Re: [vdr] new graphics processor from VIA S3 for HD video

2008-04-23 Thread Pasi Kärkkäinen
On Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 09:56:23AM +0400, Igor wrote:
   The question is: Which of them will offer decent open source drivers for 
   HD decoding, and when?
  
  I wonder if every vendor pushes his own API for using these decoding
  accelerators? Or is there some standard (It's surely beyond XvMC)?
 
 there's VAAPI - Video Decode Acceleration API Specification
 http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/vaapi
 
 but seems it hasn't finished yet :(
 

And then there's some XvMC for H.264/AVC work/patches:

http://people.freedesktop.org/~zhen/xds2007_xvmc.pdf

http://www.x.org/wiki/Events/XDS2007/Notes (link taken from here)

-- Pasi

___
vdr mailing list
vdr@linuxtv.org
http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr


Re: [vdr] new graphics processor from VIA S3 for HD video

2008-04-23 Thread Theunis Potgieter
And I was just about to get exited, until I read this:

XvMC issues
● Limited hardware driver support
– Intel i810, i915/945 MC, 965 MC working in progress
– Unichrome VLD
– ATI, Nvidia (?)
● Limited modern video codec support, just for
MPEG1/2, can't support H.264/AVC.
– Multiple intra/inter prediction modes (multiple
motion vector styles)
– Multiple reference pictures
– No in-loop filter

So it appears there is no hope for my old machine with an AGP port, and
nvidia G-Force 4 MMX 440. Looks like I will have to upgrade, but the craze
will have to settle first before I buy anything. I wonder why they don't
create add-on cards in PCI format? so that it will work on older machines? I
guess they want you to upgrade to keep on making money...

Isn't there a method to use OpenGL to assist HD decoding?

On 23/04/2008, Pasi Kärkkäinen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 On Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 09:56:23AM +0400, Igor wrote:
The question is: Which of them will offer decent open source drivers
 for
HD decoding, and when?
  
   I wonder if every vendor pushes his own API for using these decoding
   accelerators? Or is there some standard (It's surely beyond XvMC)?
 
  there's VAAPI - Video Decode Acceleration API Specification
  http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/vaapi
 
  but seems it hasn't finished yet :(
 


 And then there's some XvMC for H.264/AVC work/patches:

 http://people.freedesktop.org/~zhen/xds2007_xvmc.pdf

 http://www.x.org/wiki/Events/XDS2007/Notes (link taken from here)


 -- Pasi


 ___
 vdr mailing list
 vdr@linuxtv.org
 http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr

___
vdr mailing list
vdr@linuxtv.org
http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr


Re: [vdr] new graphics processor from VIA S3 for HD video

2008-04-23 Thread Martin Emrich
Hi!

Theunis Potgieter schrieb:

 So it appears there is no hope for my old machine with an AGP port, and
 nvidia G-Force 4 MMX 440. 

I sit in a similar board (GF3 / GF2MX).

 Looks like I will have to upgrade, but the craze
 will have to settle first before I buy anything. I wonder why they don't
 create add-on cards in PCI format? so that it will work on older machines? I
 guess they want you to upgrade to keep on making money...

I don't think a simple PCI card can handle the bandwidth. Think Full-HD
PAL Video:

1920*1080*3 Byte/Pixel (RGB) * 25 FPS = 148MiB/s uncompressed RGB Data
(For performance reasons one probably would even use 32bit/Pixel). The
classic PCI Bus only does 133MB/s.

 Isn't there a method to use OpenGL to assist HD decoding?

AFAIK most of the current accelerators (AMD AVIVO, nVidia PureVideo,...)
use the programmable shaders for decoding, scaling, colorspace
translation, etc.
Most of the newer AMD/ATI cards seem not to have a traditional backend
scaler anymore (making it hard for opensource driver devs to implement
XVideo as they now have to touch the 3D engine).

Ciao

Martin

___
vdr mailing list
vdr@linuxtv.org
http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr


Re: [vdr] new graphics processor from VIA S3 for HD video

2008-04-23 Thread Martin Emrich
Hi!

Igor schrieb:

 there's VAAPI - Video Decode Acceleration API Specification
 http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/vaapi
 
 but seems it hasn't finished yet :(

But the Idea sounds quite nice... I dream of a VDR box with an S3
graphics card, decoding full HD DVB-S2 with only free software at low
power consumption ;-)

Ciao

Martin

___
vdr mailing list
vdr@linuxtv.org
http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr


Re: [vdr] new graphics processor from VIA S3 for HD video

2008-04-23 Thread Theunis Potgieter
So in an ideal world, it would be great to have a pci add-on card, that does
not only do assisting, but actually does all the features, so by sending the
compressed stream directly to board, and it does all the un-compressing and
uses its own internal memory (on board memory) to do movement of
uncompressed streams and doing additional post processing on the picture.
Similar to a FF-card but independent of DVB and can do *High 10 Profile
(Hi10P)*.

I know it is a pipe dream. So in a perfect world it would be nice to have
something like the following: pci board with a sigma 8635 chip for decoding
(o rsomething similar) and a S3 chip for post processing (or something
similar) onto one board with a s-video out, HDMI out, spdif out/audio out.
And can do 1920x1080 progressive scan PAL @ 25 or even 50 frames per second.
So that we can be ready for when BluRay hits the market (affordable). the
output can either be by using a X driver or frame buffer driver. Oh well the
wish list goes on :)

So the end user can then upgrade the output device when he/she can afford an
upgrade to a HD output device and of course don't forget all have Open
Source drivers hehe. Tomorrow I will wake up and realise the truth of it
all...

