XvMC
Related articles
X-Video Motion Compensation (XvMC) is an extension for the X.Org Server. The XvMC API allows video programs to offload portions of the video decoding process to the GPU video-hardware. Particularly, features that have the tendency of heavily depending on the processor. Since XvMC acceleration takes the load off the CPU, thereby reducing processor requirements for video playback, it is an ideal solution for HDTV video playback scenarios.
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Supported hardware
Only MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 videos are supported by all driver.
- NVIDIA GeForce 6 and GeForce 7 series cards are supported by the proprietary nvidia-304xx-utils package, available in the official repositories.
- NVIDIA GeForce 5 FX series cards are supported by the proprietary nvidia-173xx-utilsAUR package, available in the Arch User Repository.
- NVIDIA GeForce4 series cards are supported by the proprietary nvidia-96xx-utilsAUR package, available in the Arch User Repository.
- Intel 810, GMA 950, GMA 3100, GMA 3000, GMA 4500 series and Ironlake GPUs are supported by the open source xf86-video-intel package, available in the official repositories.
- AMD Radeon HD 5000 series and newer GPUs are supported by the proprietary catalyst-utilsAUR package, available in the Arch User Repository.
- AMD Radeon HD 4000 series GPUs are supported by the proprietary catalyst-total-hd234kAUR package, available in the Arch User Repository.
- S3 Graphics UniChrome GPUs are supported by the open source xf86-video-openchrome package, available in the official repositories.
Configuration
The open source drivers should work without any configuration. For the proprietary drivers create a new file /etc/X11/XvMCConfig
and add:
- For NVIDIA GPUs:
libXvMCNVIDIA_dynamic.so.1
- For AMD GPUs:
libAMDXvBA.so.1
Supported software
MPlayer
Install mplayer package, available in the official repositories.
$ mplayer -vo xvmc -fs foobar.mpeg
- -vo - Select xvmc video output driver
- -fs - Fullscreen playback (optional)
MPlayer based players:
- gnome-mplayer: open preferences and set the video output to "xvmc", and select "Enable Video Hardware Support".
- smplayer: open preferences and set the video driver to "xvmc", and deselect "Enable screenshots".
xine
Install xine-ui package, available in the official repositories.
$ xine -V xvmc -f -g --no-splash foobar.mpeg
or
$ xine -V xxmc -f -g --no-splash foobar.mpeg
- -V - Select the xvmc or xxmc video driver
- -f - Start in fullscreen mode (optional)
- -g - Hide GUI (optional)
- --no-splash - Don't display the splash screen (optional)