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<P><B><A NAME=2.3.1>2.3.1. Video output devices</A></B></P>
<P><B><A NAME=2.3.1.1>2.3.1.1. Setting up MTRR</A></B></P>
<P>It is VERY recommended to check if the MTRR registers are set up properly,
because they can give a big performance boost.</P>
<P>Do a '<CODE>cat /proc/mtrr</CODE>' :</P>
<P><CODE>
--($:~)-- cat /proc/mtrr<BR>
reg00: base=0xe4000000 (3648MB), size= 16MB: write-combining, count=9<BR>
reg01: base=0xd8000000 (3456MB), size= 128MB: write-combining, count=1<BR>
</CODE></P>
<P>It's right, shows my Matrox G400 with 16Mb memory. I did this from
XFree 4.x.x , which sets up MTRR registers automatically.</P>
<P>If nothing worked, you have to do it manually. First, you have to find the base
address.
You have 3 ways to find it:</P>
<P><UL>
<LI>from X11 startup messages, for example:
<P><CODE>(--) SVGA: PCI: Matrox MGA G400 AGP rev 4, Memory @ 0xd8000000, 0xd4000000<BR>
(--) SVGA: Linear framebuffer at 0xD8000000</CODE></P></LI>
<LI>from /proc/pci (use lspci -v command):
<P>
<CODE>01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Graphics, Inc.: Unknown device 0525</CODE>
<CODE>Memory at d8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable)</CODE>
</P>
<LI>from mga_vid kernel driver messages (use dmesg):
<P><CODE>mga_mem_base = d8000000</CODE></P>
</UL></P>
<P>Then let's find the memory size. This is very easy, just convert video ram
size to hexadecimal, or use this table:</P>
<TABLE BORDER=0>
<TD> </TD><TD>1 MB</TD><TD WIDTH=10%></TD><TD>0x100000</TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD>2 MB</TD><TD></TD><TD>0x200000</TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD>4 MB</TD><TD></TD><TD>0x400000</TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD>8 MB</TD><TD></TD><TD>0x800000</TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD>16 MB</TD><TD></TD><TD>0x1000000</TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD>32 MB</TD><TD></TD><TD>0x2000000</TD><TR>
</TABLE>
<P>You know base address and memory size, let's setup mtrr registers!
For example, for the Matrox card above (base=0xd8000000) with 32MB
ram (size=0x2000000) just execute:</P>
<P><CODE> echo "base=0xd8000000 size=0x2000000 type=write-combining" >| /proc/mtrr</CODE></P>
<P>Not all CPUs support MTRRs. For example older K6-2's [around 266Mhz,
stepping 0] doesn't support MTRR, but stepping 12's do ('<CODE>cat /proc/cpuinfo</CODE>'
to check it').</P>
<P><B><A NAME=2.3.1.2>2.3.1.2. Xv</A></B></P>
<P>Under XFree86 4.0.2 or newer, you can use your card's hardware YUV routines
using the XVideo extension. This is what the option '-vo xv' uses. Also,
this is driver supports adjusting brightness/contrast/hue/etc (unless you use
the old, slow DirectShow DivX codec, which supports it everywhere), see the
manpage.</P>
<P>In order to make this work, be sure to check the following:</P>
<P><UL>
<LI>You have to use XFree86 4.0.2 or newer (former versions don't have XVideo)
<LI>Your card actually supports hardware acceleration (modern cards do)
<LI>X loads the XVideo extension, it's something like this:
<P><CODE> (II) Loading extension XVideo</CODE></P>
<P>in /var/log/XFree86.0.log</P>
<P>NOTE: this loads only the XFree86's extension. In a good install, this is
always loaded, and doesn't mean that the _card's_ XVideo support is loaded!</P>
<LI>Your card has Xv support under Linux. To check, try 'xvinfo', it is the
part of the XFree86 distribution. It should display a long text, similar
to this:
<PRE>
X-Video Extension version 2.2
screen #0
Adaptor #0: "Savage Streams Engine"
number of ports: 1
port base: 43
operations supported: PutImage
supported visuals:
depth 16, visualID 0x22
depth 16, visualID 0x23
number of attributes: 5
(...)
