Chrome support - Clarify and Update

[danilw]

Chrome
Chrome is currently unsupported, and will not function.

I think this is outdated

I saw people saying - "everything works" with Chrome parameters:

--enable-features=VaapiVideoDecoder,VaapiIgnoreDriverChecks,AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxGL 

I not going to test everything with Chrome - asking someone else to actually test and figure out is it actually working

pull request - Workaround for clients like Chromium for AV1, misc fixes

I see related issues still open:

• Chrome: VA error: list argument exceeds maximum number #397
• Chromium SliceParams / SliceData interleave behavior #405

and few closed

• VP8 broken in Chrome beta 144, but not Firefox #416
• Video corruption when using chromium #386

also I see comment about Discord support:

Hello, i'm launching discord with these parameters to get HEVC decoding working:

--start-minimized --enable-features=AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxGL,AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxZeroCopyGL,VaapiOnNvidiaGPUs,VaapiIgnoreDriverChecks,UseOzonePlatform,WaylandWindowDecorations --ozone-platform=wayland

and it actually works

[veganomy]

I can confirm it's working. These are my flags :

--enable-features=AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxGL,AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxZeroCopyGL,VaapiOnNvidiaGPUs

You don't need VaapiVideoDecoder. It comes enabled by default. The key flag is AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxGL. And for NVIDIA users, you also need VaapiOnNvidiaGPUs.

[vlw]

@veganomy

These are my flags :
--enable-features=AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxGL,AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxGL

Why did you duplicate parameter AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxGL?

[veganomy]

@vlw Typo

[monsdroid]

i cant confirm, have all the flags but as soon as av1 decoding starts it tries to load the codec, fails and switches to cpu one.

https://bitmovin.com/demos/av1/ (just google av1 video and hit play, but same for youtube av1)
chrome://media-internals/

00:00:01.478	info	"Selected VaapiVideoDecoder for video decoding, config: codec: av1, profile: av1 profile main, level: not available, alpha_mode: is_opaque, coded size: [1920,856], visible rect: [0,0,1920,856], natural size: [1920,856], has extra data: false, encryption scheme: Unencrypted, rotation: 0°, flipped: 0, color space: {primaries:BT709, transfer:BT709, matrix:BT709, range:LIMITED}"
00:00:01.478	pipeline_state	"kPlaying"
00:00:01.478	pipeline_state	"kSeeking"
00:00:01.495	pipeline_state	"kPlaying"
00:00:01.495	error	"VaapiVideoDecoder: error decoding stream"
00:00:01.495	warning	"video decoder fallback after initial decode error."
00:00:01.495	info	"Cannot select VpxVideoDecoder for video decoding. status=DecoderStatus::Codes::kUnsupportedConfig"
00:00:01.497	kIsVideoDecryptingDemuxerStream	false
00:00:01.497	kVideoDecoderName	"Dav1dVideoDecoder"
00:00:01.497	kIsPlatformVideoDecoder false
00:00:01.497	info	"Selected Dav1dVideoDecoder for video decoding, config: codec: av1, profile: av1 profile main, level: not available, alpha_mode: is_opaque, coded size: [1920,856], visible rect: [0,0,1920,856], natural size: [1920,856], has extra data: false, encryption scheme: Unencrypted, rotation: 0°, flipped: 0, color space: {primaries:BT709, transfer:BT709, matrix:BT709, range:LIMITED}"

running on latest cachyos. gtx 4070ti

i do get that probably chrome should fix its f'd stream parsing but they dont seem to care to much.

chrome and chromium behave the same for me regarding this driver
but here the chromium media-internals on av1

info	
"VideoDecoderPipeline |decoder_| Initialize() successful"
00:00:00.642	kIsVideoDecryptingDemuxerStream false
00:00:00.642	kVideoDecoderName	"VaapiVideoDecoder"
00:00:00.642	kIsPlatformVideoDecoder	true
00:00:00.642	info	"Selected VaapiVideoDecoder for video decoding, config: codec: av1, profile: av1 profile main, level: not available, alpha_mode: is_opaque, coded size: [1920,856], visible rect: [0,0,1920,856], natural size: [1920,856], has extra data: false, encryption scheme: Unencrypted, rotation: 0°, flipped: 0, color space: {primaries:BT709, transfer:BT709, matrix:BT709, range:LIMITED}"
00:00:00.642	pipeline_state	"kPlaying"
00:00:00.642	pipeline_state	"kSeeking"
00:00:00.656	pipeline_state	"kPlaying"
00:00:00.656	error	"VaapiVideoDecoder: error decoding stream"

for completness: parameters

# wayland
--ozone-platform=wayland
--enable-wayland-ime
--force-device-scale-factor=1

# gpu / hw video
--ignore-gpu-blocklist
--enable-zero-copy
--enable-unsafe-webgpu
--cast-streaming-force-enable-hardware-h264

