[bradvido88]

Ok, I've read a lot of threads about hardware acceleration, but can't find a definitive answer...

I have XBMC (Dharma beta 3) on an Acer Revo 1600 running windows XP. This has the Nividia ION chipset.

1. Does XBMC support DXVA for h264 encoded .mkv files with my set up? If so, is there anything i need to do to enable it? Currently, the videos are not being accelerated in XBMC.
2. If not, what are my options? I know about the dsplayer branch, but the last stable build was back in August. Has this branch ended? MPC-HC plays these files beautifully, but I'd prefer not to use an external player because XBMC's interface is sooo much nicer, and I am having trouble getting pgs subtitles working (they work natively in XBMC).

[spiff]

1) no.
2) either dsplayer or a more recent windows.

[bradvido88]

1) no.
2) either dsplayer or a more recent windows.

So, Windows XP's DirectX limitation is what is holding me back from getting DXVA in the Dharma XBMC build...

Please confirm, XBMC Dharma will do DXVA for h264 encoded mkv files if the OS is Vista/7?
What other video formats can it do hardware acceleration for? Is there a table or something in the Wiki that I missed?

[prae5]

Or use xbmclive / openelec.tv. Openelec.tv runs great on the revo 1600.

[bradvido88]

Or use xbmclive / openelec.tv. Openelec.tv runs great on the revo 1600.

No-can-do. XMBC is just one of the applications that run my on my HTPC. I have other applications (for example my PVR client) that require Windows.

[spiff]

winxp only supports dxva1, not dxva2. this is not full bitstream decoding, it only accelerates parts of the decoding process. as such, special codecs needs to be written. nobody have cared to do that. on vista/w7 however, dxva2 is avail and we fully support that.

[bradvido88]

winxp only supports dxva1, not dxva2. this is not full bitstream decoding, it only accelerates parts of the decoding process. as such, special codecs needs to be written. nobody have cared to do that. on vista/w7 however, dxva2 is avail and we fully support that.

I see. I just hoped it would be possible since MPC is able to do it so nicely in Windows XP.

Is h264 the only codec which XBMC is able to use DXVA2 for? What about mpeg-2 videos?

[spiff]

dxva2 does h264, mpeg1/2/4(?), vc-1, wmv3. or well, rather the current generation of hw does those.

[bradvido88]

dxva2 does h264, mpeg1/2/4(?), vc-1, wmv3. or well, rather the current generation of hw does those.

So, is that to say that ffmpeg now supports mpeg2 dxva, as was discussed in this thread? http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=71055
I just want o make sure before i re-image my machines.

[CrystalP]

You'll get H264/mpeg2/vc-1/wmv3 accel with Win7.

[bradvido88]

OK, I've got the MPC external player working well enough on my 2 XP XBMC's.

However, my 3rd XBMC is a desktop and I'd like to avoid using an external player. I'm running windows7 and Dharma beta4. However i'm not seeing good hardware acceleration for h264 videos. 1080P is choppy.

Here's info on my Nvidia GeForce 7100. Should this card work with XBMC to do DXVA?

[jhsrennie]

Here's info on my Nvidia GeForce 7100. Should this card work with XBMC to do DXVA?

No.

JR

[bradvido88]

I see, i didn't realize that Nvidia chipset was so weak.

I had a radeon hd 5450 lying around. so i threw that in and i've now got DXVA working on my Win7 box!

Thanks to all for the info.

[jhsrennie]

I see, i didn't realize that Nvidia chipset was so weak.

In fairness, the 7100 is three generations old, and that's a long time in the IT world. The equivalent to your Radeon would be something like a GT220 and that does hardware acceleration just fine.

JR

[ALcALoIDe]

So, I have a 7950gtx go on my laptop. Does it mean I can't get any acceleration from xbmc even using win7