Actually it looks like bug 1568531 was fixed in vlc 2.2.2-5, not this one. If I set "hardware decoding" to "automatic", then with VLC 2.2.2-5 I get this on the terminal and no video at all:
VLC media player 2.2.2 Weatherwax (revision 2.2.2-0-g6259d80)
[0000000000c74148] core libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
libva info: VA-API version 0.39.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/i965_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_0_39
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
[00007f9d3c001468] avcodec decoder: Using OpenGL/VAAPI/libswscale backend for VDPAU for hardware decoding.
[00007f9d0002beb8] core video output error: video output creation failed
[00007f9d3c001468] core decoder error: failed to create video output
Without i965-va-driver installed, video plays fine and terminal output looks like this:
✓ Sun Apr 24 16:12:35 vectro@mirian:~ $ vlc Downloads/honey\ and\ clover\[niizk\]/honey_and_clover_06\[h264.vorbis\]\[niizk\].mkv
VLC media player 2.2.2 Weatherwax (revision 2.2.2-0-g6259d80)
[0000000000d0a148] core libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
libva info: VA-API version 0.39.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/i965_drv_video.so
libva info: va_openDriver() returns -1
[00007fcbac04e6a8] vdpau_avcodec generic error: decoder profile not supported: 8
There is one other change to my system since I originally reported this bug: I uninstalled the nvidia drivers (this is an Optimus machine) to work around bug 1571225.
Actually it looks like bug 1568531 was fixed in vlc 2.2.2-5, not this one. If I set "hardware decoding" to "automatic", then with VLC 2.2.2-5 I get this on the terminal and no video at all:
VLC media player 2.2.2 Weatherwax (revision 2.2.2-0-g6259d80) x86_64- linux-gnu/ dri/i965_ drv_video. so VAAPI/libswscal e backend for VDPAU for hardware decoding.
[0000000000c74148] core libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
libva info: VA-API version 0.39.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_0_39
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
[00007f9d3c001468] avcodec decoder: Using OpenGL/
[00007f9d0002beb8] core video output error: video output creation failed
[00007f9d3c001468] core decoder error: failed to create video output
Without i965-va-driver installed, video plays fine and terminal output looks like this:
✓ Sun Apr 24 16:12:35 vectro@mirian:~ $ vlc Downloads/honey\ and\ clover\ [niizk\ ]/honey_ and_clover_ 06\[h264. vorbis\ ]\[niizk\ ].mkv x86_64- linux-gnu/ dri/i965_ drv_video. so
VLC media player 2.2.2 Weatherwax (revision 2.2.2-0-g6259d80)
[0000000000d0a148] core libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
libva info: VA-API version 0.39.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/
libva info: va_openDriver() returns -1
[00007fcbac04e6a8] vdpau_avcodec generic error: decoder profile not supported: 8
There is one other change to my system since I originally reported this bug: I uninstalled the nvidia drivers (this is an Optimus machine) to work around bug 1571225.