Radeon, XBMC, HD Audio plus a 50% decrease in CPU usage over Catalyst

Question

Radeon, XBMC, VDPAU, HD Audio plus a 50% decrease in CPU usage over AMD Catalyst Drivers
Big Thanks goes out to Fritsch! I could not have put this all together without him doing all the upfront grunt work.
For Fritch's thread and install guide for Ubuntu:
Linux Radeon OSS with vdpau (Ubuntu How To).
Since you are using Arch Linux (which requires Linux experience) I take that into account with my instructions. Consider this an OVERVIEW with the various packages, patches, etc. that you will need to do it yourself.
(If you have installed Arch, XBMC, etc. this should be a breeze. Otherwise, if you need additional help... post and I or someone else will reply.)
What you get:
- Bitstream Audio (including DTS-HD, TrueHD, LPCM 7.1)
- max resolution: 2048 x 1152
- mpeg2, mpeg4, h264, vc1 accleration
- Bob deinterlacing via vdpau
- 24 fps Video Playback (AMD and Intel Haswell CPUs)
- XBMC runs with 50% less CPU usage over AMD Catalyst Drivers
Hardware tested on:
CPU - AMD 8350
Video Cards Tested - AMD 5770 and AMD HD6450
Instructions:
1. Install of Arch (Running Linux Kernel 3.12.1)
2. Install the mesa10-git
(mesa-git,mesa--libgl-git,ati-dri-git)
3. Install linux-firmware, xorg-server, xf86-video-ati, xorg-xinit, etc. using Pacman (Arch Package Manager).
Below is a link to my xorg.conf:
Note: I am running Xen, unRAID, XBMC and several other VMs. XBMC is my desktop so I disabled composite. If you are running a desktop, enable it.
Radeon xorg.conf
Be sure to check out the Radeon Wiki on how to set up your xorg.conf correctly and other settings like Dynamic power management.
4. Add radeon.dpm=1 radeon.audio=1 clocksource=hpet hpet=enable to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX in /etc/default/grub.
5. Update grub.
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
6. Add export LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=vdpau and export VDPAU_DRIVER=r600 to /etc/bash.bashrc and to /var/lib/xbmc/.bashrc.
7. Unmute any of the S/PDIFs that might be muted.
alsamixer
8. Store alsamixer settings.
alsactl store
9. May be required - Edit /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf and set the correct card and device id.
For my System:
defaults.pcm.card 0
defaults.pcm.device 3
10. Install xbmc-xvba (FernetMenta).
11. Enable XBMC to autostart:
systemctl enable xbmc.service
To start xbmc:
systemctl start xbmc.service
12. Add / Create advancedsettings.xml (location: /var/lib/xbmc/.xbmc/userdata) and add the following:
<advancedsettings>
<loglevel hide="false">0</loglevel>
<gui>
<algorithmdirtyregions>3</algorithmdirtyregions>
<nofliptimeout>0</nofliptimeout>
</gui>
<video>
<latency>
<delay>0</delay>
<refresh>
<min>23</min>
<max>24</max>
<delay>175</delay> <!-- set to zero or adjust if audio seems out of sync with 24p movies -->
</refresh>
</latency>
</video>
</advancedsettings>
13. Restart XBMC for the above settings to be used:
systemctl restart xbmc.service
XBMC Settings:
Settings->System->Video Output:
Vertical Sync: Always Enabled
Settings->Video->Playback:
VDPAU: On
Prefer VDPAU Mixer: ON
VAAPI: Off
XVBA: Off
Adjust Refreshrate to match video: Off <--- If this is not set to off DTS-HD and TrueHD will not work.
Sync Playback to Display: Off <--- When turned on audio sync issues are possible.
Settings->System->Audio Output
Audio Output: HDMI
Speaker Configuration: 7.1 (5.1 if that is how many speakers you have)
Boost Volume Level on Downmix: On
Output To All Speakers: Off
Dolby Digital (AC-3): On
DTS: On
AAC: On (Not every Receiver can decode AAC. If not, set it to off)
Multichannel LPCM: On
TrueHD:On
DTS-HD:On
Audio Output Device: HD-Audio Generic
Passthrough Output Device: HD-Audio Generic
Last edited by ddeeds (2013-11-29 05:19:44)

Answer 1

I followed these instrucitons and the worked perfectly on my HTPC build (running the AMD APU A4-4000 on a Gigabyte GA-F2A88XN-WIFI).  I have a quick question though.  When I want to shutdown or reboot I hit the power button on the lower left of the XBMC main window.  Usually a dialog menu pops up giving me the option to Suspend, Shut-Down, Reboot... etc. etc.  The menu in the xbmc-xvba build only shows "Exit".  How do I enable these other options?  I'd like to at least be able to shutdown or reboot from within XBMC.
EDIT:
Nevermind, I solved it..
I found this thread
It says that running XBMC as a service will not register my session and polkit will not work.  I have to autologin as the user xbmc and startx automatically.
I followed the instructions here and here.  Then I added "exec xbmc --standalone" to the end of my /var/lib/xbmc/.xinitrc file.
Everything works fine now.
Last edited by necbot (2013-12-05 17:30:18)