New DRM enabling method for systems with AMD GPU

[WizMeister]

@WizMeister,

The iMac19,X SMBIOS expects the IGPU to be enabled and configured as headless in order for the VideoToolBox API to use IQS (needed for H264 + H265 encode/decode, JPEG decode, Airplay, SideCar ..etc ).

Your other option is to use the iMacPro1,1 SMBIOS and remove the shikigva= boot arguments, which will force the VideoToolBox API and all other MacOS features to only use the Vega dGPU.

Cheers
Jay

You are right about using iMacPro1,1 and I've been that road but although I 've used CPUFriend to get the iMac19,1 vectors it messes up sleep / wake on my system thus having me looking for alternatives

 

[jaymonkey]

You are right about using iMacPro1,1 and I've been that road but although I 've used CPUFriend to get the iMac19,1 vectors it messes up sleep / wake on my system thus having me looking for alternatives

@WizMeister,

Enabling the IGPU and configuring it as headless should do the job as that is how a real iMac19,X is configured.
For more info see the "Headless" section of the Lilu + Plug-in's guide :-

An iDiot's Guide To Lilu and its Plug-ins

An iDiot's Guide To Lilu and its Plug-in's Last Update: 22nd Jan 2021 (Add note about OpenCore config.plist modifications) About this Guide Note: This guide was written when Clover was the boot loader of choice as such the config.plist examples in this guide are mostley Clover specific ... if...

www.tonymacx86.com

Cheers
Jay

 

[WizMeister]

@WizMeister,

Enabling the IGPU and configuring it as headless should do the job as that is how a real iMac19,X is configured.
For more info see the "Headless" section of the Lilu + Plug-in's guide :-

An iDiot's Guide To Lilu and its Plug-ins

An iDiot's Guide To Lilu and its Plug-in's Last Update: 22nd Jan 2021 (Add note about OpenCore config.plist modifications) About this Guide Note: This guide was written when Clover was the boot loader of choice as such the config.plist examples in this guide are mostley Clover specific ... if...

www.tonymacx86.com

Cheers
Jay

That's the configuration I had up until now. It just grinds my gears that although Netflix works with shikigva=80 on 10.15.4 b 1, Amazon Prime Video crashes WebKit.

 

[jaymonkey]

It just grinds my gears that although Netflix works with shikigva=80 on 10.15.4 b 1, Amazon Prime Video crashes WebKit.

@WizMeister,

The Safari iMacPro spoofing (enabled with shikigva=80) does not work for a lot of users (myself included), the WEG developers are working on it so hopefully we'll see better results with a future version of WEG.

Cheers
Jay

 

[jiffyslot]

So with my hardware configuration:

• iMac19,1 SMBIOS
• i9-9900K - iGPU Disabled
• RX 580 8GB Pulse
• Catalina 10.15.4 beta 1
• Bootflag shikigva=80

I do have AppleTV, Netflix and Prime Video working fine. But VideoProc reports no H264 or HEVC hardware acceleration.
Is there any way I can enable hardware acceleration on the AMD RX 580 card without changing SMBIOS ?

View attachment 450545

Hi there. I just received some tech support over this issue with VideoProc. In the setup everything appears as thought GPU acceleration would work, but AMD and MacOS is not supported yet. Which is odd given the marketing of the product.

Dear customer,
Thanks for contacting us.

I contacted our develop team and the Mac do does not suppport AMD GPU for hardware acceleration at present.
And we will add this feature in the near future

That was from Digiarty sales and support. It took them two weeks to figure this out –or two weeks for a sales rep to finally call tech support. You can use VideoProc to verify your setup, but the App will only use the CPU to transcode video in MacOS.

 

[shineaway]

I've been having trouble getting DRM to work, I had the problem where opening Netflix crashed Safari while using shikigva=80. But now after updating to 10.15.4 Netflix is working with no more crashes, the system no longer hangs which is great.

My config is:
- i5-6500
- RX 580
- iMac17,1 SMBios
- WhateverGreen 1.3.8 & Lilu 1.4.3
- shikigva=80

So anyone having the same problem try re-enabling shikigva=80 after updating to the latest Catalina. Hope this helps

 

[Pehdipanuh]

- shikigva=80

So anyone having the same problem try re-enabling shikigva=80 after updating to the latest Catalina. Hope this helps

Tested here after 10.15.4 update and still not working in Safari. However, differently from 10.15.3, Safari and MacOS are not crashing anymore. I guess it's a work in progress. Using Chrome and Apple TV are ok, as before. My SMBIOS is iMac19,1.

 

[chrispe]

I've been having trouble getting DRM to work, I had the problem where opening Netflix crashed Safari while using shikigva=80. But now after updating to 10.15.4 Netflix is working with no more crashes, the system no longer hangs which is great.

My config is:
- i5-6500
- RX 580
- iMac17,1 SMBios
- WhateverGreen 1.3.8 & Lilu 1.4.3
- shikigva=80

So anyone having the same problem try re-enabling shikigva=80 after updating to the latest Catalina. Hope this helps

I confirm, the same issue with 10.15.3 (freeze) but now, after the last update, Netflix is working at 1080p.

My config is:
- i5-6600
- RX 560
- iMac17,1 SMBios
- WhateverGreen 1.3.7 & Lilu 1.4.2
- shikigva=80

 

[kode54]

I had DRM working with shikigva=208 prior to 10.15.4. Now that 10.15.4 is out, those settings result in any AppleGVA app crashing with EXC_BAD_ACCESS (Code Signature Invalid) when attempting to play DRM video. I can disable the shikigva option, but get the red screens again, sometimes flashing red and black screen.

My config is:
- MacPro7,1 SMBIOS
- Lilu 1.4.3 development build
- No WhateverGreen loaded
- (obviously) no shikigva setting

With this setup, I have a working video card, with working DisplayPort outputs, but no working DRM either. I'm at a loss for how to watch DRM video from macOS now.

 

[dave7]

After the update, Netflix is working on Safari with shikigva=80 for 5, 6 seconds and then black screen. Audio and subtitles are working fine.

My config is:
- i7-6700k
- RX 570
- iMac17,1 SMBios
- WhateverGreen 1.3.7 & Lilu 1.4.2
- shikigva=80