General: | |||
| x11 | X11 with optional SHM extension | ||
| xv | X11 using overlays with the Xvideo extension (hardware YUV & scaling) | ||
| gl | OpenGL renderer, so far works only with:
| ||
| dga | X11 DGA extension | ||
| fbdev | Output to general framebuffers | ||
| svga | Output to SVGAlib | ||
| sdl |
1.1.7: supports software scaling1.1.8: supports Xvideo (hardware scaling/fullscreen)1.2.0: supports AAlib (-vo aa is very recommended, see below!) | ||
| ggi | similar to SDL | ||
| aa | textmode rendering with AAlib | ||
Card specific: | |||
| mga | Matrox G200/G400 hardware YUV overlay via the mga_vid device | ||
| xmga | Matrox G200/G400 overlay (mga_vid) in X11 window (Xv emulation on X 3.3.x!) | ||
| syncfb | Matrox G400 YUV support on framebuffer (obsoleted, use mga/xmga) | ||
| 3dfx | Voodoo2/3 hardware YUV (/dev/3dfx) support (not yet tested, maybe broken) | ||
| tdfxfb | Voodoo2/3 hardware YUV support on tdfx framebuffer (works!) | ||
Special: | |||
| png | PNG files output (use -z switch to set compression) | ||
| pgm | PGM files output (for testing purposes or ffmpeg encoding) | ||
| md5 | MD5sum output (for MPEG conformance tests) | ||
| odivx | OpenDivX AVI File writer (use -br to set encoding bitrate) (WITHOUT SOUND!) | ||
| null | Null output (for speed tests/benchmarking) | ||
NOTE: check the following subsections for details and requirements!
It is VERY recommended to check if the MTRR registers are set up properly, because they can give a big performance boost.
Do a 'cat /proc/mtrr' :
--($:~)-- cat /proc/mtrr
reg00: base=0xe4000000 (3648MB), size= 16MB: write-combining, count=9
reg01: base=0xd8000000 (3456MB), size= 128MB: write-combining, count=1
It's right, shows my Matrox G400 with 16Mb memory. I did this from XFree 4.x.x , which sets up MTRR registers automatically.
If nothing worked, you have to do it manually. First, you have to find the base address. You have 3 ways to find it:(--) SVGA: PCI: Matrox MGA G400 AGP rev 4, Memory @ 0xd8000000, 0xd4000000
(--) SVGA: Linear framebuffer at 0xD8000000
01:00.0 | VGA compatible controller: Matrox Graphics, Inc.: Unknown device 0525 |
Memory at d8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) | |
mga_mem_base = d8000000
Then let's find the memory size. This is very easy, just convert video ram size to hexadecimal, or use this table:
| 1 MB | 0x100000 | ||
| 2 MB | 0x200000 | ||
| 4 MB | 0x400000 | ||
| 8 MB | 0x800000 | ||
| 16 MB | 0x1000000 | ||
| 32 MB | 0x2000000 | ||
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:
echo "base=0xd8000000 size=0x2000000 type=write-combining" >| /proc/mtrr
Not all CPUs support MTRRs. For example older K6-2's [around 266Mhz,
stepping 0] doesn't support MTRR, but stepping 12's do ('cat /proc/cpuinfo'
to check it').
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. In order to make this work, be sure to check the following:
(II) Loading extension XVideo
in /var/log/XFree86.0.log
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!
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...)
It must support YUY2 packed, and YV12 planar pixel formats to be usable with MPlayer.
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 4.1.0 or greater, it works ok. Alternatively, you can use DRI cvs. If you experience strange effects using -vo xv, try SDL (it has XVideo too) and see if it helps. Check the SDL section for details.
OR, try the NEW -vo tdfxfb driver! See the 2.2.1.9 section!
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.. sell it.
nVidia isn't a very good choice under Linux.. You'll have to use the binary nVidia driver, available at nVidia's website. The standard X driver doesn't support XVideo for these cards, due to nVidia's closed sources/specifications.
These cards can be found in many laptops. Under Linux, their peak is only DGA.
Unfortunately, the DGA driver in X 4.1.0 doesn't work, you'll have to wait for
4.2.0, or download a modified driver for 4.0.3 or 4.1.0 from here :
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/incoming/NeoMagic-driver
(there is also the patch to the driver's source).
Drivers provided by Tomek Jarzynka.
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).
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!).
There are two versions of DGA: DGA1 is used by XFree 3.x.x and DGA2 was introduced with XFree 4.0.1.
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.
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.
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 ...
