VLC blurry video with hardware acceleraion enabled

[Bagetak]

Hi, when using VLC with hardware accleration enabled than video is blurry. MPV works fine.

VLC output

[ondra@ondra-pc ~]$ vlc 2021-06-03\ 22-49-02.mkv 
VLC media player 3.0.14 Vetinari (revision 3.0.13-8-g41878ff4f2)
[000055ddda9a4670] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
[00007ff6840058c0] gl gl: Initialized libplacebo v3.120.3 (API v120)
[00007ff690c0cfa0] avcodec decoder: Using Mesa Gallium driver 21.1.1 for Radeon RX 570 Series (POLARIS10, DRM 3.40.0, 5.12.8-1-MANJARO, LLVM 11.1.0) for hardware decoding

[ondra@ondra-pc ~]$ vainfo
vainfo: VA-API version: 1.11 (libva 2.11.1)
vainfo: Driver version: Mesa Gallium driver 21.1.1 for Radeon RX 570 Series (POLARIS10, DRM 3.40.0, 5.12.8-1-MANJARO, LLVM 11.1.0)
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
      VAProfileMPEG2Simple            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileMPEG2Main              : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Simple              : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Main                : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Advanced            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264Main               : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264Main               : VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264High               : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264High               : VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileHEVCMain               : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain               : VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileHEVCMain10             : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileJPEGBaseline           : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileNone                   : VAEntrypointVideoProc

[ondra@ondra-pc ~]$ vdpauinfo
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 
420_16 16384 16384  
422_16 16384 16384  
444_16 16384 16384  

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       0 65536  4096  4096
H264_EXTENDED                  --- not supported ---
H264_PROGRESSIVE_HIGH          --- not supported ---
H264_CONSTRAINED_HIGH          --- not supported ---
H264_HIGH_444_PREDICTIVE       --- not supported ---
VP9_PROFILE_0                  --- not supported ---
VP9_PROFILE_1                  --- not supported ---
VP9_PROFILE_2                  --- not supported ---
VP9_PROFILE_3                  --- 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 ---
HEVC_MAIN_444_10               --- not supported ---
HEVC_MAIN_444_12               --- not supported ---

Output surface:

name              width height nat types
----------------------------------------------------
B8G8R8A8         16384 16384    y  NV12 YV12 UYVY YUYV Y8U8V8A8 V8U8Y8A8 P010 P016 A8I8 I8A8 
R8G8B8A8         16384 16384    y  NV12 YV12 UYVY YUYV Y8U8V8A8 V8U8Y8A8 P010 P016 A8I8 I8A8 
R10G10B10A2      16384 16384    y  NV12 YV12 UYVY YUYV Y8U8V8A8 V8U8Y8A8 P010 P016 A8I8 I8A8 
B10G10R10A2      16384 16384    y  NV12 YV12 UYVY YUYV Y8U8V8A8 V8U8Y8A8 P010 P016 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                         y
HIGH QUALITY SCALING - L1        y
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  

[Bagetak]

This happens only on Manajro. When I was on Ubuntu based distros I din’t have that issue. I don’t know if it is caused by VLC or some drivers. MPV with hardware accleration has clear image so no issues with MPV. But I really like to use VLC. I am used to VLC hotkeys.

[matt-hires]

This might happen due to disabled “Deinterlacing”.
Try to enable it or set it to “automatic” in Video Settings → Deinterlace → On/Automatic

If this is already enabled try to disable _Hardware Accelerated Encoding :
Tools → Preferences → Input/Codecs → Hardware-accelerated decoding → Set to Disable

Reason for this is that Deinterlace is not working with Hardware-Accelerated Encoding.

At least this was the case on my machine, hope the solution is working for you as well

[alven]

Hm, depending on the title the OP asks how to fix a blurry playback if to use hardware acceleration enabled, but not how to fix blurry playback only (user already points that the effect caused by video acceleration):

@Bagetak

Hi, when using VLC with hardware accleration enabled than video is blurry.

So the point is how to fix Manjaro or VLC config (cause other player makes HW accel. works fine on Manjaro but in the same time the VLC on other OS also works fine):

@Bagetak

MPV works fine.

@Bagetak

This happens only on Manajro. When I was on Ubuntu based distros I din’t have that issue.

[Bagetak]

Does not help. Alos it’s not only on Manjaro. Same on Ubuntu based distros.

[latisullivan]

@matt-hires

If this is already enabled try to disable _Hardware Accelerated Encoding :
Tools → Preferences → Input/Codecs → Hardware-accelerated decoding → Set to Disable

This solved it for me! crisp clear. Thank you very much, Matt.

[aerovoid]

@matt-hires

Tools → Preferences → Input/Codecs → Hardware-accelerated decoding → Set to Disable

Works for me as well, thanks Matt! (Manjaro, X11, KDE)

[cscs]

VLC HW-Accel is near-broken, especially its automatic setting, and has been for a very long time.

See this example thread:

DE froze with graphic glitches... lots of kernel, drm, and amdgpu entries in journal

But … also … like I have mentioned before … What about, assuming you have HWAccel properly implemented in your system, setting VLC to use it, instead of relying on ‘automatic’ (which indicates a bug in vlc instead). You have an amdgpu like me, so it can do VAAPI or VDPAU … though I consider vdpau more ‘native’. VLC Preferences > Input/Codecs > Hardware-accelerated decoding Selection: VDPAU [image] VLC Preferences > Video > Output Selection: VDPAU [image] (again this is hardware/…