4K60 Kodi 17 Media Center feat RX 460 & Xbuntu 16.04

3 Jan 2017

there are some quirks on HDMI 2.0 but they arnt that bad and their seems to be pretty complete support with the amdgpu-pro drivers

am using a Samsung UE55HU7505 55" 4K television using HDMI 2.0, you might not need amdgpu-pro but for my television i needed the pro drivers

You must use Ubuntu 16.04 LTS or Linux 4.4 (i used xubuntu)
You must use AMDGPU-PRO Drivers! (if you using HDMI 2.0 4K television)
4K AVC works fine
4k HEVC Main works fine
4k HEVC Main10 (vpau nope, not implemented currently in libvdpau?)
4k HEVC Main10 (vaapi works with mpv, we lose quality due to outdated surfaces and stuff but will play in hardware)
also HEVC Main10 migh work in kodi 16 using older render engine
Rant: wtf is it with DPI and Linux? its stupidly small by default :/
You can ignore DISPLAY=:0 if you are not using ssh in this guide
FYI: all those screenshots are in all their 4k glory if you right click and open image in new tab

But first we need to some background music for our work

Install amdgpu-pro, mpv & Kodi

First we install the latest beta/rc builds of kodi/mpv and the amd-gpu-pro driver ofc

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc/unstable -y
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mc3man/mpv-tests -y
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install vdpauinfo p7zip-full ppa-purge
wget --referer="http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/AMDGPU-PRO-Install.aspx" https://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ubuntu/amdgpu-pro-16.50-362463.tar.xz
7z x amdgpu-pro-16.50-362463.tar.xz && 7z x amdgpu-pro-16.50-362463.tar
chmod +x amdgpu-pro-16.50-362463/amdgpu-pro-install
sudo amdgpu-pro-16.50-362463/amdgpu-pro-install

Fixing vdpau & vaapi

sudo mkdir -p /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/vdpau/
sudo mkdir -p /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/vdpau/
sudo ln -s /opt/amdgpu-pro/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/vdpau/libvdpau_amdgpu.so.* /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/vdpau/
sudo ln -s /opt/amdgpu-pro/lib/i386-linux-gnu/vdpau/libvdpau_amdgpu.so.* /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/vdpau/
sudo ln -s /opt/amdgpu-pro/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/radeonsi_drv_video.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/amdgpu_drv_video.so

Fixing Tearing

sudo nano /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-amdgpu-pro.conf

Section "OutputClass"  
        Identifier "amdgpu-pro"
        MatchDriver "amdgpu"
        Driver "amdgpu"
EndSection

Section "Files"  
        ModulePath "/opt/amdgpu-pro/lib/xorg/modules"
        ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
EndSection

Section "Device"  
Identifier  "Card0"  
Driver      "amdgpu"  
BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"  
Option      "DRI3" "1"  
Option "TearFree" "on"  
EndSection

Kodi 17

adding amdgpu temperature to kodi

nano $HOME/.kodi/userdata/advancedsettings.xml

<advancedsettings>  
<gputempcommand>sensors amdgpu-pci-0100 | sed -ne "s/temp1: \+[-+]\([0-9]\+\).*/\1 C/p"</gputempcommand>  
</advancedsettings>

Use mpv for HEVC Main10 Content (seem to work but we lose quality due to outdated surfaces and stuff but it will play in hardware on a underpowered system)

nano $HOME/.kodi/userdata/playercorefactory.xml

<playercorefactory>  
 <players>
   <player name="mpv" type="ExternalPlayer" audio="false" video="true">
     <filename>mpv</filename>
     <args>--hwdec=vaapi --fs</args>
     <hidexbmc>false</hidexbmc>
     <hideconsole>false</hideconsole>
     <warpcursor>none</warpcursor>
   </player>
 </players>
 <rules action="prepend">
   <rule filetypes="mkv|mp4" filename=".*hevc.*" player="mpv"/>
 </rules>
</playercorefactory>

now we need to add kodi to autostart
Xfce Menu -> Settings (-> Xfce 4 Settings Manager) -> Session and Startup -> Application Autostart tab

Uninstall

./amdgpu-pro-install -u (Uninstall amdgpu-pro)
ppa-purge team-xbmc/unstable (remove kodi betas)
ppa-purge mc3man/mpv-tests (remove mpv betas

### below is just testing and vainfo/vdpauinfo logs ###

mpv vdpau testing (thanks jell.yfish.us for samples, missing a HEVC Main 4k sample? )

wget http://jell.yfish.us/media/jellyfish-100-mbps-hd-h264.mkv  
wget http://jell.yfish.us/media/jellyfish-100-mbps-hd-hevc.mkv  
wget http://jell.yfish.us/media/jellyfish-120-mbps-4k-uhd-hevc-10bit.mkv  
wget http://jell.yfish.us/media/jellyfish-120-mbps-4k-uhd-h264.mkv  
wget http://download.tsi.telecom-paristech.fr/gpac/dataset/dash/uhd/mux_sources/hevcds_2160p60_20M.mp4  
wget http://download.tsi.telecom-paristech.fr/gpac/dataset/dash/uhd/mux_sources/hevcds_2160p60_Main10_20M.mp4

