Re: [linuxdc-dev] RedBoot CD booting and MPEG playback

[Adrian M. <ad...@mc...>]

On Saturday 07 Dec 2002 10:05 pm, Gavin Hamill wrote:
> Hullo :)
>
> I bought a DC + BBA a year ago to tinker with Linux / NFS stuff, but at the
> time there was no audio support in the Linux kernel for the DC's onboard
> sound hardware, and real life got in the way, so I lost interest...
>
> Now I see sound has been added and I have a bit of free time to produce a
> DC-based 'Media Station'...
>
> Certainly mp3 and MPEG-1 movie playback is possible from what I've read on
> the mailing list, but is there sufficient grunt in the DC to play MPEG2 at
> broadcast quality (702x576 at about 6Mbps) with mp2-sound under X, or if
> not X, is the framebuffer device adequate for mplayer usage?
>
I think to get that sort of throughput you'd certainly need accelerated 2-D 
video or else be prepared to accept frames being dropped. I and others have 
compiled mplayer but there are two eseential problems:

1. Sound driver design (needs dma) eats up processor cycles for high sample 
rate sounds meaning that the pressure is really on the video

2. Alternative sound driver design (not with dma, but less processor hogging) 
gives better video performance, but sound clicks and repeats - an accelerated 
2d video driver might fix that.


If you have a video clip in mind please send me (not the list!) it and I'll 
give it a try and report performance. Otherwise, if you wanted to tackle 
either of the above problems (no sound dma, no accelerated video, I'd be more 
than happy to help!)


Adrian