[lokum]

Hi,

I'm running Libreelec alpha (tried the 8.9.007 and latest Milhouse nightly) from a fresh install.  I've noticed there's no longer any VDPAU option for hardware acceleration and that it's VAAPI only.  I've enabled it and watching SD interlaced OTA TV from my TVHeadend backend looks really bad.  The picture is full of artefacts, sometimes ticker text is unreadable.  It also crashes (segfault in the log) regularly when changing channels.  I've switched HW accelerated decoding off but my little AM1 Kabini chip sometimes struggles with HD channels (though SD looks perfect with VAAPI HW off) so I get dropped frames.  Is there any solution to remedy this?

Thanks

[asavah]

Is there any solution to remedy this?

Not without heavy use of psychic powers.
The devs will need https://kodi.wiki/view/debug%20log to see what's wrong with your setup.

[fritsch]

To start kodi with VDPAU support (obsolete, will be removed with v19) see the wiki:

For hardware video decoding, which may be necessary on low-performance CPUs to playback 1080p content, make sure your GPU or VPU supports either VAAPI or VDPAU. For everything but older AMD cards and Nvidia, VAAPI is recommended. On AMD, you might have to start with the environment variable KODI_GL_INTERFACE set to GLX in order to get VDPAU support.

KODI_GL_INTERFACE=GLX kodi

[lokum]

Thanks for replying.  I tried the GLX option as suggested but that doesn't play any videos, I get a black screen.  Here's a crash log using VAAPI hw acceleration.

https://paste.kodi.tv/alowuvuxuw.kodi

Here's a crash log with VDPAU enabled:

https://paste.kodi.tv/powetuyuzu.kodi

[fritsch]

You did it wrong:

#0  0x00007f4ce49b9e38 in ?? () from /usr/lib/dri/radeonsi_dri.so
#1  0x00007f4cb2c3acb0 in ?? () from /usr/lib/dri/radeonsi_drv_video.so
#2  0x00007f4ceb7f2e18 in vaEndPicture () from /usr/lib/libva.so.2

It's still running the VAAPI path

[fritsch]

And for the second one:

#0  __GI_raise (sig=sig@entry=6) at ../sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/raise.c:50
#1  0x00007f89b374f524 in __GI_abort () at abort.c:79
#2  0x00007f89b374f40f in __assert_fail_base (fmt=0x7f89b38a5e00 "%s%s%s:%u: %s%sAssertion `%s' failed.\n%n", assertion=0x7f89aabae18e "stObj->level_override || last_level(stObj) == view->u.tex.last_level", file=0x7f89aabac63c "../src/mesa/state_tracker/st_sampler_view.c", line=546, function=0x7f89aabc49c0 "st_get_texture_sampler_view_from_stobj") at assert.c:92
#3  0x00007f89b375cb72 in __GI___assert_fail (assertion=0x7f89aabae18e "stObj->level_override || last_level(stObj) == view->u.tex.last_level", file=0x7f89aabac63c "../src/mesa/state_tracker/st_sampler_view.c", line=546, function=0x7f89aabc49c0 "st_get_texture_sampler_view_from_stobj") at assert.c:101
#4  0x00007f89aa765374 in ?? () from /usr/lib/dri/radeonsi_dri.so
#5  0x00007f89aa6b19e6 in ?? () from /usr/lib/dri/radeonsi_dri.so
#6  0x00007f89aa6bf5a5 in ?? () from /usr/lib/dri/radeonsi_dri.so
#7  0x00007f89aa66462a in ?? () from /usr/lib/dri/radeonsi_dri.so
#8  0x00007f89aa6c28e5 in ?? () from /usr/lib/dri/radeonsi_dri.so
#9  0x00007f89aa675c4a in ?? () from /usr/lib/dri/radeonsi_dri.so
#10 0x00007f89aa6764d1 in ?? () from /usr/lib/dri/radeonsi_dri.so
#11 0x0000000000d0fabf in CLinuxRendererGL::RenderRGB(int, int) ()

It crashes in the driver again. I think you also need to FORCE GL Version < 3 please - as this above combination was most likely never tested.

I'd suggest staying on Kodi v17 if you rely on vdpau.

[fritsch]

Might be this one: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=107666

[AndyFurniss]

mpeg 2 uvd was always broken for me using tonga - maybe the same issue - assuming the SD is mpeg2

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=93760

Hopefully the HD videos are H264 - that should be OK. In the settings you can just disable mpeg 2 vaapi.

[AndyFurniss]

Should have mpeg2 + vaapi hw/dec was always broken ..... not UVD.

vdpau did roughly work, though if you looked very hard it wasn't quite the same as s/w dec. neither can do field coded, though that seems to be rare in the wild.

[lokum]

Thanks for the tip re disabling MPEG2 hw acceleration.  HD video does look perfect with acceleration on, but I get random lock ups and kodi restarts when changing channels.  This doesn't happen with sw decoding (although I do get high cpu useage and some stuttering depending what my system is doing).  I've decided to get a separate front end device (Shield TV) and use my server as a server only, rather than as a front and back end. Will likely upgrade my ageing 1080p TV too in the not too distant future.

[mmathiou]

Hi guys a short question since I am not sure that I have understand correctly your replies.
I have almost the same family  CPU/GPU  AMD Athlon 5350 (as you discussed in this post) with AMD Radeon R3. In kodi V18 does VDPAU supported ? Correct or not?

Currently I am on Kodi V17 and I have configured my system as it is proposed in Radeon OSS with vdpau (howto) - https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=174854

System->Settings->System->Video output
Vertical blank sync: Let Driver choose

System ->Video->Acceleration:
VDPAU: On
Prefer VDPAU Mixer: ON
VAAPI: off


Does the above settings working in V18 as well? If not do we know if the VAAPI works with Radeon R3 and which Mesa Driver has to have installed in my linux?

Thank you in advance for your reply.