<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; ">Danko,<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span">I agree with you completely. However, my response was oriented towards the average home user and VLC as it stands - this is a user list, not a developer list, and the original poster sounded very user-level. All the features you describe require specific graphics hardware and software - software that's not really in VLC yet. Tantalizing the average user with <I>what could be</I> doesn't help much and likely just frustrates.</SPAN></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Right now, there are a some challenges. Not all hardware supports some or all of these features - so only some users could benefit. And the way each chipset/vendor implements it can vary. Different de-interlacing algorithms and varying quality of implementation, for example. Differing APIs as well. Differing drivers/APIs depending on platform and of course, there's the ever-problematic closed source graphics driver. (Except Intel! <A href="http://intellinuxgraphics.org">http://intellinuxgraphics.org</A>/ )</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>CPU usage is a huge reason, on laptops for lower power usage/heat, on desktops for multi-tasking and/or cooler and more quiet running. I have been pushing to see Mac OS X MPEG-2 acceleration for a video player - preferably VLC, as it's my favorite player par-none. Under Mac OS X, Apple has already created a GPU-independent but private API for MPEG-2 acceleration, and John Dalgliesh with a little help from various users (including myself) has managed reverse engineered this API. ( <A href="http://www.defyne.org/dvb/accellent.html">http://www.defyne.org/dvb/accellent.html</A> )</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Let me give you an example on my 1.33 GHz PowerBook G4. A certain 720p MPEG-2 HDTV-compliant clip played in VLC - using OpenGL video output (GPU handles color conversion) and libmpeg2 (fastest PPC MPEG-2 decoder) - isn't able to even play the video smoothly, despite pegging the CPU. Compare that to the Accellent proof-of-concept application. It doesn't do audio, but it plays the clip silky smooth using an average 15% of my CPU. That's a night and day improvement. But I've yet to see anybody even add audio playback to the proof of concept, let alone add it to VLC, etc.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>At the moment, Accellent is just a mechanical process away from being turned into a video output module - the tricky reverse engineer is done. And another developer has completed a module to use another GPU's acceleration abilities. But it was rejected because the code was messy. I just wish that the developers would put greater emphasis on GPU acceleration. A lot of it is outside our grasp, but why don't we move on what we can? </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Now, I should add, H.264 acceleration isn't nearly so good with a GPU-assist. ATI has the best stuff and the Windows demos I've seen show at most a 40% reduction in CPU usage. nVidia is even worse. But it will improve, given time.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I would be helping out with this more actively if I had useful programming experience. But at the moment, I don't, and I don't have the time to learn.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Just a few thoughts.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>-Galen</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><DIV><DIV>On Sep 9, 2006, at 1:25 AM, Danko Dolch wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; ">Hi Galen!</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"></FONT> </DIV><DIV>> Your graphics card isn't likely to make the video look any better.</DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; ">What about hadware accelerated decoding, motion adaptive deinterlacing and GPU shader based filtering/compositing??</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; ">One very simple thing - as far as I know there is no way of high quality image rezising even with things like MMX - today I only know GPU accelerated applications that can do this...</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"></FONT> </DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"></FONT> </DIV><DIV>>The only real reason you'd use the video card is if you can't play the video properly (i.e. it skips or stutters because your >CPU isn't fast enough) and hence need to reduce CPU usage - this is hardware acceleration.</DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"></FONT> </DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; ">If I have a GPU, I don't want to waste my CPU time with video tasks...</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"></FONT> </DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; ">Without an hardware accelerated overlay surface none of todays CPU's can deal with high definition video.</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; ">And even with - ever tryed to play a HD 1080p H.264 stream with 50MBit/s data rate (ever thought about e-Cinema requirements)?? - don't try this with VLC - no multi processor support like the Quicktime Player and no GPU support like Windows Media Player or commercial HD-DVD-Player software ;-)</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"></FONT> </DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; ">Ok - I know about the problems of supporting GPU features like H.264 decoding - but support of multible CPU's at least would be great... but imho the most faszinating possibilities are located around GPU shaders - color correction - denoise - compositing...</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"></FONT> </DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; ">only some thought about the future of video processing...