Dear Marc,

Thank you very much for your mail with answers!
I hope ATI chipset support on Linux (and FreeBSD) platform will improve 
dramaticaly during next 6 months.
For the next purchase (of notebook or ultra-portable computer), I will 
consider Radeon Mobile as possible option. As far as I know, Radeon drivers 
are now under development (VA Linux?), and I hope these drivers will support 
TV-out and Video-In (and TV-in on All-in-Wonder Radeon).
>From information what I have seen on ATI site, Radeon VIVO 
(Video-In/Video-Out) is the best corresponding to my needs. Unfortunately, 
there is no info available about this solution for notebooks. 

On 21 ?????? 2000 03:35, Marc Aurele La France wrote:
|   On Wed, 8 Nov 2000, Vadim Plessky wrote:
|   > I would like to request several features/possibilities for ATI Rage
|   > Mobility video driver. I have Compaq Presario 1800-XL186 notebook with
|   > ATI Rage Mobility/8MB.
|   >
|   > 1) native hardware 3D-acceleration
|
|   This is being developed by someone at VA Linux, on a "free-time" basis.

Ok, I just want to add that, in my honest opinion, ATI should support this 
effort. There are 10 million ATI Rage Mobile chips sold, according to 
November 2000 ATI press release.
Without 3D acceleration in Xfree86, these ATI customers can't use all 
advantages of chip, what they already paid for.
What I have seen on several lists (Xfree86, Mandrake, DRI, Livid) and on 
private mails, there are many laptop owners which struggle with different 
problems, even initial XFree86 installation. (as XF 3.3.6 had limited Rage 
Mobility support, and some distributions, like RedHat 7, install it even now, 
in Nov. 2000). Major brands to mention: DELL, Compaq, HP , IBM.
If we take minimal Lunux User Base approximation (5%), there are about 500 
000 (five hundred thousands) of ATI Rage Mobile users with Linux :-)
  I know statistics is a tricky thing, but there are much , much more users 
of Rage Mobile then of Trident/Silicon Motion/S3 together. Neomagic, 
probably, 
holds the second place, but there are no issues about DRI support for it, as 
it doesn't have 3D. I was using it on IBM Thinkpad 390 laptop, and TP 390 
didn't have TV-out at all :-). So, nothing to discuss/complain about 
Neomagic. 
But, ATI is strong name in notebook accelerators now, Fujitsu-Siemens picked 
it up for latest models. What we can do to ensure that it works with Linux?
(I can note, that I received no official answer from ATI, only auto-response)
 We need to inform ATI Technologies about our needs, do not keep silience.

|   > 2) TV -out
|   > Following link:
|   > "Is TV Out support available for ATI products under Linux?
|   > ATI is investigating the possibility of supporting TV Out under Linux.
|   > Please refer back to this web page to keep up to date on developments
|   > regarding TV Out support."
|   > is not updated already for 3 months, I checked it before at the
|   > beginning of August 2000.
|   > This feature is critical for me, as I can't make out-of door
|   > presentations with my laptop without it.
|   > Situation with RGB-out external video connector is also not clear for
|   > me.
|
|   TVOut on Mach64 variants is already available through the GATOS project
|   (search the Web for it).  This code hasn't been integrated because it has
|   yet to satisfy certain completeness criteria (works with noaccel,
|   nolinear, frees allocated structures, etc).

Ok, thank you. I am trying now to compile/install several parts of Livid 
project. 
Openly speaking, it will be much better to have such functionality operating 
out-of-the-box.  About out-of-the-box I understand - "after installation of 
latest distribution". I just installed Linux Mandrake 7.2, it works (2D) 
great, but of course I'd like to see TV-out control and 3D acceleration.  
TV-out control should be the same look'n'feel like ATI developed for Windows 
98. Please pass this message to ATI - I am on different continent, over the 
ocean, and can't meet them personally.

|   > 3) full-screen video operations,
|   > like full-screen Video Playback in KDE2's Media Player, KAIMAN.
|   > While MPEG playback undef XFree is operational with KAIMAN, due to ATI
|   > driver's limitation it is not possible to have full-screen playback .
|   > According to developers, XV support is needed for this and currently it
|   > is present for Matrox and NVidia cards, but not for ATI.
|
|   See 3) above

Ok, I really want to check it now. Just bought MPEG4 video disk on weekend, 
playback under Windows is very smooth. And whole title (Star Wars Ep.1) in 
MPEG4 is on one CD, not DVD. Of course, it is Video-CD quality, but worth to 
consider.

|   > 4) dual-monitor (second-monitor) feature
|
|   This is already supported, but both outputs see the same timings.  To do
|   otherwise requires a kernel-level mechanism that can be used to notify
|   XFree86 drivers when hotkeys are pressed or when equipment is hot-plugged
|   in or out.  Standardising this is being thought about but no firm plans
|   yet.

ok, I see... Thanks.  
|   > I am also wondring if Motion Compensation is supported in XF 4.0.1
|   > driver, as it is a must for DVD playback. Compaq Presario 1800 comes
|   > with DVD drive as standard.
|
|   See 3) above.
|
|   Marc.
|   |  Marc Aurele La France           |  work:   1-780-492-9310           |
|   |  Computing and Network Services  |  fax:    1-780-492-1729           |
|   |  352 General Services Building   |  email:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]          |
|   XFree86 Core Team member.  ATI driver and X server internals.

-- 
Vadim Plessky
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