Re: [vdr] PCI fun (RGB/PAL over VGA at variable frame rate)
On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 03:08:14PM +0200, Theunis Potgieter wrote: > I found this to be useful for me, however I'm using [EMAIL PROTECTED] and not > NTSC > colour encoding. > > http://www.linuxis.us/linux/media/howto/linux-htpc/video_card_configuration.html > > Nice background information. Right - some nice info. But the vga-sync-fields patch now voids some statements. It's no longer true that softdecoders must sync to the graphics card. In our case it's the other way round. As it should be. The patch of course is for [EMAIL PROTECTED] though NTSC should also be possible. In the meantime I issued a few more releases of the vga-sync-fields patch. Version vga-sync-fields-0.0.7 together with xineliboutput Version 1.0.1 or newer and parameter setting xineliboutput.Advanced.LiveModeSync = 0 give very good results for both viewing recordings and Live-TV. The system is already productive here. I will describe the new setup in my next release. Cheers Thomas ___ vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr
Re: [vdr] PCI fun (RGB/PAL over VGA at variable frame rate)
I found this to be useful for me, however I'm using [EMAIL PROTECTED] and not NTSC colour encoding. http://www.linuxis.us/linux/media/howto/linux-htpc/video_card_configuration.html Nice background information. On 17/08/2008, Thomas Hilber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Sun, Aug 17, 2008 at 04:31:58PM +0100, Gavin Hamill wrote: > > CPU usage rather than userspace. Due to the critical timing nature of > > the patches, they need to have nearly the whole machine to themselves, > > > the patches are time critical as far as xine itself must time the > frames very accurately. > > Even my old 800Mhz Pentium with AGP-Radeon shows that indeed every > 4usecs +-35usecs a frame comes to Xserver's PutImage(). > > It's by far not neccessary for the patches to work to get frames that > accurately but it shows what is possible even on old and slow hardware. > > On Gavin's machine with PCI DMA problems we instead timed > 4usecs +-21000usecs a frame comes to the Xserver's PutImage(). > > That is way too unstable. I think xine itself also can't cope with that. > At least it will show heavy jerkyness. > > Nonetheless I today released a new version of the patches with 100% > lesser sensivity to timing problems (see announcement of today). > > Cheers > >Thomas > > > > ___ > vdr mailing list > vdr@linuxtv.org > http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr > ___ vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr
Re: [vdr] PCI fun (RGB/PAL over VGA at variable frame rate)
On Sun, Aug 17, 2008 at 04:31:58PM +0100, Gavin Hamill wrote: > CPU usage rather than userspace. Due to the critical timing nature of > the patches, they need to have nearly the whole machine to themselves, the patches are time critical as far as xine itself must time the frames very accurately. Even my old 800Mhz Pentium with AGP-Radeon shows that indeed every 4usecs +-35usecs a frame comes to Xserver's PutImage(). It's by far not neccessary for the patches to work to get frames that accurately but it shows what is possible even on old and slow hardware. On Gavin's machine with PCI DMA problems we instead timed 4usecs +-21000usecs a frame comes to the Xserver's PutImage(). That is way too unstable. I think xine itself also can't cope with that. At least it will show heavy jerkyness. Nonetheless I today released a new version of the patches with 100% lesser sensivity to timing problems (see announcement of today). Cheers Thomas ___ vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr
Re: [vdr] PCI fun (RGB/PAL over VGA at variable frame rate)
On Sun, 2008-08-17 at 03:41 +0200, Artur Skawina wrote: > PCI in general should be perfectly fine, for SDTV at least. > While displaying SDTV (vdrsxfe) I see ~20% cpu use for X on AGP, ~44% on PCI > (same machine, different heads, AGP is MGA450, PCI is MGA200). Yes, 40% CPU has been what I've seen. The problem is that it's system CPU usage rather than userspace. Due to the critical timing nature of the patches, they need to have nearly the whole machine to themselves, thus DMA PCI overhead causing things to be a 'a bit sticky' is just too much :/ > You could probably do some setpci tweaks to improve PCI throughput, but > I doubt the gain would be enough (I'd expect 10% improvement or so). I did try to twiddle with setting PCI latency timers but it had no measurable effect.. Cheers, Gavin. ___ vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr
Re: [vdr] PCI fun (RGB/PAL over VGA at variable frame rate)
