Difference between revisions of "Hardware video acceleration"

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(→‎Formats: Catalyst doesn't support VP8,VP9 and HEVC)
m (→‎Software: remove links now everything has landed in the stable packages)
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Line 36: Line 36:
 
! MPEG2
 
! MPEG2
 
| {{G|GMA 4500 and newer}}
 
| {{G|GMA 4500 and newer}}
−
| rowspan=7 | ?
+
| {{G|Radeon HD 4000 and newer?}}
 
| {{G|Radeon HD 4000 and newer}}
 
| {{G|Radeon HD 4000 and newer}}
 
| rowspan=5 style="background:#d3d3d3;" | See VDPAU.
 
| rowspan=5 style="background:#d3d3d3;" | See VDPAU.
Line 42: Line 42:
 
! MPEG4
 
! MPEG4
 
| {{R|✗}}
 
| {{R|✗}}
 +
| ?
 
| {{G|Radeon HD 6000 and newer}}
 
| {{G|Radeon HD 6000 and newer}}
 
|-
 
|-
 
! H.264
 
! H.264
 
| {{G|GMA 4500<sup>1</sup>, Ironlake Graphics and newer}}
 
| {{G|GMA 4500<sup>1</sup>, Ironlake Graphics and newer}}
 +
| {{G|Radeon HD 4000 and newer?}}
 
| {{G|Radeon HD 4000 and newer}}
 
| {{G|Radeon HD 4000 and newer}}
 
|-
 
|-
 
! HEVC (H.265)
 
! HEVC (H.265)
 
| {{G|Cherryview/Braswell and newer}}
 
| {{G|Cherryview/Braswell and newer}}
 +
| {{G|Radeon HD 6000 and newer?}}
 
| {{R|✗}}
 
| {{R|✗}}
 
|-
 
|-
 
! VC1
 
! VC1
 
| {{G|Sandy Bridge Graphics and newer}}
 
| {{G|Sandy Bridge Graphics and newer}}
 +
| {{G|Radeon HD 4000 and newer?}}
 
| {{G|Radeon HD 4000 and newer}}
 
| {{G|Radeon HD 4000 and newer}}
 
|-
 
|-
 
! VP8
 
! VP8
 
| {{G|Broadwell and newer}}
 
| {{G|Broadwell and newer}}
 +
| ?
 
| {{R|✗}}
 
| {{R|✗}}
 
| rowspan=2 style="background:#faa;" | ✗
 
| rowspan=2 style="background:#faa;" | ✗
Line 63: Line 68:
 
! VP9
 
! VP9
 
| {{G|Broxton and newer}}
 
| {{G|Broxton and newer}}
 +
| ?
 
| {{R|✗}}
 
| {{R|✗}}
 
|-
 
|-
Line 69: Line 75:
 
! MPEG2
 
! MPEG2
 
| {{G|Ivy Bridge Graphics and newer}}
 
| {{G|Ivy Bridge Graphics and newer}}
−
| rowspan=5 | ?
+
| ?
−
| {{R|✗}}
+
| rowspan=5 style="background:#faa;" | ✗
 
| rowspan=5 style="background:#faa;" | ✗
 
| rowspan=5 style="background:#faa;" | ✗
 
|-
 
|-
 
! H.264
 
! H.264
 
| {{G|Sandy Bridge Graphics and newer}}
 
| {{G|Sandy Bridge Graphics and newer}}
−
| {{R|✗}}
+
| {{G|Radeon HD 4000 and newer?}}
 
|-
 
|-
 
! HEVC (H.265)
 
! HEVC (H.265)
Line 118: Line 124:
 
|-
 
|-
 
! HEVC (H.265)
 
! HEVC (H.265)
−
| {{R|✗}}
+
| {{G|1=[https://cgit.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/commit/src/gallium/state_trackers/vdpau/decode.c?id=5609a6986f3eb3c452d66d373b6081df5c6fb34c yes] {{Expansion|which cards?}}}}
 
| {{G|GeForce 900<sup>4</sup> and newer}}
 
| {{G|GeForce 900<sup>4</sup> and newer}}
 
| rowspan=4 style="background:#faa;" | ✗<sup>2</sup>
 
| rowspan=4 style="background:#faa;" | ✗<sup>2</sup>
Line 132: Line 138:
 
* <sup>3</sup> [[Wikipedia:Nvidia PureVideo|Except]] GeForce 8800 Ultra, 8800 GTX, 8800 GTS (320/640 MB).
 
