VLC-Player 2.0.2 and Broadcom CrystalHD support

[Halvar]

Hi,

I installed VLC Player 2.0.2 today on my Atom N450 tablet (WeTab aka ExoPC aka Lucid) running Windows 8 RP 32bit. The tablet has a Broadcom CrystalHD BCM70015 chip that accelerates decoding of H264. Drivers are installed, and the chip works when I use Media Player Classic, WMP or Flash.

In the release notes of VLC 2.0.2 I read that it now supports CrystalHD, so I was eager to try it beacuse I use VLC all the time on my other computers -- but it doesn't seem to work for me. First, I activated GPU acceleration in the video codec settings, but the chip isn't used when playing h264 videos.

After reading in this forum I then tried to specify "crystalhd" as a preferred codec in preferences, and I also tried to start vlc player using "vlc --codec crystalhd". In both cases, as soon as I tried to start a h264 video (using the file/open menu), VLC crashed.

Has anyone gotten CrystalHD to work with VLC yet?

Thanks,
Halvar

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

There might be a regression. I will look at it.

[ikarus76]

Any info regarding the crystalhd support?

[pmshah]

I too have been using VLC for donkey's tears. A couple of years back I got Zotac motherboard with dual core Atom to build a 24/7 running HTPC. This PC with 1 internal 2.5" HDD and even up to 3 external 2.5" USB powered HDDs consumes under 30 watts of power, not counting the TV connected as monitor. Have tried 4 different versions of Windows. 32 and 64 bit versions of XP & 7. Except for x64 XP on all other versions VLC simply dies. Dropped frames , losing synch, you name it. There is zero hardware acceleration. In comparison freeware splayer (out of China, I believe) with excellent hardware acceleration does a perfect job. Unfortunately for me that is not a solution. I happen to be slightly hearing impaired. So I need subtitles all the time. To be able to keep up with the conversation I usually play my video at something like 70% - 80% speed. VLC handles this beautifully on my Phenom Quad system without any problem with sync, video or distorting audio. Splayer can't handle this reduced speed video reproduction. Unfortunately my Phenom Quad consumes 120/130 watts of power, not acceptable for a HTPC.

Just for this reason I am upgrading my system to a low power Intel i3-3220-T. I hope to be able to contain power consumption to under 35 watts.

I suggest VLC coders to look at splayer and see how they have manged genuine hardware acceleration in a truly portable package.