VAAPI picture quality

[lucky79]

Hi all,

I am trying to switch from an old and slow ION1 custom built frontend to a faster CPU mini ITX motherboard. Unfortunately there is no nvidia integrated board on the market anymore, so I've bought an Intel J1900 with Intel graphics. Everything works fine with Mythbuntu 14.04, but the picture quality using VAAPI is worse than VDPAU standard quality profile.

Is it just me or is anyone else having same problem? I was searching quite a lot but nobody seems to complain about it... Is there any fine tuning available for VAAPI apart the deinterlacing profiles which doesnt seems to have any effect when playing with them?

Thanks
Lukas

[PhilB]

Does this help?
http://parker1.co.uk/blog/?p=200
Phil

[lucky79]

Thanks, but I have already seen this post. I have no problem with VAAPI installation, it works fine for me. The problem is I am not happy with picture quality... With Nvidia and VDPAU, picture is nice, looks like antialiased, but with Intel HD it is pixelated... Its not much but noticeable when comparing Full HD TV....
Tested on also on a laptop with dual graphics and there is same issue...
Will try to make screenshots tomorrow

[lucky79]

nvidia.png (72.93 KiB) Viewed 5962 times

intelhd.png (41.85 KiB) Viewed 5962 times

So here you can see the difference, hope its clear now I would really like to use much cheaper MB with Intel HD graphics, but I would also like to have crystal clear HD picture, which VAAPI cannot apparently provide atm... Or am I doing anything wrong?

Code: Select all

libva info: VA-API version 0.38.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/i965_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_0_38
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA-API version: 0.38 (libva 1.6.0.pre1)
vainfo: Driver version: Intel i965 driver for Intel(R) Haswell Mobile - 1.6.1.pre1 (1.6.1.pre1)
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
      VAProfileMPEG2Simple            :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileMPEG2Simple            :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileMPEG2Main              :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileMPEG2Main              :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline:	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline:	VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264Main               :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264Main               :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264High               :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264High               :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264MultiviewHigh      :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264MultiviewHigh      :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264StereoHigh         :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264StereoHigh         :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileVC1Simple              :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Main                :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Advanced            :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileNone                   :	VAEntrypointVideoProc
      VAProfileJPEGBaseline           :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264MultiviewHigh      :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264MultiviewHigh      :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264StereoHigh         :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264StereoHigh         :	VAEntrypointEncSlice

[benh]

I can't help, but I see something similar to you.

For me I think the issue is that the Bob deinterlacer isn't getting used, so One Field is used which results in loss in resolution. I suspect this as when I go to change deinterlacers in the popup menu during playback, One Field is highlighted suggesting that is the deinterlacer being used and selecting Bob doesn't make any difference. I have checked the VAAPI Normal profile and Bob is set as primary, but I can't see any errors in logs about it.

The way I work around it at the moment is to use the OpenGL Normal profile and if there is something too hard to play I load up kodi and play it with that.

Ben

[lucky79]

Great, at least I am not the only one However I guess many people around are using VAAPI, so I dont understand how they can be happy with the picture quality... What MythTV version are you using Ben? I am on 0.27.0+fixes.20140324

I have read somewhere that MythTV 0.27 doesnt use all the possibilities of VAAPI, so it might be MythTV problem only.. I did not try to utilize VAAPI with other apps to confirm that..

Anyone knows if upgrading to newer 0.27 or 0.28 would help?

Lukas

[heyted]

Hi all,

Unfortunately there is no nvidia integrated board on the market anymore

Kind of old, but this is still available new:
https://www.zotac.com/us/product/mainbo ... fi-supreme

[benh]

Great, at least I am not the only one However I guess many people around are using VAAPI, so I dont understand how they can be happy with the picture quality... What MythTV version are you using Ben? I am on 0.27.0+fixes.20140324

I have read somewhere that MythTV 0.27 doesnt use all the possibilities of VAAPI, so it might be MythTV problem only.. I did not try to utilize VAAPI with other apps to confirm that..

Anyone knows if upgrading to newer 0.27 or 0.28 would help?

Lukas

I have had the same results with 0.27.6 and current 0.28, so I don't think upgrading will fix the issue for you. There are definitely newer and better deinterlacing available via VAAPI that MythTV doesn't use, but for my system, I don't think it's even using Bob.

When your playing back something and press Menu, Video, Advanced, Deinterlacing, it should show the deinterlacer being used. What does yours say?

Ben

[lucky79]

Kind of old, but this is still available new:
https://www.zotac.com/us/product/mainbo ... fi-supreme

Unfortunately not available anymore, it seems Amazon has one on stock but no delivery to EU. And they've increased the price to $349 from $149... Well, I can have ZC-ION4-4200 (http://www.greatzc.net/index.php?_m=mod ... w&p_id=330) with a i5-5200U and GT730 for $367, which is not bad, but I dont need so much power... Intel HD should do the same for 1/4 cost...

Is everyone using Nvidia or is just happy with the current VAAPI output?

[lucky79]

I have had the same results with 0.27.6 and current 0.28, so I don't think upgrading will fix the issue for you. There are definitely newer and better deinterlacing available via VAAPI that MythTV doesn't use, but for my system, I don't think it's even using Bob.

When your playing back something and press Menu, Video, Advanced, Deinterlacing, it should show the deinterlacer being used. What does yours say?

Ben

Well, its not clear to me what deinterlacer is used, but switching between Bob, One Field or none doesnt make any difference. So I would also guess Bob is not even being used...

Switching to OpenGL is not an option, it seems CPU is doing the decoding

EDIT: So it seems only One Field deinterlacer is being used and switching between Bob and None doesn't work at all... Using Nvidia, switching between deinterlacers works perfectly... This has been tested on a dual GPU laptop so same OS and MythTV install. There is really something strange going on with VAAPI