summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorMiguel Freitas <miguelfreitas@users.sourceforge.net>2003-01-07 00:48:52 +0000
committerMiguel Freitas <miguelfreitas@users.sourceforge.net>2003-01-07 00:48:52 +0000
commit0a6d79b007d608896cb39dd47659e9b127b9c112 (patch)
treecfbf0e438a23b1d65935b819a81c209455be4ef5
parent3080a80b5a0791bd8e0fba3ad73fc2bdcd6754e4 (diff)
downloadxine-lib-0a6d79b007d608896cb39dd47659e9b127b9c112.tar.gz
xine-lib-0a6d79b007d608896cb39dd47659e9b127b9c112.tar.bz2
my contributions to faq
add texts and correct sgml parsing CVS patchset: 3803 CVS date: 2003/01/07 00:48:52
Diffstat
-rw-r--r--doc/faq/faq.html597
-rw-r--r--doc/faq/faq.sgml180
-rw-r--r--doc/faq/faq.txt124
3 files changed, 522 insertions, 379 deletions
diff --git a/doc/faq/faq.html b/doc/faq/faq.html
index e4b6cce8a..d2dbf131d 100644
--- a/doc/faq/faq.html
+++ b/doc/faq/faq.html
@@ -4,25 +4,22 @@
>The xine engine FAQ</TITLE
><META
NAME="GENERATOR"
-CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.77+"></HEAD
+CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.76b+
+"></HEAD
><BODY
CLASS="BOOK"
><DIV
CLASS="BOOK"
><A
-NAME="AEN1"
-></A
-><DIV
+NAME="AEN1"><DIV
CLASS="TITLEPAGE"
><H1
CLASS="TITLE"
><A
-NAME="AEN2"
-></A
->The xine engine FAQ</H1
+NAME="AEN2">The xine engine FAQ</H1
><P
CLASS="COPYRIGHT"
->Copyright &copy; 2001-2003 the xine project team</P
+>Copyright &copy; 2001-2003 by the xine project team</P
><HR></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="TOC"
@@ -60,12 +57,12 @@ HREF="#AEN24"
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN34"
+HREF="#AEN33"
>Where and how do I get the latest development version?</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN46"
+HREF="#AEN45"
>Where can I find pre-compiled binaries, e.g. RPMs?</A
></DT
></DL
@@ -79,84 +76,84 @@ HREF="#BUILDING"
><DL
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN52"
+HREF="#AEN51"
>What do I need to compile everything properly?</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN61"
+HREF="#AEN60"
>How do I compile xine?</A
></DT
><DD
><DL
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN63"
+HREF="#AEN62"
>Simple build instructions for beginners</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN77"
+HREF="#AEN76"
>Complete build instructions</A
></DT
></DL
></DD
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN88"
+HREF="#AEN87"
>Making your own RPM packages (xine-lib, xine-ui)</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN101"
+HREF="#AEN100"
>Can I provide additional CFLAGS for compilation?</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN107"
+HREF="#AEN106"
>Are there binaries for my AMD K7 (Athlon (TM) ) available? Can I build them?</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN111"
+HREF="#AEN110"
>Build problems: xine engine (xine-lib)</A
></DT
><DD
><DL
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN113"
+HREF="#AEN112"
>The package doesn't compile at all!</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN118"
+HREF="#AEN117"
>The Xv video-out plugin fails to compile!</A
></DT
></DL
></DD
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN126"
+HREF="#AEN125"
>Build problems: frontend (gxine/xine-ui/...)</A
></DT
><DD
><DL
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN128"
+HREF="#AEN127"
>I have installed xine-lib but the frontend complains about not finding it!</A
></DT
></DL
></DD
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN135"
+HREF="#AEN134"
>Can I install xine in my home directory (without being root) ?</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN146"
+HREF="#AEN145"
></A
></DT
></DL
@@ -170,75 +167,75 @@ HREF="#PLAYBACK"
><DL
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN152"
+HREF="#AEN151"
>DVD Playback with xine</A
></DT
><DD
><DL
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN154"
+HREF="#AEN153"
>How do I play back DVDs with xine?</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN178"
+HREF="#AEN177"
>DVD playback works, but it takes a long time until playback starts</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN184"
+HREF="#AEN183"
>I have problems setting up my RPC-2 drive for the right region!</A
></DT
></DL
></DD
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN189"
+HREF="#AEN188"
>Can I watch Video CDs (VCDs)? SVCDS ? CD-i?</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN196"
+HREF="#AEN195"
>Can I watch Quicktime (.mov, .mp4) files using xine?</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN203"
+HREF="#AEN202"
>Real Network files/streams</A
></DT
><DD
><DL
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN205"
+HREF="#AEN204"
>Can I watch Real (.rm, .ram) files using xine ?</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN214"
+HREF="#AEN213"
>What about (live) network streams (pnm://, rtsp:// style urls) ?</A
></DT
></DL
></DD
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN217"
+HREF="#AEN216"