DISPLAY=:0 mpv --hwdec=vdpau --fs jellyfish-* hevcds_2160p60_*

Playing: jellyfish-100-mbps-hd-h264.mkv  
 (+) Video --vid=1 (*) (h264)
Warning: LLVM emitted unknown config register: 0x4  
Using hardware decoding (vdpau).  
VO: [opengl] 1920x1080 vdpau  
V: 00:00:30 / 00:00:30 (100%)

Playing: jellyfish-100-mbps-hd-hevc.mkv  
 (+) Video --vid=1 (*) (hevc)

Using hardware decoding (vdpau).  
VO: [opengl] 1920x1080 vdpau  
V: 00:00:29 / 00:00:30 (99%)

Playing: jellyfish-120-mbps-4k-uhd-h264.mkv  
 (+) Video --vid=1 (*) (h264)

Using hardware decoding (vdpau).  
VO: [opengl] 3840x2160 vdpau  
V: 00:00:29 / 00:00:30 (99%)

Playing: jellyfish-120-mbps-4k-uhd-hevc-10bit.mkv  
 (+) Video --vid=1 (*) (hevc)

Using software decoding.  
VO: [opengl] 3840x2160 yuv420p10  
V: 00:00:28 / 00:00:30 (94%)

rx 460 vdpauinfo report

vdpauinfo --display :0 > vdpau_rx460.txt

display: :0   screen: 0  
API version: 1  
Information string: G3DVL VDPAU Driver Shared Library version 1.0

Video surface:

name   width height types  
-------------------------------------------
420    16384 16384  NV12 YV12  
422    16384 16384  UYVY YUYV  
444    16384 16384  Y8U8V8A8 V8U8Y8A8 

Decoder capabilities:

name                        level macbs width height  
----------------------------------------------------
MPEG1                          --- not supported ---  
MPEG2_SIMPLE                    3 65536  4096  4096  
MPEG2_MAIN                      3 65536  4096  4096  
H264_BASELINE                  52 65536  4096  4096  
H264_MAIN                      52 65536  4096  4096  
H264_HIGH                      52 65536  4096  4096  
VC1_SIMPLE                      1 65536  4096  4096  
VC1_MAIN                        2 65536  4096  4096  
VC1_ADVANCED                    4 65536  4096  4096  
MPEG4_PART2_SP                  3 65536  4096  4096  
MPEG4_PART2_ASP                 5 65536  4096  4096  
DIVX4_QMOBILE                  --- not supported ---  
DIVX4_MOBILE                   --- not supported ---  
DIVX4_HOME_THEATER             --- not supported ---  
DIVX4_HD_1080P                 --- not supported ---  
DIVX5_QMOBILE                  --- not supported ---  
DIVX5_MOBILE                   --- not supported ---  
DIVX5_HOME_THEATER             --- not supported ---  
DIVX5_HD_1080P                 --- not supported ---  
H264_CONSTRAINED_BASELINE      --- not supported ---  
H264_EXTENDED                  --- not supported ---  
H264_PROGRESSIVE_HIGH          --- not supported ---  
H264_CONSTRAINED_HIGH          --- not supported ---  
H264_HIGH_444_PREDICTIVE       --- not supported ---  
HEVC_MAIN                      186 65536  4096  4096  
HEVC_MAIN_10                   186 65536  4096  4096  
HEVC_MAIN_STILL                --- not supported ---  
HEVC_MAIN_12                   --- not supported ---  
HEVC_MAIN_444                  --- not supported ---

Output surface:

name              width height nat types  
----------------------------------------------------
B8G8R8A8         16384 16384    y  NV12 YV12 UYVY YUYV Y8U8V8A8 V8U8Y8A8 A8I8 I8A8  
R8G8B8A8         16384 16384    y  NV12 YV12 UYVY YUYV Y8U8V8A8 V8U8Y8A8 A8I8 I8A8  
R10G10B10A2      16384 16384    y  NV12 YV12 UYVY YUYV Y8U8V8A8 V8U8Y8A8 A8I8 I8A8  
B10G10R10A2      16384 16384    y  NV12 YV12 UYVY YUYV Y8U8V8A8 V8U8Y8A8 A8I8 I8A8 

Bitmap surface:

name              width height  
------------------------------
B8G8R8A8         16384 16384  
R8G8B8A8         16384 16384  
R10G10B10A2      16384 16384  
B10G10R10A2      16384 16384  
A8               16384 16384