Number of image formats: 7
id: 0x32595559 (YUY2)
guid: 59555932-0000-0010-8000-00aa00389b71
bits per pixel: 16
number of planes: 1
type: YUV (packed)
id: 0x32315659 (YV12)
guid: 59563132-0000-0010-8000-00aa00389b71
bits per pixel: 12
number of planes: 3
type: YUV (planar)
(...etc...)
</PRE>
<P>It must support YUY2 packed, and YV12 planar pixel formats to be
usable with <B>MPlayer</B>.</P>
<LI>And finally, check if <B>MPlayer</B> was compiled with 'xv' support.
./configure prints this.
</UL></P>
<P><B><A NAME=2.3.1.2.1>2.3.1.2.1. 3dfx cards</A></B></P>
<P>Older 3dfx drivers were known to have problems with XVideo acceleration,
it didn't support either YUY2 or YV12, and so. Verify that you have
XFree86 version 4.2.0 or greater, it works ok with YV12 and YUY2. Previous
versions, including 4.1.0 <B>crashes with YV12</B>!
If you experience strange effects using -vo xv, try SDL (it has XVideo too)
and see if it helps. Check the <A HREF="#2.3.1.4">SDL section</A> for details.</P>
<P><B>OR</B>, try the NEW -vo tdfxfb driver! See the <A HREF=#2.3.1.9>2.3.1.9</A>
section!</P>
<P><B><A NAME=2.3.1.2.2>2.3.1.2.2. S3 cards</A></B></P>
<P>S3 Savage3D's should work fine, but for Savage4, use XFree86 version 4.0.3
or greater (in case of image problems, try 16bpp). As for S3 Virge.. there is
xv support, but the card itself is very slow, so you better sell it.</P>
<P><B>NOTE</B>: Savage cards have a slow YV12 image displaying capability (it needs
to do YV12->YUY2 conversion, because the Savage hardware can't display YV12).
So when this documentation says at some point "this has YV12 output use this,
it's faster", it's not sure. Try <A HREF="http://www.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/contrib/Savage-driver/savage_drv.o.mmx2.bz2">this
driver</A>, it uses MMX2 for this task and is faster than the native X driver.</P>
<P><B><A NAME=2.3.1.2.3>2.3.1.2.3. nVidia cards</A></B></P>
<P>nVidia isn't a very good choice under Linux (according to NVidia, this
is <A HREF="users_against_developers.html#nvidia">not true</A>).. You'll have to use the
binary closed-source nVidia driver, available at nVidia's website. The standard XFree86
driver doesn't support XVideo for these cards, due to nVidia's closed
sources/specifications.</P>
<P>As far as I know the latest XFree86 driver contains XVideo support for
Geforce 2 and 3.</P>
<P><UL><LI>Riva128 cards don't have XVideo support even with the nvidia driver :(
Complain to NVidia.</UL></P>
<P><B><A NAME=2.3.1.2.4>2.3.1.2.4. ATI cards</A></B></P>
<P>
<LI>The <A HREF="http://www.linuxvideo.org/gatos">GATOS driver</A> (which you
should use, unless you have Rage128 or Radeon) has VSYNC enabled by default. It
means that decoding speed (!) is synced to the monitor's refresh rate. If
playing seems to be slow, try disabling VSYNC somehow, or set refresh rate to
n*(fps of the movie) Hz.</LI>
<LI>Radeon VE - currently only XFree86 CVS has driver for this card, version
4.1.0 doesn't. And no TV out support. Of course with <B>MPlayer</B> you can
happily get <B>accelerated</B> display, with or without <B>TV output</B>, and
no libraries or X are needed. Read <A HREF=#2.3.1.15>Vidix</A> section.</LI>
</P>
<P><B><A NAME=2.3.1.2.5>2.3.1.2.5. NeoMagic cards</A></B></P>
<P>These cards can be found in many laptops. Unfortunately, the driver in
X 4.2.0 can't do Xv, but we have a modified, Xv-capable driver for you.