</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"></FONT> </DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; ">best regards</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"></FONT> </DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; ">Danko</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"></FONT> </DIV><BLOCKQUOTE dir="ltr" style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; ">----- Original Message -----</SPAN></DIV><DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; "><B style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; font-weight: bold; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; font-weight: bold; ">From:</SPAN></B><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; "> </SPAN><A title="galenz@zinkconsulting.com" href="mailto:galenz@zinkconsulting.com"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">galenz@zinkconsulting.com</SPAN></A><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; "></SPAN></DIV><DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; "><B style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; font-weight: bold; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; font-weight: bold; ">To:</SPAN></B><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; "> </SPAN><A title="byron_le_luron@yahoo.fr" href="mailto:byron_le_luron@yahoo.fr"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">Joe-la-Frite</SPAN></A><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; "></SPAN></DIV><DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; "><B style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; font-weight: bold; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; font-weight: bold; ">Cc:</SPAN></B><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; "> </SPAN><A title="vlc@videolan.org" href="mailto:vlc@videolan.org"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">vlc@videolan.org</SPAN></A><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; "></SPAN></DIV><DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; "><B style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; font-weight: bold; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; font-weight: bold; ">Sent:</SPAN></B><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; "> Saturday, September 09, 2006 1:47 AM</SPAN></DIV><DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; "><B style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; font-weight: bold; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; font-weight: bold; ">Subject:</SPAN></B><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; "> [vlc] Re: Re : Use the GPU</SPAN></DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"></FONT><FONT face="Arial" size="2"></FONT><FONT face="Arial" size="2"></FONT><BR></DIV>Your graphics card isn't likely to make the video look any better. The only real reason you'd use the video card is if you can't play the video properly (i.e. it skips or stutters because your CPU isn't fast enough) and hence need to reduce CPU usage - this is hardware acceleration.<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Look at the video output options under VLC's preferences. If you're using Linux, make sure you have your video drivers setup properly - if you you don't, or your card doesn't support the modes you're trying to output, VLC will give errors or simply quit. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Under Linux, see if you can use XvMC or OpenGL video output. XvMC is fastest, as it uses hardware motion compensation for a performance increase. OpenGL (if I recall) only uses your card for colorspace conversion.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>As for Windows, I don't use Windows, but I believe the basic idea is the same - try different video output modules in the preferences.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>-Galen</DIV><DIV><BR><DIV><DIV>On Sep 8, 2006, at 4:04 PM, Joe-la-Frite wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="WORD-SPACING: 0px; FONT: 12px Helvetica; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); TEXT-INDENT: 0px; WHITE-SPACE: normal; LETTER-SPACING: normal; BORDER-COLLAPSE: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; apple-text-size-adjust: auto; orphans: 2; widows: 2"><DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: 16px; ">I think the render will be nicer with the hardware than with an external software. Maybe I'm wrong...</SPAN></SPAN><BR style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: 16px; ">I'm using Windows XP (and Linux Kubuntu).</SPAN></SPAN><BR style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: 16px; ">Thank you.</SPAN></SPAN><BR style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><BR style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: 16px; ">Envoyé le : Jeudi, 7 Septembre 2006, 5h33mn 27s</SPAN></SPAN><BR style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><BR style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: 16px; ">Depends on the platform. VLC doesn't support the full hardware capabilities under all circumstances.</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: 16px; "></SPAN><DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: 16px; ">What platform are you using? What/why are you trying to use your hardware?</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: 16px; "></SPAN><DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: 16px; ">-Galen</SPAN></SPAN></DIV><DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><BR style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: 16px; ">On Sep 7, 2006, at 4:32 AM, Joe-la-Frite wrote:</SPAN></SPAN></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="WORD-SPACING: 0px; FONT: 12px Helvetica; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); TEXT-INDENT: 0px; WHITE-SPACE: normal; LETTER-SPACING: normal; BORDER-COLLAPSE: separate; border-spacing: 0px; orphans: 2; widows: 2"><DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: 16px; ">Hi everybody.</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN><BR style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><BR style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: 16px; ">Can someone tell me how configure VLC to use the hardware of my graphic card to deal with the video ?</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN><BR style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><BR style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: 16px; ">Thanks a lot.</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN><BR style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><BR style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: 16px; ">Byron</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN><BR style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"></DIV></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"></DIV></DIV></DIV><BR style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"></DIV></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>