Intel(R) Media Driver for VAAPI

Introduction

The Intel(R) Media Driver for VAAPI is a new VA-API (Video Acceleration API) user mode driver supporting hardware accelerated decoding, encoding, and video post processing for GEN based graphics hardware.

License

The Intel(R) Media Driver for VAAPI is distributed under the MIT license with portions covered under the BSD 3-clause "New" or "Revised" License. You may obtain a copy of the License at:

https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT

&

https://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause

Prerequisites

For Ubuntu 16.04 and above

# apt install autoconf libtool libdrm-dev xorg xorg-dev openbox libx11-dev libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-dev

Equivalents for other distributions should work.

Dependencies

Libva - https://github.com/intel/libva

GmmLib - https://github.com/intel/gmmlib (please check https://github.com/intel/media-driver/wiki/Comparability-with-GmmLib)

Building

1. Build and install libva master
2. Build and install gmmlib master
3. Get media repo and format the workspace folder as below (suggest the workspace to be a dedicated one for media driver build):

<workspace>
    |- media-driver

$ mkdir <workspace>/build_media

$ cd <workspace>/build_media

$ cmake ../media-driver

$ make -j8

Install

$ sudo make install

This will install the following files (e.g. on Ubuntu):

-- Installing: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/iHD_drv_video.so
-- Installing: /etc/profile.d/intel-media.sh
-- Installing: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/igfxcmrt64.so

For iHD_drv_video.so please export related LIBVA environment variables.

export LIBVA_DRIVERS_PATH=<path-contains-iHD_drv_video.so>
export LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=iHD

Build Modes

This section summarizes key driver build modes which can be used in the different environment requirements:

Build option	Default value	Dependencies	Comments
ENABLE_KERNELS	ON	N/A	Enable/Disable shaders during driver build
ENABLE_NONFREE_KERNELS	ON	ENABLE_KERNELS=ON	Enable/disable close source shaders (kernels) during the build
BUILD_KERNELS	OFF	ENABLE_KERNELS=ON, ENABLE_NONFREE_KERNELS=OFF	If enabled, rebuild open source shaders (kernels) from sources. Requires ENABLE_NONFREE_KERNELS=OFF

With the above options it is possible to build (table assumes that non-listed options have default values):

No.	Build option(s)	HW Features	Shaders (Kernels)	Comments
1	ENABLE_KERNELS=ON	Yes	Close source (pre-built)	Default Build, full feature driver
2	ENABLE_KERNELS=OFF	Yes	None	HW features only, include HW decoder, HW VDEnc Encoder (CQP mode)
3	ENABLE_NONFREE_KERNELS=OFF	Yes	Open source (pre-built)	Open Source Build, HW features available in prev. mode (ENABLE_KERNELS=ON) and features supported by open source shaders
4	ENABLE_NONFREE_KERNELS=OFF BUILD_KERNELS=ON	Yes	Open source	Open Source Build, Same as ENABLE_NONFREE_KERNELS=OFF driver, but shaders are rebuilt from sources

Supported Platforms

BDW (Broadwell)

SKL (Skylake)

BXT (Broxton) / APL (Apollo Lake)

KBL (Kaby Lake)

CFL (Coffee Lake)

WHL (Whiskey Lake)

CML (Comet Lake)

ICL (Ice Lake)

Driver Features

Features in Default Driver Build

CODEC	BDW	SKL	BXT/APL	KBL	CFL	WHL	CML	ICL*
AVC	D/Es	D/E/Es	D/E/Es	D/E/Es	D/E/Es	D/E/Es	D/E/Es	D/E/Es
MPEG-2	D/Es	D/Es	D	D/Es	D/Es	D/Es	D/Es	D/Es
VC-1	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D
JPEG	D	D/E	D/E	D/E	D/E	D/E	D/E	D/E
VP8	D	D	D	D/Es	D/Es	D/Es	D/Es	D/Es
HEVC 8bit		D/Es	D/Es	D/Es	D/Es	D/Es	D/Es	D/E/Es
HEVC 8bit 422								D/Es
HEVC 8bit 444								D/E
HEVC 10bit			D	D/Es	D/Es	D/Es	D/Es	D/E/Es
HEVC 10bit 422								D/Es
HEVC 10bit 444								D/E
VP9 8bit			D	D	D	D	D	D/E
VP9 8bit 444								D/E
VP9 10bit				D	D	D	D	D/E
VP9 10bit 444								D/E

