Artifacts in video playback in some players using HW acceleration

[mkopec]

Component

Dasharo firmware

Device

NovaCustom V54 14th Gen, NovaCustom V56 14th Gen

Dasharo version

v0.9.0-rc9

Dasharo Tools Suite version

No response

Test case ID

No response

Brief summary

Playback of some media with hardware-accelerated (va-api) decode results in artifacts

How reproducible

100% in freetube

How to reproduce

• Boot Ubuntu 24.04
• Install FreeTube from Ubuntu App Store
• Start video playback

Also reported to appear in virt-manager

Expected behavior

• Video is played normally

Actual behavior

• Artifacts appear

Screenshots

Additional context

Reported by per-astra-ad-deum on Matrix

Not sure if it's firmware-related yet

Solutions you've tried

No response

[mkopec]

Looks like the exact same issue as https://issues.chromium.org/issues/40281838 . Most likely nothing we can do from firmware.

The issue appears in Chromium and derivatives when VA-API hw accelerated decode is enabled, independent of used video codec (AV1, VP9, VP8, HEVC, AVC)

[PerAstraAdDeum]

This issue could have been resolved at least partially, e.g. FreeTube is now working as expected. Turned out the issue was Wayland-related; forcing Wayland-mode on Chromium and FreeTube solved the issue in these programs.

The issue persists on some other apps though, like in Virt-Manager.

[philipandag]

These artifacts do appear on v0.9.1-rc3 and v0.9.1-rc4 on FreeTube app. YouTube on Firefox and Chromium plays without issues.

[PerAstraAdDeum]

What distro are you using? Chances are hardware acceleration isn't enabled on Chromium. Firefox never had an issue with this, so it's working as expected.
To enable hardware acceleration on Chromium, edit the file ~/.config/chromium-flags.conf by adding --enable-features=VaapiVideoDecodeLinuxGL you can check if hardware video acceleration is enabled by running intel_gpu_top (part of intel-gpu-tools)

On FreeTube app, see if starting the app with these arguments fixes the issue with the artifacts: --enable-features=WaylandWindowDecorations --ozone-platform-hint=auto --enable-features=VaapiVideoDecodeLinuxGL --gpu-context=wayland. Again, you can check if hardware video acceleration is working by running intel_gpu_top.

[philipandag]

Forgot to add but I am using a V560TNE with an NVIDIA dGPU. The OS is Ubuntu 24.04. Interestingly after using the arguments you gave only once video on FreeTube AND Chromium looks fine every time no matter if I give them again or not and this even persists after reboots and snap reinstalls.

Chromium is using the iGPU from what I can tell though. intel_gpu_top does show that Video and VideoEnhance engines are busy when playing a video on freetube or in Chromium.

[PerAstraAdDeum]

Thank you for your contribution! It is possible that changing ~/.config/chromium-flags.conf counts for all Electron-based apps, maybe that is why the changes persists?

Also, what kernel do you use? AFAIK, Ubuntu 24.04 uses the older 6.8 LTS-Kernel?

And if you want to troubleshoot further, try installing virt-manager (check This page for a how-to for Ubuntu) and see if 3D acceleration works for you please.