* <sup>3</sup> [[Wikipedia:Nvidia PureVideo|Except]] GeForce 8800 Ultra, 8800 GTX, 8800 GTS (320/640 MB).
 
* <sup>4</sup> Except GeForce GTX 970 and GTX 980.
 
* <sup>4</sup> Except GeForce GTX 970 and GTX 980.
 +
 +
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
 +
|+ Nvidia NVDEC/NVENC ([[NVIDIA]] only)
 +
!
 +
! Decoding (NVDEC)
 +
! Encoding (NVENC)
 +
|-
 +
! MPEG-2
 +
| {{G|✓}}
 +
| {{R|✗}}
 +
|-
 +
! VC-1
 +
| {{G|✓}}
 +
| {{R|✗}}
 +
|-
 +
! H.264
 +
| {{G|✓}}
 +
| {{G|✓}}
 +
|-
 +
! HEVC (H.265)
 +
| {{G|Pascal and newer}}
 +
| {{G|Pascal and newer}}
 +
|-
 +
! VP8
 +
| {{G|Maxwell2 and newer}}
 +
| {{R|✗}}
 +
|-
 +
! VP9
 +
| {{G|Pascal and newer}}
 +
| {{R|✗}}
 +
|-
 +
|}
  
 
The features supported by your GPU may vary. To see what your GPU supports see [[#Verification]].
 
The features supported by your GPU may vary. To see what your GPU supports see [[#Verification]].
Line 143: Line 181:
 
! VA-API
 
! VA-API
 
! VDPAU
 
! VDPAU
 +
! NVDEC/NVENC
 
|-
 
|-
 
! [[GStreamer]]
 
! [[GStreamer]]
 
| {{G|✓ (with {{pkg|gstreamer-vaapi}}, see [[GStreamer#Hardware acceleration]])}}
 
| {{G|✓ (with {{pkg|gstreamer-vaapi}}, see [[GStreamer#Hardware acceleration]])}}
 +
| {{G|✓ (with {{pkg|gst-plugins-bad}}, see [[GStreamer#Hardware acceleration]])}}
 
| {{G|✓ (with {{pkg|gst-plugins-bad}}, see [[GStreamer#Hardware acceleration]])}}
 
| {{G|✓ (with {{pkg|gst-plugins-bad}}, see [[GStreamer#Hardware acceleration]])}}
 
|-
 
|-
Line 151: Line 191:
 
| {{G|✓ (see [[VLC media player#Hardware acceleration support]])}}
 
| {{G|✓ (see [[VLC media player#Hardware acceleration support]])}}
 
| {{G|✓ (see [[VLC media player#Hardware acceleration support]])}}
 
| {{G|✓ (see [[VLC media player#Hardware acceleration support]])}}
 +
| {{R|✗}}
 
|-
 
|-
 
! [[mpv]]
 
! [[mpv]]
 
| {{G|✓ (see [[mpv#Hardware decoding]])}}
 
| {{G|✓ (see [[mpv#Hardware decoding]])}}
 
| {{G|✓ (see [[mpv#Hardware decoding]])}}
 
| {{G|✓ (see [[mpv#Hardware decoding]])}}
 +
| {{G|✓}}
 
|-
 
|-
 
! [[MPlayer]]
 
! [[MPlayer]]
 
| {{G|✓ (with {{aur|mplayer-vaapi}}, see [[MPlayer#Enabling VA-API]])}}
 
| {{G|✓ (with {{aur|mplayer-vaapi}}, see [[MPlayer#Enabling VA-API]])}}
 
| {{G|✓ (see [[MPlayer#Enabling VDPAU]])}}
 
| {{G|✓ (see [[MPlayer#Enabling VDPAU]])}}
 +
| {{R|✗}}
 
|-
 
|-
 
! [[Flash]]
 
! [[Flash]]
 
| {{G|✓ (with {{pkg|libvdpau-va-gl}}, see [[Flash#Configuration]])}}
 
| {{G|✓ (with {{pkg|libvdpau-va-gl}}, see [[Flash#Configuration]])}}
 
| {{G|✓ (see [[Flash#Configuration]])}}
 
| {{G|✓ (see [[Flash#Configuration]])}}
 +
| {{R|✗}}
 
|-
 
|-
 
! [[Kodi]]
 