D - HW Decoding

E - HW Encoding, Low Power Encoding

Es - HW + Shader Encoding

* ICL encoding is pending on i915 support on upstream, for more information, please check Known Issues and Limitations #5.

Video Processing	BDW	SKL	BXT/APL	KBL	CFL	WHL	CML	ICL
Blending	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
CSC (Color Space Conversion)	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
De-interlace	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
De-noise	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Luma Key	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Mirroring	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
ProcAmp (brightness,contrast,hue,saturation)	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Rotation	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Scaling	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Sharpening	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
STD/E (Skin Tone Detect & Enhancement)	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
TCC (Total Color Control)	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Color fill	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Chroma Siting		Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
HDR10 Tone Mapping								Y

For detail feature information, you can access Media Features.

Features in Open Source Build

CODEC	BDW	SKL	BXT/APL	KBL	CFL	WHL	CML	ICL*
AVC	D	D/E	D/E	D/E	D/E	D/E	D/E	D/E
MPEG-2	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D
VC-1
JPEG	D	D/E	D/E	D/E	D/E	D/E	D/E	D/E
VP8	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D
HEVC 8bit		D	D	D	D	D	D	D/E
HEVC 8bit 422								D
HEVC 8bit 444								D/E
HEVC 10bit			D	D	D	D	D	D/E
HEVC 10bit 422								D
HEVC 10bit 444								D/E
VP9 8bit			D	D	D	D	D	D/E
VP9 8bit 444								D/E
VP9 10bit				D	D	D	D	D/E
VP9 10bit 444								D/E

D - HW Decoding

E - HW Encoding, Low Power Encoding

* ICL encoding is pending on i915 support on upstream, for more information, please check Known Issues and Limitations #5.

Video Processing	BDW	SKL	BXT/APL	KBL	CFL	WHL	CML	ICL
Blending								Y
CSC (Color Space Conversion)								Y
De-interlace								Y
Luma Key								Y
Mirroring								Y
ProcAmp (brightness,contrast,hue,saturation)								Y
Rotation								Y
Scaling								Y
Sharpening								Y
Color fill								Y
Chroma Siting								Y

Known Issues and Limitations

1. Intel(R) Media Driver for VAAPI is recommended to be built against gcc compiler v6.1 or later, which officially supported C++11.

2. SKL: Green or other incorrect color will be observed in output frames when using YV12/I420 as input format for csc/scaling/blending/rotation, etc. on Ubuntu 16.04 stock (with kernel 4.10). The issue can be addressed with the kernel patch: WaEnableYV12BugFixInHalfSliceChicken7 commit 0b71cea29fc29bbd8e9dd9c641fee6bd75f6827

3. HuC firmware is needed for AVC low power encoding bitrate control, including CBR, VBR, etc. As of now, HuC firmware support is disabled in Linux kernels by default. Please, refer to i915 kernel mode driver documentation to learn how to enable it. Mind that HuC firmware support presents in the following kernels for the specified platforms:

   • APL/KBL: starting from kernel 4.11
   • CFL: starting from kernel 4.15

4. ICL: preliminary support and may not be fully functional. It requires Linux kernel 4.17+ loaded with i915.alpha_support=1 parameter to be tried.

5. ICL encoding has two known issues:

   • Low power encoding: known issue#328 needs kernel patch which is under review.
   • VME based encoding: known issue#267, which requires media driver patch PR#271 and kernel driver patch Per context dynamic (sub)slice power-gating.

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