Desktop - No Hardware Acceleration for Videos (VLC, MPV)

[Kuhjunge]

I tried to get a Video Player on Desktop mode with Hardware Acceleration working on Steam OS 3.4 but failed. This leads to stuttering movies (H264 1080p Video file) and 8% CPU usage).
If I launch a Video File in VLC (flatpak Version) I get the following error on the console:

(deck@BertaSD ~)$ flatpak run org.videolan.VLC     
VLC media player 3.0.18 Vetinari (revision 3.0.18-0-ge9eceae)
[000055efbcf1db80] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
kf.notifications: env says KDE is running but SNI unavailable -- check KDE_FULL_SESSION and XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP
[000055efbcfb9440] main playlist: playlist is empty
[000055efbcff00b0] main audio output error: too low audio sample frequency (0)
[00007fa04cd2f4f0] main decoder error: failed to create audio output
libva info: VA-API version 1.12.0
[000055efbcff00b0] main audio output error: Can't convert non linear input
[00007fa04802fe80] main audio filter error: cannot add user audio filter "scaletempo" (skipped)
[000055efbcff00b0] main audio output error: Can't convert non linear input
[000055efbcff00b0] main audio output error: cannot setup filtering pipeline
libva info: User environment variable requested driver 'radeonsi'
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/radeonsi_drv_video.so
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/intel-vaapi-driver/radeonsi_drv_video.so
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/GL/lib/dri/radeonsi_drv_video.so
[00007fa04cd2f4f0] main decoder error: failed to create audio output
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_12
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
[00007fa03c002620] glconv_vaapi_x11 gl error: vaDeriveImage: operation failed
[00007fa058000c60] main video output error: video output creation failed
[00007fa04cc0fc60] main decoder error: failed to create video output
Failed to open VDPAU backend libvdpau_radeonsi.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Failed to open VDPAU backend libvdpau_radeonsi.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

I managed to get hardware acceleration on a VLC 3.0.11.1 appimage file working with VDPAU and Steam OS 3.3 but it stopped working with the latest Steam OS 3.4 beta.

I also tried the mpv video player, but hardware acceleration also failed to initialize there.

It seems to me that Hardware Acceleration for Video Players is broken on Steam Deck.

[jrepin]

You have to thank stupid software patents for this regression. More here: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamOS/issues/903

[[KAMI] RedWyvern]

This also significantly affects Steam Link Remote Play in Game Mode, especially when streaming from Deck.

[[KAMI] RedWyvern]

Originally posted by KAMI RedWyvern:

This also significantly affects Steam Link Remote Play in Game Mode, especially when streaming from Deck.

As this affects how I use my Deck, I've been working on a hack to temporarily fix the issue.
I have not yet managed to get hardware encoding for Steam Link streaming to work again, but it might work for video decoding in a media player.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/1/3541546590703291288/#c3541546590707204758

[[KAMI] RedWyvern]

Update on this, my Mesa downgrade appears to be working, so if you want to use the new KDE Plasma version with hardware acceleration, you can try it.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/0/3541546590709961979/#c3541546590717333369

[[KAMI] RedWyvern]

SteamOS 3.4.2 has hardware encoding enabled again, you can update and test whether it works in VLC again too.

[Kuhjunge]

Okay, after switching from Beta to Stable it works again.