! [[Kodi]]
 +
| {{G|✓}}
 
| {{G|✓}}
 
| {{G|✓}}
 
| {{G|✓}}
 
| {{G|✓}}
 
|-
 
|-
 
! [[Firefox]]
 
! [[Firefox]]
−
| colspan=2 style="background:#faa;" | ✗ [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1210726] [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1210727] [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=563206]
+
| colspan=2 style="background:#faa; text-align: center;" | ✗ [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1210726] [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1210727] [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=563206]
 +
| {{R|✗}}
 
|-
 
|-
 
! [[Chromium]]
 
! [[Chromium]]
 
| {{Y|[https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/chromium/src/+/532294 WIP] ({{AUR|chromium-vaapi}})}}
 
| {{Y|[https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/chromium/src/+/532294 WIP] ({{AUR|chromium-vaapi}})}}
 
| {{R|✗}}
 
| {{R|✗}}
 +
| {{R|✗}}
 +
|-
 +
! [[FFmpeg]]
 +
| {{G|✓}}
 +
| {{G|✓}}
 +
| {{G|✓}}
 
|}
 
|}
  
Line 201: Line 253:
 
* [[ATI]]/[[AMDGPU]] Radeon 9500 and newer GPUs are supported by either {{pkg|libva-mesa-driver}} with {{pkg|mesa}} or {{pkg|libva-vdpau-driver}} (see [[#Installing VDPAU]]).
 
* [[ATI]]/[[AMDGPU]] Radeon 9500 and newer GPUs are supported by either {{pkg|libva-mesa-driver}} with {{pkg|mesa}} or {{pkg|libva-vdpau-driver}} (see [[#Installing VDPAU]]).
 
* [[Intel]] GMA 4500 series and newer GPUs are supported by {{pkg|libva-intel-driver}} with {{pkg|mesa}}.
 
* [[Intel]] GMA 4500 series and newer GPUs are supported by {{pkg|libva-intel-driver}} with {{pkg|mesa}}.
−
** To get better support on GMA 4500 consider using {{aur|libva-intel-driver-g45-h264}} instead, see [[Intel#H.264 decoding on GMA 4500]] for instructions and caveats.
+
** To get better support on GMA 4500 consider using {{aur|libva-intel-driver-g45-h264}} instead, see [[Intel#Hardware accelerated H.264 decoding on GMA 4500]] for instructions and caveats.
 +
** A new usermode driver being developed by Intel is available for Broadwell, Skylake, Kabylake, Apollolake and Canonlake: {{aur|intel-media-driver-git}}
 
* [[Nouveau|NVIDIA]] GeForce 8 series and newer GPUs are supported by {{pkg|libva-vdpau-driver}} (see [[#Installing VDPAU]]).
 
* [[Nouveau|NVIDIA]] GeForce 8 series and newer GPUs are supported by {{pkg|libva-vdpau-driver}} (see [[#Installing VDPAU]]).
  
Line 224: Line 277:
 
** [[AMD Catalyst]] uses {{pkg|libvdpau-va-gl}} (see [[#Installing VA-API]]).
 
** [[AMD Catalyst]] uses {{pkg|libvdpau-va-gl}} (see [[#Installing VA-API]]).
 
** [[AMDGPU PRO]] uses {{AUR|amdgpu-pro-vdpau}} (see [[AMDGPU#AMDGPU PRO]]).
 
** [[AMDGPU PRO]] uses {{AUR|amdgpu-pro-vdpau}} (see [[AMDGPU#AMDGPU PRO]]).
−
* [[NVIDIA]] GeForce 400 series and newer GPUs are supported by {{pkg|nvidia-utils}}.
+
* [[NVIDIA]] GeForce 600 series and newer GPUs are supported by {{pkg|nvidia-utils}}.
 +
** GeForce 400/500 series are supported by {{pkg|nvidia-390xx-utils}}.
 
** GeForce 8/9 and GeForce 100-300 series are supported by {{pkg|nvidia-340xx-utils}}.
 
** GeForce 8/9 and GeForce 100-300 series are supported by {{pkg|nvidia-340xx-utils}}.
  
Line 334: Line 388:
  
 
In this case {{ic|radeonsi}} is the default for both VA-API and VDPAU.
 
In this case {{ic|radeonsi}} is the default for both VA-API and VDPAU.
 +
 +
{{Note|If you use [[GDM]], run {{ic|journalctl -b {{!}} grep -iE 'vdpau {{!}} dri driver'}} instead.}}
  
 
This does not represent the ''configuration'' however. The values above will not change even if you override them.
 
