when this fix for ffmpeg on Intel builds of Frodo is scheduled to come? If it is a matter of months, I guess my only solution is to stick with Windows and Eden for this new box until this is sorted.

Too bad because I would love to use Frodo, and OpenElec is working VERY well for me other than this one fatal flaw on Intel platforms (not sure if non-Intel suffers from this but my Raspberry Frodo 12.1 release does not have this issue). I only say fatal flaw (for me) because in my case I re-checked my library, and I have over 50+ rips like this from my old HD-DVD collection. I really don't want to transcode those, and just want Frodo to do what Eden did just fine for me. What a bummer!

So... hopefully someone here may have more info on when a fix for ffmpeg might come along.