[MPlayer-users] Radeon frambuffer use if Radeon is not primary display? (all in one)

[Nick Kurshev]

Hello, Brian!

On Thu, 13 Dec 2001 14:32:30 -0500 you wrote:

> > > Such as?  Can I buy any TV-Out capable Mach64's easily these days?  I
> > > don't even particulary care to buy ATI.  Any acceptable hardware which
> > > meets the requirements:
> > > 
> > > - relatively inexpensive (i.e <= $150)
> > > - supported as framebuffer device by Mplayer
> > > - hardware scaling
> > > - TV-Out
> > > - optionally no binary drivers
> 
> > Radeon VE (~71$ in Russia)
> 
> Interesting.  Unfortunately I forgot to add one requirement:
> 
> - PCI
> 
Then XPert2000 Pro (PCI) - it's even cheaper of Radeon VE.
> and it looks like the Radeon VE is only AGP.  But there is doubt as to
> whether the Mplayer Radeon framebuffer support will work with PCI, so
> Radeons might be out altogether.
> 
Are you newbie?
Indeed there are no difference between PCI and AGP from programming point.
My AGP is detected as PCI 1:0:0 slot.
So it's no problem.
[snip]
> 
> > Mach64?
> > Is it joke?
> > Well - it's good card for MPEG1, MPEG4 playback but not for DVD since only
> > Rage128-Radeon have ADAPTIVE DEINTERLACING!!!
> 
> I suppose I might be interested in DVD playback at some time but I
> have a DVD player currently so in the case of my PVR I can't see it
> being a requirement.  Is ADAPTIVE DEINTERLACING the only reason you
> think a Mach64 is a poor choice?
> 
Indeed there are other improvements like up(down)scaling without quality degradation
and some other. But mainstream of those feature is under development and currently
is not supported.
> > (At least from ATI's card - I don't know about NVidia and Matrox;
> > OTOH - Rage128 - Radeon have WORKING support of this feature in GATOS and my
> > radeon_vid)
> 
> Funny enough, I do have a Mach64 in my machine currently -- a IIC:
> 
> 00:0d.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage IIC 215IIC [Mach64 GT IIC] (rev 3a)
> 
> It is PCI too.  Stock XFree86 does not support Xvideo on this puppy
> but the Gatos drivers do.  I was pleased to see Xvideo working once I
> replaced the XFree86 ati drivers with the Gatos ones.
IMHO - for X11 it's unknown PCI ID only ;) Because there no difference
between Mach64 and 3d rage from video overlay point.
> 
> But alas, I don't think there is framebuffer support for it, but more
> importantly I cannot find any hint that it supports TV-Out, which I
> most definately do need/want.
;)
> > 1600x1200x3=5.7Mb if you want to have 30 fps you need have bandwidth=172.8Mb/sec
> 
> But the context here is in playing video streams.  What video streams
> are 1600x1200 yet?  How soon do you expect to see them.  Not too soon
> I would think.
> 
Do you mean - in Russia or in the world entire?

> > So not every PCI slot is good for that
> 
> For displaying video, yes, every PCI slot should be good.  Which is
> exactly why I don't want to tie myself into AGP.  One slot only -- on
> some MB's only.  If I don't need that kind of limitation, I don't want
> to get tied into it.
Try compute bandwidth of video stream for 2000x2000 at 32*30fps and you'll find
that only AGP slot is good for that.
> > Why you don't want to use AGP slot for primary card?
> 
> Because I don't need it for displaying video streams and having it is
> a limiting factor in what MBs you can use and how many cards you can
> use, etc.
> 
For K7 (200MHz of bus) you can use upto 6 PCI cards or (1 AGP4x + 1 PCI
without losing of performance)
> > FYI: radeonfb doesn't support TV-out. (only GATOS and VESA)
> 
> You mean the radeon framebuffer with Mplayer does not support TV-Out?
> 
With mplayer or without mplayer - it doesn't matter.
radeonfb is kernel module but mplayer just uses it.
> Well that means Radeons are right out of the running too.  What does
> that leave?  What TV-Out capable cards are supported with framebuffer
> and have hardware scaling and PCI support?  ~sigh~  This is getting
> depressing.
> 
I guess - every modern card has HW scaling ;)
About TV-out - only matrox has support it on framebuffers.

> I know what GATOS is.  How can VESA be used with Mplayer?  Will it use
> the hardware scaling capabilities of given video cards?
VESA is only graphics server (although mplayer can output on it too)
It switches modes and enables tv-out on (rage128) radeons.
but radeon_vid (kernel module) is used over VESA.
For detail - read mplayer's TFM.
> 
> > But if it's don't matter for you - then it's should be o'k.
> 
> I really do want to avoid the overhead of X for making a PVR.  It's
> just not needed, don't you think?
> 
> But then again, in efforts of making an interactive program guide/gui
> maybe X is a better choice over framebuffer.  What would one use to
> write a gui based interactive application that runs on a framebuffer?
> 
If you are interesting with speed then better choice for you - it's
mga_vid or radeon_vid (over framebuffer or vesa).
framebuffer based gui is already implemented (but mlpayer doesn't use that)
> b.
> 
> -- 
> Brian J. Murrell
> 
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Best regards! Nick