Gavin Hamill wrote: > Over the last days, Thomas and I have been trying to sort out why my > nearly-identical machine couldn't run his VGA sync patches properly. > > The key difference is my Radeon 7000VE is PCI, whilst his is AGP. I > tried the PCI Radeon in two old Pentium-3 era machines, and on my modern > Pentium D930 desktop, all with the same behaviour - fullscreen video > over PCI causes huge CPU usage in the Xorg process, even when using xv > 'acceleration'. > > When I switch the PCI Radeon for a PCI Express X300 (the very lowest 'X' > series you can get), everything is glorious: Xorg CPU use is barely 1%. > > Unfortunately I don't have any machines with both AGP and PCI on which > I can try the same OS image but we both think it's safe to conclude that > PCI is just unsuitable for this task. PCI in general should be perfectly fine, for SDTV at least. While displaying SDTV (vdrsxfe) I see ~20% cpu use for X on AGP, ~44% on PCI (same machine, different heads, AGP is MGA450, PCI is MGA200). The huge difference is likely due to something else, like - display (X) driver (but even drivers which just memcpy the video data to the (xv) framebuffer should work on a modern machine) - PCI chipset (eg I had a VIA-based mobo, and it couldn't even keep up with SDTV on a PCI head, swapping the mobo for one w/ a real chipset made all problems suddenly disappear...) You could probably do some setpci tweaks to improve PCI throughput, but I doubt the gain would be enough (I'd expect 10% improvement or so). artur ___ vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr
Re: [vdr] PCI fun (RGB/PAL over VGA at variable frame rate)
Theunis Potgieter wrote: > Would be nice if someone could test the AMD Athlon 64 2000+ on a AMD > platform, the 780G chip set on a microATX board, because it can do HD > resolution (1920x1200) with high picture quality is possible through > DVI/HDMI ports. Hardware decoding of H.264 isn't supported in linux. Software decoding even 720p H.264 might be impossible with 1 GHz processor. ___ vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr
Re: [vdr] PCI fun (RGB/PAL over VGA at variable frame rate)
Would be nice if someone could test the AMD Athlon 64 2000+ on a AMD platform, the 780G chip set on a microATX board, because it can do HD resolution (1920x1200) with high picture quality is possible through DVI/HDMI ports. On 16/08/2008, Gavin Hamill <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi all, > > Over the last days, Thomas and I have been trying to sort out why my > nearly-identical machine couldn't run his VGA sync patches properly. > > The key difference is my Radeon 7000VE is PCI, whilst his is AGP. I > tried the PCI Radeon in two old Pentium-3 era machines, and on my modern > Pentium D930 desktop, all with the same behaviour - fullscreen video > over PCI causes huge CPU usage in the Xorg process, even when using xv > 'acceleration'. > > When I switch the PCI Radeon for a PCI Express X300 (the very lowest 'X' > series you can get), everything is glorious: Xorg CPU use is barely 1%. > > Unfortunately I don't have any machines with both AGP and PCI on which > I can try the same OS image but we both think it's safe to conclude that > PCI is just unsuitable for this task. > > Many thanks to Thomas for writing the patches in the first place, and > also for the time he's spent logged into my machine remotely trying to > solve the problem! > > Cheers, > Gavin. > > > ___ > vdr mailing list > vdr@linuxtv.org > http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr > ___ vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr
Re: [vdr] PCI fun (RGB/PAL over VGA at variable frame rate)
Hi all, Over the last days, Thomas and I have been trying to sort out why my nearly-identical machine couldn't run his VGA sync patches properly. The key difference is my Radeon 7000VE is PCI, whilst his is AGP. I tried the PCI Radeon in two old Pentium-3 era machines, and on my modern Pentium D930 desktop, all with the same behaviour - fullscreen video over PCI causes huge CPU usage in the Xorg process, even when using xv 'acceleration'. When I switch the PCI Radeon for a PCI Express X300 (the very lowest 'X' series you can get), everything is glorious: Xorg CPU use is barely 1%. Unfortunately I don't have any machines with both AGP and PCI on which I can try the same OS image but we both think it's safe to conclude that PCI is just unsuitable for this task. Many thanks to Thomas for writing the patches in the first place, and also for the time he's spent logged into my machine remotely trying to solve the problem! Cheers, Gavin. ___ vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr
