view DOCS/DXR3 @ 4920:089485d69edd

added notes about enhanced Neomagic and Savage4 drivers

How to use a Sigma Designs Hollywood Plus and/or a Creative DXR3 by David Holm
==============================================================================

Thanks goes out to Daniel Bell for the donation of a brand new 20GB IBM
harddisk.

1. Requirements

 * First of all you will need the DXR3/H+ drivers properly installed.
   Version 0.10.0 or later. You can find it at
   http://dxr3.sourceforge.net/

 * Run <mplayerdir>/configure and make sure that DXR3/H+ support = yes
   if you want to play files other than mpeg libmp1e should be = yes as well
   
 From here on compilation (of at least my code ;) should go without any
 problems.



2. Usage

     -vo dxr3:<devicenum>		For video output :<devicenum> is not
    					needed unless you have more than one
					em8300 device in your computer
     -vo dxr3:noprebuf			Turn of prebuffering. This is only
    					needed if you are having sync issues
					with normal playback, this will make
					playback appear less smooth and will
					not use all available cpu power when
					playing non-mpeg content.
 					 * With prebuffering A-V: should be
					   negative, if it's nonnegative your
					   computer is too slow to properly
					   play the video and you should
					   disble prebuffering if you have
					   sync issues.
 					   Without prebuffering this value
					   should stay close to 0 at all
					   times.
 					 * Some very fast computers seems to
					   have issues with prebuffering.
					   Blame Sigma for that ;).
 					   You can safely use :noprebuf since
					   your machines are fast enough to give
					   you smooth playback anyway.
					 * If you plan to do other stuff that
					   uses resources simultaneously with
					   watching video, this options is
					   probably preffered as it is much less
					   sensitive to syncloss.
					 * If you loose sync do a small seek
					   (using left/right arrow, it will
					   resync)
    -ao oss:<devicefile>		For audio output
    -ac hwac3				For digital audio output instead of
					analog
    -vc mpegpes				For mpeg playback
    -aop list=resample:fout=48000	If samplerate is below 44100Hz
 					This does not work with digital audio
					output (-ac hwac3)
    <devicenum>				Number of device to use for playback
				        (if you	have more than one card.).
					This can usually be left out (-vo dxr3).
					Mandrake 8.1 uses devfs by default. If
					you are running mandrake 8.1 please use
					-vo dxr3:0
    <devicefile>			Normally /dev/em8300_ma or
					/dev/em8300_ma-<devicenum>
					(-ao dxr3:/dev/em8300_ma). If left out
					the default oss device will be used
					(normally soundcard).

MPEG-1, MPEG-2, VCD and DVD Notes
There are some important notes to take into account here for optimum playback.
MPlayer currently does not autodetect that the dxr3 can playback mpegs. So for
mpeg files, dvd's and vcd's you have to add -vc mpegpes to tell mplayer that
you are using a hardware accelerator. Otherwise mplayer will decode the movie
in software, which is much slower.
Note that you cannot use -vc mpegpes with movies that aren't mpeg 1 or 2 or
you will get an error message saying "Can't find codec for video format...".

* If you run mplayer as root, or set userid root it will use your pc's internal
  realtime clockgenerator for syncing. (If your kernel supports it (It's
  located in character devices and called "Enhanced realtime clock support")).
  Some people report that this has improved playback (which it should), but
  others have had problems with it. You will have to experiment yourself with
  this to find your optimum setup.



3. Contacting me

You can contact me either by e-mailing me, <[e-mail]> or by using
icq: 798427
Feedback, bugreports and general suggestions are appreciated (preferably
by e-mail).