To the future of open source!

On 23/04/2008, Martin Emrich [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Hi!

 Theunis Potgieter schrieb:


  So it appears there is no hope for my old machine with an AGP port, and
  nvidia G-Force 4 MMX 440.


 I sit in a similar board (GF3 / GF2MX).


  Looks like I will have to upgrade, but the craze
  will have to settle first before I buy anything. I wonder why they don't
  create add-on cards in PCI format? so that it will work on older
 machines? I
  guess they want you to upgrade to keep on making money...


 I don't think a simple PCI card can handle the bandwidth. Think Full-HD
 PAL Video:

 1920*1080*3 Byte/Pixel (RGB) * 25 FPS = 148MiB/s uncompressed RGB Data
 (For performance reasons one probably would even use 32bit/Pixel). The
 classic PCI Bus only does 133MB/s.


  Isn't there a method to use OpenGL to assist HD decoding?


 AFAIK most of the current accelerators (AMD AVIVO, nVidia PureVideo,...)
 use the programmable shaders for decoding, scaling, colorspace
 translation, etc.
 Most of the newer AMD/ATI cards seem not to have a traditional backend
 scaler anymore (making it hard for opensource driver devs to implement
 XVideo as they now have to touch the 3D engine).

 Ciao


 Martin


 ___
 vdr mailing list
 vdr@linuxtv.org
 http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr

___
vdr mailing list
vdr@linuxtv.org
http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr


[vdr] new graphics processor from VIA S3 for HD video

2008-04-22 Thread Igor Nikanov
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS9502138983.html

Chipmaker Via's S3 Graphics division has announced a high-performance discrete 
graphics processor positioned as the first to meet the embedded industry's 
thermal requirements. The 4300E targets gaming and signage, offers HD video, 
DVI or HDMI output, and mixes dedicated and shared video memory.

Click here for a larger view of S3's 4300e
http://www.linuxdevices.com/files/misc/s3_4300e.jpg

http://www.ixbt.com/short/images/s3-g430gt_crs.jpg

S3's 4300E supports DirectX 10.1, OpenGL 2.1, plus accelerated HD video in 
WMV-9 HD, MPEG-2 HD, VC-1, H.264, DivX and AVS formats. It also provides 
support for PVP (protected video playback) copy protection, and allows HD 
playback of Blu-Ray media with relatively low CPU utilization, S3 says.

The 65nm 4300E can be operated at clock speeds from 300MHz to 650MHz. At 300MHz 
it runs fanlessly, and at 650MHz it supports GDDR3 (graphics double data rate 
3) RAM, with video memory speeds up to 900MHz.

Up to 256MB of GDDR2 or GDDR3 video memory can be dedicated to the 4300E. In 
addition, S3's AcceleRAM technology lets the processor use a combination of 
dedicated and system memory. Transfers between system memory and the graphics 
processor take place across the 4300e's PCI Express 2.0-compliant bus, which 
supports x1, x4, x8, and x16 lane widths. The 4300E offers power-saving 
features, including dynamic clock controls and individual execution units that 
can be turned off when idle, says S3.

Finally, the 4300e supports output to LVDS-interfaced flat panels, DVI, CRTs, 
and HDMI with HDCP (high-bandwidth digital copy protection). It has built-in 
dual-link DVI/HDMI transmitters, dual-channel LVDS transmitters, and two analog 
RAMDACs. 

The 4300e is compatible with Linux, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows XP 
Professional. An SDK (software development kit) and hardware development kit 
will be available in June, the company says.

Pricing and availability information for the 4300e was not released.


___
vdr mailing list
vdr@linuxtv.org
http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr


Re: [vdr] new graphics processor from VIA S3 for HD video

2008-04-22 Thread Udo Richter
Igor Nikanov wrote:
 Chipmaker Via's S3 Graphics division has announced a high-performance
 discrete graphics processor positioned as the first to meet the
 embedded industry's thermal requirements. The 4300E targets gaming
 and signage, offers HD video, DVI or HDMI output, and mixes dedicated
 and shared video memory.

There's a lot going on in the hardware accelerated HDTV area lately. 
Beside the two big graphic chipsets, there's the Intel Atom/Poulsbo 
chipset offering full HDTV acceleration at low power, the Intel G45 
chipset, the AMD 780G chipset, and a cooperation of NVidia and VIA for a 
new unnamed HD capable low cost chipset.

The question is: Which of them will offer decent open source drivers for 
HD decoding, and when?

Cheers,

Udo

___
vdr mailing list
vdr@linuxtv.org
http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr


Re: [vdr] new graphics processor from VIA S3 for HD video

2008-04-22 Thread Martin Emrich
Hi!

Udo Richter schrieb:

 There's a lot going on in the hardware accelerated HDTV area lately. 
 Beside the two big graphic chipsets, there's the Intel Atom/Poulsbo 
 chipset offering full HDTV acceleration at low power, the Intel G45 
 chipset, the AMD 780G chipset, and a cooperation of NVidia and VIA for a 
 new unnamed HD capable low cost chipset.
 
 The question is: Which of them will offer decent open source drivers for 
 HD decoding, and when?

I wonder if every vendor pushes his own API for using these decoding
accelerators? Or is there some standard (It's surely beyond XvMC)?

Matrix-multiplying (AMD,Nvidia,S3,Intel) with (Linux, X.Org,
Mplayer/ffmpeg, Gstreamer,...) gives surely a lot of (duplicate) code.


Ciao

Martin

___
vdr mailing list
vdr@linuxtv.org
http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr