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Asked: 2016-01-20 20:51:19 +0800 CST

How do I know whether hardware acceleration is working on VLC?

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I'm on Ubuntu 15.10 and I've installed packages related to vaapi shown on this link How do I enable hardware accelerated video in VLC with Intel HD 4000 GPU?

I've tried playing a 1080p vid (H264-MPEG-4 AVC). And on gnome-system-monitor I see vlc using about 16~20% of cpu. Does this mean that Hardware acceleration is enabled on vlc? I'd like to know if there is a way to check if hardware acceleration is working

the settings related to codec and video output on vlc are set to automatic

here is my vainfo output

libva info: VA-API version 0.38.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/i965_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_0_38
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA-API version: 0.38 (libva 1.6.0)
vainfo: Driver version: Intel i965 driver for Intel(R) CherryView - 1.6.0
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
      VAProfileMPEG2Simple            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileMPEG2Simple            : VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileMPEG2Main              : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileMPEG2Main              : VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264Main               : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264Main               : VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264High               : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264High               : VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264MultiviewHigh      : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264MultiviewHigh      : VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264StereoHigh         : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264StereoHigh         : VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileVC1Simple              : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Main                : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Advanced            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileNone                   : VAEntrypointVideoProc
      VAProfileJPEGBaseline           : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileJPEGBaseline           : VAEntrypointEncPicture
      VAProfileVP8Version0_3          : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVP8Version0_3          : VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264MultiviewHigh      : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264MultiviewHigh      : VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264StereoHigh         : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264StereoHigh         : VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileHEVCMain               : VAEntrypointVLD
intel-graphics

2 Answers

  1. Run VLC from a terminal with a path to a video file, you should see in the output whether it's using VA-API. E.g. here's mine output:

    $ vlc "https://youtu.be/6An_c0FOlew"
VLC media player 2.2.4 Weatherwax (revision 2.2.3-37-g888b7e89)
[000000000094f148] core libvlc: Запуск vlc с интерфейсом по умолчанию. Используйте 'cvlc' для запуска vlc без интерфейса.
[0000000000a5fb28] core playlist: stopping playback
libva info: VA-API version 0.39.2
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: User requested driver 'r600'
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/dri/r600_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_0_39
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
[00007f21bc5f1a28] avcodec decoder: Using mesa gallium vaapi for hardware decoding.

    It worked for me out of the box, but just in case it won't for you, check settings of VLC for enabled renderer.

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  2. It is working for you. The easiest way to check it is to disable hardware acceleration in VLC settings and check the CPU load.

    If it changes, then the acceleration works for this file.

    Also you can run VLC from terminal. It will output if the acceleration is enabled.

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