just built a "standalone" linux-player and it rocks! : )

[((( atom )))]

hi all,

after my last recent major windows-crash wich kept me from being able to use my (main)-pc (so also from watching movies), i decided to build a standalone linux-box to play mpeg4s directly. all i had left was a k62 400, so i wondered...

that was an hour ago! now i sit here and watch a 16:9 640xXXX (that makes quite some pixels) divx with ac3-sound _directly from the command-line - no x_ in best quality without any jerkyness! i wanna see windows do THAT! LOL!

for everybody that is into it: i used redhat 8.0, installed mplayer, wich supports all codecs and even ac3 out of the box. it runs on the framebuffer-device and tv-out doesn't even has to be turned on, since it is on, when my tv is in when i boot up and stay in console-mode.

whole installation took me under 45 mins. next i will add a remote-eye, work out some passive cooling and put in a huge harddrive :) - voila: the standalone fo $€0wich wich will probably never crash as long as i live.

actually anybody could build such thing, even when not being too familiar with linux, since all i did was doing a standard-installation + installing 1 software-package.

guess i will never use my winbox again to watch a movie...

/bestmoodedmantoday -> ((( atom )))

[mpucoder]

Which package, KDE? (Oh, no - MPUCoder has a linux box?)

[TactX]

Originally posted by mpucoder
Which package, KDE?

((( atom ))) is not running X, and so he did propably not install KDE ;)

That's the good thing about MPlayer, you do not need a X-server to play movies.

[((( atom )))]

@mpu: just set up your framebuffer and tell mplayer to use it [-vo fbdev].

in case you are unfamiliar with fb: add vga=[videomode] to your lilo.conf, run lilo and fire it up. i used 785 so i get a non-rescaled image on 640xXXX-movies. there also is a "driver" called vidix, wich can speed up encoding mighty again. [-vo fbdev:vidix]

also very nice is the abilitie of my box to act as a server (samba) in my windows network, so i can use it to store my movies directly on the player. i won't even have to get up to choose one and put it in, if i get any interface working soon. :)


Color depth | 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024
------------------------+------------------------------------------
256 ( 8bit) | 769 771 773 775
32000 (15bit) | 784 787 790 793
65000 (16bit) | 785 788 791 794
16.7 Mill. (24bit) | 786 789 792 795


[edit]
..sorry for the fu**ed up list, the board reformatted it somehow and i am short of time. i'm sure you'll get the point of it, anyway..

[redcane]

Originally posted by mpucoder
Which package, KDE? (Oh, no - MPUCoder has a linux box?)

No KDE, just the Mplayer package.

[TactX]

propably off-topic, but what is the real difference between fbdev adn dga (Direct Graphics Access) ?
Both do not need X, and both write directly to the frame-buffer AFAIK.

[((( atom )))]

> > Could someone help me out and tell me what the differences are between fbdev and the DGA extension?
>
>The former is a Linux kernel driver, while the latter is an XFree86
>extension, so basically, they're completely different things. :)

[easyfab]

So if we don't need any x-server to use mplayer it will be easy to do a bootcd with just the kernel, the drivers and mplayer to play a bootable divx/xvid disk. it would be great . I heard about such a project for a while but i don't know if it succeed. has anyone a link?

[TactX]

@ ((( atom )))

Thank you.

@ easyfab

I know exactly which project you're talking about. I've read about it some days ago (just don't know where :( ). It seemed to work quite well though.

But I don't think that this has major advantages over a dedicated movie-player with a custom linux on it.
And using these CDs would require to re-burn all your movies (on which space is sometimes rare).

[cjv]

@ ((( atom ))):

Thanks for the great report. I'm just wondering what graphics card/TV-out you're using. I have an old rage128 and celeron 500 just gathering dust...I figured it wasn't powerful enough to play full-res divx w/ac3, but now I just may give it a shot.

cjv

[((( atom )))]

@cjv,

i use an erazor3 with a tnt2-chipset, wich is very unsupported under linux, since nvidia gave out their own linux-driver (closed source) wich sux. there is a "driver-addon" called vidix wich seems to make use of hardware-accelleration. it works great with ati cards so your 500mhz should be more than enough.

tv-out, especially with ati-cards shoul basically be active when booting with the tv plugged in and there are tools to adjust overscanning ect..

..but here's a link that will blow your mind :)

http://freevo.sourceforge.net/

killer? i'll build it next week :)


[EDIT]

oops, just saw there are even more replies. the distribution <ou might mean is knoppix. very very amazing! check www.knopper.net
it is great, when you donÄt have a notebook and want your own computer to boot up wherever you are but i wouldn't want it for playing movies; i want a standalone with a patient harddrive..

regards

[redcane]

Originally posted by TactX


But I don't think that this has major advantages over a dedicated movie-player with a custom linux on it.
And using these CDs would require to re-burn all your movies (on which space is sometimes rare).

You could just have a "player" cd, boot from it, and then switch to the movie cd..... Or even just access files on a hard drive already in the machine.....

[((( atom )))]

@tactx: found more:

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.

However DGA has some drawbacks. It seems it is somewhat dependent on the graphics chip you use and on the implementation of the X server's video driver that controls this chip. So it does not work on every system ...

[cjv]

Wow, those screenshots of freevo look just awesome!..only one disadvantage I can see is that it might lag on lower end machines because it's written in Python. If my ATI Remote Wonder works with it, I just might have found myself a new project for this weekend. :)

cjv

[TactX]

Originally posted by redcane
You could just have a "player" cd, boot from it, and then switch to the movie cd..... Or even just access files on a hard drive already in the machine.....

What would then be the advantage over a customized linux booting from HD ?


@ ((( atom )))

Thanks again dude :)

I really start thinking about getting a Movie-Box. Based on Debian of course ;)

[((( atom )))]

...somebody was very cool here!
-> http://movix.sourceforge.net/

[Nocturnus]

Originally posted by TactX
I really start thinking about getting a Movie-Box. Based on Debian of course ;)

Debian is too slow. Under Slackware it may be more comfortable.

[TactX]

What makes Slackware faster than Debian in general?

Isn't performance a product of many things like kernel, kernel-modules, running services/deamons and such stuff?