Solved Hardware (GPU) video decoding broken on Linux (Vivaldi ≥ 6.1) showing green videos only

[matzkowsky]

Starting with Vivaldi ≥ 6.1 hardware video decoding is broken on Intel graphic chips such as "Mesa Intel HD Graphics 4400" on a TinkPad T440s. Playback of videos result in a green screen. The same setup worked and still works with Vivalidi 6.0.2979.18.
vivaldi-ffmpeg-codecs: 114.0.5735.119

Vivaldi 6.1.3035.302 (Stable channel) stable (64-bit)
Revision 773772e7e92bf14ad0c8f85f41e3d133d0a2b876
OS Linux
JavaScript V8 11.4.183.29
User Agent Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/114.0.0.0 Safari/537.36
Command Line /usr/bin/vivaldi-stable --ignore-gpu-blocklist --enable-gpu-rasterization --enable-vulkan --flag-switches-begin --enable-gpu-rasterization --ignore-gpu-blocklist --enable-features=Vulkan --flag-switches-end --origin-trial-disabled-features=WebGPU --save-page-as-mhtml
Executable Path /opt/vivaldi/vivaldi
Profile Path /home/matzkowsky/.config/vivaldi/Default

The suggested configuration change in https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/87837/videos-are-green is not a solution as it just switches off hardware acceleration, fall back to software decoding which in turn lets the fan go crazy and drain the battery quickly.

[matzkowsky]

@DoctorG Chromium 116 shows the same symptoms.
However, thanks to the excellent Arch Linux documentation I replaced mesa with mesa-amber as that has better support for Gen 7 hardware. This in combination with the following flag setting this turned my system back to working video playback with reasonable performance + the weird stripes are also gone.
#ignore-gpu-blocklist enabled
#enable-vulkan disabled.

In summary, starting with Vivaldi 6.1 the Vulkan support no longer works on my old system, so I had to turn that off.

[mib2berlin]

@matzkowsky
Hi, it is still working with UHD 620 for example.
Vivaldi 6.1 change the Chromium version to 114, I guess they kick the card from the support list.
I had the HD 4000 series myself and it is very old, 15+ Years?
You can try the flag:
vivaldi://flags/#ignore-gpu-blocklist
Enable and restart Vivaldi.
Can you check with Chromium?

Cheers, mib

[DoctorG]

@matzkowsky said in Hardware (GPU) video decoding broken on Linux (Vivaldi ≥ 6.1) showing green videos only:

vivaldi-ffmpeg-codecs

Not needed anymore, Vivaldi fetches its own correct codecs on Linux after install.

---

If have no Intel GPU to test.

What happens if you reset all vivaldi://flags?
Does video work?

What happens if after flags resetted you enable use this chrome://flags/#ignore-gpu-blocklist and restart?

[matzkowsky]

@DoctorG Using Vivaldi 6.1.3035.302, resetting all flags let's the video decode in software + showing some weird graphical artifacts, stripes over the video

Same behavior when I enable #ignore-gpu-blocklist and restart.

[DoctorG]

@matzkowsky OK, without any flags not usable, too.

And if you enable chrome://flags/#ignore-gpu-blocklist and restart

[matzkowsky]

@DoctorG Same behavior when I enable #ignore-gpu-blocklist and restart.

[DoctorG]

@matzkowsky Sad.

As mib2berlin said your HD 4000 is a very old GPU and a incompatibility in Chromium 114 core cause these video decoding issues.

If you install for a test Chromium 114 or 115, does it play videos correct?

[matzkowsky]

@DoctorG Chromium 116 shows the same symptoms.
However, thanks to the excellent Arch Linux documentation I replaced mesa with mesa-amber as that has better support for Gen 7 hardware. This in combination with the following flag setting this turned my system back to working video playback with reasonable performance + the weird stripes are also gone.
#ignore-gpu-blocklist enabled
#enable-vulkan disabled.

In summary, starting with Vivaldi 6.1 the Vulkan support no longer works on my old system, so I had to turn that off.

[DoctorG]

@matzkowsky Congrats! You found a solution!

Now enjoy video with Vivaldi on Linux and your precious notebook

[matzkowsky]

Thanks @DoctorG and @mib2berlin for your support!

[DoctorG]

@matzkowsky Please mark your post with the solution!
How? See https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/89082/how-to-make-email-links-on-webpages-open-thunderbird-my-default-email-client/19?_=1692455541401#:~:text=To mark a topic as solved%3A