This does not represent the ''configuration'' however. The values above will not change even if you override them.
Line 346: Line 402:
  
 
{{Note|
 
{{Note|
−
* You can find the installed drivers in {{ic|/usr/lib/dri/}}. They are used as {{ic|/usr/lib/vdpau/'''${LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME}'''_drv_video.so}}.
+
* You can find the installed drivers in {{ic|/usr/lib/dri/}}. They are used as {{ic|/usr/lib/dri/'''${LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME}'''_drv_video.so}}.
 
* Some drivers are installed several times under different names for compatibility reasons. You can see which by running {{ic|sha1sum /usr/lib/dri/*}}.
 
* Some drivers are installed several times under different names for compatibility reasons. You can see which by running {{ic|sha1sum /usr/lib/dri/*}}.
 
* Since version 12.0.1 {{Pkg|libva-mesa-driver}} provides {{ic|radeonsi}} instead of {{ic|gallium}}.
 
* Since version 12.0.1 {{Pkg|libva-mesa-driver}} provides {{ic|radeonsi}} instead of {{ic|gallium}}.
Line 374: Line 430:
  
 
However you may want to configure your media player to use VA-API instead, getting far better results. See [[#Software]].
 
However you may want to configure your media player to use VA-API instead, getting far better results. See [[#Software]].
 +
 +
=== VAAPI init failed ===
 +
 +
An error along the lines of {{ic|libva: /usr/lib/dri/i965_drv_video.so init failed}} is encountered. This can happen because of improper detection of Wayland. One solution is to unset {{ic|$DISPLAY}} so that mpv, mplayer, VLC, etc. do not assume it is X11. Another mpv-specific solution is to add the parameter {{ic|1=--opengl-backend=wayland}}.

Revision as of 13:56, 13 May 2018

Related articles

Hardware video acceleration makes it possible for the video card to decode/encode video, thus offloading the CPU and saving power.

There are several ways to achieve this on Linux:

  • Video Acceleration API (VA-API) is a specification and open source library to provide both hardware accelerated video encoding and decoding, developed by Intel.
  • Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix (VDPAU) is an open source library and API to offload portions of the video decoding process and video post-processing to the GPU video-hardware, developed by NVIDIA.
  • X-Video Motion Compensation (XvMC) is an extension for the X.Org Server, allowing video programs to offload portions of the video decoding process to the GPU video-hardware.

Support

Formats

Tango-view-fullscreen.pngThis article or section needs expansion.Tango-view-fullscreen.png

Reason: Fill in capabilities of libva-mesa-driver and amdgpu-pro-vdpauAUR. (Discuss in Talk:Hardware video acceleration#)
Note: To choose the correct driver see #Installation.
VA-API
libva-intel-driver [1] libva-mesa-driver Catalyst XvBA libva-vdpau-driver

(VDPAU adapter)

Decoding
MPEG2 GMA 4500 and newer Radeon HD 4000 and newer? Radeon HD 4000 and newer See VDPAU.
MPEG4 ✗ ? Radeon HD 6000 and newer
H.264 GMA 45001, Ironlake Graphics and newer Radeon HD 4000 and newer? Radeon HD 4000 and newer
HEVC (H.265) Cherryview/Braswell and newer Radeon HD 6000 and newer? ✗
VC1 Sandy Bridge Graphics and newer Radeon HD 4000 and newer? Radeon HD 4000 and newer
VP8 Broadwell and newer ? ✗ ✗
VP9 Broxton and newer ? ✗
Encoding
MPEG2 Ivy Bridge Graphics and newer ? ✗ ✗
H.264 Sandy Bridge Graphics and newer Radeon HD 4000 and newer?
HEVC (H.265) Skylake and newer ?
VP8 Cherryview/Braswell and newer ?
VP9 Kaby Lake and newer ?
VDPAU
mesa-vdpau nvidia-utils amdgpu-pro-vdpauAUR libvdpau-va-gl
(VA-API adapter)
Decoding
MPEG2 Radeon 9500 and newer, GeForce 8 and newer GeForce 8 and newer ? ✗2
MPEG4 Radeon HD 6000 and newer, GeForce 200 and newer GeForce 200 and newer
H.264 Radeon HD 4000 and newer, GeForce 8 and newer GeForce 8 and newer See VA-API.
HEVC (H.265) yes

