2016-03-14, 11:53
(2016-03-13, 07:38)wrxtasy Wrote: Too many variables in play I think to classify anything accurately other than to say Hardware decoding of any codec provides peace of mind and certainty that it will get the job done properly.
Yes - though there are codec families that you can only decode in software (ProRes, DNXHD, DVC Pro HD pro codecs, and 4:2:2 variants of MPEG2 and H264 usually) - so in some cases you have to go for CPU decode. Then a number of things really play a role. Obviously the profile and bitrate the encoder has run at, and the overall complexity of the decoding process, but more importantly for Kodi is how well the decoding algorithm has been implemented and optimised in ffmpeg, and in particular whether it exploits multi-threading. H264 4:2:2 40Mbs 1080/50i went from unplayable on a quad core Ivy Bridge i5 NUC to playable with YADIF 2x CPU deinterlacing when multithreaded decode arrived.
My advice for software decode is usually to throw a bit of processing at it - don't go for the bare minimum. Leave yourself some headroom.
