[elrepo] Intel video on CentOS 6.4 - SOLVED!

[Andrey Zhunev]

Hello Matt,

Saturday, October 5, 2013, 1:07:26 AM, you wrote:

> Yes, I'm *very* interested!  At the risk of sounding patronizing,
> are you sure you're actually using VAAPI within MythTV?  At least my
> version of Myth (0.25.3 from ATrpms) doesn't provide a native vaapi
> playback profile; I had to manually create one.

No problem. It's worth to recheck, even if something seems obvious. :)
Yes, I am using VAAPI. I used 0.26 for many months, and since a few
days I now moved to 0.27. I compile MythTV from source, as I wanted to
have the ability to try the 'latest and greatest' version of MythTV.
And yes, the 'VAAPI Normal' profile is in my Myth by default since
version 0.26, if I remember correctly.


> Do you have any high bitrate Bluray video to test on?  That was my
> main driver in wanting vaapi: to be able to get smooth, high-bitrate
> video playback without having to resort to a highly-clocked CPU and
> then deal with all the heat and noise (or worse, have an add-in nVidia card like you used to).

Honestly speaking, to my eyes, the NVidia / VDPAU looks a little
better than VAAPI. The video is a bit 'softer', more pleasant...
Also, if I'm not mistaken, the VAAPI had some issues with
deinterlacing - I still didn't get a chance to check if these were
solved (but I think there was some progress reported).

Anyway, now, after watching a couple of movies and some shows via
VAAPI, I think it's very good as well.


> Based on this[1] post, I learned that not all Bluray discs are
> created equal, and in fact some will really tax your system.  So I
> went out and bought Transformers 2, because that post made it sound
> like the perfect benchmark.  That post is getting on four years old,
> but apparently better CPUs of that vintage can't smoothly do
> software rendering for that movie.  Fortunately my i3-2100 can. 
> However, I can still see a huge difference in CPU utilization with
> that movie with vaapi (<20%) versus no-vaapi (>80%).

So coming to the testing. The overnight test of LiveTV worked
perfectly well. No errors reported, and video was still running when I
came in the morning.
Today I also checked with Transformers 2 Blu-Ray (45Gb disc copy, as
I don't have a Blu-Ray drive). Video was good, no artefacts, and no
errors, whatsoever.
During playback, CPU utilization was about 1-1.5% (as reported by 'top').



> Are you using any xorg.conf file?  

Nope, I don't use it either. :)



> If you pass the 48 hour mark without any lockups or weirdness, I'd
> be really interested to know the specifics of your setup: hardware
> (CPU & motherboard), kernel version (and any non-default kernel
> parameters), MythTV version, and versions of all the relevant video
> related packages (xorg-intel driver, libvaapi, mesa, etc).


I have an i7-2600S (also declared to have a 65W TDP, but I think the
actual TDP is even less). My motherboard is an ASUS P8Z77-V LK.
I have only 1 fan in my case, which is a PSU fan (installed over the
CPU heatsink), and the system runs perfectly well. Unfortunately,
CentOS provides an old version of lm_sensors that seem to be
incompatible with temperature sensors on the motherboard. It shows
some temperature, but I don't trust these values much, as they are too
close to the ambient temperature in the room. Anyway, the heatsink on
the CPU is just warm, and not even hot to touch.

I use a regular monitor (1280x1024 native resolution) instead of a TV.
So this may be the main differentiator for the VAAPI, although I have
a feeling the system will act the same if I connect it to my 1080p
LCD TV in the room (it's a bit tricky to move and reconnect over
there, but I can make a test if you need it).


As for the software part:

# mythfrontend --version
Please attach all output as a file in bug reports.
MythTV Version : v0.27-14-g7ae9f17-dirty
MythTV Branch : fixes/0.27
Network Protocol : 77
Library API : 0.27.20130902-1
QT Version : 4.8.5
Options compiled in:
 linux profile use_hidesyms using_alsa using_jack using_oss
using_pulse using_pulseoutput using_backend using_bindings_perl
using_bindings_python using_bindings_php using_dvb using_frontend
using_ivtv using_libcrypto using_libfftw3 using_libxml2 using_libudf
using_lirc using_mheg using_opengl using_opengl_video using_qtwebkit
using_qtscript using_qtdbus using_taglib using_v4l2 using_v4l1
using_x11 using_xrandr using_xv using_profiletype using_mythlogserver
using_bindings_perl using_bindings_python using_bindings_php
using_mythtranscode using_opengl using_vaapi using_vdpau
using_ffmpeg_threads using_mheg using_libass using_libxml2 using_libudf

# rpm -qa |grep elrepo |sort
clang-3.0-5.el6.elrepo.x86_64
clang-devel-3.0-5.el6.elrepo.x86_64
elrepo-release-6-5.el6.elrepo.noarch
intel-gpu-tools-2.21.2-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64
khrplatform-devel-8.0.5-1.el6.elrepo.noarch
libdrm-2.4.31-3.el6.elrepo.x86_64
libdrm-devel-2.4.31-3.el6.elrepo.x86_64
libva-1.1.0-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64
libva-devel-1.1.0-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64
libva-utils-1.1.0-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64
llvm-3.0-5.el6.elrepo.x86_64
llvm-devel-3.0-5.el6.elrepo.x86_64
llvm-libs-3.0-5.el6.elrepo.x86_64
llvm-ocaml-3.0-5.el6.elrepo.x86_64
llvm-ocaml-devel-3.0-5.el6.elrepo.x86_64
mesa-dri-drivers-8.0.5-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64
mesa-dri-filesystem-8.0.5-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64
mesa-libGL-8.0.5-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64
mesa-libGL-devel-8.0.5-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64
mesa-libGLU-8.0.5-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64
mesa-libGLU-devel-8.0.5-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64
mesa-libOSMesa-8.0.5-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64
mesa-libOSMesa-devel-8.0.5-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64
vaapi-driver-intel-1.0.17-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-intel-2.21.2-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-intel-devel-2.21.2-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64

# uname -r
2.6.32-358.18.1.el6.x86_64


Kernel is regular, as it is shipped with CentOS.
I use a TBS DVB-S2 card, which requires an external driver to work. So
I compile and install the driver - but I don't think it affects VAAPI
in any way.


Here's mythfrontend log of playing a beginning of Transformers
(I stopped the playback in the end of the log):
http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=NKSZMXaB


Hope this helps...

Let me know if you need any additional info!


P.S. If this discussion goes way off-topic for this list, feel free to
e-mail me directly.