Hardware acceleration, or lack thereof

FNtastic

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jul 6, 2013
Messages
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I recently got a new laptop with newish hardware. It runs damn good out of the box with vanilla Fedora. I can't think of anything that doesn't work after using it for a few weeks. Pretty happy with it overall.

Except that I noticed playing videos in any web browser increases my CPU usage significantly. It also spins the fan up, and obviously that increases the heat of the laptop in my lap. I have a work laptop that I run similar videos on regularly, but it's running Windows. So, I start digging.

Turns out that hardware acceleration for browsers is non-existent in Linux. It's possible in Chromium by using a couple of hacks, and installing the unsupported/unstable version from a 3rd party dev. And, you must run X11. Can't use Wayland (default for Gnome 3) and expect hardware acceleration to work in the Chromium version that supports it.

Not satisfied with running an unofficial/unstable version of Chromium, limited to X11, and additional hacking, I went searching for a different solution. Initially, I landed on VLC. Installing the right Intel libraries and enabling hardware acceleration in VLC, I can stream any video I've tried so far. It takes my CPU usage from ~200% using the browser to somewhere between 10-30% in VLC.

I'm also testing gnome-mpv with youtube-dl installed and vaapi hardware acceleration enabled. It looks promising so far. Comparing VLC to gnome-mpv, I can't seem to determine much of a noticeable difference. They both appear to be very low CPU intensive when using hardware acceleration. This keeps my laptop nice and cool.

I have read that gnome-mpv is not optimized in Wayland, and it's recommended to just use mpv directly. I'm planning to test mpv (no GUI) tonight and see if I get even better results.

I'm a little sour that software rendering is the standard in Linux. Considering how much we are reliant on web browsers nowadays, I think an official solution is necessary. Even if it's an official solution that works in gnome with X11 with specific drivers... That would give us a better chance at utilizing the available resources of our hardware. Instead we're chugging along with software rendering...
 
Using mpv, I've gotten down to a consistent 10-12% with a 720p video stream on Wayland. gnome-mpv with the same 720p stream and flags (vaapi, gpu, wayland) uses 20-40% in Wayland. So, it does seem to be a noticeable difference on Wayland.

With X11, I didn't notice any difference in usage between gnome-mpv and mpv directly. It's also possible to use 'xv' flag instead of 'gpu' in mpv to use X11 while in Wayland. There was no benefit to this, and it seemed to run worse than gnome-mpv.
 
Further testing revealed that Wayland doesn't have the appropriate libraries to support mpv "prevent screen from sleeping" functionality. There is somebody working on it, but it's still in progress and not merged into the compositor yet.

Switched over to Plasma KDE. Had to modify vo=gpu flag to vo=vaapi and everything is running smoothly after a reboot. Overall, feels much more smooth in KDE than in Gnome. I was getting unpredictable chopiness in Gnome when streaming 1080p videos in mpv and gnome-mpv that I haven't been able to reproduce in KDE.
 
Hardware acceleration is also non existent under MacOS ruining Chrome or Firefox testing on my own Mac running Intel graphics/Mojave. Having said that, at 1080p I don't go above about 12% CPU usage on either my Mac or my main Linux PC. Running KDE Neon 5.16 with X11 and Nvidia.
 
Pretty sure it does, just not many Macs have GPUs anymore.

Also, I don't have first hand experience because all my linux boxes are just remote terminals, but I heard Chromium has had acceleration in the official Fedora respiratory since the first of the year.

https://fedoramagazine.org/chromium-on-fedora-finally-gets-vaapi-support/

GPU or iGPU, everything's got a GPU. I can assure you, last time I checked there was absolutely no hardware acceleration.

You don't notice as codecs have improved out of sight and only use ~12% anyway at 1080p under everything but fairly weak CPU's.

[EDIT] Just rechecked, it seems things have changed. Hardware acceleration is now enabled under MacOS using Chrome, definitely wasn't when I was testing a while back.