>Can I watch Windows Media (.asf/.wmv) files using xine?</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN224"
+HREF="#AEN223"
>Can I watch Digital TV (Digital Video Broadcast) using xine ?</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN228"
+HREF="#AEN227"
>How do I play streams from STDIN?</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN232"
+HREF="#AEN231"
>How can I watch files with external AVI subtitles?</A
></DT
></DL
@@ -252,22 +249,22 @@ HREF="#RUNNING"
><DL
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN238"
+HREF="#AEN237"
>I have a lot of dropped frames - what can I do?</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN286"
+HREF="#AEN294"
>I have problems when using xine on FreeBSD, Solaris, ... !</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN290"
+HREF="#AEN298"
>What is aalib? How do I use it in xine?</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN297"
+HREF="#AEN305"
>What do all these <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>~/.xine/config</TT
@@ -287,37 +284,37 @@ HREF="#AUDIO"
><DL
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN305"
+HREF="#AEN313"
>What audio drivers does xine support? OSS? Alsa? Arts? Esd?</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN308"
+HREF="#AEN316"
>When I'm watching a movie, the sound effects are much higher volume than the voices</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN318"
+HREF="#AEN326"
>When I play this stream, xine shows video but there's no audio!</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN325"
+HREF="#AEN334"
>Can xine produce 4-/5-channel surround audio output?</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN334"
+HREF="#AEN343"
>What about ac3 output via spdif to an external ac3 decoder?</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN340"
+HREF="#AEN349"
>Changing the volume with the GUI control has no effect! What's up!?</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN343"
+HREF="#AEN353"
>Audio is stuttering and i see a lot of "metronom: fixing sound card drift by -2115 pts" on the console output</A
></DT
></DL
@@ -331,34 +328,39 @@ HREF="#VIDEO"
><DL
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN349"
+HREF="#AEN360"
>I can hear the audio - but I don't see a picture!</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN352"
+HREF="#AEN364"
>How can I make xine use the Xv extension and what drivers do I need?</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN387"
+HREF="#AEN399"
>Some parts of my X Desktop get transparent when xine plays the video!</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN392"
+HREF="#AEN404"
>The aspect ratio of the video is wrong!</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN395"
+HREF="#AEN407"
>What is the difference between discarded and skipped frames?</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN403"
+HREF="#AEN415"
>My xine is runing in black and white! / I only get a gray video output!</A
></DT
+><DT
+><A
+HREF="#AEN420"
+>Which is the best video driver to use?</A
+></DT
></DL
></DD
><DT
@@ -370,47 +372,47 @@ HREF="#ERRORS"
><DL
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN410"
+HREF="#AEN429"
>Starting xine fails with complains about audio drivers/devices!</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN417"
+HREF="#AEN436"
>"no video port found"</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN422"
+HREF="#AEN441"
>"Unable to open dvd drive (/dev/dvd)"</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN426"
+HREF="#AEN445"
>"demux error! 00 00 00 (should be 0x000001)"</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN431"
+HREF="#AEN450"
>"audio driver 'oss' failed, using null driver instead"</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN442"
+HREF="#AEN461"
>"video_out: throwing away image with pts xxx because it's too old"</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN445"
+HREF="#AEN464"
>"No video plugin available to decode 'xxxxxx'."</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN449"
+HREF="#AEN468"
>"w32codec: decoder failed to start. Is 'xxxxxx' installed?"</A
></DT
><DT
><A
-HREF="#AEN452"
+HREF="#AEN471"
>xine just crashed on me - i didn't get any error message</A
></DT
></DL
@@ -421,17 +423,13 @@ HREF="#AEN452"
CLASS="CHAPTER"
><HR><H1
><A
-NAME="GENERAL"
-></A
->Chapter 1. General questions about xine and this document</H1
+NAME="GENERAL">Chapter 1. General questions about xine and this document</H1
><DIV
CLASS="SECT1"
><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN10"
-></A
->What is the xine engine?</H2
+NAME="AEN10">What is the xine engine?</H2
><P
>
The xine engine is a free media player engine. It comes in the form of
@@ -445,9 +443,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN13"
-></A
->What's the aim and scope of this text?</H2
+NAME="AEN13">What's the aim and scope of this text?</H2
><P
> The primary goal of this FAQ is to cover all recurring questions related
to the xine engine. Frontend specific questions are not covered here.
@@ -458,9 +454,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN16"
-></A
->My question is not yet covered here - where can I ask for help?</H2
+NAME="AEN16">My question is not yet covered here - where can I ask for help?</H2
><P
> First of all be sure that your question is really not covered here and
that you haven't just been a bit too lazy to read through all of this
@@ -503,9 +497,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN24"
-></A
->What are those xine-lib, xine-ui, gxine, ... modules in cvs for?</H2
+NAME="AEN24">What are those xine-lib, xine-ui, gxine, ... modules in cvs for?</H2
><P
> Some time ago xine just became too complex to be just one big program.
Therefore it was split into two major parts.
@@ -528,8 +520,6 @@ NAME="AEN24"
and other multimedia purposes.
</P
><P
->&#13; </P
-><P
> If you simply want a media/dvd player, you'll need to install xine-lib
first and then choose and install a player frontend like xine-ui or gxine.
</P
@@ -550,9 +540,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN34"
-></A
->Where and how do I get the latest development version?</H2
+NAME="AEN33">Where and how do I get the latest development version?</H2
><P
> Be advised that end-users should stick to the official xine releases.
CVS is only intended for developers.
@@ -592,9 +580,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN46"
-></A
->Where can I find pre-compiled binaries, e.g. RPMs?</H2
+NAME="AEN45">Where can I find pre-compiled binaries, e.g. RPMs?</H2
><P
> The xine project does not provide pre-compiled binaries for legal
reasons (some parts of xine may be covered by patents in some countries).
@@ -613,17 +599,13 @@ NAME="AEN46"
CLASS="CHAPTER"
><HR><H1
><A
-NAME="BUILDING"
-></A
->Chapter 2. Building and installing xine from source </H1
+NAME="BUILDING">Chapter 2. Building and installing xine from source </H1
><DIV
CLASS="SECT1"
><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN52"
-></A
->What do I need to compile everything properly?</H2
+NAME="AEN51">What do I need to compile everything properly?</H2
><P
> First of all an official and stable release of gcc. Also be aware
that patched gcc versions may break parts of xine and are therefore
@@ -664,17 +646,13 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN61"
-></A
->How do I compile xine?</H2
+NAME="AEN60">How do I compile xine?</H2
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
-NAME="AEN63"
-></A
->Simple build instructions for beginners</H3
+NAME="AEN62">Simple build instructions for beginners</H3
><P
> Download the latest xine-lib and gxine/xine-ui tarballs, then follow
these instruction. To unpack a tarball, use:
@@ -762,9 +740,7 @@ CLASS="SECT2"
><HR><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
-NAME="AEN77"
-></A
->Complete build instructions</H3
+NAME="AEN76">Complete build instructions</H3
><P
> The build process is the same for all of the xine modules.
</P
@@ -829,9 +805,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN88"
-></A
->Making your own RPM packages (xine-lib, xine-ui)</H2
+NAME="AEN87">Making your own RPM packages (xine-lib, xine-ui)</H2
><P
> Basically you will only have to issue one command, if you have just
downloaded a source tarball from our web site:
@@ -878,9 +852,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN101"
-></A
->Can I provide additional CFLAGS for compilation?</H2
+NAME="AEN100">Can I provide additional CFLAGS for compilation?</H2
><P
> Yes, you can do so by setting the CFLAGS variable and then run
configure again.
