Baslinux mailing list

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

----- Original Message -----
From: "sindi keesan" <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
 
> In x11, -noaspect changed the shape from movie-screen (1:33 to 1) 
> to monitor shaped.
> 
> In vesa, -noaspect had no effect.  The screen remains movie-screen shaped.

Hmm. So it is really only useful for a minor speed bump.

> -vc ffmpeg12 (for smoother video)
> Forced video codex ffmpeg12
> 
> In vesa, which looked fine to start with, it may have caused a few skips.

It sometimes makes green bands with hardframedrop. Only on scratched-up
DVDs.

> In x11 with -framedrop, which normally is rather jerky, this 
> improved the picture.  It looks just as good as vesa now.
> 
> If you switch vts while watching a dvd with this -vc switch the 
> movie ends abruptly.

Like I said, ffmpeg12 has its own bugs to deal with.

> So, -noaspect and -vc ffmpeg12 are recommended for use in x11 on a 
> 'slow' computer (if you lose sound), but if you have a VESA 2.0 
> video card use that instead.  Since you can't switch vts in x11 
> with the -vc switch it has no advantages over straight vesa video.

Except that you can resize the window at will and do other things
in X at the same time.

> I tried playing this B&W DVD, and also a color DVD with reduced color depth.
> 
> Xvesa -screen 640x480x1 &rxvt  and then playdvd (default video).  
> It won't play in mono:  X11 error:  BadValue
> 
> 4-bit color:  X11 error:  BadValue
> 8-bit color (Xvesa looks okay so far with no icewm)
> No accelerated colorspace conversion found
> BGR not supported, please contact the developers
> FATAL:  Cannot initialize video driver

MPlayer can't dither video on its own.

> Mplayer appears to require at least 16-bit color.  Abiword and 
> Links2 accept 8-bit color (I think).

It may work if the movie is actually 1-bit color (DVDs are always
color. A B&W movie on a DVD is like taking a color scan of a B&W
photo)

> A SURPRISE:
> 
> I then tried 800x600x16 without a window manager, and without 
> -framedrop. Occasional colored blocks appear in this BW movie near 
> the beginning (buffer still filling up?) but it straightens out 
> shortly.  The sound and speed are just fine.  Apparently icewm made 
> just enough difference to overflow the buffer on a BW movie, which 
> uses less cpu than color.

Now that is certainly not what I expected.

> Without a window manager, -noaspect had no effect (nor did it in vesa).
> Maybe the window manager is actually using up more cpu time to 
> change the aspect to normal monitor ratios instead of movie-screen 
> ratios (the way it was filmed)?

I don't think the window manager is directly doing that. MPlayer may
not support -noaspect without a window manager.

> Colored movie without a window manager:  sound already out of sync 
> and then cut out, but later than usual, meaning the buffer took 
> longer to fill and overflow?

Colored movie has more information, which means more work for the
CPU. I cannot understand how icewm causes this.

> So to watch a BW movie you have a choice of:
> 
> vesa if available (needs vesa 2.0 video chip)
> x11 (with icewm) -vc ffmpeg12 -framedrop
> x11 (without wm)
> 
> Vesa fills the entire width of the screen, x11 leaves about 1/2" at 
> each side of our 17" monitor in 800x600 Xvesa mode, so I prefer it.

These are default sizes.

> For a color movie, you have only the first two choices.
> 
> Was there anything else I should have tested?

No. Thanks, everyone, for squishing the bugs!

> The latest mplayer plays mp3s (offline) very loudly, and it also 
> plays DVDs louder than #1.  Why?  We have the sound output plugged 
> into the 'aux' input of a radio with a volume control.  I can't try 
> it online jsut now because I am online on this other computer 
> (could not go online while watching dvds on the same computer).

That is one unponderable question. I didn't change _anything_ related
to sound volume. MPlayer allows you to adjust volume. See mplayer --help
or just use * and / to increase and decrease, respectively.

David

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