[MPlayer-users] Problems with DirectX overlay mode on Matrox G450

[Tomasz Andrzej Nidecki]

Hi, everyone.

I'm having huge difficulties getting overlay mode in the following
configuration:

1. Machine: ECS K7SEM mainboard, Duron 800 processor, Matrox G450 dual
head card in dual CRT monitor setup (both working in 1024x768, 32-bit
mode, primary 100Hz, secondary 85Hz), 512 MB RAM.

2. Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP2, all latest
patches installed, latest DirectX installed. Official Matrox drivers
installed for Matrox G450: xp2k_110_01_002_se_u.exe.

3. Mplayer-win32, latest release, mingw, but tried many other versions
(Cygwin as well, older versions as well) to no avail, extra codecs
package also installed.

The problem manifests itself in the following way:

4. On selected video files the following error is displayed:

=== cut ===

Create surface failed with 0x88760091
<vo_directx><FATAL ERROR>can't use overlay mode: please use -vo directx:noaccel
FATAL: Cannot initialize video driver.
FATAL: Could not initialize video filters (-vf) or video output (-vo).

=== cut ===

5. The error is displayed for files with various parameters, various
compression methods. I cannot get to the point of what is causing this
error to appear and what is the difference between the files which are
displayed correctly and the ones that are failing. Examples follow:

File which plays correctly:

=== cut ===

MPlayer dev-CVS-051227-13:21-3.4.2 (C) 2000-2005 MPlayer Team
CPU: Advanced Micro Devices Duron Spitfire (Family: 6, Stepping: 1)
CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 0 SSE2: 0
Compiled with runtime CPU detection - WARNING - this is not optimal!
To get best performance, recompile MPlayer with --disable-runtime-cpudetection.

89 audio & 203 video codecs
Playing PPOT - Crazy Comets (Live at The Gathering 2003).avi.

AVI file format detected.
VIDEO:  [DX50]  320x240  24bpp  25.000 fps  573.9 kbps (70.1 kbyte/s)
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [mp3lib] MPEG layer-2, layer-3
AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 160.0 kbit/11.34% (ratio: 20000->176400)
Selected audio codec: [mp3] afm: mp3lib (mp3lib MPEG layer-2, layer-3)
==========================================================================
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffodivx] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg MPEG-4)
==========================================================================
Building audio filter chain for 44100Hz/2ch/s16le -> 0Hz/0ch/??...
AO: [dsound] 44100Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Building audio filter chain for 44100Hz/2ch/s16le -> 44100Hz/2ch/s16le...
Starting playback...
VDec: vo config request - 320 x 240 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is 1.33:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO: [directx] 320x240 => 320x240 Planar YV12  [fs]

=== cut ===

File which causes the abovementioned error:

=== cut ===

MPlayer dev-CVS-051227-13:21-3.4.2 (C) 2000-2005 MPlayer Team
CPU: Advanced Micro Devices Duron Spitfire (Family: 6, Stepping: 1)
CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 0 SSE2: 0
Compiled with runtime CPU detection - WARNING - this is not optimal!
To get best performance, recompile MPlayer with --disable-runtime-cpudetection.

89 audio & 203 video codecs
Playing PPOT - Cannon Fodder (Live at CRC 2005).avi.

AVI file format detected.
VIDEO:  [DX50]  360x288  24bpp  25.000 fps  344.9 kbps (42.1 kbyte/s)
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [mp3lib] MPEG layer-2, layer-3
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 112.0 kbit/7.29% (ratio: 14000->192000)
Selected audio codec: [mp3] afm: mp3lib (mp3lib MPEG layer-2, layer-3)
==========================================================================
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffodivx] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg MPEG-4)
==========================================================================
Building audio filter chain for 48000Hz/2ch/s16le -> 0Hz/0ch/??...
AO: [dsound] 48000Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Building audio filter chain for 48000Hz/2ch/s16le -> 48000Hz/2ch/s16le...
Starting playback...
VDec: vo config request - 360 x 288 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is 1.25:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO: [directx] 360x288 => 360x288 Planar YV12  [fs]

=== cut ===

As you may notice, both files are with similar video encoding (both
are DivX5 files), the difference is in size of the video area. This is
the only thing I could come up with. All files with video width below
360 pixels are playing fine, and all above seem to be failing.

I've tried the following with no results:

7. Disabling Windows Media Player preview in Explorer (regsvr32 /u
shimgvw.dll). To no avail.

8. Disabling video acceleration in WMP settings. To no avail.

9. Disabling hardware acceleration in display properties. When I go to
"no acceleration" mode, the file is played, but obviously no
acceleration is used at all.

10. Obviously, the directx:noaccel parameter works fine, but this is
not what I want (display is too slow with no hardware acceleration on
my Duron 800 processor).

11. I've tried other -vo modes (all that I could), none worked with
overlay (except gl overlay, but that was too slow as well)

What is interesting is the fact, that I used to have WXP Pro installed
on the same machine in the past, with exactly the same hardware setup,
the same Matrox driver and the same version of mplayer, and the
overlay worked fine for all files! It also did on two previously used
video cards (Rage3D and some other, can't remember which one now).

The difference is, that I used to have a lot of standard video codecs
installed (because I used to use other players before mplayer, but
then completely switched and want to keep it that way, I find mplayer
much better than all the other similar software).

I would very much welcome your help on this issue, I've spent many
hours researching it on the Web, to no avail.

-- 
Tomasz Andrzej Nidecki
certified thawte web of trust notary