Still getting 12% CPU usage on the Linux PC vs the same CPU usage on the Mac using hardware acceleration however.
 
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Pretty sure it does, just not many Macs have GPUs anymore.

Also, I don't have first hand experience because all my linux boxes are just remote terminals, but I heard Chromium has had acceleration in the official Fedora respiratory since the first of the year.

https://fedoramagazine.org/chromium-on-fedora-finally-gets-vaapi-support/
It is in the official repository. But, it's not considered supported or stable. It also requires the chromium-libs-media-freeworld package. Which, in my case, took chromium back 2 minor versions. And, it requires you're running the X11 compositor. You can't use the default Wayland.

Those 3 factors were the deal breaker for me previously. But, specifically being limited to booting into X11 is not a limitation that I'm interested in enduring. I'd like to use something more modern than X11. I haven't found much regarding KDE/Plasma and chromium hardware acceleration. I'm going to dig into that more. I'm getting better performance in KDE/Plasma so far overall with my iGPU, so I might be able to get over the other two factors (behind in minor version and not officially supported/stable).
 
Honestly this was one of the reasons I stopped trying to use Linux as my primary desktop OS. Trying to watch media from different sources was always a game with codecs and acceleration.
 
It is in the official repository. But, it's not considered supported or stable. It also requires the chromium-libs-media-freeworld package. Which, in my case, took chromium back 2 minor versions. And, it requires you're running the X11 compositor. You can't use the default Wayland.

Those 3 factors were the deal breaker for me previously. But, specifically being limited to booting into X11 is not a limitation that I'm interested in enduring. I'd like to use something more modern than X11. I haven't found much regarding KDE/Plasma and chromium hardware acceleration. I'm going to dig into that more. I'm getting better performance in KDE/Plasma so far overall with my iGPU, so I might be able to get over the other two factors (behind in minor version and not officially supported/stable).

Personally, I'll use Wayland when it's not in a state of perpetual beta. Until then I have absouotely no problems with X11, even fractional scaling at 4k works impressively.

Honestly this was one of the reasons I stopped trying to use Linux as my primary desktop OS. Trying to watch media from different sources was always a game with codecs and acceleration.

Oh come off it! It's no where near that bad.

What CPUs are you people running? Intel Atoms? I can playback 4k video under YouTube using Chrome no problem and my CPU's are from 2010!

As stated, under any CPU of even moderately capable performance the overheads decoding 1080p change about 5% between hardware and software decoding based on my experiences, your choice of DE/WM has more of an effect on multiple media source playback than simple hardware acceleration.

Honestly, I never even think of the fact hardware decoding isn't enabled, it's just a non issue considering modern codecs.
 
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Honestly this was one of the reasons I stopped trying to use Linux as my primary desktop OS. Trying to watch media from different sources was always a game with codecs and acceleration.
I agree with Mazzspeed on this. 15 years ago, maybe I would have bought that statement. Maybe. My current Linux boxes have no issues at all.
 
2016 was when I switched from Ubuntu to Win10 on my standard desktop. Having non-HD Netflix, and semi not working Amazon Prime streaming with goofy ass Silverlight Linux builds were the primary reasons. I could still use my USB chip flasher on a linux VM, and get HD streaming Netflix and Amazon.

Amazon streaming workon Linux these days? HD? Same for Netflix?
 
Well at least Amazon must not require some build of MS Silverlight anymore. If you had tried Amazon a few years ago it wouldn't work without a browser that supported Silverlight. Pipelight? was what I had to use and it wasn't perfect.

Now it seems that HTML5 is used for everything, and I am sure it helps.
 
Well at least Amazon must not require some build of MS Silverlight anymore. If you had tried Amazon a few years ago it wouldn't work without a browser that supported Silverlight. Pipelight? was what I had to use and it wasn't perfect.

Now it seems that HTML5 is used for everything, and I am sure it helps.
There's a special place in hell for people who developed for silverlight.
 
