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I’m not sure why you linked to docs talking about video decode acceleration in the browser after saying there is none. Anyways, it exists, I use it every day,

I’m not sure why you linked to docs talking about video decode acceleration in the browser after saying there is none. Anyways, it exists, I use it every day, but it’s not zero effort — like most things on Linux.

Thaxll 5y ago
Hardware decoding in the browser should be 0 effort in 2021, it does not make sense that it's not a thing. I use Chrome and Ubuntu 20.04 + an intel Iris ( CPU from 2020 ) and it's not possible to make it work. I'm a dev and I know Linux very well, so imagine average people.
- peheje 5y ago
  So this is hacker news.. Anyone with the knowledge, how difficult is it actually to enable hardware decoding for the vast HW out there? Like how many hours of work / manpower do you to have HW decoding support for the hardware out there and to keep it up to date, safe, update it for new HW etc?
  - netr0ute 5y ago
    How can Windows do it? It's not like MS has lots of resources to do this very specific thing, and Windows needs to support almost all consumer hardware. That makes me think there's some driver-level barrier that Linux devs just haven't cared enough about.
    - mschuster91 5y ago
      Windows and OS X ship APIs for acceleration.
    - itvision 5y ago
      Windows has DXVA which has been standardized for over a decade. Linux still cannot settle on a single universal API which works regardless of a graphics system or various underlying drivers. In short it's a bloody mess.
panda-giddiness 5y ago
For the folks at home, you can try google-chrome --ignore-gpu-blocklist --enable-features=VaapiVideoDecoder --use-gl=desktop --disable-gpu-driver-bug-workarounds --gpu-testing-vendor-id=0x[vendor_id] --gpu-testing-device-id=0x[device_id] --enable-crashpad --flag-switches-begin --enable-gpu-rasterization --flag-switches-end The vendor id and device id of your graphics card can be identified via lspci -nnk As an example, the output for my graphics card is 02:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Lexa PRO [Radeon 540/540X/550/550X / RX 540X/550/550X] [1002:699f] (rev c7) Subsystem: Sapphire Technology Limited Lexa PRO [Radeon RX 550] [1da2:e367] Kernel driver in use: amdgpu Kernel modules: amdgpu Here the vendor id is 1002 and the device id 699f. You can check whether everything is working by navigating to chrome://gpu/ Many of the graphics features should now have hardware acceleration enabled. There are probably a few extra flags here than necessary, but I found these sufficient to force 4K 60 fps Stadia support on Linux. (You would also need the Stadia+ chrome extension if that were your goal: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stadia%20-extension/bbhmnnecicphphjamhdefpagipoegijd?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stadia%20-extensio... .)
- itvision 5y ago
  That's not what I could call "working". Most people out there will simply never use such a "solution".
  - panda-giddiness 5y ago
    I think you misunderstood my post. My purpose wasn't to argue that the situation is ideal -- I would much prefer it if the process were automatic, as it is on other operating systems -- but rather to assist others in enabling video acceleration.

Thaxll 5y ago

Hardware decoding in the browser should be 0 effort in 2021, it does not make sense that it's not a thing. I use Chrome and Ubuntu 20.04 + an intel Iris ( CPU from 2020 ) and it's not possible to make it work. I'm a dev and I know Linux very well, so imagine average people.

peheje 5y ago
So this is hacker news.. Anyone with the knowledge, how difficult is it actually to enable hardware decoding for the vast HW out there? Like how many hours of work / manpower do you to have HW decoding support for the hardware out there and to keep it up to date, safe, update it for new HW etc?
- netr0ute 5y ago
  How can Windows do it? It's not like MS has lots of resources to do this very specific thing, and Windows needs to support almost all consumer hardware. That makes me think there's some driver-level barrier that Linux devs just haven't cared enough about.
  - mschuster91 5y ago
    Windows and OS X ship APIs for acceleration.
  - itvision 5y ago
    Windows has DXVA which has been standardized for over a decade. Linux still cannot settle on a single universal API which works regardless of a graphics system or various underlying drivers. In short it's a bloody mess.

panda-giddiness 5y ago

For the folks at home, you can try google-chrome --ignore-gpu-blocklist --enable-features=VaapiVideoDecoder --use-gl=desktop --disable-gpu-driver-bug-workarounds --gpu-testing-vendor-id=0x[vendor_id] --gpu-testing-device-id=0x[device_id] --enable-crashpad --flag-switches-begin --enable-gpu-rasterization --flag-switches-end The vendor id and device id of your graphics card can be identified via lspci -nnk As an example, the output for my graphics card is 02:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Lexa PRO [Radeon 540/540X/550/550X / RX 540X/550/550X] [1002:699f] (rev c7) Subsystem: Sapphire Technology Limited Lexa PRO [Radeon RX 550] [1da2:e367] Kernel driver in use: amdgpu Kernel modules: amdgpu Here the vendor id is 1002 and the device id 699f. You can check whether everything is working by navigating to chrome://gpu/ Many of the graphics features should now have hardware acceleration enabled. There are probably a few extra flags here than necessary, but I found these sufficient to force 4K 60 fps Stadia support on Linux. (You would also need the Stadia+ chrome extension if that were your goal: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stadia%20-extension/bbhmnnecicphphjamhdefpagipoegijd?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stadia%20-extensio... .)

itvision 5y ago
That's not what I could call "working". Most people out there will simply never use such a "solution".
- panda-giddiness 5y ago
  I think you misunderstood my post. My purpose wasn't to argue that the situation is ideal -- I would much prefer it if the process were automatic, as it is on other operating systems -- but rather to assist others in enabling video acceleration.