Video mixer:

feature name                    sup  
------------------------------------
DEINTERLACE_TEMPORAL             y  
DEINTERLACE_TEMPORAL_SPATIAL     -  
INVERSE_TELECINE                 -  
NOISE_REDUCTION                  y  
SHARPNESS                        y  
LUMA_KEY                         -  
HIGH QUALITY SCALING - L1        -  
HIGH QUALITY SCALING - L2        -  
HIGH QUALITY SCALING - L3        -  
HIGH QUALITY SCALING - L4        -  
HIGH QUALITY SCALING - L5        -  
HIGH QUALITY SCALING - L6        -  
HIGH QUALITY SCALING - L7        -  
HIGH QUALITY SCALING - L8        -  
HIGH QUALITY SCALING - L9        -

parameter name                  sup      min      max  
-----------------------------------------------------
VIDEO_SURFACE_WIDTH              y        48     4096  
VIDEO_SURFACE_HEIGHT             y        48     4096  
CHROMA_TYPE                      y  
LAYERS                           y         0        4

attribute name                  sup      min      max  
-----------------------------------------------------
BACKGROUND_COLOR                 y  
CSC_MATRIX                       y  
NOISE_REDUCTION_LEVEL            y      0.00     1.00  
SHARPNESS_LEVEL                  y     -1.00     1.00  
LUMA_KEY_MIN_LUMA                y  
LUMA_KEY_MAX_LUMA                y

mpv vaapi testing

DISPLAY=:0 mpv --hwdec=vaapi --fs jellyfish-* hevcds_2160p60_*

Playing: Videos/jellyfish-100-mbps-hd-h264.mkv  
 (+) Video --vid=1 (*) (h264)
libva info: VA-API version 0.39.4  
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0  
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/amdgpu_drv_video.so  
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_0_39  
Warning: LLVM emitted unknown config register: 0x4  
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0  
Using hardware decoding (vaapi).  
VO: [opengl] 1920x1080 vaapi  
V: 00:00:29 / 00:00:30 (99%)

Playing: Videos/jellyfish-100-mbps-hd-hevc.mkv  
 (+) Video --vid=1 (*) (hevc)
Using hardware decoding (vaapi).  
VO: [opengl] 1920x1080 vaapi  
V: 00:00:29 / 00:00:30 (99%)

Playing: Videos/jellyfish-120-mbps-4k-uhd-h264.mkv  
 (+) Video --vid=1 (*) (h264)
Using hardware decoding (vaapi).  
VO: [opengl] 3840x2160 vaapi  
V: 00:00:29 / 00:00:30 (99%)

Playing: Videos/jellyfish-120-mbps-4k-uhd-hevc-10bit.mkv  
 (+) Video --vid=1 (*) (hevc)
Using hardware decoding (vaapi).  
VO: [opengl] 3840x2160 vaapi  
V: 00:00:29 / 00:00:30 (99%)

Playing: Videos/hevcds_2160p60_20M.mp4  
 (+) Video --vid=1 (*) (hevc)
 (+) Audio --aid=1 --alang=und (*) (aac)
AO: [pulse] 48000Hz stereo 2ch float  
Using hardware decoding (vaapi).  
AV: 00:02:31 / 00:02:31 (99%) A-V:  0.000

Playing: Videos/hevcds_2160p60_Main10_20M.mp4  
 (+) Video --vid=1 (*) (hevc)
 (+) Audio --aid=1 --alang=und (*) (aac)
Using hardware decoding (vaapi).  
AV: 00:02:31 / 00:02:31 (99%) A-V:  0.000 Dropped: 4


Exiting... (End of file)

VaInfo Report

DISPLAY=:0 vainfo

libva info: VA-API version 0.39.4  
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0  
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/amdgpu_drv_video.so  
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_0_39  
Warning: LLVM emitted unknown config register: 0x4  
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0  
vainfo: VA-API version: 0.39 (libva 1.7.3)  
vainfo: Driver version: mesa gallium vaapi  
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints  
      VAProfileMPEG2Simple            :    VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileMPEG2Main              :    VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Simple              :    VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Main                :    VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Advanced            :    VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264Baseline           :    VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264Main               :    VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264High               :    VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain               :    VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain10             :    VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileNone                   :    VAEntrypointVideoProc

Sources (thank you all)

AMD Radeon RX 480 Review Roundup

29 Jun 2016

Ever wondered how the RX480 performs? look no further check out the short list below for indepth reviews and youtube reviews

Indepth Reviews

YouTube

Other

Club3D DisplayPort 1.2 to HDMI 2.0 Adapter User Review & Setup Guide

23 Jan 2016

Review

Had to get a new Startech HDMI cable as my old generic one was giving me blinking black screen after swapping cables it works perfectly. it seems its a little picky on the cables

The Crimson Additional settings are missing pixel format and overscan option, hope this can be fixed by firmware or driver update

Customer Support

when i asked about a firmware update they responded in 14 minutes. Now thats pretty fast

First setup

Get a High Quality 4K Cable Club3D CAC-1310 or Startech HDMM1MP
Turn off UHD Colour on Samsung TV
Set Colour Depth in Crimson Additional Settings to 8bpc
Set Resolution to 3840 by 2160, True Color (32 bit), 60 Hertz in Settings > System > Display Advanced Settings > Display Adapter Properties > List Modes

still issues? try a newer crimson driver

My Setup: