title: Verify that VP8 HW encoding/decoding is really working on Linux
body: <p>I have the "Beebox" from "ASRock". The processor of this machine is an Intel Celeron N3150 which supports hardware encoding and decoding of VP8 video streams. I would like to use this feature in Google Chrome (on Debian Linux) for making WebRTC calls. But I'm not sure how to proove that Chrome is really using HW encoding/decoding.</p>
  
  <p><strong>My findings so far</strong></p>
  
  <p>Unfortunately the situation on Linux is very confusing. Apart from the different acceleration APIs (VAAPI, VDPAU, etc.), of which I don't know which of them Chrome is really using, Chrome adds additional confusion by saying:</p>
  
  <p><em>Video Decode: Software only, hardware acceleration unavailable</em></p>
  
  <p><em>Video Encode: Hardware accelerated</em></p>
  
  <p>on the "<strong>chrome://gpu</strong>" page.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Encoding:</strong> Even though ist says that encoding is accelerated, I have a CPU load of 60-70% when encoding HD Video as a VP8 stream. This doesn't look like HW encoding to me.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Decoding:</strong> As far as I read on the web, HW decoding does not seem to be supported at all on Chrome under Linux. There is a Chrome switch called <strong>--ignore-gpu-blacklist</strong> which indeed turns the "<em>Video Decode</em>" line from "<em>Software only ...</em>" to "<em>Hardware accelerated</em>", but this does not change anything. I also did some research with different media players like Kodi and VLC. These players show a CPU load of approx 25-30% when playing VP8 which indeed could be HW decoding, but surprisingly enough there is no change at all when I turn off HW encoding in these players. Which in turn makes me believe that even these do not decode in HW.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Tools:</strong>  I found some tools, even from Intel, but most of them refer to the GPU load (which means 3D acceleration). I also tried <strong>glxinfo</strong> from <strong>mesa-utils</strong> which says: "<em>direct rendering: Yes</em>" and according to <a href="https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/963/how-to-verify-if-hardware-acceleration-is-enabled">this</a> thread confirms that HW decoding (?) is supported. But this just tells that support is available, but not whether currently any application is really using it.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Question</strong></p>
  
  <p>Is there a way to clearly verify whether or not the hardware enoder and/or decoder is working when a VP8 video stream is encoded or decoded on Linux?</p>
  
  <p>I'd appreciate your help very much!</p>