Pretty sure it does, just not many Macs have GPUs anymore.

Hrm? They all have GPU's.

Macbook Air - Intel UHD Graphics 617
Macbook Pro - Radeon Pro 555X/Intel UHD Graphics 630/Radeon Pro 560X/Radeon Pro Vega 16
iMac - Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640/Radeon Pro 555X/Radeon Pro 560X/Radeon Pro Vega 20
iMac Pro - Vega 56/Vega 64/Vega 64X
Mac Pro - Radeon Pro 580X/Radeon Pro Vega II/Radeon Pro Vega II Duo
 
Yeah, Silver light had the gay. But there were work arounds.

Which proves my point.

Just curious, can you stream UHD on Linux without work arounds these days? As much as I despise DRM, Netflix and others typically control what quality you get streamed depending on platform. I am not asking about standard resolution.
 
In honesty, I haven't tried that. While I do spend most of my time on my Linux systems, when I comes to media, it's usually routed through other hardware these days due to bigger screen options.

I game on my Linux box, and browse, but for entertainment it goes through the Amazon cube and a 50" tv.

I'll give it a whirl when I get back in front of it tho
 
Which proves my point.

Just curious, can you stream UHD on Linux without work arounds these days? As much as I despise DRM, Netflix and others typically control what quality you get streamed depending on platform. I am not asking about standard resolution.

No, you can't. But what you need to understand, that's no fault of Linux. You see, when you can stream UHD and even 1080p using the two proprietary browsers, with those browsers being Safari (gag) and Edge (double gag), and you have Chrome and Firefox unable to stream UHD or even 1080p on MacOS (not too sure about Windows, but I assume it's the same) even though both Chrome and Firefox both conform to the necessary DRM - Well, it's obvious that this is no more than an attempt by the two proprietary players to lock Linux out of the market.

There used to be a very simple workaround under Firefox, but Netflix actively check for this workaround now and block it.

If watching Netflix means running Windows, I'll buy a Chromecast.
 
I am pretty certain it is about DRM really. UHD on more than just Netflix tends to require an app. Amazon won't stream surround sound without the app etc.

Apparently everyone wants to fight pirates or something.
 
I am pretty certain it is about DRM really. UHD on more than just Netflix tends to require an app. Amazon won't stream surround sound without the app etc.

Apparently everyone wants to fight pirates or something.

Chrome and Firefox support the required DRM. You may be right about UHD requiring an app, I'm not sure as I'm not really interested in UHD. I'm talking about simple 1080p under anything but Edge and Safari.
 
Installed chromium-libs-media-freeworld with appropriate chromium version. Couldn't play 1080p video at all. What happens is the browser becomes unresponsive and the CPU usage goes to maximum. This is on KDE/Plasma and playing a YouTube video. mpv + youtube-dl doesn't even turn my CPU fan on at 1080p. I'm hoping that we get better official support in browsers for at least 1 compositor/DE sometime soon.

Another nice benefit of mpv is I don't need an ad blocker anymore. Not a single ad has played or overlayed in mpv.
 
Installed chromium-libs-media-freeworld with appropriate chromium version. Couldn't play 1080p video at all. What happens is the browser becomes unresponsive and the CPU usage goes to maximum. This is on KDE/Plasma and playing a YouTube video. mpv + youtube-dl doesn't even turn my CPU fan on at 1080p. I'm hoping that we get better official support in browsers for at least 1 compositor/DE sometime soon.

Another nice benefit of mpv is I don't need an ad blocker anymore. Not a single ad has played or overlayed in mpv.

What exactly are you trying to do this on? It must be a very underpowered device by modern standards?
 
What exactly are you trying to do this on? It must be a very underpowered device by modern standards?
Stream video with hardware acceleration. It's doing just fine as long as I don't use a web browser (software rendering). Browser hardware acceleration (chromium hack outlined earlier in thread) works in X11, but I have no interest in being on X11 just to run an older/unsupported/unofficial version of chromium. That's not even mentioning that Firefox is my preferred browser...

