Video Playback On Your Cxx00, The hard way Options

[xamindar]

Well seeing the dvd catalyst post inspired me to post my video experience with my c3100. Here is my way of doing it which makes stable, smooth, clear enough movies just about every time.
I use handbrake which is free so no need to spend any money at all. Handbrake is best ripping from DVDs. I also use a mencoder script ro convert anything else that handbrake doesn't like. I attached my handbrake profile below which includes my zaurus encoding info.
This encodes with settings:
mpeg4
640x480 resolution
600kbps (2-pass) video
96kbps audio (faac)
default video framerate (doesn't change it)

packages needed to get this playing smoothly:
kino2_0.4.3c_arm.ipk or QuasarMediaPlayer_0.96_r193_r31-2010-03-28.ipk for a player
mplayer-bvdd-iwmmxt_1.1.5-1_arm.ipk which has hardware acceleration with bvdd
bvdd_0.4.0-1_arm.ipk for the kernel module
libffmpeg_0.4.6_20030304_arm.ipk for the video codec (I think, been a while)
You also need a kernel that allows overclocking the cpu. Tetsus or eviljazz should work. I am using eviljazz's.
qtopia-combbatteryapplet_1.0.6_arm.ipk to overclock from an applet easily

The best results I have had is to overclock to the (520/260/130 Mhz) setting. Anything higher and it is more choppy and can lock up and anything lower and the framerate drops.
Load up kino2 or quasar. I find quasar better for playback control but they both work fine either way.
Quasar: In the quasar configuration have all the boxes checked under "MPlayer" section, my cache is set to 512 KiB. Also add "-noslices -noaspect" to the addtional options. Noslices really speeds up framrate and makes it play smooth. You can set frame drop to normal or hard. Mine is set to hard right now but occasionally you will come across a video that will crash mplayer on hard, in that case just set it back to normal.
Kino2: In kino2 preferences on the general tab check "enable cache" and set it to 512, and add "-noslices" to the "options for mplayer" section. On the Video tab, only check "Drop frames", "Enable Doublebuffering", Disable aspect ratio correction", and "Enable audio autosync". And on the audio tab do not check "Resample audio", it will slow it down a little. Other options are up to you. Another nice thing about kino2 is that it can overclock automaticly for you when you play a video so you don't have to do it manually.

Now encode your video with handbrake, copy it to your Z, and play it with kino2 OR quasar. Remember to overclock or it wont play smooth. Surprising that overclocking makes such a big difference but it does. You might be able to increase the video bitrate a little. I got some videos to play smoothly on up to 1000kbps settings but not all. (I think I will try re-encoding Avatar to a higher than 600kbps setting as that movie looks more blocky than others). The bandwith of the SD slot seems just over 1mb/s and the CF slot is just a little higher than that so it limits the bitrate of the videos quite a bit. CF slot is probably better to use but all my movies play smooth from the SD slot at 600kbps.

White screen problem: With using the bvdd driver for video playback comes another issue. I found that after 5 minutes of playback my screen would go all white all of a sudden in a manner that looks like the zaurus locked up or crashed. I then had to hit cancel a bunch of times and turn off and on my Z until I got the screen back. At first I thought it was a bug in the driver or the overclocking was overheating the Z but that's not the case. It turns out when the screensaver kicks in it causes this. At least it is a simple and easy fix; disable the screensaver. Edit /home/zaurus/settings/qpe.conf and set to "Interval_AC_Screensaver = 0" to disable the screensaver on AC and "Interval = 0" to disable screensaver on battery. Problem solved.

Good luck! I still haven't found a phone/pda that can do what the Z still does today!

Attached File(s)

 Handbrake_My_Devices.zip ( 1.52K ) Number of downloads: 9
 overclock.jpeg ( 69.64K ) Number of downloads: 21

 

[agosine]

Hi xamindar, can you post your mencoder script? I have lots of tv shows recorded with MythTV that I would like to convert and take with me on my Zaurus.