linux and h264 accelerated gfx cards

lsg1r

lsg1r

lsg1r

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Ok I'm considering building an atom based (may go via nano if worth it) rig instead of getting an ebox, I have a feeling the ebox is going to be overpriced relatively speaking, plus it doesn't look like it will have the h264 controller chip.

Now I know to get the best performance out of the atom pc I really need to get linux but as I want to use it mainly as a media player (for dvd's rmvb/mkv/h264 if possible etc) I was thinking of getting a board (assuming there is one) which can use hardware acceleration from ati/nvidia cards.
This is where I become a little stuck as I'm not clued up on linux enough in comparison to windows/os-x.

So I have a few questions and remember I'm a complete novice when it comes to linux
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Can you actually use the built in decoding of a graphics card in linux to help with h264.
Is it better for nvidia or ati in linux graphics card.
Any recommended os for h264 and media optimised or software which novice can work.
Is there anything I need to be aware of in relation to codec support etc.
Are there any remotes which work with linux similar to the wmc remotes on windows.

Thanks :)
 
AFAIK nobody's acceleration works in Linux; AVIVO or PureVideo. It's quite a shame.

As far as other media center stuff MythTV is quite nice if you want to capture your own recordings. Elisa is very cool and has the best codecs if you don't need capture support. A great many remotes work using lirc (linux infared remote control), including the Windows Media Center remote.

EDIT:
The MythTV wiki sayeth:
A new video acceleration API is being developed, in an effort lead by Intel. This new API supports more complete offload (VLD) as well as iDCT+MC, and can support acceleration of MPEG-4 ASP (H.263), MPEG-4 AVC (H.264), VC-1/VMW3, as well as MPEG-2. The website for this effort is located at: http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/vaapi. XvMC-vld is also available on Via Unichrome-Pro chipsets, through the openchrome driver.

So maybe via Unichrome is worth a second look. I'm interested in this myself so I'll have a look.
 
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atleast there is a possibility then. I know from my hunts that via's v2 spec mitx has the option of hdmi out so maybe they've got some added features with the new board :confused:
I'll go have a hunt of the info you've given me and see if anything helps :)

edit: elisa looks damn nice and they're doing a version for windows, meaning I might be able to get a media centre option that works with rmvb in x64 :)
 
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The Linux version of RealPlayer works just fine under 64-bit Linux. I use it often for those pesky .rmvb files since my media rig is running Mythbuntu x86-64.
 
I've been reading the openChrome wiki (http://wiki.openchrome.org/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php) and I see nary a mention of H.264 as going hand-in-hand with VLD.

If I ever find myself to be an eccentric billionaire who's already been to space aboard a Soyuz I'll have to remember to throw boatloads of money at Linux projects so they can develop the things I want to use.
 
Generally ATI is better for Linux I am told, but my old geforce 5200 seems to have pretty good support. DVD and RMVB will probably be fine on atom, but MKV/h.264 may be a step too far without hardware accelleration (which is a long way off by the sound of it). You may want to check out coreavc-for-linux which has "best in class" software h.264 decoding.. you may find its good enough for <=720p.. i guess the problem is that youre unlikely to get this answer from a review so you can't really try before you buy. Maybe wait until you know someone who has one of these atoms things and see if you can borrow it and give it a go.
 
Found a 2 nice little am2 based m-itx boards with either a hd3000 or nf8200 gfx built in, If I add in a low end am2 x2 4600 the price is only about £20 (+ cost of low profile cpu cooler) more than an atom based rig.
Now in theory this could probably run h264 in linux but I know it will in vista as theres gfx support and it's a higher speed cpu than my current rig. However additional expense is the software and the os :mad:

Anyone any experience with h264 and an x2 4600 or similar.
 
AFAIK there is no way to do multi-core h264 decoding under linux at the moment. Having said this.. a single core 4600 will do just fine for 720p. You won't get smooth 1080p though.

I use a single core amd64 3200 and its fine for h264 @ 720p using coreavc in ubuntu. The 4600 would probably do 720p fine using regular ffmpeg.
 
Can't remember where I read it but I'm sure I read somewhere that the latest beta ffdshow (are they the same group and from what I read used in mplayer) was going multi-threaded, so maybe linux isn't a bad option to atleast try, worst case scenario is just buy a vista disk if needed.
 
I know ffdshow under windows IS multithreaded, but I've just done some research and I can't find anyone reporting positive results on Linux.
 
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