[FFmpeg-devel] GPU Hardware Acceleration [was Re: openCL support]

[Don Moir]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Patrick Shirkey" <pshirkey at boosthardware.com>
To: "FFmpeg development discussions and patches" <ffmpeg-devel at ffmpeg.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2013 4:48 PM
Subject: Re: [FFmpeg-devel] GPU Hardware Acceleration [was Re: openCL support]


>
> On Fri, January 4, 2013 8:34 am, Don Moir wrote:
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Patrick Shirkey" <pshirkey at boosthardware.com>
>> To: "FFmpeg development discussions and patches" <ffmpeg-devel at ffmpeg.org>
>> Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2013 3:32 PM
>> Subject: Re: [FFmpeg-devel] GPU Hardware Acceleration [was Re: openCL
>> support]
>>
>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, January 4, 2013 2:47 am, compn wrote:
>>>> On Thu, 3 Jan 2013 23:06:35 +1100 (EST), Patrick Shirkey wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>On Thu, January 3, 2013 9:59 pm, Andrey Utkin wrote:
>>>>>> 2012/12/31 Roger Pack <rogerdpack2 at gmail.com>:
>>>>>>> I wish I had time to implement bindings to
>>>>>>> https://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-codec-libraries (nvcuvenc).
>>>>>>> There
>>>>>>>  "may" be libraries for nvcuvenc for linux, I haven't looked into it
>>>>>>> too much, but
>>>>>>>  every so often people that do live streaming using ffmpeg "wish"
>>>>>>> they
>>>>>>>  could use their graphics card for encoding, to save on cpu, so it
>>>>>>> might
>>>>>>>  be interesting.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Nvidia H.264 encoding library is not available for linux, only for
>>>>>> windows.
>>>>>> There is a commercial multi-platform library leveraging Nvidia GPU
>>>>>> from MainConcept. BTW it utilizes CPU quite noticeably, still its
>>>>>> performance figured out to be not interesting in comparsion with
>>>>>> x264...
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>Pretty much the same thing with AMD/ATI. They have commercial drivers
>>>>> and
>>>>>basically a completely proprietary version of ffmpeg that runs on *nix
>>>>> but
>>>>>they refuse to open source all the code so it can be used by the
>>>>
>>>> they are distributing actual ffmpeg? i like to keep a list of big
>>>> companies that use the project.
>>>>
>>>
>>> AMD has an equivalent proprietary codebase to ffmpeg that they provide
>>> to
>>> their big corporate customers with fully realised GPU support. They
>>> might
>>> occasionally release code snippets from this library to the open source
>>> world but most of the work that has been done is kept completely private
>>> and it costs several thousand dollars a year to get close to it. In
>>> addition they are sponsoring the development of an effective rewrite of
>>> Blender in python no less as a proprietary Linux solution. They even
>>> suggested that we reverse engineer the codebase from the fake blender
>>> app
>>> so we could get access to latest GPU features.
>>>
>>> After discussing with their Head of Multimedia Technology and their CTO
>>> Mark Papermaster (ex. Apple) among several other representatives the
>>> only
>>> conclusion is they are not interested in fully supporting open source
>>> solutions even when they are the best tools in the world and are being
>>> treated with kiddie gloves all the way through the process.
>>>
>>>>>opensource community. They see ffmpeg and opensource multimedia in
>>>>> general
>>>>>as a threat to their proprietary corporate benefactors who have put a
>>>>> lot
>>>>>of pressure on them not to cooperate with the open source community.
>>>>
>>>> many users would be happy to have binary encoding support even.
>>>>
>>>>>Over here we have discussed it with them for the past year right up to
>>>>> the
>>>>
>>>> Thank you for trying.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Still trying but it might require AMD going bankrupt first before they
>>> will embrace open source multimedia solutions as a viable market for
>>> their
>>> hardware. They might also have to fire the entire marketing department
>>> and
>>> management team to get rid of the people in the pocket of third party
>>> interests who are holding up the development progress.
>>>
>>> Still there is a little hope that ARM will convince them to be more
>>> supportive as part of the HSA platform makeover if it actually gets off
>>> the ground.
>>>
>>>>>What they fail to see is that open source and Linux in particular
>>>>>represent the best way for them increase their rapidly diminishing
>>>>> bottom
>>>>>line. Not only is Linux the most widely used operating system on the
>>>>
>>>> i think amd/ati's problems go deeper than just linux support. probably
>>>> more into forgetting to have competitive research teams working on the
>>>> next big thing, like lower-watt multicore gpu.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> AMD have a problem with focusing too much attention on the ever
>>> dwindling
>>> PC gamer market instead of the needs of small/medium businesses. They
>>> just
>>> don't get open source development. It's so bad that developers from
>>> Intel
>>> are writing the open source Linux drivers for the ATI chipsets in their
>>> spare time and AMD just laid off their entire Linux Kernel Team in
>>> Dresden
>>> to cut costs.
>>>
>>> What kind of moron lets go of the only option they have for making
>>> progress on the Linux/OpenSource platform in order to cut costs while
>>> also
>>> putting all their eggs into Redmonds basket of ever dwindling market
>>> share?
>>
>> Where are you guys getting your market share numbers from ?
>>
>> http://www.google.com/search?q=windows+linux+mac+market+share&hl=en&tbo=u&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=RfjlUO_zCI6E8ATGh4Ew&ved=0CDoQsAQ&biw=1600&bih=735
>>
>
> In the real world Linux is the dominant operating system on servers,
> mobile devices and embedded systems. Total proportion of Desktop share is
> growing with the transition to mobile devices by the majority of users
> taking a huge chunk out of M$ desktop pie which is consistently declining.
>
> With companies like Steam porting to Linux native and Ubuntu directly
> targeting the ARM platform the continuing rise of Linux and open source
> solutions in total market share is a foregone conclusion.

Linux is fine on its own but to me Ubuntu is weak as an end user desktop platform. I would expect that an OS/GUI that expects to 
dominate would take this into consideration.