@@ -901,9 +873,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN107"
-></A
->Are there binaries for my AMD K7 (Athlon (TM) ) available? Can I build them?</H2
+NAME="AEN106">Are there binaries for my AMD K7 (Athlon (TM) ) available? Can I build them?</H2
><P
> If you have a recent gcc you can try to compile "more" k7 support in (esp.
better instruction scheduling). If the configure script should fail to
@@ -933,17 +903,13 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN111"
-></A
->Build problems: xine engine (xine-lib)</H2
+NAME="AEN110">Build problems: xine engine (xine-lib)</H2
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
-NAME="AEN113"
-></A
->The package doesn't compile at all!</H3
+NAME="AEN112">The package doesn't compile at all!</H3
><P
> In order to be able to compile xine-lib, you need (amongst other things)
the zlib compression library plus the appropriate headers, which are
@@ -965,9 +931,7 @@ CLASS="SECT2"
><HR><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
-NAME="AEN118"
-></A
->The Xv video-out plugin fails to compile!</H3
+NAME="AEN117">The Xv video-out plugin fails to compile!</H3
><P
> If you want to have Xv support compiled in, make sure you either have
a shared Xv library on your system, e.g.
@@ -1023,17 +987,13 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN126"
-></A
->Build problems: frontend (gxine/xine-ui/...)</H2
+NAME="AEN125">Build problems: frontend (gxine/xine-ui/...)</H2
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
-NAME="AEN128"
-></A
->I have installed xine-lib but the frontend complains about not finding it!</H3
+NAME="AEN127">I have installed xine-lib but the frontend complains about not finding it!</H3
><P
> First of all take a closer look at the compilation instructions above again.
You will probably find your answer there right away.
@@ -1063,9 +1023,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN135"
-></A
->Can I install xine in my home directory (without being root) ?</H2
+NAME="AEN134">Can I install xine in my home directory (without being root) ?</H2
><P
> yes. first set up a subdir where you install your private software, eg
</P
@@ -1135,9 +1093,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN146"
-></A
-></H2
+NAME="AEN145"></H2
><P
> </P
><P
@@ -1148,25 +1104,19 @@ NAME="AEN146"
CLASS="CHAPTER"
><HR><H1
><A
-NAME="PLAYBACK"
-></A
->Chapter 3. Playback of various stream types</H1
+NAME="PLAYBACK">Chapter 3. Playback of various stream types</H1
><DIV
CLASS="SECT1"
><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN152"
-></A
->DVD Playback with xine</H2
+NAME="AEN151">DVD Playback with xine</H2
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
-NAME="AEN154"
-></A
->How do I play back DVDs with xine?</H3
+NAME="AEN153">How do I play back DVDs with xine?</H3
><P
> Newer xine (1.0.x) releases come with a full-featured
DVD plugin that should be able to handle any unencrypted,
@@ -1282,9 +1232,7 @@ CLASS="SECT2"
><HR><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
-NAME="AEN178"
-></A
->DVD playback works, but it takes a long time until playback starts</H3
+NAME="AEN177">DVD playback works, but it takes a long time until playback starts</H3
><P
> This points to a region code problem. Some versions of libdvdcss can play
back DVDs from other regions than the RPC-2 DVD drive is set up for,
@@ -1311,9 +1259,7 @@ CLASS="SECT2"
><HR><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
-NAME="AEN184"
-></A
->I have problems setting up my RPC-2 drive for the right region!</H3
+NAME="AEN183">I have problems setting up my RPC-2 drive for the right region!</H3
><P
> You can download a tool to set the region code of RPC-Drives here:
<A
@@ -1335,9 +1281,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN189"
-></A
->Can I watch Video CDs (VCDs)? SVCDS ? CD-i?</H2
+NAME="AEN188">Can I watch Video CDs (VCDs)? SVCDS ? CD-i?</H2
><P
> xine supports VCD and SVCD playback out-of-the box. Similar to DVDs,
make sure you have a <TT
@@ -1374,9 +1318,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN196"
-></A
->Can I watch Quicktime (.mov, .mp4) files using xine?</H2
+NAME="AEN195">Can I watch Quicktime (.mov, .mp4) files using xine?</H2
><P
> Quicktime is just a system layer (container format) which can contain various
different audio and video formats. The system layer itself is fully supported
@@ -1414,17 +1356,13 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN203"
-></A
->Real Network files/streams</H2
+NAME="AEN202">Real Network files/streams</H2
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
-NAME="AEN205"
-></A
->Can I watch Real (.rm, .ram) files using xine ?</H3
+NAME="AEN204">Can I watch Real (.rm, .ram) files using xine ?</H3
><P
> The situation with real files and streams is pretty similar to the situation
with Quicktime Streams (see above). Most newer real audio and video formats
@@ -1466,9 +1404,7 @@ CLASS="SECT2"
><HR><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
-NAME="AEN214"
-></A
->What about (live) network streams (pnm://, rtsp:// style urls) ?</H3
+NAME="AEN213">What about (live) network streams (pnm://, rtsp:// style urls) ?</H3
><P
> xine supports both pnm and rtsp streaming. However, digging out the actual
pnm/rtsp url can be tricky as they're often packed into heavy JavaScript and
@@ -1488,9 +1424,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN217"
-></A
->Can I watch Windows Media (.asf/.wmv) files using xine?</H2
+NAME="AEN216">Can I watch Windows Media (.asf/.wmv) files using xine?</H2
><P
> While the container format (system layer) ASF (wmv is just an alias)
is fully supported in xine, for newer windows media 8 and 9 based streams
@@ -1525,9 +1459,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN224"
-></A
->Can I watch Digital TV (Digital Video Broadcast) using xine ?</H2
+NAME="AEN223">Can I watch Digital TV (Digital Video Broadcast) using xine ?</H2
><P
> At the time of this writing DVB support is a very new and experimental
feature in xine. The number of supported cards is pretty limited at the moment.
@@ -1542,9 +1474,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN228"
-></A
->How do I play streams from STDIN?</H2
+NAME="AEN227">How do I play streams from STDIN?</H2
><P
> Use something like:
<TABLE
@@ -1568,9 +1498,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN232"
-></A
->How can I watch files with external AVI subtitles?</H2
+NAME="AEN231">How can I watch files with external AVI subtitles?</H2
><P
> This is not supported in current xine 1.0.x releases (but it is being
actively worked on, so please be patient :) ). In xine 0.9.13
@@ -1596,27 +1524,24 @@ CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
CLASS="CHAPTER"
><HR><H1
><A
-NAME="RUNNING"
-></A
->Chapter 4. Running xine </H1
+NAME="RUNNING">Chapter 4. Running xine </H1
><DIV
CLASS="SECT1"
><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN238"
-></A
->I have a lot of dropped frames - what can I do?</H2
+NAME="AEN237">I have a lot of dropped frames - what can I do?</H2
><P
> Your hardware might be too slow for xine. Make sure you turn on all
- speed optimizing options. A few things you should check:
+ speed optimizing options. A few things you should check (in order of
+ importance):
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
-> first of all, run the <B
+> First of all, run the <B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>xine-check</B
> script included in xine-lib
@@ -1669,29 +1594,23 @@ CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
></LI
><LI
><P
-> use a recent kernel which is optimized for your hardware
- </P
-></LI
-><LI
-><P
-> use the latest gas/gcc
- </P
-></LI
-><LI
-><P
-> close other applications (use a tool like "top" to find out
- what applications are using up CPU power)
+> Try to use the Xv driver, it greatly improves performance and quality
+ because hardware does image scaling and color conversion. The
+ <A
+HREF="#VIDEO"
+>video section</A
+> contains important information
+ about several Xv drivers.
</P
-></LI
-><LI
><P
-> if you are not using Xv, make sure your display is set up
- to 16bpp, not 24 or higher (reduces memory bandwith)
+> If Xv cannot be used for some reason, make sure your display is set up
+ to 16bpp, not 24 or higher (reduces memory bandwith). Some Xv drivers
+ may also have better performance with 16bpp.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
-> make sure the hard drive (or cdrom/dvd drive) which supplies the
+> Make sure the hard drive (or cdrom/dvd drive) which supplies the
video data is in DMA mode (if supported)
</P
><P
@@ -1745,6 +1664,84 @@ TARGET="_top"
></LI
><LI
><P
+> Use a recent kernel which is optimized for your hardware. Old kernels
+ may lack support for accelerated instructions like SSE, for example.
