Baslinux mailing list

[Stephen Clement <s.clement AT sympatico.ca>]

David Moberg wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "sindi keesan" <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
>
>  
>
> > > > Probably a newer version than mine (2.2.5).
> > > >
> > > >        
> > > Yep, 2.3.2 on my end.
> > >      
> > Below I see 1.0pre7-3.3.2 - did you mean 3.3.2 not 2.3.2?
> >    
>
> We were talking about glibc versions. 2.3.2 is correct.
>
>  
>
> > Do newer versions do more are or they mostly bug fixes?
> >    
>
> Both, though MPlayer seems very solid for its size. I should eventually
> build a newer version than what I have. I discovered that the new
> versions have a command line option that can greatly speed up the video
> decoding (at the expense of quality).
>  
You seem to have greater luck building with more options so I'd 
recommend people use your build.

>  
>
> > > > > It plays pretty well everything that a normal MPlayer build would
> > > > > (ogg, mp3, XviD)
> > > > >
> > > > >          
> > > > So mplayer -vc help prints a lot of different things, including DLLs?
> > > >
> > > >        
> > > MPlayer 1.0pre7-3.3.2 (C) 2000-2005 MPlayer Team
> > >      
>
> I have 1.0pre5. I didn't notice this until you pointed it out.
>  
Might want to get the new version although I'm not sure what benefits 
you'll get besides bugfixes.

>  
>
> > > CPU: Intel Pentium III Katmai/Pentium III Xeon Tanner (Family: 6, 
> > > Stepping: 3)
> > > Detected cache-line size is 32 bytes
> > >      
>
> Steven: Is this a Celeron?
>  
No, it's an early Pentium 3 (regular). It's Katmai, meaning it's pretty 
well a Pentium 2 except that it supports SSE.

>  
>
> > > CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 0
> > > Compiled with runtime CPU detection - WARNING - this is not optimal!
> > > To get best performance, recompile MPlayer with 
> > > --disable-runtime-cpudetection.
> > >      
>
> I'll need to figure out why it says this is not optimal.
>  
Because I used --enable-runtime-cpudetection so that it would work on 
more CPU's.

>  
>
> > Was this detection so that it can be used on various systems?
> >    
>
> Yes. I will probably want to build my next MPlayer with this option.
>  
Correct.

>  
>
> > Is a 486 a good enough low end since that is the target of BL3?  
> >    
>
> Maybe. MPlayer isn't really intended for slow CPUs.
>  
MPlayer is intended for quality not performance.

>  
>
> > You can't play DVDs on a 386, can you?
> >    
>
> You can. 386s accept DVD drives, don't they? Don't expect a very
> fast decode, but processor speed doesn't affect whether or not
> you can do something, just how fast it works.
>
>  
>
> > > I do consider something like AAlib or libcaca necessary myself. 
> > > Also, SDL's sound output I find works no matter what, it's quite 
> > > good.
> > >      
> > What are all of these used for?
> >    
>
> AAlib/libcaca is for converting video into text. Have you seen so-
> called ASCII art? It's mainly useful when you want to send video
> to a terminal (which Steven (Clement) has said he wants to do).
>  
It's also quite useful on older computers.

> SDL lets you use many different audio and video drivers, while
> having only one or two driver interfaces to MPlayer. It can do
> many other things, too. If you're interested, libsdl.org is
> its homepage.
>
>  
>
> > > > > The current statically compiled binary size is 7.7MB, uncompressed.
> > > > >          
> > David suggested to me that I use 'strip' to make binaries smaller. 
> > Someone else suggested using upx (after strip).  Together they cut 
> > my binary size by about half.
> >    
>
> upx has its downsides. I prefer to bzip2 (verb) mplayer (noun) for now.
>  
Me too.

> David
>  
Stephen Clement