[MPlayer-users] MPlayer performance degradation after system upgrade

[Thierry Delaitre]

On Sun, 16 Feb 2003, D Richard Felker III wrote:

> [Automatic answer: RTFM (read DOCS, FAQ), also read DOCS/bugreports.html]
> On Sun, Feb 16, 2003 at 08:23:00PM +0000, Thierry Delaitre wrote:
> > [Automatic answer: RTFM (read DOCS, FAQ), also read DOCS/bugreports.html]
> > 
> > On Sun, 16 Feb 2003, Net Llama! wrote:
> > 
> > > [Automatic answer: RTFM (read DOCS, FAQ), also read DOCS/bugreports.html]
> > > On 02/16/03 11:29, Thierry Delaitre wrote:
> > > > [Automatic answer: RTFM (read DOCS, FAQ), also read DOCS/bugreports.html]
> > > > 
> > > > Hi,
> > > > 
> > > > I've just upgraded my PIII/800 from redhat 7.0 to redhat 8.0 with kernel
> > > > 2.4.18-24.8.0. I'm using MPlayer-0.90rc4 with DXR3 (em8300-13.0) support.
> > > > 
> > > > Performance does not seem to be as good as it used to be. MPlayer is now
> > > > much more sentitive to CPU load. Before I could compile a program or
> > > > browse the web at the same time as watching a DIVX or DVD on my DXR3
> > > > without noticing any frames being dropped. Also, if I play DVDs, I can
> > > > hear & see the sound & video stopping briefly for few milliseconds every
> > > > few seconds even when there are no other cpu bound processes running.
> > > > 
> > > > What do I need to investigate in order to remedy this ?
> > > 
> > > hdparm
> > 
> > DMA settings are already enabled on all my IDE disks except for the DVD
> > drive. 
> > 
> > [root]# dmesg | grep -i dvd
> > hdc: ATAPI 40X DVD-ROM drive, 512kB Cache
> > [root at gnu root]# hdparm -d 1 /dev/hdc
> > 
> > /dev/hdc:
> >  setting using_dma to 1 (on)
> >  HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted
> >  using_dma    =  0 (off)
> > 
> > hum, dma cannot be set ! is this a feature ?
> 
> Yes, this is a "feature" of Redhat 8 to "protect" you from yourself.
> You have to set a special option for ide cdrom in modules.conf to
> enable dma, then *also* use hdparm. I forget what the option is
> called; look through the archives. Then mail Redhat and tell them how
> idiotic they are for doing this!!

Thanks for the trick. The following needs to be added to /etc/modules.conf
in order for hdparm to successfully enable DMA !

options ide-cd dma=1

Thierry.