[MPlayer-users] Radeon frambuffer use if Radeon is not primary display? (all in one)

[Brian J. Murrell]

On Fri, Dec 14, 2001 at 06:23:53PM +0300, Nick Kurshev wrote:
> 
> Hello, Brian!

Hi Nick.

> Then XPert2000 Pro (PCI) - it's even cheaper of Radeon VE.

It doesn't seem to come in a PCI version according to ATI's own
product spec sheet.

http://www.ati.com/na/pages/products/pc/xpert2000_pro/index.html

> Are you newbie?

Uhhhhhm.  Nope.

> Indeed there are no difference between PCI and AGP from programming point.

Tell that to A'rpi.  He says that the radeon_vid framebuffer driver
was designed to work with AGP only:

http://mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/mplayer-users/2001-December/014053.html

> My AGP is detected as PCI 1:0:0 slot.

So does my G400 and it is seen as a PCI device too:

00.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Graphics, Inc. MGA G400 AGP (rev 04)

but who am I to argue with A'rpi about whether the driver in his
package will work on a given piece of hardware or not?

> So it's no problem.

I think now we have conflicting opinions.  How do we resolve?  Anyone
out there using radeon_vid with a PCI Radeon.

> Indeed there are other improvements like up(down)scaling without quality degradation
> and some other. But mainstream of those feature is under development and currently
> is not supported.

So the Mach64's don't have that feature?  But that feature on cards
that do support it is not currently being used?

> IMHO - for X11 it's unknown PCI ID only ;) Because there no difference
> between Mach64 and 3d rage from video overlay point.

I will have to take your word on that.

> Do you mean - in Russia or in the world entire?

Anywhere.

> Try compute bandwidth of video stream for 2000x2000 at 32*30fps and you'll find
> that only AGP slot is good for that.

But where are you getting 2000x2000 at 32*30fps video streams?  How soon
do you expect to be getting them?  Surely not before another video
card upgrade.

> For K7 (200MHz of bus) you can use upto 6 PCI cards or (1 AGP4x + 1 PCI
> without losing of performance)

But performance has already been demonstrated to not be an issue.
Noobdy (definately not me) is going to be playing any streams that
even come close taxing a single PCI slot.  And I certainly do not plan
on using more than one video card.  I do have an MB with no AGP slot
though.

> > > FYI: radeonfb doesn't support TV-out. (only GATOS and VESA)
> > 
> > You mean the radeon framebuffer with Mplayer does not support TV-Out?
> > 
> With mplayer or without mplayer - it doesn't matter.

No, I was asking if the radeon_vid frame buffer that is *distributed*
with Mplayer supports TV-Out or not.  I am guessing not.

> radeonfb is kernel module but mplayer just uses it.

I understand that.

> I guess - every modern card has HW scaling ;)

Uhm, unless you cripple a G400 (so that it essentially is a single
headed card instead of the dual heads it does have) it does *NOT* have
HW scaling on it's TV-Out port.

> About TV-out - only matrox has support it on framebuffers.

Really?  Is that really it?  The *only* card that has TV-Out in it's
framebuffer driver is the Matrox G400?  ~sigh~  It's a mighty
expensive card (if you can even find one these days) to use for
displaying video on a TV.

> VESA is only graphics server (although mplayer can output on it too)
> It switches modes and enables tv-out on (rage128) radeons.
> but radeon_vid (kernel module) is used over VESA.
> For detail - read mplayer's TFM.

OK.  VESA mode looks like it has shitty performance.  Unless you use
radeon or rage128 in which case it's VESA with backend scaling.  VESA
also allows the use of TV-Out, but then there is a statement about
TV-Out not working for radeons.  I am even more confused now.

> If you are interesting with speed then better choice for you - it's
> mga_vid or radeon_vid (over framebuffer or vesa).

radeon_vid does not support TV-Out though and mga_vid requires too
expensive (and AGP!) hardware that is no longer generally available
for purchase.  G400 is out of production from what I can determine.

> framebuffer based gui is already implemented (but mlpayer doesn't use that)

I did find some infos on framebuffer GUIs -- GTKFB for instance.

I am starting to believe that what I want to do cannot be done with
Mplayer.  It does not seem possible to use Mplayer on a framebuffer
device that has HW scaling and TV-Out on reasonably priced (PCI)
hardware.

b.

-- 
Brian J. Murrell