Initial support of HW video decode and XBMC at the Ubuntu LEB on a Pandaboard

[Ricardo Salveti]

Hey folks,

Just to point out my post about the work we've been doing to have hw
video decode and XBMC to work with a Pandaboard, using the Ubuntu
Linaro Evaluation Builds.

http://rsalveti.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/hw-video-decode-and-xbmc-ubuntu-linaro/

If you follow the instructions you should have hw video decode support
and XBMC without any other step. At the moment there's still and
annoying sink issue with XBMC, but we hope to get it fixed soon (at
least once Rob Clark get a few spare cycles ;-).

We hope to also have a set-top box image by the end of this cycle,
that should use XBMC by default.

Please give it a try and let us know about any other issue you may find.

Thanks,
--
Ricardo Salveti de Araujo

[Ricardo Salveti]

On Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 9:33 AM, Avik Sil <avik...@linaro.org> wrote:
> On Friday 06 January 2012 04:59 PM, Amit Kucheria wrote:

>> Wow! Awesome work. Looks like I might just be able to retire my old XBOX.
>>
>> Can it do 1080p videos too?
>
> It can, but the playback is not smooth at the moment.

I'm pushing a newer version at the repository with one extra patch
from Rob that should improve things a bit.

At least I'm now able to play most of the videos just fine :-)

Cheers,

[Amit Kucheria]

On Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 6:22 AM, Ricardo Salveti <rsal...@rsalveti.net> wrote:

Wow! Awesome work. Looks like I might just be able to retire my old XBOX.

Can it do 1080p videos too?

/Amit

[Avik Sil]

On Friday 06 January 2012 04:59 PM, Amit Kucheria wrote:

It can, but the playback is not smooth at the moment.

Regards,
Avik

>
> /Amit
>
> _______________________________________________
> linaro-dev mailing list
> linar...@lists.linaro.org
> http://lists.linaro.org/mailman/listinfo/linaro-dev

[Tuffeuffe]

I was very happy to hear this news. However, I have two problems.

1. The linaro ubuntu evaluation build have strange graphic behavior
(mouse pointer leaves mark, sudden flashes). Is that a known problem?
I've seen it with two different versions.

2. To do any changes to the evaluation build (including installing
XBMC) I need the password. Can anyone point out what that password is?

Thanks.
/Tuffeuffe

On Jan 6, 12:33 pm, Avik Sil <avik....@linaro.org> wrote:
> On Friday 06 January 2012 04:59 PM, Amit Kucheria wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 6:22 AM, Ricardo Salveti <rsalv...@rsalveti.net> wrote:
> >> Hey folks,
>
> >> Just to point out my post about the work we've been doing to have hw
> >> video decode and XBMC to work with a Pandaboard, using the Ubuntu
> >> Linaro Evaluation Builds.
>

> >>http://rsalveti.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/hw-video-decode-and-xbmc-ubu...

>
> >> If you follow the instructions you should have hw video decode support
> >> and XBMC without any other step. At the moment there's still and
> >> annoying sink issue with XBMC, but we hope to get it fixed soon (at
> >> least once Rob Clark get a few spare cycles ;-).
>
> >> We hope to also have a set-top box image by the end of this cycle,
> >> that should use XBMC by default.
>
> >> Please give it a try and let us know about any other issue you may find.
>
> > Wow! Awesome work. Looks like I might just be able to retire my old XBOX.
>
> > Can it do 1080p videos too?
>
> It can, but the playback is not smooth at the moment.
>
> Regards,
> Avik
>
>
>
> > /Amit
>
> > _______________________________________________
> > linaro-dev mailing list

> > linaro-...@lists.linaro.org
> >http://lists.linaro.org/mailman/listinfo/linaro-dev

[SRulez]

Tuffeuffe <ulfwin@...> writes:

>
> I was very happy to hear this news. However, I have two problems.
>
> 1. The linaro ubuntu evaluation build have strange graphic behavior
> (mouse pointer leaves mark, sudden flashes). Is that a known problem?
> I've seen it with two different versions.
>
> 2. To do any changes to the evaluation build (including installing
> XBMC) I need the password. Can anyone point out what that password is?
>
> Thanks.
> /Tuffeuffe
>

Hello,

1. As far as I know it is a known problem with Unity 3D. I've read somewhere
that has something to do with the fact that there is no HW cursor, however, the
Linaro team will make a fix on next versions to smooth it a bit. Anyway, if you
switch to Unity2D it shouldn't happen.

2. The linaro password is 'linaro'. At least this is what I tried and it worked.

[Tuffeuffe]

Thanks for you answer.

Good news for 1! I'll try Unity 2D.

Regarding the password however, it does not work. "linaro" was one of
the first passwords I tried. I've also tried other obvious passwords,
like "Linaro", "admin", "password".

Does anyone know the password for the linaro version mentioned in this
thread??

[José Luis Ametller]

What I did was to go to change password, then when I was prompted for the old passsword, entered linaro, and for the new password I put what I wanted, and it worked. Please try it.

[Tuffeuffe]

It works! Thanks for your help. The reason I thought I didn't have the
correct password was that it doesn't work for the "su" command in a
terminal. Not sure why, but I guess it doesn't really matter.

I've noticed that videos regularly get delayed, and then speed up
again. I guess that is what's mentioned in the first post of this
thread. Keep up the good work, and please let us know when the issue
has been fixed!

[José Luis Ametller]

For the problem with videos dropping frames and then speeding up again, please try the workaround described here:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/linaro-ubuntu/+bug/915456

It worked for some people, however I didn't manage it to work. I hope the Linaro team can have it fixed soon, as my main idea was to use the board as a tv top box.

[Tuffeuffe]

For me the fix worked! What was not completely clear from the
description (at least for an amateur like myself) was that the
disabling of the polling has to be made permanent not be lost after a
restart. I did the following:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/21666/can-turning-off-drm-kms-helper-polling-affect-screen-brightness-control

Also, it only seems to have an affect when using xbmc as the window
manager (choosing XBMC when loggin in). Still for some reason it seems
bright scenes in full HD videos lags a bit, but for the most of it, it
works very well.

[José Luis Ametller]

Thank you! Now it works following your trick!

Do you have sound over HDMI? I've never managed to get audio output over HDMI (over headphone jack it works just fine).

Thanks,

[Tuffeuffe]

Nice that it works.

I never had a problem with the HDMI sound (although I've heard many
people have). Maybe it depends on the TV. Currently though, I've
connected a 5.1 usb sound card, which also works fine.

if you've already looked in the sound settings in XBMC, and chosen the
HDMI output, I'm afraid I cannot help...

On Mar 5, 9:45 am, José Luis Ametller <ametl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thank you! Now it works following your trick!
>
> Do you have sound over HDMI? I've never managed to get audio output over
> HDMI (over headphone jack it works just fine).
>
> Thanks,
>
> El sábado 3 de marzo de 2012 13:08:32 UTC+1, Tuffeuffe escribió:
>
>
>
>
>
> > For me the fix worked! What was not completely clear from the
> > description (at least for an amateur like myself) was that the
> > disabling of the polling has to be made permanent not be lost after a
> > restart. I did the following:
>

> >http://askubuntu.com/questions/21666/can-turning-off-drm-kms-helper-p...

[ametller]

Thanks for your answer. Unfortunately I have tested it on three different TVs (Sony, LG, etc) without luck. I still don't have HDMI sound. I hope it will get eventually fixed some day as it is the only thing left to use my Pandaboard ES as a set top box!