# extensions
--origin-trial-disabled-features=CanvasTextNg|WebAssemblyCustomDescriptors

# features
--enable-features=WaylandWindowDecorations,WaylandSessionManagement,VaapiIgnoreDriverChecks,VaapiOnNvidiaGPUs,VaapiVideoDecodeLinuxGL,VaapiVideoEncoder,AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxGL,AcceleratedVideoEncoder,AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxZeroCopyGL,WebRTCPipeWireCapturer,WebRtcPipeWireCamera,CastEnableStreamingWithHiDPI,CastStreamingHardwareHevc,CastStreamingMediaVideoEncoder,DesktopPWAsLinkCapturingWithScopeExtensions,ElementCaptureOfOtherTabs,RegionCaptureOfOtherTabs,TabCaptureInfobarLinks,WebMachineLearningNeuralNetwork,PwaNavigationCapturing:link_capturing_state/reimpl_on_via_client_mode

--disable-features=WaylandFractionalScaleV1,WebRtcAllowInputVolumeAdjustment,UseChromeOSDirectVideoDecoder

tried with --use-cmd-decoder=passthrough
got a bit futher

00:00:00.103	info	"Cannot select DecryptingVideoDecoder for video decoding. status=DecoderStatus::Codes::kUnsupportedEncryptionMode"
00:00:00.113	info	"Estimating WebM block duration=42ms for the last (Simple)Block in the Cluster for this Track (PTS=11958ms). Use BlockGroups with BlockDurations at the end of each Cluster to avoid estimation."
00:00:00.126	info	"Estimating WebM block duration=42ms for the last (Simple)Block in the Cluster for this Track (PTS=15958ms). Use BlockGroups with BlockDurations at the end of each Cluster to avoid estimation."
00:00:00.135	info	"Estimating WebM block duration=42ms for the last (Simple)Block in the Cluster for this Track (PTS=19958ms). Use BlockGroups with BlockDurations at the end of each Cluster to avoid estimation."
00:00:00.143	info	"Estimating WebM block duration=42ms for the last (Simple)Block in the Cluster for this Track (PTS=23958ms). Use BlockGroups with BlockDurations at the end of each Cluster to avoid estimation."
00:00:00.151	info	"Estimating WebM block duration=42ms for the last (Simple)Block in the Cluster for this Track (PTS=27958ms). Use BlockGroups with BlockDurations at the end of each Cluster to avoid estimation."
00:00:00.159	info	"Estimating WebM block duration=42ms for the last (Simple)Block in the Cluster for this Track (PTS=31958ms). Use BlockGroups with BlockDurations at the end of each Cluster to avoid estimation."
00:00:00.166	info	"Estimating WebM block duration=42ms for the last (Simple)Block in the Cluster for this Track (PTS=35958ms). Use BlockGroups with BlockDurations at the end of each Cluster to avoid estimation."
00:00:00.173	info	"(Log limit reached. Further similar entries may be suppressed): Estimating WebM block duration=42ms for the last (Simple)Block in the Cluster for this Track (PTS=39958ms). Use BlockGroups with BlockDurations at the end of each Cluster to avoid estimation."
00:00:00.294	info	"VideoDecoderPipeline |decoder_| Initialize() successful"
00:00:00.295	kIsVideoDecryptingDemuxerStream	false
00:00:00.295	kVideoDecoderName	"VaapiVideoDecoder"
00:00:00.295	kIsPlatformVideoDecoder	true
00:00:00.295	info	"Selected VaapiVideoDecoder for video decoding, config: codec: av1, profile: av1 profile main, level: not available, alpha_mode: is_opaque, coded size: [1920,856], visible rect: [0,0,1920,856], natural size: [1920,856], has extra data: false, encryption scheme: Unencrypted, rotation: 0°, flipped: 0, color space: {primaries:BT709, transfer:BT709, matrix:BT709, range:LIMITED}"
00:00:00.295	pipeline_state	"kPlaying"
00:00:00.295	pipeline_state	"kSeeking"
00:00:00.311	pipeline_state	"kPlaying"
00:00:00.311	error	"VaapiVideoDecoder: error decoding stream"

funny the flag --use-gl=egl or --use-gl=desktop disables any gpu acceleration

[Aciz]

Does not work for me either (brave), although it used to work in the past. Can't pinpoint the exact moment it stopped working as I've been using Firefox for the past few months. In the past, it worked with this command line.