2.2.1.3.3. Installing DGA support for MPlayer
First make sure X loads the DGA extension, see in /var/log/XFree86.0.log:
(II) Loading extension XFree86-DGA
See, XFree86 4.0.x or greater is VERY RECOMMENDED! MPlayer's DGA driver is autodetected on ./configure, or you can force it with --enable-dga.
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.. :(
Become ROOT. DGA needs root access to be able to write directly video memory. If you want to run it as user, then install MPlayer SUID root:
chown root /usr/local/bin/mplayer
chmod 750 /usr/local/bin/mplayer
chmod +s /usr/local/bin/mplayer
Now it works as a simple user, too.
!!!! BUT STAY TUNED !!!!
This is a BIG 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.
!!!! SO YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED ... !!!!
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!!!
2.2.1.3.4. Resolution switching
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
/etc/X11/XF86Config (/etc/X11/XF86Config-4 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:
/var/log/XFree86.0.log.
See appendix A for some sample modeline definitions.
DGA is used in two places with MPlayer: 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 MPlayer works.
2.2.1.3.6. Features of the DGA driver
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.
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.
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.
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.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 ...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
These entries work fine with my Riva128 chip, using nv.o XServer driver module.
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:
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!
Acki (acki@acki-netz.de, www.acki-netz.de)
Here are some notes about SDL out in MPlayer.
There are several commandline switches for SDL: | |||
| -vo sdl:name | specifies sdl video driver to use (ie. aalib, dga, x11) | ||
| -ao sdl:name | specifies sdl audio driver to use (ie. dsp, esd, arts) | ||
| -noxv | disables Xvideo hardware acceleration | ||
| -forcexv | tries to force Xvideo acceleration | ||
SDL Keys: | |||
| F | toggles fullscreen/windowed mode | ||
| C | cycles available fullscreen modes | ||
| W/S | mappings for * and / (mixer control) | ||
KNOWN BUGS:
If you don't have X, you can use the SVGAlib target! Be sure not to use the -fs switch, since it toggles the usage of the software scaler, and it's SLOOOW now, unless you have a real fast CPU (and/or MTRR?). :(
Of course you'll have to install svgalib and its development package in order for MPlayer build its SVGAlib driver (autodetected, but can be forced), and don't forget to edit /etc/vga/libvga.config to suit your card & monitor.
2.2.1.6. Framebuffer output (FBdev)
Whether to build the FBdev target is autodetected during ./configure . Read the framebuffer documentation in the kernel sources (Documentation/fb/*) for info on how to enable it, etc.. !
If your card doesn't support VBE 2.0 standard (older ISA/PCI cards, such as S3 Trio64), only VBE 1.2 (or older?) : Well, VESAfb is still available, but you'll have to load SciTech Display Doctor (formerly UniVBE) before booting Linux. Use a DOS boot disk or whatever. And don't forget to register your UniVBE ;))
The FBdev output takes some additional parameters above the others:
| -fb | specify the framebuffer device to use (/dev/fd0) | ||
| -fbmode | mode name to use (according to /etc/fb.modes) | ||
| -fbmodeconfig | config file of modes (default /etc/fb.modes) | ||
| -monitor_hfreq | IMPORTANT values, see example.conf | ||
| -monitor_vfreq | |||
| -monitor_dotclock | |||
If you want to change to a specific mode, then use
mplayer -vm -fbmode (NameOfMode) filename
NOTE: FBdev video mode changing _does not work_ with the VESA framebuffer, and don't ask for it, since it's not an MPlayer limitation.
2.2.1.7. Matrox framebuffer (mga_vid)
This section is about the Matrox G200/G400/G450/G550 BES (Back-End Scaler) support, the mga_vid kernel driver. It's active developed by me (A'rpi), and it has hardware VSYNC support with triple buffering. It works on both framebuffer console and under X.
To use it, you first have to compile mga_vid.o:
cd drivers
make
Then create /dev/mga_vid device:
mknod /dev/mga_vid c 178 0
and load the driver with
insmod mga_vid.o
You should verify the memory size detection using the 'dmesg' command. If it's bad, use the mga_ram_size option (rmmod mga_vid first), specify card's memory size in MB:
insmod mga_vid.o mga_ram_size=16
To make it load/unload automatically when needed, insert the following line at the end of /etc/modules.conf:
alias char-major-178 mga_vid
Then run
depmod -a
Now you have to (re)compile MPlayer, ./configure will detect /dev/mga_vid and build the 'mga' driver. Using it from MPlayer goes by '-vo mga' if you have matroxfb console, or '-vo xmga' under XFree86 3.x.x or 4.x.x.
Note: '-vo xmga' works under XFree86 4.x.x, but it conflicts with the Xv driver, so avoid using both. If you messed up Xv with mga, try running MPlayer with '-vo mga' . It should fix Xv.
2.2.1.8. SiS 6326 framebuffer (sis_vid)
SiS 6326 YUV Framebuffer driver -> sis_vid kernel driver
Its interface should be compatible with the mga_vid, but the driver was not updated after the mga_vid changes, so it's outdated now. Volunteers needed to test it and bring the code up-to-date.
2.2.1.9. 3dfx YUV support (tdfxfb)
This driver uses the kernel's tdfx framebuffer driver to play movies with
YUV acceleration. You'll need a kernel with tdfxfb support, and recompile with
./configure --enable-tdfxfb
MPlayer support displaying movies using OpenGL. Unfortunately, not all drivers support this ability. For example the Utah-GLX drivers (for XFree86 3.3.6) have it, with all cards. See http://utah-glx.sourceforge.net for details about how to install it.
XFree86(DRI) >= 4.0.3 supports it only with Matrox, and Radeon cards. See http://dri.sourceforge.net for download, and installation instructions.
2.2.1.11. AAlib - text mode displaying
AAlib is a library for displaying graphics in text mode, using powerful ASCII renderer. There are LOTS of programs already supporting it, like Doom, Quake, etc. MPlayer contains a very usable driver for it. If ./configure detects aalib installed, the aalib libvo driver will be built.
You can use some keys in the AA Window to change rendering options: | |||
| 1 | decrease contrast | ||
| 2 | increase contrast | ||
| 3 | decrease brightness | ||
| 4 | increase brightness | ||
| 5 | switch fast rendering on/off | ||
| 6 | set dithering mode (none, error distribution, floyd steinberg) | ||
| 7 | invert image | ||
| a | toggles between aa and mplayer control) | ||
The following command line options can be used: | |||
| -aaosdcolor=V | change osd color | ||
| -aasubcolor=V | change subtitle color | ||
where V can be: (0/normal, 1/dark, 2/bold, 3/boldfont, 4/reverse, 5/special) | |||
AAlib itselves provides a large sum of options. Here are some important: | |||
| -aadriver | set recommended aa driver (X11, curses, linux) | ||
| -aaextended | use all 256 characters | ||
| -aaeight | use eight bit ascii | ||
| -aahelp | prints out all aalib options | ||
NOTE: the rendering is very CPU intensive, especially when using AA-on-X (using aalib on X), and it's least CPU intensive on standard, non-framebuffer console. Use SVGATextMode to set up a big textmode, then enjoy! (secondary head Hercules cards rock :)) (anyone can enhance bdev to do conversion/dithering to hgafb? Would be neat :)
Use the -framedrop option if your comp isn't fast enough to render all frames!
Playing on terminal you'll get better speed and quality using the linux driver, not curses (-aadriver linux). But therefore you need write access on /dev/vcsa<terminal>! That isn't autodetected by aalib, bu vo_aa tries to find the best mode. See http://aa-project.sourceforge.net/tune/ for further tuning issues.
What I'd love to see in mplayer is the the same feature that I see in my windows box. When I start a movie in windows (in a window or in full screen) the movie is also redirected to the tv-out and I can also see it full screen on my tv. I love this feature and was wondering how hard it would be to add such a feature to mplayer.
It's a driver limitation. BES (Back-End Scaler, it's the overlay generator and YUV scaling engine of G200/G400/G450/G550 cards) works only with CRTC1. Normally, CRTC1 (textmode, every bpp gfx and BES) is routed to HEAD1, and CRTC2 (only 16/32bpp gfx) is routed to HEAD2 (TV-out).
Under linux, you have two choices to get TV-out working:
Follow these instructions:
cd TVout
./compile.sh
tty 1,2: fb console, CRTC2, head 1 (monitor)
tty 3,4,5...: framebuffer+BES, CRTC1, head 2 (TV-out)
change to tty1 (ALT+F1), and run Mon-* (one of them)
change to tty3 (ALT+F3) and then back to tty1 (ALT+F1)
run TV-* (one of them)
(now you'll get a console on your PAL TV - don't know about NTSC)Now if you start mplayer (on tty1), the picture will show up on the tty3, so you'll see it on your TV or second monitor.
Yes, it is a bit 'hack' now. But I'm waiting for the marvel project to be finished, it will provide real TV-out drivers, I hope.
My current problem is that BES is working only with CRTC1. So picture will always shown up on head routed to CRTC1 (normaly the monitor), so i have to swap CRTC's, but this way your console will framebuffer (CRTC2 can't do text-mode) and a bit slow (no acceleration). :(
Anyway i also just get monochrome output on the tv ... Maybe you have NTSC TV? Or just didn't run one of TV-* scripts.