Tango-view-fullscreen.pngThis article or section needs expansion.Tango-view-fullscreen.png

Reason: which cards? (Discuss in Talk:Hardware video acceleration#)
 GeForce 9004 and newer ✗2
VC1 Radeon HD 4000 and newer, GeForce 83 and newer GeForce 83 and newer
  • 1 Supported by libva-intel-driver-g45-h264AUR instead.
  • 2 As of version 0.3, the VA GL driver does not support any other hardware decoder than H.264.
  • 3 Except GeForce 8800 Ultra, 8800 GTX, 8800 GTS (320/640 MB).
  • 4 Except GeForce GTX 970 and GTX 980.
Nvidia NVDEC/NVENC (NVIDIA only)
Decoding (NVDEC) Encoding (NVENC)
MPEG-2 ✓ ✗
VC-1 ✓ ✗
H.264 ✓ ✓
HEVC (H.265) Pascal and newer Pascal and newer
VP8 Maxwell2 and newer ✗
VP9 Pascal and newer ✗

The features supported by your GPU may vary. To see what your GPU supports see #Verification.

Regarding the amdgpu-pro-vdpauAUR package, see AMDGPU#AMDGPU PRO.

Software

VA-API VDPAU NVDEC/NVENC
GStreamer ✓ (with gstreamer-vaapi, see GStreamer#Hardware acceleration) ✓ (with gst-plugins-bad, see GStreamer#Hardware acceleration) ✓ (with gst-plugins-bad, see GStreamer#Hardware acceleration)
VLC media player ✓ (see VLC media player#Hardware acceleration support) ✓ (see VLC media player#Hardware acceleration support) ✗
mpv ✓ (see mpv#Hardware decoding) ✓ (see mpv#Hardware decoding) ✓
MPlayer ✓ (with mplayer-vaapiAUR, see MPlayer#Enabling VA-API) ✓ (see MPlayer#Enabling VDPAU) ✗
Flash ✓ (with libvdpau-va-gl, see Flash#Configuration) ✓ (see Flash#Configuration) ✗
Kodi ✓ ✓ ✓
Firefox ✗ [2] [3] [4] ✗
Chromium WIP (chromium-vaapiAUR) ✗ ✗
FFmpeg ✓ ✓ ✓

Installation

Tango-view-fullscreen.pngThis article or section needs expansion.Tango-view-fullscreen.png

Reason: The AMDGPU driver is not mentioned. (Discuss in Talk:Hardware video acceleration#)

The choice varies depending on your video card vendor:

  • For Intel Graphics use VA-API.
  • For NVIDIA cards use VDPAU.
  • For AMD cards you can use both (with mesa). The difference is really only in the application implementation [5].

There are also two specific types of drivers for VA-API and VDPAU:

For pre-2007 cards see XvMC.

Tip: It is recommended to install and configure both VA-API and VDPAU to achieve support in different scenarios, e.g. Flash does not support VA-API but can use the VDPAU VA-API backend.

Installing VA-API

Open source drivers:

Proprietary drivers:

Installing VDPAU

Open source drivers:

Proprietary drivers:

Verification

Your system may work perfectly out-of-the-box without needing any configuration. Therefore it is a good idea to start with this section to see that it is the case.

Tip: mpv is great for testing hardware acceleration in practice.

Verifying VA-API

Verify the settings for VA-API by running vainfo, which is provided by libva-utils: 

$ vainfo
libva info: VA-API version 0.39.4
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/dri/i965_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_0_39
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA-API version: 0.39 (libva 1.7.3)
vainfo: Driver version: Intel i965 driver for Intel(R) Skylake - 1.7.3
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
      VAProfileMPEG2Simple            :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileMPEG2Simple            :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileMPEG2Main              :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileMPEG2Main              :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline:	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline:	VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline:	VAEntrypointEncSliceLP
      VAProfileH264Main               :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264Main               :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264Main               :	VAEntrypointEncSliceLP
      VAProfileH264High               :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264High               :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264High               :	VAEntrypointEncSliceLP
      VAProfileH264MultiviewHigh      :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264MultiviewHigh      :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264StereoHigh         :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264StereoHigh         :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileVC1Simple              :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Main                :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Advanced            :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileNone                   :	VAEntrypointVideoProc
      VAProfileJPEGBaseline           :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileJPEGBaseline           :	VAEntrypointEncPicture
      VAProfileVP8Version0_3          :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVP8Version0_3          :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileHEVCMain               :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain               :	VAEntrypointEncSlice

VAEntrypointVLD means that your card is capable to decode this format, VAEntrypointEncSlice means that you can encode to this format.