+ </P
+></LI
+><LI
+><P
+> Close other applications (use a tool like "top" to find out
+ what applications are using up CPU power). Programs that update the
+ system clock like ntp should also be disabled.
+ </P
+></LI
+><LI
+><P
+> Enable MTRR support in your kernel. If you are still using XFree 3.x,
+ you'll have to tell the kernel yourself where the graphics memory is.
+ You'll find details about that in the linux dvd howto.
+ </P
+><P
+> If you're using XFree 4.x, enabling MTRR support in your kernel should
+ be enough (use a recent kernel!).
+ </P
+><P
+> Try a <B
+CLASS="COMMAND"
+> cat /proc/mtrr </B
+> - if the file exists and you find an entry
+ corresponding to the amount of graphics memory you have, everything
+ should be fine.
+ </P
+></LI
+><LI
+><P
+> Have your X-server (usually XFree86) running with higher priority.
+ Most recent linux distributions (like RedHat 8.0 or Mandrake 9.0) should
+ do that for you, improving not only xine but desktop responsiveness
+ in general.
+ </P
+><P
+> Use the "top" utility and verify under the "NI" column if
+ the X process has a negative value, this indicates a higher priority.
+ See "The X Window User HOWTO - Performance considerations" for
+ further instructions
+ <A
+HREF="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/XWindow-User-HOWTO/performance.html"
+TARGET="_top"
+> http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/XWindow-User-HOWTO/performance.html</A
+>
+ </P
+></LI
+><LI
+><P
+> Use the latest or a known-good gcc version.
+ </P
+></LI
+><LI
+><P
+> Besides boosting X-server priority, sometimes it's possible to avoid
+ discarding frames by making xine itself higher priority. This is not
+ a recommended pratice since it will require to run xine as root,
+ but you may give it a try if you want:
+ <TABLE
+BORDER="0"
+BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0"
+WIDTH="90%"
+><TR
+><TD
+><PRE
+CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
+> nice --5 xine
+ </PRE
+></TD
+></TR
+></TABLE
+>
+ </P
+></LI
+><LI
+><P
> xine needs high speed memory access which depends on your chip set.
Make sure you enable all speed-improving options.
</P
@@ -1782,25 +1779,6 @@ TARGET="_top"
></LI
><LI
><P
-> enable MTRR support in your kernel. If you are still using XFree 3.x,
- you'll have to tell the kernel yourself where the graphics memory is.
- You'll find details about that in the linux dvd howto.
- </P
-><P
-> If you're using XFree 4.x, enabling MTRR support in your kernel should
- be enough.
- </P
-><P
-> Try a <B
-CLASS="COMMAND"
-> cat /proc/mtrr </B
-> - if the file exists and you find an entry
- corresponding to the amount of graphics memory you have, everything
- should be fine.
- </P
-></LI
-><LI
-><P
> Set up and use raw devices for dvd access. Please note that
this is usually not worth the effort as the performance gain
from it is very small if any.
@@ -1853,17 +1831,14 @@ CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
></LI
></UL
>
-
- </P
+ </P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN286"
-></A
->I have problems when using xine on FreeBSD, Solaris, ... !</H2
+NAME="AEN294">I have problems when using xine on FreeBSD, Solaris, ... !</H2
><P
> Check out the the corresponding README files in the directory <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
@@ -1876,9 +1851,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN290"
-></A
->What is aalib? How do I use it in xine?</H2
+NAME="AEN298">What is aalib? How do I use it in xine?</H2
><P
> aalib is an ascii art library. xine comes with an aalib video output
plugin so you can watch movies in your xterm, on the console or on your
@@ -1918,9 +1891,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN297"
-></A
->What do all these <TT
+NAME="AEN305">What do all these <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>~/.xine/config</TT
> (<TT
@@ -1943,17 +1914,13 @@ CLASS="FILENAME"
CLASS="CHAPTER"
><HR><H1
><A
-NAME="AUDIO"
-></A
->Chapter 5. Audio related questions </H1
+NAME="AUDIO">Chapter 5. Audio related questions </H1
><DIV
CLASS="SECT1"
><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN305"
-></A
->What audio drivers does xine support? OSS? Alsa? Arts? Esd?</H2
+NAME="AEN313">What audio drivers does xine support? OSS? Alsa? Arts? Esd?</H2
><P
> Currently xine support audio output via OSS (kernel audio drivers),
ALSA 0.9.x (ALSA 0.5.x is no longer supported), arts (KDE's sound daemon)
@@ -1966,9 +1933,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN308"
-></A
->When I'm watching a movie, the sound effects are much higher volume than the voices</H2
+NAME="AEN316">When I'm watching a movie, the sound effects are much higher volume than the voices</H2
><P
> Congratulations, you seem to have an original movie audio track there.