<A HREF="http://www.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/contrib/NeoMagic-driver/neomagic_drv.o.4.2.0.bz2">Download from here</A>.
Driver provided by Stefan Seyfried.</P>
<P>To allow playback of DVD sized content change your XF86Config like this :</P>
<P>
Section "Device"<BR>
<I>[...]</I><BR>
Driver "neomagic"<BR>
<B>Option "OverlayMem" "829440"</B><BR>
<I>[...]</I><BR>
EndSection
</P>
<P><B><A NAME=2.3.1.2.6>2.3.1.2.6. Trident cards</A></B></P>
<P>If you want to use xv with a trident card, provided that it doesn't
work with 4.1.0, try the latest cvs of Xfree or wait for Xfree 4.2.0.
The latest cvs adds support for fullscreen xv support with the
Cyberblade XP card.</P>
<P><B><A NAME=2.3.1.3>2.3.1.3. DGA</A></B></P>
<P><B><A NAME=2.3.1.3.1>2.3.1.3.1. Summary</A></B></P>
<P>This document tries to explain in some words what DGA is in general and
what the DGA video output driver for mplayer can do (and what it can't).</P>
<P><B><A NAME=2.3.1.3.2>2.3.1.3.2. What is DGA</A></B></P>
<P>DGA is short for Direct Graphics Access and is a means for a program to
bypass the X-Server and directly modifying the framebuffer memory.
Technically spoken this happens by mapping the framebuffer memory into
the memory range of your process. This is allowed by the kernel only
if you have superuser privileges. You can get these either by logging in
as root or by setting the suid bit on the mplayer excecutable (NOT
recommended!).</P>
<P>There are two versions of DGA: DGA1 is used by XFree 3.x.x and DGA2 was
introduced with XFree 4.0.1.</P>
<P>DGA1 provides only direct framebuffer access as described above. For
switching the resolution of the video signal you have to rely on the
XVidMode extension.</P>
<P>DGA2 incorporates the features of XVidMode extension and also allows
switching the depth of the display. So you may, although basically
running a 32 bit depth XServer, switch to a depth of 15 bits and vice
versa. </P>
<P>However DGA has some drawbacks. It seems it is somewhat dependent on the
graphics chip you use and on the implementation of the XServer's video
driver that controls this chip. So it does not work on every system ...</P>
<P><B><A NAME=2.3.1.3.3>2.3.1.3.3. Installing DGA support for MPlayer</A></B></P>
<P>First make sure X loads the DGA extension, see in /var/log/XFree86.0.log:</P>
<P> <CODE>(II) Loading extension XFree86-DGA</CODE></P>
<P>See, XFree86 4.0.x or greater is VERY RECOMMENDED!
<B>MPlayer</B>'s DGA driver is autodetected on ./configure, or you can force it
with --enable-dga.</P>
<P>If the driver couldn't switch to a smaller resolution, experiment with
switches -vm (only with X 3.3.x), -fs, -bpp, -zoom to find a video mode that
the movie fits in. There is no converter right now.. :(</P>
<P>Become ROOT. DGA needs root access to be able to write directly video memory.
If you want to run it as user, then install <B>MPlayer</B> SUID root:</P>
<P><CODE>
chown root /usr/local/bin/mplayer<BR>
chmod 750 /usr/local/bin/mplayer<BR>
chmod +s /usr/local/bin/mplayer</CODE></P>
<P>Now it works as a simple user, too.</P>
<P><B>!!!! BUT STAY TUNED !!!!</B><BR>
This is a <B>BIG</B> security risk! Never do this on a server or on a computer
can be accessed by more people than only you because they can gain root
privilegies through suid root mplayer.<BR>
<B>!!!! SO YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED ... !!!!</B></P>
<P>Now use '-vo dga' option, and there you go! (hope so:)
You should also try if the '-vo sdl:dga' option works for you! It's much
faster!!!</P>
<P><B><A NAME=2.3.1.3.4>2.3.1.3.4. Resolution switching</A></B></P>
<P>The DGA driver allows for switching the resolution of the output signal.
