Jerry Callison wrote:
If I am following the idea correctly, the hardware MPEG decoder chip would be embedded in the Sun Ray.
The Sunray 1 G already has a DVD/MPEG decoder chip onboard (Radeon 7000).
The primitives in the Appliance Link Protocol would need to be augmented to support streaming the raw MPEG data, feeding it to the decoder chip, and then displaying it at some location in the screen buffer. SRSS would need to know when and how to invoke the new primitives.
Correct!
There would probably need to be a custom codec or driver installed in Solaris and/or Windows. Right now, SRSS does not "know" than an MPEG stream is being rendered.
Correct. SRSS only knows if you use libutmedia which no one does :-( Can Xvideo extensions and or WinFX help with this?
The custom codec could tell SRSS when and where the video is being displayed. It would also prevent the "real" decoding and rendering from taking place on the server.
You don't want all the different codecs on the sunray. 1 mpeg codec for decoding is all you need in the sunray firmware. None mpeg video streams need to be translated to mpeg on the fly. This generates load but it should be able to offload this to a special card or other server. I know a company who is specialised in doing this for IPTV so if Sun needs a hand I could help out.
This highlights one of the benefits of this solution: An SRSS server today can render only a very limited number of MPEG streams due to high CPU utilization of the decoder. By offloading the decoding to each terminal, that same SRSS server could simultaneously stream the coded MPEG data to dozens (or perhaps hundreds) of terminals.
Yep! Correct again.
All in all this is an interesting idea. -jerry
I think so too, Ivar _______________________________________________ SunRay-Users mailing list [email protected] http://www.filibeto.org/mailman/listinfo/sunray-users