It is a laptop with an iGPU, so it's not a gaming setup or anything, but certainly capable of handling anything I'm throwing at it. Intel i7-5500U is what I'm working with. I've posted some of this in previous posts already, but mpv + youtube-dl is working exceptionally well. Ideally I wouldn't have had to resort to this if hardware acceleration was already fully functional/supported from the web browsers in Linux.
 
Stream video with hardware acceleration. It's doing just fine as long as I don't use a web browser (software rendering). Browser hardware acceleration (chromium hack outlined earlier in thread) works in X11, but I have no interest in being on X11 just to run an older/unsupported/unofficial version of chromium. That's not even mentioning that Firefox is my preferred browser...

It is a laptop with an iGPU, so it's not a gaming setup or anything, but certainly capable of handling anything I'm throwing at it. Intel i7-5500U is what I'm working with. I've posted some of this in previous posts already, but mpv + youtube-dl is working exceptionally well. Ideally I wouldn't have had to resort to this if hardware acceleration was already fully functional/supported from the web browsers in Linux.

Your problem is moreso related to your need to run Wayland, which is half baked and lacks the decades of optimization that X11 enjoys. I'm sorry, but I don't understand the dire need to run Wayland when it's the wrong tool for the job - It's like trying to use a screwdriver handle as a hammer, it'll get the job done, inefficiently...Assuming it doesn't break first.
 
Your problem is moreso related to your need to run Wayland, which is half baked and lacks the decades of optimization that X11 enjoys. I'm sorry, but I don't understand the dire need to run Wayland when it's the wrong tool for the job - It's like trying to use a screwdriver handle as a hammer, it'll get the job done, inefficiently...Assuming it doesn't break first.
I'm not locked into Wayland. I just don't want to run X11. I'm using Plasma now. What major distro hasn't moved away from X11? I'd be more interested in why you're accusing them of using the wrong tool for the job when the Linux community as a whole has moved away from X11.

I wanted to test on each one and document my experience with hardware acceleration in Linux on my iGPU. I didn't intend on forming an argument or an opinion. It's a reference for myself and any others that might run across this in the future with similar hardware. If they want to run X11 at that point, I've documented that too, and that's their prerogative.

Edit: my gripe is that I should expect to be able to install the official version of a Linux iso and have full hardware acceleration support in the main browsers (given that the correct GPU/iGPU drivers are installed). I realize that's not reality, which is why this thread exists. But, I'm a very advanced/familiar user. When I'm explaining to someone that they should commit to installing only Linux, I don't feel comfortable doing so with all of the graphics caveats. It's a rub. And, it's a tough sell to even the people that aren't green to technology.

Just for fun, I loaded a 1080p video in YouTube earlier in chromium with software rending. Over 150% CPU usage...
 
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I'm not locked into Wayland. I just don't want to run X11. I'm using Plasma now. What major distro hasn't moved away from X11? I'd be more interested in why you're accusing them of using the wrong tool for the job when the Linux community as a whole has moved away from X11.

I wanted to test on each one and document my experience with hardware acceleration in Linux on my iGPU. I didn't intend on forming an argument or an opinion. It's a reference for myself and any others that might run across this in the future with similar hardware. If they want to run X11 at that point, I've documented that too, and that's their prerogative.

I understand. But you have to understand that X11 'works', Wayland is in perpetual beta - There's actually very little benefit in running Wayland, especially under KDE. Your hardware is more than capable of doing what you want it to do under Linux, but you have to use the display server that actually works and not the new kid on the block that's currently where Pulse Audio was five or more years ago. At least you have a choice, unlike the early days of Pulse Audio.

Being open source and therefore open to modification with minor differences between distro's, it's difficult to enable hardware acceleration under Chrome or Firefox and have a rock stable implementation - Hence the reason it's force disabled by default. Ubuntu were working on standardizing hardware acceleration a few years back, but that seemed to fizzle out and I haven't heard anything about it in a while now. But if you use the correct tools for the job, your device will have absolutely no problem with HD playback with CPU usage that's only a smidgen higher than that of hardware accelerated browsers at 1080p. The thing is: You have to let go of Wayland.
 
I understand. But you have to understand that X11 'works', Wayland is in perpetual beta - There's actually very little benefit in running Wayland, especially under KDE. Your hardware is more than capable of doing what you want it to do under Linux, but you have to use the display server that actually works and not the new kid on the block that's currently where Pulse Audio was five or more years ago. At least you have a choice, unlike the early days of Pulse Audio.

Being open source and therefore open to modification with minor differences between distro's, it's difficult to enable hardware acceleration under Chrome or Firefox and have a rock stable implementation - Hence the reason it's force disabled by default. Ubuntu were working on standardizing hardware acceleration a few years back, but that seemed to fizzle out and I haven't heard anything about it in a while now. But if you use the correct tools for the job, your device will have absolutely no problem with HD playback with CPU usage that's only a smidgen higher than that of hardware accelerated browsers at 1080p. The thing is: You have to let go of Wayland.
The best result I've gotten yet is in KDE/Plasma with mpv.

I understand where you're coming from. Just because something works doesn't mean it isn't worth the effort to test it on other things. Considering that X11 will be phased out in the future, it's useful to gain these results before that change happens. Here's a KDE link where they state that X11 is dated and has its own issues https://community.kde.org/KWin/Wayland#Why_Plasma_needs_Wayland.3F
X has some serious issues and is rather old. The protocol is designed for the usecases three decades ago. Over the last years more and more functionality has been moved from X either into the kernel or into the compositors. The X server is more or less only a proxy between kernel, compositor and the X clients.
 
The best result I've gotten yet is in KDE/Plasma with mpv.

I understand where you're coming from. Just because something works doesn't mean it isn't worth the effort to test it on other things. Considering that X11 will be phased out in the future, it's useful to gain these results before that change happens. Here's a KDE link where they state that X11 is dated and has its own issues https://community.kde.org/KWin/Wayland#Why_Plasma_needs_Wayland.3F

X11's not going to be phased out any time soon due to numerous issues just like the one's you're currently experiencing. It's development's going at snails pace and X11 simply has decades of development on top of Wayland.

If you're using Wayland because you're fearful of X11 being dumped, I have no problem stating that your fears are unfounded. I use X11 under KDE Neon and everything runs perfectly. As stated, even fractional scaling at 4k is largely faultless - I don't even think of the fact I'm not running Wayland as it's simply not important and I certainly wouldn't be inconveniencing myself just to run Wayland.

if you have other reasons for running Wayland, by all means don't let me stop you. But if you run X11 your hardware will do what you want no problems.
 
X11's not going to be phased out any time soon due to numerous issues just like the one's you're currently experiencing. It's development's going at snails pace and X11 simply has decades of development on top of Wayland.

If you're using Wayland because you're fearful of X11 being dumped, I have no problem stating that your fears are unfounded. I use X11 under KDE Neon and everything runs perfectly. As stated, even fractional scaling at 4k is largely faultless - I don't even think of the fact I'm not running Wayland as it's simply not important and I certainly wouldn't be inconveniencing myself just to run Wayland.

if you have other reasons for running Wayland, by all means don't let me stop you. But if you run X11 your hardware will do what you want no problems.
The hardware acceleration exists in Wayland. It's not Wayland that is the limitation. It's the browser support for the hardware acceleration integration. Because somebody ported a working version into chromium that works in X11 doesn't make X11 better, or Wayland worse. It just means somebody hacked it to work in X11 and hasn't done it in Wayland yet. This is where official support would fill the gap.
 
