Baslinux mailing list

["David Moberg" <davidjmoberg AT lycos.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "sindi keesan" <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
 
> This suggests that the SVGA X server might work where Xvesa conked 
> out.

SVGA is likely not much faster.

> Would it help to run X without a window manager?  That might 
> be part of the reason VESA worked better. >

vesa writes directly to the hardware. No fooling around with X
and networks. icewm and swm do not affect the speed of MPlayer.

> #1 works on my PII (DVDs and MP3s and wav) and #2 does not and vice 
> versa for the PI (#2 plays MP3s and wav).  I will check #3, which 
> can decode mp3s on a PI, but how are we supposed to play DVDs with 
> sound using #3?

I thought that #3 worked. Perhaps it didn't work when you wrote this.

> I am starting to lose track of what works where and how and may not 
> test #3 on the PIII since #1 works there.

#3 works everywhere. It is the version to use. Sometime I will fix
the bzip2 bug and then I can kill #1 and #2 for good.

> Are you still working on a version for both PI and later models, 
> that will play sound and DVDs and realaudio?

What's wrong with #3?

> >> The sound was lagging behind the lip movement, and eventually
> >> stopped, and the characters started to walk very very slowly.
> >> The sound would stop after a few seconds (24-bit color) or 20 sec
> >> or so (16-bit color).  My card won't do 16-bit color and Xvesa
> >> won't do 8-bit. I will try SVGA server and 8-bit color some time.
> 
> I think you also said SVGA would be more efficient than Xvesa even 
> with more colors.

I don't recall that. A giant X configuration with real XVideo drivers
and an appropriate XFree86 configuration file will much better than
the SVGA X server. Usually plain old vesa (in CLI) works well enough,
however, and is much smaller.

> > libmpeg2 (the default codec for DVDs) hates -hardframedrop and
> > promptly crashes.
> 
> What is -hardframedrop?

It is an option to MPlayer which tells it to drop as many frames as
it can. Whereas -framedrop is designed to give you jerky but 
watchable playback, -hardframedrop will break decoding and just
draw whatever it can. -hardframedrop video can sometimes look like
a bunch of blocks moving around the display.

> > Not likely. Sound takes very little CPU time, unless you're using
> > SDL (which is not the default)
> 
> 
> Is this why someone requested SDL?

I don't think so. Stephen with a ph (who requested it) didn't state
a reason, IIRC. I've read that it's useful for when your OSS driver
is buggy.

> Does 2.2.16 support it?

I thought that you tried it with 2.2.16 and it failed. I'm not sure
whether it works or not.
 
> > Try "-vc ffmpeg12". This may have different bugs, but I've found it
> > to sometimes be faster than the default.
> What does this mean?

Which part? faster = smoother video. The different bugs may be that
it may not work quite right with x11 and -framedrop. There's no
harm in trying it.

> > PCs are fickle.
> 
> This one seems a lot happier with the DVD drive as master not slave.
> I have noticed that hard drives transfer slower as slave.

I haven't noticed a difference. My DVD drive is slave, CD burner is
master. I wonder if DVDs would play faster if I moved the DVD to
master? The reason my burner is master is because my BIOS will only
boot from the master CD drive, and the DVD drive doesn't work with
burned CDs, which is the majority of discs that I boot with.

> >> ESC stops it in X11, ESC ESC in VESA mode then Ctrl-C to get 
> >> back the prompt.
> >
> > If you have a framebuffer prompt, the blinking cursor may need a "reset" 
> > to
> > get it back.
> 
> VESA uses framebuffer even without a framebuffer kernel?

No. I meant that if you're using vesafb or atyfb and then try "-vo vesa",
when you try to get back to the console the cursor may be gone. reset it 
needed
to get it back.

> >> Summary 0.  K6-2 605MHz can be used with the first mplayer to play dvds.
> >
> > Third MPlayer should work as well. Second MPlayer is probably a dud.
> 
> So should I substitute #3 for #2?  Neither plays sound yet.

Your other message seemed to indicate that #3 works.

> I have not tried #3 on the PIII, where #2 did not work.

CPU type doesn't affect the OSS sound bug.

> #2 plays Realaudio - does #3?  #1 was said not to, I think.

All 3 have the exact same codecs. #1 cannot play certain RA files
over the RTSP protocol. HTTP and FTP are fine.

> >> 1.  I need to look up how to display subtitles.
> >> 2.  VESA uses less cpu than x11 on my 'slow' 605MHz but you cannot
> >> do anything else at the same time (can't use other vts).
> >
> > VESA almost always uses less CPU than x11. Try the xvidix driver
> > sometime. It probably won't even work, but if it does it will be
> > very fast.
> 
> -vo xvidix?  I don't need any faster than VESA already supplies.

But xvidix gives you a window, probably as fast as vesa if you get
anything at all. The window may be moved around and you can get
more flexible sizes than vesa. You can also switch vts during
playback.

> >> 4.  x11 might work better with X svga and 8-bit color.
> >
> > It would work better with XFree86 4.x and real NVidia drivers. This
> > is a very large download, unfortunately.
> 
> I have the SW71 CD - maybe it has the Nvidia package already.

>From what I understand, free nvidia drives have only been available
in the past couple of years.

> >> VESA 2.0 is needed for VESA or FB modes.
> 
> > If you don't have vesa 2.0 or framebuffer, your only option is X11
> > for anything at a halfway decent speed.
> 
> X11 with a better server than Xvesa.
> 
> Our AGP video cards all seem to be VESA 2.0.  But your FB kernel 
> was not compiled to support the S3 Trio3D.

The whole reason I compiled the FB kernel was for the vesa 1.2 S3
cards. It looks like the S3 FB drivers don't work at all. Xvesa/SVGA
may be your only (slow) option.

> Does #3 do something better than #1 on a PIII?

No. They are roughly the same except for CPU optimization. However,
#1 has been completely replaced by #3.

David

-- 
_______________________________________________
NEW! Lycos Dating Search. The only place to search multiple dating sites at 
once.
http://datingsearch.lycos.com