Anyone using mplayer on a framebuffer?

[Master Ki Adi Mundi]

Anyone using mplayer on a framebuffer rather than in X windows. This is possible, right? I am also wondering about the framebuffer / TV Out combination using something like a Matrox or similar.

[blixi]

I have used it with fbdev and directfb. So it is possible and have a good quality. If you want to use tv-out a matrox G400 is the preferable card, since it is very good suported by mplayer (the main developer is using a G400 as I've read.)

On other cards vesa-out should be a solution and on nvidia nvtvd & fb/directfb is worth a try.

Hope this helps a littlebit ...

Greets

Steffen

[Nosferatu]

I was using VESA & FBDeV quite long time, but switched to Xv for good.
Both VESA & FBDeV are outdated and very slow.
FbDeV detects my Geforce as Riva TNT....no comment
If you decide to use VESA you're condemned for software scaling. F.g. you want to view movies in fullscreen mode:
./mplayer -vo vesa -vc ffodivx -screenw 1024 -screenh 768 -zoom -sws 2 -x 1024 -y <from equation below> /root/x.avi
If movie has 2.35 aspect ratio then y=1024/2.35....these calculations may be annoying for impatient people.

[Master Ki Adi Mundi]

Thanks for the replies. I assume that using the TV out on the GeForce provides a full overscan output?

[((( atom )))]

@nosferatu:
strange.. when i use -vo vesa -fs -zoom with my tnt2-card it scales every movie with the right aspects to fullscreen and uses the least processing-power of all -vo, so my conclusion is, that that actually enables hw-scaling for my card. (tnt2)

my mplayer runs on a amd k62/400 and with software-scaling there is no way to play a 4:3 movie with res 512:xxx. blows the processor to a 100% and stutters like bob. with vesa it stays around 50%-60%, so thats a sign.

also i experienced very nice quality with both fbdev and vesa.

have you tried these settings? either the result differs enormously from card to card - wich might be - or you condemned you machine to software-scaling with -sws.

also my recommodation in terms of stability is vesa and fbdev, but different people make different experiences.

regards

[Rasi]

I never was able to watch a movie in fullscreen with fbdev...


always it adds black borders around the original size... só there is no scaling.

vesa didnt work either... could only start it as root.. guess that is normal, but play back doesnt start at all...

maybe the commandline is wrong?

mplayer -vo vesa -fs -zoom bla.avi

[((( atom )))]

@rasi

sounds like your framebuffer is set to a resolution above 640x480. when you keep it right at 640x480 you can watch every movie with that res. in fullscreen without problems.

nice one: if you load the framebuffer as a module and not with lilo, you can afterwards set different resolutions for each console. this way you don't have to stick with the uncomfortable 640x480 for the rest of your doings. also i figured, that when there is a specific framebuffer for you card, loading it sets up the correct mtrr-registers, wich really can boost up performance quite a bit and might enable you to use software-scaling sith your framebuffer also on slow machines in order to get fullscreen-output.

you commandline btw is ok and should actually work. what graficscard are you using? when it refuses to play back, what is it telling you? if it tells you nothing - most unlikely - try and put strace in front of your commandline and try to analyse the output. strace very often helps to fix problems..

[Nosferatu]

Originally posted by ((( atom )))
@nosferatu:
strange.. when i use -vo vesa -fs -zoom with my tnt2-card it scales every movie with the right aspects to fullscreen and uses the least processing-power of all -vo...

Options -fs & -zoom give you correct aspect ratio ?
I guess I'm using outdated MPlayer :D
Actually SDL & Xv use least proccessing power of all video output drivers available in MPlayer.
Option -sws <value> is only software scaler type and value 3 gives experimental, fastest, high quality resizer.
I used software scaling only with VESA, situation is a bit different with FbDeV which has to be set up during kernel configuration and resolution of the console may be changed in lilo.conf
F.g. vga=791 means 1024x768x256 mode and etc...

[((( atom )))]

situation is a bit different with FbDeV which has to be set up during kernel configuration and resolution of the console may be changed in lilo.conf
nope! -didn't get my post? lets say your card-specific framebuffer is called atyfb (for ati-cards) simply do modprobe atyfb and: voila - framebuffer switches on with mtrr set up. now all you have to do is edit /etc/fb.modes and there change the color-depth from 8 to 16, 24 or 32, because mplayer doesn't like 8bit depths. last step is: fbset [desired modename from /etc/fb.modes/] and your framebuffer will switch to that res. on that particular console. -a would do that for all of them.
Options -fs & -zoom give you correct aspect ratio ?
yes.

[Rasi]

@ ((( atom )))

the error that occurs is : Segmentation fault


i tried to set a different resolution in the lilo.conf, but it always uses 800x600 whatever i tell him to use... will play around with it a bit tho... if 640x480 works thats a start...


i would prefer directfb anyway. but somehow i am to stupid.. i installed it, mplayer finds it, but there still is an error while ./configure'ing with directfb

[TactX]

Originally posted by Rasi
i would prefer directfb anyway. but somehow i am to stupid.. i installed it, mplayer finds it, but there still is an error while ./configure'ing with directfb

What does it say ? Maybe we can help you with that...

[Rasi]

i will write it down.. have no net at home at the moment...

[((( atom )))]

well.. i won't post it again: why not load the framebuffer as a module and not during boot?!

[blixi]

I can recommend for video playback on htpc theati rage 128. This one is particular cheap (around 40 Eur) has a real great tv-out. the tv-out is on at boot time if an tv is connected.

Problems I had during my tests so far:

1) I didn't know about the possibility to load it as module and how to configure it
2) I had a small black bar at the upper and the left side (maybe because of 1) ?
3) fbdev in cvs was broken ;) As stated above , in current cvs it is working again.

the tip with the atyfb modul is awfull, there is too an aty128fb with mtrr support _and_ hardware acceleration. I guess I have to build my htpc fast ;)


Greets

Steffen