Playing Video on pdaXrom

[padishah_emperor]

I flashed my 860 to pdaXrom this week end to give it a full workout to see if I can use it permanently.

All the \'issues\' I found were quickly resolvable except one.

The only GUI for mplayer was via, xmms.  Any attempt to configure the mplayer plug in caused a segfault, so I found a workaround for that.

But I got really poor video results, far more inferior than that achievable under Qtopia with Kino2, no full screen and plenty of frame skips.

--EDITED--
I\'ve noticed other requests about this and noone has taken the bait, I\'d would be interested to hear from anyone who has tried to get video working, good or bad.

Or does anyone know how to switch to QVGA as on Qtopia?

Come on, bite...

[OpKnight]

Add \"fs=1\" in the mplayer config file located in \"~/.mplayer/config\".  This will allow the video to run in fullscreen mode.  You may want to add the framedrop option too..

[padishah_emperor]

Tried that one, plus framedrop. I got a frame every 10 seconds or so with popping sounds from the audio.

Have you or anyone got fullscreen @ 25 fps, I could with Kino2. I want to watch full length movies as I usually do for trips etc.

Did sashz ever make an mplayer with vidix driver? I know he said he would in an old thread.

[hwkeye]

Hi Emperor,

in Kino2, best video I can have is DivX5 Quality based 2 (600kps) @ 15 fps. I am looking also for enable QVGA with mplayer, but I think there is no way. I read somewhere that pdaXrom already use 640x480, it is why we can not get QVGA enabled.

What are your setting for your movies ? for Kino2.

If someone could help us to find an issue for enable QVGA, it could be very useful.

[padishah_emperor]

I use mencoder on my Debian to produce wmv files with MP3 audio at the moment, but I am revising that at the moment. My current encodes are designed for small storage so I get about 1 - 1.5 MB per min, the pay off is the images can get blocky during movement on the screen, but ok at arm\'s length, it serves my needs.

Stigmata comes to 126.6MB
Futurama episode 28MB

Video
 vcodec=wmv1
 vbitrate=64
 vhq
 24 fps
 320x240

Audio
 mp3lame
 vol=3
 cbr
 br=96
 srate=44100

On the Z I followed instructions posted somewhere here on ZUG to remove Kino\'s mplayer and install a newer faster one.

[pmf]

Or does anyone know how to switch to QVGA as on Qtopia?

You can try shutting down X (killall X) and starting mplayer from the TTY with the appropriate flags (mplayer -vo xvidix or mplayer -vo fbdev).

[padishah_emperor]

Have you actually tried that on pdaXrom? Does it run at full speed, fullscreen?

[javab0y]

I got Matrix Revolutions...whole movie with outstanding results.

I like extremely high quality for my video.  Here is what i got:

Audio - MP3 at 48K and 128K.
Video - DIVX5 Pro, 2 Pass, Ultra Slow for Max Quality coded for 29.97 FPS at 453KB (calculated so as not to exceed 512M).
Using the latest mplayer (v1.00) with the ATI code.

512M for the entire movie.  Its nearly as clear as watching TV...although you can tell a frame drops every once in a while.  Killing processes or a fresh boot on the Z seems to cure this.  Yes I know its big for a movie, but thats the tradeoff for quality.  The pixilated artifacts really get annoying after a while.

When I have time, I may write a howto for video on the Z that is perfect everytime.  It requires the following tools: DVDDecryptor, IFOEdit, VOBRator, DIVX5(Pro) and DVD Tool.  The downside is look for an entire movie to be converted in 5-7 hours depending on length.  But...ooohhhh the quality.

[Synfin0]

I would be very interested in a howto to produce high-quality encodings that are playable on a Z.  Encoding time is no object when compared to the added enjoyment of a movie without pixelation.

[doublec]

Where did you get the v1.00 mplayer with the ATI code from? Is there an IPK available?

[eonblueapocalypse]

well the problem seems to be the audio plugin in pdaXrom. The performance is the same as in kino2 in qtopia when audio is switched from madplay to ffmpeg(thats the standard plugin in pdaXrom mplayer).But i havent managed to play the audio with madplay in pdaXrom with -ao and the plugin. Is it true as the mplayer suggests that it would need a recompilation to support this? When i use -ao sdl there simply is no audio ,but no matter how high quality the video is, it always plays with perfect framerate. Anyone with the kino2 config file in qtopia? maybe there lies an answer

[hwkeye]

For synfin0

To use only with Kino2.
Encoding settings :
Audio - First choice of ogg compression in the list
Video - 320x240 - DivX5 quality Based 2 (97%) - 15 fps

Kino2 decode very well ogg audio compressed, and Video with Quality Based 2 gives a bitrate of 600 Kps.

Now, I begin to encode my DVDs for watching during my transportation to office with these settigns, it was the best setting I can found. any other ideas ?

[padishah_emperor]

Erm, ok..

pmf: That doesn\'t solve the problem, the best I can get outside X is a tiny window, literally 320x240 in the middle of the screen. Making the resolution of the video bigger will cause other problems.

Synfin0: To loose the pixelation, up the bitrate, but not so much that the Z can\'t keep up.

doublec: I\'m trying to get that info for you now ;-) It\'s for Qtopia but I HAVE got it to work under pdaXrom if you remove the existing one by hand. It\'s grief, and made no diffence. Under Qtopia it can crash, but there are less frames dropped. Will PM you or post here.

eonblueapocalypse: Nice pic, nice name, will check that for you, pm me if I forget :-)


Pixelation can be reduced but then there is the space consideration, since my encodes are for on-the-move video, the way I do it now gives the best performance per meg. At arm\'s length it\'s fine and 15 fps is too jerky for me, it gives me a migrane. ;-)

Cheers everyone, keep posting we may hit on the right combo for pdaXrom. Or someone may just fix it!!!! Hint...

[Synfin0]

Thanks hwkeye and padishah.  I\'m just looking for the best combo of framerate and bitrate (and res?) that the Z can handle (not too concerned about file size).

[padishah_emperor]

I\'ve found that on the C860 with the Cacko QT ROM and the newer mplayer, 24 fps is more than doable but I only have 512MB compact flash, and a whole movie can easily go over that. I\'ve got DivX\'s at 384k looking more than acceptable, but they are too big. I like 1 or 2 movies and 3 or 4 albums on my card at once, plus docs, pdf, pics, ebooks etc....

Resolution wise 320x240 is optimal, with pixalation reduced the results on a small screen are stunning (it\'s only a bit smaller than VCD), you will have severe problems over that size and you will increase pixelation with any other resolution but 160x120 - no good.

Of course this was all on Qtopia, different magic may be needed for pdaXrom, but I\'m not flashing back to it until video improves, playing movies is a feature I use and I don\'t want to give it up, no matter how sexy pdaXrom is, and oh boy it is!

can someone give me the output of mplayer -vo help