[FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] Make decoding alpha optional for some codecs.

[Michael Niedermayer]

On Wed, Sep 18, 2013 at 06:04:59AM -0400, compn wrote:
> On Wed, 18 Sep 2013 08:37:51 +0000, Paul B Mahol wrote:
> >On 9/17/13, Reimar Doeffinger <Reimar.Doeffinger at gmx.de> wrote:
> >> For codecs where decoding of a whole plane can simply
> >> be skipped, we should offer applications to not decode
> >> alpha for better performance (ca. 30% less CPU usage
> >> and 40% reduced memory bandwidth).
> >> It also means applications do not need to implement support
> >> (even if it is rather simple) for YUVA formats in order to be
> >> able to play these files.
> >> Tested by manually hacking avcodec_default_get_format,
> >> suggestions for how to test in FATE welcome.
> >>
> >
> >Why you think this change is so important that should be
> >commited?
> 
> it sounds similar to other cpu saving decoder features that ffmpeg has.
> like 'skiploopfilter' or 'skipnonref' or 'fast'.
> 
> do those features take similar amounts of code?
> 
> do you think skipping alpha could be done in a simpler way?

what about if this alpha skip is done similarly to gray only decoding?
that is a AVOption setable skip_alpha instead of get_format()
One advantage would be that it would not need any changes on the
user application side, the user (or app) could just set skip alpha
and the alpha decoding would be skiped
to keep the code simple tha format could be left as a YUVA format
only skiping the code that fills the alpha plane
this should avoid the messy pixfmt setup code

[...]
-- 
Michael     GnuPG fingerprint: 9FF2128B147EF6730BADF133611EC787040B0FAB

it is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make
their appearance in the world. -- Aristotle
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