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C1000/3x00 General discussions / Video Playback On Your Cxx00

« on: September 13, 2010, 02:50:24 pm »

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!

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C1000/3x00 General discussions / Fbvncserver On The C3100

« on: September 08, 2010, 04:57:15 am »

I finally got fbvncserver working on my c3100. I had the package on my machine, but not installed, for years. I don't remember if I ever tried it or if it ever worked before. But it didn't work this time. After fiddling around I finally got it to work, for the most part. Here are my steps in case anyone else ever tries it and has the same issues.

Getting fbvncserver-c3000_0.9.4-0.2_arm.ipk working on the C3100

Install the package.
Then, as root:

1) "ln -sf /usr/local/bin/fbvncinput /etc/rc.d/init.d/fbvncinput"
because the link from the package is broken (note: if you start this service without rebooting you will be able to start a vnc server and connect to it but you will not be able to send input to the vnc server. Do not run it.)

2) edit all "vncserver_*" files under /usr/local/bin/ and remove the "-r0" from their vnc server launch commands (last line). That option causes vncserver to segfault for some reason. I suspect it is a screen rotation command (0 meaning no rotation) but I was unable to find any info on that command on the web.

3) reboot and then do the screen calibration by taping the very top left and then the very bottom right (including the quick icon area). If you check your running processes you should now have a "tssimd" service running and the kernel module "kbdsim" loaded. If not, then something is still not working.

4) launch the server utility and choose double or normal. I don't think the rotate one works and for me both choices launch a double size server. Oh well. But at least it works now on the c3100 and probably the c3200 as well.
 

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C1000/3x00 General discussions / Opera Keeps Crashing

« on: July 15, 2010, 08:10:39 am »

Lately I can not get Opera (7.30) to stay open on just about any web page. It will just randomly die on me. Sometimes while loading a page, and sometimes while I am scrolling a page. It is to the point it is unusable. I have also tried opera 7.25 and I think a 7.55 version but all have this crashing problem on my c3100.

Anyone have any idea what the issue is here? Are websites using something that causes it to crash? Is opera looking for something on my Zaurus that isn't there anymore?

4

Hardware Mods / Internal Cf Slot Speed?

« on: June 07, 2010, 06:28:45 pm »

I am thinking about replacing my internal microdrive (again) with a compact flash card this time. Anyone know the maximum speed the zaurus can write on that interface? It might even be the same as the external interface in which case I can probably just test it myself before I reopen my Z. It would be pointless to install a card that can be written to at 40mb/s if the zaurus could only go at, for example, 4mb/s.

On a related note, ho can I test it? hdparm? What is the best way to test any cards actual speed?

5

Sharp ROMs / Essid With Spaces?

« on: December 21, 2008, 02:49:31 pm »

As anyone who uses the sharp rom knows, you can't connect to an essid that has a space in the name.  I tried searching these forums but couldn't turn up any info on how to do it. Can the config file be modified to add a space? Is there some manual way to add it? I tried modifying the config with stuff like "ess id" and 'ess id' but no go.

Is there any way?

6

Sharp ROMs / Zrssreader

« on: November 28, 2008, 04:58:37 pm »

I finally found an RSS feed reader for the zaurus and thought I would hare it here just in case anyone else wants it.

http://zaurus.gozaru.jp/zRSSReader.html

I couldn't get it to work with EVERY feed I tried but it works with most.  If anyone knows of any other alternatives let me know!

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Sharp ROMs / Network Doesn't Resume Properly

« on: November 17, 2008, 05:42:55 pm »

I have always had a small problem on my C3100 where if you suspend the zaurus while connected to wifi the connection will not work when unsuspended again.

For example; i'll connect to my AP, everything works fine. Then I suspend the zaurus and then turn it back on the wifi card is still "on" as if it is connected but I can't ping anything any more. I have to then disconnect it and reconnect it to get it to work again.

Anyone ever find a solution to this issue? My old 5600 would always work just fine this way.

8

Sharp ROMs / Bluetooth Pan Network Applet Troubles

« on: November 04, 2008, 05:00:37 pm »

I have been using the pan bluetooth applet to connect to my phone and it seems to work great fot a while. But it eventually does something very strange. The network applet icon will change to the not connected icon (but I will still be connected). Then if I open any new aapplications qtopia will crash and reload and be back to normal again as if nothing happened, the network applet will even show as connected again.  This is very annoying as you can imgine. Anyone use this applet before or experience this? Are there commands to tell the network manager to think it is connected and maybe work around this issue?