The hardware acceleration exists in Wayland. It's not Wayland that is the limitation. It's the browser support for the hardware acceleration integration. Because somebody ported a working version into chromium that works in X11 doesn't make X11 better, or Wayland worse. It just means somebody hacked it to work in X11 and hasn't done it in Wayland yet. This is where official support would fill the gap.

Hardware acceleration is moot, it doesn't exist under Linux at this point in time so there's no point even mentioning it, but that's not the limitation here. Your problem, the issue you are experiencing is purely a result of you running Wayland as opposed to X11 - Decoding the codecs used is more taxing and involves more overheads under Wayland than your CPU can handle. So considering that here's nothing we can do about hardware acceleration, if you run the more developed display server, with that being X11, all your problems will be resolved. Your own link highlights that KDE devs are recommending X11 over Wayland at this point in time as Wayland is nothing more than a tech preview at this point in time - In their own words.

Beyond some philosophical desire to run Wayland, it's just not practical.
 
Hardware acceleration is moot, it doesn't exist under Linux at this point in time so there's no point even mentioning it, but that's not the limitation here. Your problem, the issue you are experiencing is purely a result of you running Wayland as opposed to X11 - Decoding the codecs used is more taxing and involves more overheads under Wayland than your CPU can handle. So considering that here's nothing we can do about hardware acceleration, if you run the more developed display server, with that being X11, all your problems will be resolved. Your own link highlights that KDE devs are recommending X11 over Wayland at this point in time as Wayland is nothing more than a tech preview at this point in time - In their own words.

Beyond some philosophical desire to run Wayland, it's just not practical.
I don't think you understand my results that I've posted. I'm using hardware acceleration in Wayland. It's less taxing on my hardware than in X11. It's running beautifully and I have no complaints about hardware acceleration in Wayland. ;)

mpv, VLC, etc can leverage it just fine. It's browsers that don't have the code implemented. This is documented. I'm not sure what you're on about in my thread. This is why we have choices. You can run X11 because you're better than everyone else and everyone else can run Wayland.
 
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I don't think you understand my results that I've posted. I'm using hardware acceleration in Wayland. It's less taxing on my hardware than in X11. It's running beautifully and I have no complaints about hardware acceleration in Wayland. ;)

mpv, VLC, etc can leverage it just fine. It's browsers that don't have the code implemented. This is documented. I'm not sure what you're on about in my thread. This is why we have choices. You can run X11 because you're better than everyone else and everyone else can run Wayland.

Yes, you can do the same thing using VLC under X11 and achieve hardware acceleration. The fact is, if you were using X11 you could playback 1080p and even 4k content via your browser without hardware acceleration no problem.

The point you're missing is you don't need hardware acceleration, you only find it a necessity as your gimping yourself running a beta display server. You don't need hardware acceleration under Windows or MacOS either, it's just there, so you use it.

Considering power usage hardware acceleration isn't even worth it at 1080p anymore, as codecs are so much more efficient now that CPU usage doesn't change as much as one would imagine with hardware acceleration enabled considering capable hardware. I'm not claiming to be better than anyone, I'm factually stating that you're unnessecarily gimping yourself running Wayland and media players aren't browsers conforming to ever changing/upcoming standards (webrender).
 
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Here's some screenshots. I have to try to keep sizes under control as I run a 4k monitor so I hope things aren't too blurry (EDIT: Created links to images).

Effectively, what I've highlighted is 1080p playback using HW acceleration via VLC, as evidenced by Nvidia X Server settings and 'Video Engine Utilization', and 1080p playback using the same media no HW acceleration via Firefox. Discounting the ~60% CPU utilization threads, which are effectively KDE performing housekeeping regarding it's excellent file indexing, and discounting the ~90% peaks where I was resizing and dragging Windows getting the screens organized, and what you have is CPU utilization of around 10-20% hardware accelerated or not, as highlighted using the black bubble. At best there appears to be a drop of perhaps 5% overall as a result of hardware decoding.