This avoids the need for doing (slow) software scaling and at the same
time provides a fullscreen image. Ideally it would switch to the exact
resolution (except for honouring aspect ratio) of the video data, but the
XServer only allows switching to resolutions predefined in
<CODE>/etc/X11/XF86Config</CODE> (<CODE>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</CODE> for XFree 4.0.X respectively).
Those are defined by so-called modelines and depend on the capabilites
of your video hardware. The XServer scans this config file on startup and
disables the modelines not suitable for your hardware. You can find
out which modes survive with the X11 log file. It can be found at:
<CODE>/var/log/XFree86.0.log</CODE>.</P>
<P>See appendix A for some sample modeline definitions.</P>
<P><B><A NAME=2.3.1.3.5>2.3.1.3.5. DGA & MPlayer</A></B></P>
<P>DGA is used in two places with <B>MPlayer</B>: The SDL driver can be made to make
use of it (-vo sdl:dga) and within the DGA driver (-vo dga).
The above said is true for both; in the following sections I'll explain
how the DGA driver for <B>MPlayer</B> works.</P>
<P><B><A NAME=2.3.1.3.6>2.3.1.3.6. Features of the DGA driver</A></B></P>
<P>The DGA driver is invoked by specifying -vo dga at the command line.
The default behaviour is to switch to a resolution matching the original
resolution of the video as close as possible. It deliberately ignores the
-vm and -fs switches (enabling of video mode switching and fullscreen) -
it always tries to cover as much area of your screen as possible by switching
the video mode, thus refraining to use a single additional cycle of your CPU
to scale the image.
If you don't like the mode it chooses you may force it to choose the mode
matching closest the resolution you specify by -x and -y.
By providing the -v option, the DGA driver will print, among a lot of other
things, a list of all resolutions supported by your current XF86-Config
file.
Having DGA2 you may also force it to use a certain depth by using the -bpp
option. Valid depths are 15, 16, 24 and 32. It depends on your hardware
whether these depths are natively supported or if a (possibly slow)
conversion has to be done.</P>
<P>If you should be lucky enough to have enough offscreen memory left to
put a whole image there, the DGA driver will use doublebuffering, which
results in much smoother movie replaying. It will tell you whether double-
buffering is enabled or not.</P>
<P>Doublebuffering means that the next frame of your video is being drawn in
some offscreen memory while the current frame is being displayed. When the
next frame is ready, the graphics chip is just told the location in memory
of the new frame and simply fetches the data to be displayed from there.
In the meantime the other buffer in memory will be filled again with new
video data.</P>
Doublebuffering may be switched on by using the option -double and may be
disabled with -nodouble. Current default option is to disable
doublebuffering. When using the DGA driver, onscreen display (OSD) only
works with doublebuffering enabled. However, enabling doublebuffering may
result in a big speed penalty (on my K6-II+ 525 it used an additional 20% of
CPU time!) depending on the implementation of DGA for your hardware.</P>
<P><B><A NAME=2.3.1.3.7>2.3.1.3.7. Speed issues</A></B></P>
<P>Generally spoken, DGA framebuffer access should be at least as fast as using
the X11 driver with the additional benefit of getting a fullscreen image.
