[MPlayer-users] Tearing with Intel video controllers

[Nicolas George]

Hi. Some time ago, someone complained on this list about tearing with Intel
video controllers, so I think it is relevant to signal the news here.

Versing 2.3.0 of xf86-video-intel, recently released, enables support for
overlay video for a lot of chips where it was until now disabled. Overlay
video, unlike textured video which was used until now, does not have tearing
problems.

Once the overlay video is enabled in the server, mplayer must be told to use
it, with "-vo xv:port=115". The value 115 may change from places to places;
I got it from xvinfo (Adaptor #1: "Intel(R) Video Overlay" -> port base:
115).

xf86-video-intel 2.3.0 can be compiled for xserver 1.3, but it then loses 3D
acceleration; xserver 1.4 is necessary to have both (a git checkout of
libdrm may be necessary too).

It is possible that overlay video does not work well with Compiz or similar
effects.

One last point, for those who intend to recompile their driver and have
high-resolution screen: the Xvideo image size is limited to 1920×1088 in the
driver, but the card can handle up to 2048×2048. Increasing the value seems
to be safe (I did it: I want to do software scaling to add subtitles at
screen resolution). The size limit was linked to the size of big requests,
but it only happens with remote display (local use shared memory), and the
limit was extended with xserver 1.4.

I hope this may help some users.

Regards,

-- 
  Nicolas George
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <http://lists.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/mplayer-users/attachments/20080506/fee3eae2/attachment.pgp>