So, as you can see, the problem you're experiencing is purely related to the fact you are gimping yourself by running Wayland and not X11. The minimal difference observed as a result of enabling HW acceleration is due to the fact that the codecs used in streaming have improved out of sight and are so efficient that HW acceleration really isn't necessary anymore at 1080p and therefore provides very little benefit.

Try not to get defensive as a result of me simply stating the facts as they are laid out. I do not care if you prefer Wayland for whatever reason and I certainly have no intention of telling you to use X11 purely because I said so. But, the fact remains that your issue is a result of Wayland and not a result of HW acceleration or lack thereof.

Major distros aren't switching to Wayland, effectively they're offering Wayland as a tech concept as highlighted in your link. If they all just totally dumped X11 most WM/DE's would probably stop working altogether overnight.

1080p, Firefox, no HW acceleration (Video Engine Utilization 0%):



1080p, VLC, HW acceleration (Video Engine Utilization 5%):

 

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Yes, you can do the same thing using VLC under X11 and achieve hardware acceleration. The fact is, if you were using X11 you could playback 1080p and even 4k content via your browser without hardware acceleration no problem.

The point you're missing is you don't need hardware acceleration, you only find it a necessity as your gimping yourself running a beta display server. You don't need hardware acceleration under Windows or MacOS either, it's just there, so you use it.

Considering power usage hardware acceleration isn't even worth it at 1080p anymore, as codecs are so much more efficient now that CPU usage doesn't change as much as one would imagine with hardware acceleration enabled considering capable hardware. I'm not claiming to be better than anyone, I'm factually stating that you're unnessecarily gimping yourself running Wayland and media players aren't browsers conforming to ever changing/upcoming standards (webrender).

Here's some screenshots. I have to try to keep sizes under control as I run a 4k monitor so I hope things aren't too blurry (EDIT: Created links to images).

Effectively, what I've highlighted is 1080p playback using HW acceleration via VLC, as evidenced by Nvidia X Server settings and 'Video Engine Utilization', and 1080p playback using the same media no HW acceleration via Firefox. Discounting the ~60% CPU utilization threads, which are effectively KDE performing housekeeping regarding it's excellent file indexing, and discounting the ~90% peaks where I was resizing and dragging Windows getting the screens organized, and what you have is CPU utilization of around 10-20% hardware accelerated or not, as highlighted using the black bubble. At best there appears to be a drop of perhaps 5% overall as a result of hardware decoding.

So, as you can see, the problem you're experiencing is purely related to the fact you are gimping yourself by running Wayland and not X11. The minimal difference observed as a result of enabling HW acceleration is due to the fact that the codecs used in streaming have improved out of sight and are so efficient that HW acceleration really isn't necessary anymore at 1080p and therefore provides very little benefit.

Try not to get defensive as a result of me simply stating the facts as they are laid out. I do not care if you prefer Wayland for whatever reason and I certainly have no intention of telling you to use X11 purely because I said so. But, the fact remains that your issue is a result of Wayland and not a result of HW acceleration or lack thereof.

Major distros aren't switching to Wayland, effectively they're offering Wayland as a tech concept as highlighted in your link. If they all just totally dumped X11 most WM/DE's would probably stop working altogether overnight.

1080p, Firefox, no HW acceleration (Video Engine Utilization 0%):



1080p, VLC, HW acceleration (Video Engine Utilization 5%):


Read my first post. Software rendering makes my laptop hot as fuck. So, yes, I do need hardware acceleration. It keeps my laptop cool and allows it to play 1080p video without spinning the fan up to max. Regardless of how you feel, or what does or doesn't work on your machine. On my laptop, this is what works and how I'm doing it.

I have no idea what you're talking about "your issue". I don't have an issue. I've stated what I've tried and the information I've found. And you come swooping in with your "X11 is the holy grail. Bow down or feel my wrath" bullshit. Go on mate. You can't seem to comprehend that I don't have an issue... Before you reply again, read this below

I'm not experiencing an issue!