In this example the i965 driver is used, as you can see in this line: 

libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/dri/i965_drv_video.so

If the following error is displayed when running vainfo: 

libva info: va_openDriver() returns -1
vaInitialize failed with error code -1 (unknown libva error),exit

You need to configure the correct driver, see #Configuring VA-API.

Verifying VDPAU

Install vdpauinfo to verify if the VDPAU driver is loaded correctly and retrieve a full report of the configuration: 

$ vdpauinfo
display: :0   screen: 0
API version: 1
Information string: G3DVL VDPAU Driver Shared Library version 1.0

Video surface:

name   width height types


420    16384 16384  NV12 YV12 
422    16384 16384  UYVY YUYV 
444    16384 16384  Y8U8V8A8 V8U8Y8A8 

Decoder capabilities:

name                        level macbs width height


MPEG1                          --- not supported ---
MPEG2_SIMPLE                    3  9216  2048  1152
MPEG2_MAIN                      3  9216  2048  1152
H264_BASELINE                  41  9216  2048  1152
H264_MAIN                      41  9216  2048  1152
H264_HIGH                      41  9216  2048  1152
VC1_SIMPLE                      1  9216  2048  1152
VC1_MAIN                        2  9216  2048  1152
VC1_ADVANCED                    4  9216  2048  1152

..

Configuration

Although the video driver should automatically enable hardware video acceleration support for both VA-API and VDPAU, it may be needed to configure VA-API/VDPAU manually. Only continue to this section if you went through #Verification.

The default driver names, used if there is no other configuration present, are guess by the system. However, they are often hacked together and may not work. You can see the guessed values by running: 

$ grep -iE 'vdpau | dri driver' ~/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log
(II) RADEON(0): [DRI2] DRI driver: radeonsi
(II) RADEON(0): [DRI2] VDPAU driver: radeonsi

In this case radeonsi is the default for both VA-API and VDPAU.

Note: If you use GDM, run journalctl -b | grep -iE 'vdpau | dri driver' instead.

This does not represent the configuration however. The values above will not change even if you override them.

Configuring VA-API

You can override the driver for VA-API by using the LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME environment variable:

  • For Intel Graphics use i965.
  • For NVIDIA use vdpau.
  • For AMD use either radeonsi or vdpau.
Note:
  • You can find the installed drivers in /usr/lib/dri/. They are used as /usr/lib/dri/${LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME}_drv_video.so.
  • Some drivers are installed several times under different names for compatibility reasons. You can see which by running sha1sum /usr/lib/dri/*.
  • Since version 12.0.1 libva-mesa-driver provides radeonsi instead of gallium.

Configuring VDPAU

You can override the driver for VDPAU by using the VDPAU_DRIVER environment variable.

The correct driver name depends on your setup:

  • For Intel Graphics or AMD Catalyst you need to set it to va_gl.
  • For the open source AMD/ATI driver set it to the proper driver version depending on your GPU, see #Verification.
  • For NVIDIA's proprietary version set it to nvidia.
Note:
  • You can find the installed drivers in /usr/lib/vdpau/. They are used as /usr/lib/vdpau/libvdpau_${VDPAU_DRIVER}.so.
  • Some drivers are installed several times under different names for compatibility reasons. You can see which by running sha1sum /usr/lib/vdpau/*.
  • For hybrid setups (both NVIDIA and AMD), it may be necessary to set DRI_PRIME=1. For more information see PRIME.

Troubleshooting

Failed to open VDPAU backend

This happens when you use libvdpau-va-gl without overriding VDPAU_DRIVER. VDPAU does not know what driver to use in this case for some reason and guesses wrongly. See #Configuring VDPAU.

However you may want to configure your media player to use VA-API instead, getting far better results. See #Software.

VAAPI init failed

An error along the lines of libva: /usr/lib/dri/i965_drv_video.so init failed is encountered. This can happen because of improper detection of Wayland. One solution is to unset $DISPLAY so that mpv, mplayer, VLC, etc. do not assume it is X11. Another mpv-specific solution is to add the parameter --opengl-backend=wayland.

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