[MPlayer-users] Not able to turn on DMA for DVD drive in RHL8.0

softrade peter at softrade.com.au
Thu Mar 6 05:56:44 CET 2003


Have swapped the Video Card with the ones mentioned in the Mplayer DOCS as OK
but I have not noticed a huge change in performance.
The system works well under Windows running software Cinemaster and PowerDVD. I
would expect that the open source model would be heaps better since so many
users have contributed feedback.

I also suspected the crappy sound card and also changed that. I even changed to
a completely different Motherboard and CPU (AOPEN & PIII 800 MHZ CPU) Yes this
was a faster result but still not as good as under Windows Software Cinmaster
on the PII400. I noticed that the drive led under windows was continiously
flashing but under Linux it was noticably slower. The only difference that
stands out is the DMA enable. If I turn of the DMA to the DVD-ROM in Windows
the led flashes and about the same rate as the current config in linux. Why
can't I turn DMA on is the question? Why does hdparm tell me the operation not
permitted?

Michael Osten wrote:

> [Automatic answer: RTFM (read DOCS, FAQ), also read DOCS/bugreports.html]
> On Wed, 2003-03-05 at 21:03, softrade wrote:
> > [Automatic answer: RTFM (read DOCS, FAQ), also read DOCS/bugreports.html]
> > ----
> >
>
> > Have just installed Mplayer on my PII400 box. I have an Intel SE440
> > Motherboard and a 740Intel AGP Card. The performance is slow and I
> > believe it is because I can not invoke the DMA on with either the hdparm
> > -d1 command or echo command or by creating a harddisk file in the
> > /etc/sysconfig directory.
> > hdparm gives the reply operation not permitted. I know the drive &
> > chipset is DMA capible as it runs software cinemaster and powerdvd OK
> > under Windows 98 with DMA activated and is about the same speed as
> > Mplayer is without the dvd rom in non DMA mode.
> >
> > Has anyone had this problem and how did you fix it?? I have read
> > mountains of docs and have run out of ideas.
>
> man hdparm
>
> -d     Disable/enable the "using_dma" flag for this drive.
>               This option only works with a few  combinations  of
>               drives  and  interfaces which support DMA and which
>               are known to the IDE driver (and with all supported
>               XT  interfaces).   In  particular, the Intel Triton
>               chipset is supported for bus-mastered DMA operation
>               with many drives (experimental).  It is also a good
>               idea to use the -X34 option in combination with -d1
>               to  ensure  that the drive itself is programmed for
>               multiword DMA mode2.  Using DMA does not  necessar­
>               ily provide any improvement in throughput or system
>               performance, but many  folks  swear  by  it.   Your
>               mileage may vary.
>
> Its just a guess, but I'd place blame on that crappy video card.
>
> _______________________________________________
> RTFM!!!  http://www.MPlayerHQ.hu/DOCS
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