After you read that and you think you're just about to reply again, read this next one

I'm not experiencing an issue!
 
No, you can't. But what you need to understand, that's no fault of Linux. You see, when you can stream UHD and even 1080p using the two proprietary browsers, with those browsers being Safari (gag) and Edge (double gag), and you have Chrome and Firefox unable to stream UHD or even 1080p on MacOS (not too sure about Windows, but I assume it's the same) even though both Chrome and Firefox both conform to the necessary DRM - Well, it's obvious that this is no more than an attempt by the two proprietary players to lock Linux out of the market.

There used to be a very simple workaround under Firefox, but Netflix actively check for this workaround now and block it.

If watching Netflix means running Windows, I'll buy a Chromecast.
Netflix works normally on Android though.
 
Read my first post. Software rendering makes my laptop hot as fuck. So, yes, I do need hardware acceleration. It keeps my laptop cool and allows it to play 1080p video without spinning the fan up to max. Regardless of how you feel, or what does or doesn't work on your machine. On my laptop, this is what works and how I'm doing it.

I have no idea what you're talking about "your issue". I don't have an issue. I've stated what I've tried and the information I've found. And you come swooping in with your "X11 is the holy grail. Bow down or feel my wrath" bullshit. Go on mate. You can't seem to comprehend that I don't have an issue... Before you reply again, read this below

I'm not experiencing an issue!

After you read that and you think you're just about to reply again, read this next one

I'm not experiencing an issue!

Gawd.

Software rendering makes your laptop hot as fuck under Wayland! Wayland is what's causing your inefficiencies when it comes to software rendering as the codecs themselves are not that demanding as evidenced in my screenshots. You do have an issue, it's poorly optimized software rendering under Wayland using web browsers.

It seems that the second someone challenges a belief on these forums the result is outright attack, oddly enough these forums are the only forums I experience this. The desire to attack is so strong that it actually clouds an individuals ability to reason.

Believe what you want, the reason hardware rendering isn't a priority under Linux is because it's not necessary considering modern codecs and there's more important optimizations to be made under Linux. If you want to gimp yourself because you falsely believe Wayland is the only way to go these days, which is flatly incorrect, than go right ahead. I was only trying to help.

I'm going to go watch YouTube at 4k under Firefox no problem under the more commonly used and better optimized X11.
 
Gawd.

Software rendering makes your laptop hot as fuck under Wayland! Wayland is what's causing your inefficiencies when it comes to software rendering as the codecs themselves are not that demanding as evidenced in my screenshots. You do have an issue, it's poorly optimized software rendering under Wayland using web browsers.

It seems that the second someone challenges a belief on these forums the result is outright attack, oddly enough these forums are the only forums I experience this. The desire to attack is so strong that it actually clouds an individuals ability to reason.

Believe what you want, the reason hardware rendering isn't a priority under Linux is because it's not necessary considering modern codecs and there's more important optimizations to be made under Linux. If you want to gimp yourself because you falsely believe Wayland is the only way to go these days, which is flatly incorrect, than go right ahead. I was only trying to help.

I'm going to go watch YouTube at 4k under Firefox no problem under the more commonly used and better optimized X11.
No! You aren't getting it. Software rendering is what X11 uses. It works exactly the same as Wayland. Unless it's hacked with the ported version of Chrome.

You summarized your own ineptness best in your own statement.
Mazzspeed said:
It seems that the second someone challenges a belief on these forums the result is outright attack, oddly enough these forums are the only forums I experience this. The desire to attack is so strong that it actually clouds an individuals ability to reason.
How ironic. Nobody attacked you. Stop playing the innocent victim. You came in here accusing me of having a problem. You can't seem to comprehend that X11 and Wayland both don't have hardware acceleration out of the box. Respond to my thread again without reading, and you're getting reported for threadcrapping. Up to this point, I'm going to consider this a learning opportunity for you.
 
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