The percentage speed values printed by mplayer have to be interpreted with
some care, as for example, with the X11 driver they do not include the time
used by the X-Server needed for the actual drawing. Hook a terminal to a
serial line of your box and start top to see what is really going on in your
box ...</P>
<P>Generally spoken, the speedup done by using DGA against 'normal' use of X11
highly depends on your graphics card and how well the X-Server module for it
is optimized.</P>
<P>If you have a slow system, better use 15 or 16bit depth since they require
only half the memory bandwidth of a 32 bit display.</P>
<P>Using a depth of 24bit is even a good idea if your card natively just supports
32 bit depth since it transfers 25% less data compared to the 32/32 mode.</P>
<P>I've seen some avi files already be replayed on a Pentium MMX 266. AMD K6-2
CPUs might work at 400 MHZ and above.</P>
<P><B><A NAME=2.3.1.3.8>2.3.1.3.8. Known bugs</A></B></P>
<P>Well, according to some developpers of XFree, DGA is quite a beast. They
tell you better not to use it. Its implementation is not always flawless
with every chipset driver for XFree out there.</P>
<P><UL>
<LI>with XFree 4.0.3 and nv.o there is a bug resulting in strange colors
<LI>ATI driver requires to switch mode back more than once after finishing
using of DGA
<LI>some drivers simply fail to switch back to normal resolution (use
Ctrl-Alt-Keypad +, - to switch back manually)
<LI>some drivers simply display strange colors
<LI>some drivers lie about the amount of memory they map into the process's
address space, thus vo_dga won't use doublebuffering (SIS?)
<LI>some drivers seem to fail to report even a single valid mode. In this
case the DGA driver will crash telling you about a nonsense mode of
100000x100000 or the like ...
<LI>OSD only works with doublebuffering enabled
</UL></P>
<P><B><A NAME=2.3.1.3.9>2.3.1.3.9. Future work</A></B></P>
<P><UL><LI>use of the new X11 render interface for OSD
<LI>where is my TODO list ???? :-(((</UL></P>
<P><B><A NAME=2.3.1.3.A>2.3.1.3.A. Some modelines</A></B></P>
<PRE>
Section "Modes"
Identifier "Modes[0]"
Modeline "800x600" 40 800 840 968 1056 600 601 605 628
Modeline "712x600" 35.0 712 740 850 900 400 410 412 425
Modeline "640x480" 25.175 640 664 760 800 480 491 493 525
Modeline "400x300" 20 400 416 480 528 300 301 303 314 Doublescan
Modeline "352x288" 25.10 352 368 416 432 288 296 290 310
Modeline "352x240" 15.750 352 368 416 432 240 244 246 262 Doublescan
Modeline "320x240" 12.588 320 336 384 400 240 245 246 262 Doublescan
EndSection
</PRE>
<P>These entries work fine with my Riva128 chip, using nv.o XServer driver
module.</P>
<P><B><A NAME=2.3.1.3.B>2.3.1.3.B. Bug Reports</A></B></P>
<P>If you experience troubles with the DGA driver please feel free to file
a bug report to me (e-mail address below). Please start mplayer with the
-v option and include all lines in the bug report that start with vo_dga:</P>
<P>Please do also include the version of X11 you are using, the graphics card
and your CPU type. The X11 driver module (defined in XF86-Config) might
also help. Thanks!</P>
<P><I>Acki (acki@acki-netz.de, www.acki-netz.de)</I></P>
<P><B><A NAME=2.3.1.4>2.3.1.4. SDL</A></B></P>
<P>SDL (Simple Directmedia Layer) is basically an unified video/audio
interface. Programs that use it know only about SDL, and not about what video
or audio driver does SDL actually use. For example a Doom port using SDL can
run on svgalib, aalib, X, fbdev, and others, you only have to specify the
(for example) video driver to use with the SDL_VIDEODRIVER environment
variable. Well, in theory.</P>
<P>With <B>MPlayer</B>, we used its X11 driver's software scaler ability for
cards/drivers that doesn't support XVideo, until we made our own (faster,
nicer) software scaler. Also we used its aalib output, but now we have ours
which is more comfortable. Its DGA mode was better than ours, until
recently. Get it now? :)</P>
<P>It also helps with some buggy drivers/cards if the video is jerky
(not slow system problem), or audio is lagging.</P>
<P>SDL video output supports displaying subtitles under the movie, on the (if
present) black bar.</P>
<P>Here are some notes about SDL out in <B>MPlayer</B>.</P>
<P><TABLE BORDER=0>
<TD COLSPAN=4><P><B><FONT CLASS="text">There are several commandline switches for SDL:</B></P></TD><TR>
<TD> </TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text">-vo sdl:name</TD><TD> </TD><TD>
<FONT CLASS="text">specifies sdl video driver to use (
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