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XBMC on A7 (5s and mini retina) does not use HW acceleration
#1
Hi,

after doing some tests, I found out that video playback on iphone 5s and on Ipad mini retina don't use the HW acceleration.
It results in 1080p movies playing to slow when single thread mode is enabled and correctly but with 160%CPU in Multi threaded mode.

Is it a known issue ? Is it not possible to use the A7 HW decoding yet ?

Thanks

EDIT: I use XBMC 13.0 Alpha 11 Git:20131231
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#2
Hi,

I extracted the log and I get :

Open - using avcC atome of size(41) ref_frames(5)
CreateVTSession - failed with status = -12906
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#3
Known issue
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#4
Ok!

Is there any bug or thread I could follow?
Has it worked already ?

Thanks
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#5
I don't think there is any thread you can follow, probably this one now lol.

Not sure if any one is 'focusing' on it just yet, there are a lot of bugs and issues with ios 7 Sad
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#6
There will be no Solution for this in the near future. Xbmc is an arm32 app and so can only load other 32bit dylibs. While videotoolbox is 32bit - the Dylib providing the hw Codec is only available as 64Bit binary. Thats why xbmc is not Able to load videotoolbox (which needs to load the hw Codec which is just not Provided in a 32bit flavour by Apple).

Problem exists in all A7 devices (and other Future 64Bit devices if Apple doesn't decide to Provide a 32bit dylib - which is unlikely).

Makeing xbmc compile for arm64 is out of the Game for now as nearly all 3rd Party libs XBMC relies on are not Able to compile for arm64.

@nedscott please wikify this Wink
AppleTV4/iPhone/iPod/iPad: HowTo find debug logs and everything else which the devs like so much: click here
HowTo setup NFS for Kodi: NFS (wiki)
HowTo configure avahi (zeroconf): Avahi_Zeroconf (wiki)
READ THE IOS FAQ!: iOS FAQ (wiki)
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#7
Ok, baaad news:/

Thanks for the clarification!
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#8
(2014-02-10, 16:37)Memphiz Wrote: There will be no Solution for this in the near future. Xbmc is an arm32 app and so can only load other 32bit dylibs. While videotoolbox is 32bit - the Dylib providing the hw Codec is only available as 64Bit binary. Thats why xbmc is not Able to load videotoolbox (which needs to load the hw Codec which is just not Provided in a 32bit flavour by Apple).

Problem exists in all A7 devices (and other Future 64Bit devices if Apple doesn't decide to Provide a 32bit dylib - which is unlikely).

Makeing xbmc compile for arm64 is out of the Game for now as nearly all 3rd Party libs XBMC relies on are not Able to compile for arm64.

@nedscott please wikify this Wink

Wow that's erm...yeah what @TheTroll said...bad news.

I guess in summary:

No hardware acceleration on A7+ idevices until xbmc 'is' 64 bit?
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#9
Hey guys,

@Memphiz 's explanation is correct without one thing: game is not over yet. Tongue

I've recently ported XBMC to ARM64 architecture. A fully functional port.
(Of course with some tweaks for building successfully)

And I've also tested on my new iPad mini 2. It can support hw accel successfully. Smile

If you have any intereset, source code and Debian package are available on Github:
https://github.com/linusyang/xbmc/releases

Please be advised, it is only for test use. Backup your profiles before installing.
And It's a single deb file without any dependencies. Just install it by dpkg command or iFile.

Have fun! Tongue

Linus
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#10
Thanks, this is terrific!

When I see missing :
- PVR plugins seem to fail loading
- dvd iso playback
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#11
(2014-02-11, 17:41)TheTroll Wrote: Thanks, this is terrific!

When I see missing :
- PVR plugins seem to fail loading
- dvd iso playback

Thanks for your bravery, too. Tongue

It seems that I didn't compile with PVR or DVD ISO support.
Or, it is just a bug of this port. Sad (I am not sure though.)

Anyone knows which options should I turn on manually for PVR and ISO support?
Maybe I should add those options for next experimental build. Smile
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#12
Heart 
(2014-02-11, 16:51)linusyang Wrote: Hey guys,

@Memphiz 's explanation is correct without one thing: game is not over yet. Tongue

I've recently ported XBMC to ARM64 architecture. A fully functional port.
(Of course with some tweaks for building successfully)

And I've also tested on my new iPad mini 2. It can support hw accel successfully. Smile

If you have any intereset, source code and Debian package are available on Github:
https://github.com/linusyang/xbmc/releases

Please be advised, it is only for test use. Backup your profiles before installing.
And It's a single deb file without any dependencies. Just install it by dpkg command or iFile.

Have fun! Tongue

Linus

Will experiment a lot more later tonight, but a quick test had mine working fine too on my ipad air. Not saying that PVR or iso worked...just that my H.264 1080p MKV I tested played back with hardware decoding (which is kind of all I want from the video playback side of things on my iDevice :p). Skimmed over log and didn't see any problems.

What is the downside to using a build like this? I don't use addons (aside from whatever is default) on my idevices so I'm very happy if it 'just works' Nod

Heres hoping this could become some sort A7+ build Cool
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#13
Here is the VNSI error:

20:22:28 T:4448124928 DEBUG: Loading: /private/var/stash/Applications.YtQtM6/XBMC.app/XBMCData/XBMCHome/addons/pvr.vdr.vnsi/XBMC_VDR_vnsi.pvr
20:22:28 T:4448124928 ERROR: ADDON: Dll VDR VNSI Client - Client returned bad status (6) from Create and is not usable
20:22:28 T:4448124928 INFO: Called Add-on status handler for '6' of clientName:VDR VNSI Client, clientID:pvr.vdr.vnsi (same Thread=no)
20:22:28 T:4448124928 WARNING: UpdateAndInitialiseClients - failed to create add-on VDR VNSI Client, status = 6
20:22:28 T:4448124928 WARNING: UpdateAndInitialiseClients - failed to load the dll for add-on VDR VNSI Client, disabling it
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#14
(2014-02-11, 18:17)Platypus2 Wrote: Will experiment a lot more later tonight, but a quick test had mine working fine too on my ipad air. Not saying that PVR or iso worked...just that my H.264 1080p MKV I tested played back with hardware decoding (which is kind of all I want from the video playback side of things on my iDevice :p). Skimmed over log and didn't see any problems.

What is the downside to using a build like this? I don't use addons (aside from whatever is default) on my idevices so I'm very happy if it 'just works' Nod

Heres hoping this could become some sort A7+ build Cool

@Platypus2 Don't worry.
It used the same code base as official nightly version. You can just treat it as a arm64 nightly version. Smile
When Gotham beta 1 comes out, I'll build a more stable beta version at that time. Smile

@TheTroll Thanks for your log. I'll look into this issue.
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#15
@linusyang - nice work ... we will discuss how to make use of your work after gotham release.
AppleTV4/iPhone/iPod/iPad: HowTo find debug logs and everything else which the devs like so much: click here
HowTo setup NFS for Kodi: NFS (wiki)
HowTo configure avahi (zeroconf): Avahi_Zeroconf (wiki)
READ THE IOS FAQ!: iOS FAQ (wiki)
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