hybrid-dump for VDPAU accelerated video playing on Ubuntu 11.10 with bumblebee 3.0?

Question

I am trying to run hybrid-dump for VDPAU accelerated video playing on Ubuntu 11.10 with Bumblebee 3.0 installed and running. But following the instructions in the URL below, I can't get mplayer with vdpau to work:

https://askubuntu.com/a/100812/17702

avilella@magneto:~/hybrid_graphics/hybrid-windump$ git pull
Already up-to-date.
avilella@magneto:~/hybrid_graphics/hybrid-windump$ make clean && make

optirun true
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/nvidia-current DISPLAY=:8 metacity --replace &
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/nvidia-current DISPLAY=:8 mplayer -vo vdpau file.720p.mkv
#(in the other gnome-terminal tab)
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/nvidia-current ~/hybrid_graphics/hybrid-windump/windump :8 :0

Also tried:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/nvidia-current DISPLAY=:8 mplayer -vo vdpau -vc ffh264vdpau file.720p.mkv

I don't get any video from it, only audio. I do get video and audio if I remove the vdpau bit, but then windump is not needed:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/nvidia-current DISPLAY=:8 mplayer file.720p.mkv

If I try glxspheres, it works well, like this:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/nvidia-current DISPLAY=:8 glxspheres
#(in the other gnome-terminal tab)
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/nvidia-current ~/hybrid_graphics/hybrid-windump/windump :8 :0

Polygons in scene: 62464
Visual ID of window: 0x27
Context is Direct
OpenGL Renderer: GeForce 310M/PCI/SSE2

Now video playing. Following the instructions below, I got it to work to some extend:

Edit /etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia and added:

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    DefaultDepth 24
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth    24
        Virtual  1280 720
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Restarted bumblebeed:

sudo restart bumblebeed

In one of the terminals, I call the mplayer command:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/nvidia-current:/usr/lib/nvidia-current/vdpau DISPLAY=:8 optirun mplayer -vo vdpau -ao alsa file.720p.mkv

In another terminal, I then call the compiz and then windump commands:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/nvidia-current DISPLAY=:8  compiz --replace &

~/hybrid-windump/windump :8 :0

PROBLEMS: I am struggling with the size of the video window. In a 1366x768 screen, I set up for a 1280x720 video size, but the image is chopped by about 200 pixels on the right hand side, leaving the same size of black windump area.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

This is how I got vdpau:

1. Edited /etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia to have

   Section "Screen"
       Identifier "Screen0"
       DefaultDepth 24
       SubSection "Display"
           Depth    24
           Virtual  1920 1080
       EndSubSection
   EndSection
   

2. Run

   LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/nvidia-current:/usr/lib/nvidia-current/vdpau DISPLAY=:8 optirun mplayer -vo vdpau file.720p.mkv
   

3. Run

   LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/nvidia-current DISPLAY=:8  compiz --replace &
   

4. Downloaded https://github.com/gebart/hybrid-windump, removed xorg.conf from it, then compiled (just make command).

5. Run ./windump :8 :0

Note: You don't need to edit /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf and change KeepUnusedXServer to true as we run MPlayer directly with Optirun.

Answer 2

I can see one flaw in your approach to use the X server started by Bumblebee (:8). Once the Bumblebee daemon detects that there are no optirun clients, it shuts down the X server. To make the X server stay alive even if optirun has exited:

1. Edit /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf and set KeepUnusedXServer=true
2. Restart the daemon using sudo restart bumblebeed (beware: this will kill any existing optirun application)
3. Trigger a start of the X server: optirun true (true is just a command that immediately returns, it could be anything)

4. Run an application on the secondary X server. The LD_LIBRARY_PATH part is necessary if you are using the nvidia driver:

   LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/nvidia-current DISPLAY=:8 metacity --replace &`
   

5. Run windump with: windump :8 :0

Note: I could not get this to work with xorg-edgers/ppa+nouveau and the nvidia driver using gebarts' fork. With the nvidia driver, I got a lot tearing when running glxspheres. If the resolution of the dumped screen does not match the primary display resolution, you need to probably need to add extra modelines to /etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia. For 1920x1080, the lines to be added looks like:

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    DefaultDepth 24
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth    24
        Virtual  1920 1080
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Answer 3

I'm glad people like my solution but I'd like to stress that this is only a proof of concept way of doing VDPAU with Optimus.

gebart wrote hybrid-windump in a way that is heavily CPU-bound since everything is copied from "screen" to "screen" in a rather inefficient way.

Yes, you are using VDPAU for decoding, but you are getting none of the CPU-usage savings.

There's also an option to dump single windows by their x window ID.

For keyboard, you need Option "AutoAddDevices" "true".

You can also use hybrid-windump to start a whole VDPAU-ready desktop session using your DE of choice.

If you still want to use this, here's some videos of what the results look like (depending on X config):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVBMLdeRoUU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxziIAPFIFY

Answer 4

It should be DISPLAY=:0; metacity --replace &

Also, optirun says that your display is clearly :0.0, why are you trying to start metacity on display :8? Do you have a program running on display :8 that we can't see in your post? If you do, please provide us that info as well, please?