--enable-features=AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxGL,AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxZeroCopyGL,VaapiOnNvidiaGPUs,VaapiIgnoreDriverChecks

[Vincent-HD]

Does not work for me either (brave), although it used to work in the past. Can't pinpoint the exact moment it stopped working as I've been using Firefox for the past few months. In the past, it worked with this command line.

I found this post, do you think you were an an older version than the one mentionned ?: flathub/com.google.Chrome#542

[Aciz]

Does not work for me either (brave), although it used to work in the past. Can't pinpoint the exact moment it stopped working as I've been using Firefox for the past few months. In the past, it worked with this command line.

I found this post, do you think you were an an older version than the one mentionned ?: flathub/com.google.Chrome#542

I honestly don't know, but looking back at the dates of my post + Brave AUR package history, it's likely I was on Brave 1.89.137 (Chromium 147.0.7727.102), so newer than that.

[tekstryder]

Yeah, hardware accelerated video decoding broke recently with the chromium 147.x -> 148.x update.

It had been functional so long that I'd stopped checking, but noticed today looking into another issue.

Still works as expected with chromium 146.0.7680.177.

[Vincent-HD]

Still works as expected with chromium 146.0.7680.177.

I do confirm, I pinned my brave to 146.x version, and it works now. Now I need to figure out how to make discord work with hardware encoding/decoding. Thx !

[shadowlots]

I am using RTX5070 on a desktop. About a month ago, it was working just fine. I liked it. But several days before, as the chrome and nvidia driver upgraded, it stoped working till now. How can I fix this?

[AoTofu]

I can also reproduce the Chromium 147/148 regression.

On my system, AV1 and H.264 can reach NVDEC with local changes, but AV1 output is corrupted for some streams unless additional AV1-specific fixes are applied. VP9 still appears to fall back to software decoding in my testing.

I have a local experimental branch that fixes several Chromium 147 AV1 decode issues on my machine. This seems related to #405 and #407, and the Chrome export path also overlaps with the previous single-buffer export revert in #342, so I don't want to send one large Chrome-support PR without asking first.

Would it be preferred to start with a small PR for the AV1 corruption fix only, and keep the Chromium single-buffer export / descriptor-mode work as a separate draft or RFC PR?

[imperishableSecret]

I can also reproduce the Chromium 147/148 regression.

On my system, AV1 and H.264 can reach NVDEC with local changes, but AV1 output is corrupted for some streams unless additional AV1-specific fixes are applied. VP9 still appears to fall back to software decoding in my testing.

I have a local experimental branch that fixes several Chromium 147 AV1 decode issues on my machine. This seems related to #405 and #407, and the Chrome export path also overlaps with the previous single-buffer export revert in #342, so I don't want to send one large Chrome-support PR without asking first.

Would it be preferred to start with a small PR for the AV1 corruption fix only, and keep the Chromium single-buffer export / descriptor-mode work as a separate draft or RFC PR?

Could you maybe share the changes as a patch ?

[AoTofu]

Sure. I prepared a patch series against current upstream master.

It is still experimental and not PR-ready yet. On my machine it helps Chromium 147/148 reach NVDEC for AV1, H.264, and,
if I remember correctly, VP9 as well. It also includes local fixes for AV1 corruption I was seeing on some streams.

aotofu-chrome-support-vs-master.patch

I would like to split this before opening a proper PR, since the branch mixes Chromium single-buffer export work,
VideoProc import/export work, and AV1-specific fixes.

[AoTofu]

tweeload_g634g2dp.mp4

I was just making this because I wanted to minimize CPU load as much as possible when playing games while watching YouTube videos. I really wanted to use Chrome, so I was talking with Codex and Claude, and somehow before I knew it, I’d gotten decoding to work. I’ve never done a PR before, so it’s a huge help that you’re assisting me. (I realized later that there might be some debugging leftovers scattered in the code. Sorry about that!)