How to use a Sigma Designs Hollywood Plus and/or a Creative DXR3 (by David Holm) ================================================================================ Thanks goes out to Daniel Bell for the donation of a brand new 20GB IBM harddisk. 1. Requirements * First of all you will need properly installed DXR3/H+ drivers, version 0.12.0 or later. You can find them at http://dxr3.sourceforge.net/ (You only need to run "make install devices" in em8300-x.y.z/modules, not in the root directory.) * Run /configure and make sure that DXR3/H+ support = yes. If you want to play files other than MPEG I highly recommend you install libavcodec as well (Read DOCS/codecs.html for more info). From here on compilation (at least of my code ;)) should go without any problems. 2. Usage -vo dxr3::: Where noprebuf specifies turning off prebuffering. This is done automatically on Athlons. If playback is out of sync try disabling prebuffering. If noprebuf is left out prebuffering is enabled (except on Athlons). = fame/avcodec, avcodec produces better quality output, but fame is faster for those of you with slow machines. The default is to use libavcodec. Note that you need properly installed libavcodec (read DOCS/codecs.html) = device number to use in case you have more than one em8300 card Any of these options may be left out, but they must be specified in this order i.e. dxr3:fame works, dxr3:1 works but dxr3:1:avcodec will not. These new features were added by XorA, he usually hangs out in #dxr3 on irc.openprojects.net, let him know you like it... -ao oss:/dev/em8300_ma-X For audio output, where X is the device number (0 if one card). -ac hwac3 For digital instead of analog audio output. -vc mpegpes Force hardware acceleration, only works with MPEG1/2. -aop list=resample:fout=xxxxx If sample rate is below 44100Hz, select either 44100Hz or 48000Hz depending on which which one matches closest. I.e. if the movie uses 22050Hz use 44100Hz as 44100 / 2 = 22050, if it is 24000Hz use 48000Hz as 48000 / 2 = 24000 and so on. This does not work with digital audio output (-ac hwac3). Overlay To get overlay run dxr3view that comes with the em8300 package before starting MPlayer. You can set various options in dxr3view by pressing T while holding the mouse cursor above the window. MPEG-1, MPEG-2, VCD and DVD Notes MPEG 1/2 content should now automatically be detected by MPlayer and it will use the hardware acceleration of the DXR3 to play it. If not, you can force it to hardware acceleration with '-vc mpegpes'. Also, if you plan to use any postprocessing filters you must use '-vc mpeg12'. In some instances, subtitles may not appear properly in sync with the A/V stream when using hardware decoding ('-vc mpegpes'). This is a known bug. The em8300 will also improperly handle subtitles that are too big, and may hang for a second or two. At this time, the only workaround is to use '-vc mpeg12' when viewing DVDs with subtitles. 3. Contacting me You can contact me either by e-mailing or by using ICQ: 798427 Feedback, bug reports and general suggestions are appreciated (preferably by e-mail).