view DOCS/DXR3 @ 4617:1bd05178a74d

"I finished the rest of the german documentation and fixed some html-files. Everything should now be up-to-date." - Jonas Jermann

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.
 					Note: 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.
 					Note2: 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.
    -ao oss:<devicefile>		For audio output
    -ac hwac3				For digital audio output instead of
					analog
    -vc mpegpes				For mpeg playback
    -scalefactor <float>		Set the scale factor for libavcodec.
					1.0 = Normal res
					2.0 = Double res
					0.5 = Half res
					You get the drift, anyway, this is useful for those of you
					on slower machines who would want to watch that brand new
					divx file, just set this to a value as close to 1.0 as
					possible where you still get decent playback speed.
    -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).