Thanks for any pointers. I linked the package below as these forums aren't very zaurus friendly (ironicaly) and the attach function doesn't work.

http://xamindar.tyrannozaurus.com/c3100/In...t_1.0.1_arm.ipk

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Sharp ROMs / Hdh3 Ext3 Conversion Issues

« on: October 29, 2008, 04:43:00 am »

I converted my hdd3 on my c3100 over to ext3 recently to hopefully be gone with the fat32 problems.  But now I have a whole new issue and this one seems random. Sometimes after starting up I will be missing some folders entirely and when I do an ls I get this:

Code: [Select]

ls: cannot access /media/disk/Documents: Input/output error
ls: cannot access /media/disk/dict1: Input/output error
ls: cannot access /media/disk/debian-kernel: Input/output error
ls: cannot access /media/disk/found.000: Input/output error
ls: cannot access /media/disk/zbedic: Input/output error
ls: cannot access /media/disk/pdaxqtrom-0.8.2: Input/output error
debian-kernel  Documents  lost+found       roadmap     zbedic
dict1          found.000  nand-backup      temp
dict2          kdepim     pdaxqtrom-0.8.2  Zaurus_fix
The ones that are empty re the ones that give that input/output error. I just have to reboot until it works.
Any ideas what causes this? When I plug the zaurus into my linux machine to try to get to the files I get these same error messages. I tried an fsck but it reports no problem. Is there a mount option it needs or something?


EDIT: fsck on zaurus reports fine but fsck on the disk when plugged in as a usb drive gives this:

Code: [Select]

Whiterabbit media # fsck.ext3 /dev/sdc
e2fsck 1.41.3 (12-Oct-2008)
The filesystem size (according to the superblock) is 1569960 blocks
The physical size of the device is 521384 blocks
Either the superblock or the partition table is likely to be corrupt!
Abort?
What is causing all this error?

10

Sharp ROMs / Wpa-supplicant For Sharp Rom?

« on: October 23, 2008, 03:11:03 pm »

I have searched and searched but can't find wpa-supplicant for the sharp rom.  Anyone have it or know where to get it? All I can find is cacko info - cacko alreadyhas it installed but sharp rom doesn' as far as I know.

11

Sharp ROMs / Is Root In Nand Really 100% Full?

« on: October 18, 2008, 05:52:13 am »

I need to add a command to one of the startup scripts in the root (normally read only) partition in nand. Does anyone know if that partition is REALLY full as the filesystem reports? Will adding a few bytes to a file tip it over the edge and corrupt the file?

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Sharp ROMs / Can't Open 240x320 Apps As 640x480 Any More

« on: October 12, 2008, 07:11:46 pm »

I was installing some packages on my c3100 and after installing one the screen went all funky. I fixed that by restoring my qpe.conf file (HReverse=1 was missing). But now any of my older applications such as qkonsole will not open at 640x480. And holding the stylus on the icon to get the options to change that don't even show the option any more. \it completely disapeared.

I hope someone knows how to get that back, I suspect a config file somewhere, maybe even qpe.conf.  How can I get that option back?

13

Software / Where Are The Bluetooth Packages?

« on: October 04, 2008, 05:49:22 am »

I'm trying to find:

qtopia-pannetworkapplet 1.0.1
qtopia-bluetoothnetworkapplet 1.0.1
java_slc3000

or are those really outdated and don't work? My understanding it they somehow provide an easier way of setting up a bluetooth pan connection.

If anyone knows a better way to do a bluetooth pan connection on the Sharp rom please let me know. I already have bluetooth installed on the zaurus and it is working.

By the way, it seems to be getting harder and harder to find zaurus packages any more, anyone know where to get them these days?

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Debian / The "1" Key Launches Dillo, How Do I Stop It?

« on: September 13, 2008, 03:58:26 am »

I installed xfce4 and am using it now but whenever I press the "1" key it launched the dillo browser instead of inputting a 1. Anyone know how to stop that or why it's doing it in the first place?

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Accessories / Battery Powered Usb Hub?

« on: September 07, 2008, 12:50:33 am »

I have a usb device that requires more power when pluged into the zaurus. I still need to be mobile so I'm wondering if there are any goot battery powered usb hubs out there that will add the extra power needed to allow powered usb devices to work?  Does anyone know of any?