[Arm-netbook] Sorry state of Linux hardware video decoder libraries / lack of single API

[Alexey Eromenko]

Hi All !

The ARM CPUs, unlike Intel Core i CPUs are not strong enough to run HD
video in software.

The Allwinner A10 VPU has a cedarx library, so the main difficulty is
developing a
bridge between cedarx API and the various GNU/Linux media players, HTML5
browsers and media frameworks.
HTML5 browsers are, in fact, HD video players. (due to HTML5 video)

GNU/Linux has lots of components, that may require patching:
-Chromium browser
-FFox browser
-libva
-libvpx (VP8/WebM codec library)
-ffmpeg
-libavcodec
-xine
-gstreamer
-KDE phonon
-VLC media player
-VLC media framework
-anything I forgot
...

In other words: GNU/Linux O.S has too many multi-media frameworks,
which makes it difficult to develop decoder drivers for various
low-power chips (including ARM SoCs).
This is not a problem for the powerful Intel x86 CPUs, as they can run
HD video in software, so having dozens of MM-frameworks  works for
them.

Standardization and OpenGL:
In the old times, before hardware acceleration, everyone did his own
software renderer for 3D, so drivers could not be developed as each
(MS-DOS) game used own API / library.
When hardware acceleration for 3D became common, the libraries for it
became common, such as OpenGL, to unify all applications, OS vendors
and hardware vendors.
Same thing needs to be done for hardware video decoding stack.

What can be done to address this issue ?
Is patching specific codecs (libvpx, ...) necessary ?

Thanks in advance,
--
-Alexey Eromenko "Technologov"