</P
@@ -2018,9 +1983,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN318"
-></A
->When I play this stream, xine shows video but there's no audio!</H2
+NAME="AEN326">When I play this stream, xine shows video but there's no audio!</H2
><P
> Well, first try a different audio driver (<B
CLASS="COMMAND"
@@ -2029,6 +1992,9 @@ CLASS="COMMAND"
<B
CLASS="COMMAND"
> gxine -A arts </B
+>, <B
+CLASS="COMMAND"
+> xine -A alsa </B
> ...).
</P
><P
@@ -2049,9 +2015,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN325"
-></A
->Can xine produce 4-/5-channel surround audio output?</H2
+NAME="AEN334">Can xine produce 4-/5-channel surround audio output?</H2
><P
> Yep, it can do that using OSS or ALSA drivers, provided that the driver
supports it. On startup xine tells you what modes are supported by your
@@ -2118,9 +2082,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN334"
-></A
->What about ac3 output via spdif to an external ac3 decoder?</H2
+NAME="AEN343">What about ac3 output via spdif to an external ac3 decoder?</H2
><P
> xine can do that too. Pretty much the same story as for 4-/5-channel
surround (see above). You can either use the config dialog or edit
@@ -2153,24 +2115,26 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN340"
-></A
->Changing the volume with the GUI control has no effect! What's up!?</H2
+NAME="AEN349">Changing the volume with the GUI control has no effect! What's up!?</H2
><P
> Some xine drivers do not support volume changing although the GUI
- will show the volume bar. Usually this is not xines fault: aRts C
+ will show the volume bar. Usually this is not xine's fault: aRts C
API, for example, doesn't offer any volume property to applications.
Similarly, with ac3 pass through it is not possible to set the volume.
</P
+><P
+> Note that recently we added support to "simulate" volume in aRts by
+ changing sample values on-the-fly before delivering them to the driver.
+ Not as good as having access to sound card's mixer but at least users
+ will not complain about lacking of volume bar anymore! :)
+ </P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN343"
-></A
->Audio is stuttering and i see a lot of "metronom: fixing sound card drift by -2115 pts" on the console output</H2
+NAME="AEN353">Audio is stuttering and i see a lot of "metronom: fixing sound card drift by -2115 pts" on the console output</H2
><P
> Might be a soundcard problem, if it only comes in longer intervals.
Your soundcard does not keep it's sampling frequency accurately
@@ -2184,36 +2148,39 @@ NAME="AEN343"
process running which is messing with the clock (like some ntp client -
chronny, ntpd, ...).
</P
+><P
+> Occasional messages of "fixing sound card drift" may happen on start and
+ when playing a long stream (like a movie). This is normal behaviour,
+ nothing to worry about.
+ </P
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="CHAPTER"
><HR><H1
><A
-NAME="VIDEO"
-></A
->Chapter 6. Video related questions </H1
+NAME="VIDEO">Chapter 6. Video related questions </H1
><DIV
CLASS="SECT1"
><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN349"
-></A
->I can hear the audio - but I don't see a picture!</H2
+NAME="AEN360">I can hear the audio - but I don't see a picture!</H2
><P
> Probably your hardware is simply too slow - see above for some
hints on how to speed things up.
</P
+><P
+> Another possibility is that you using a buggy Xv driver, see the next
+ question.
+ </P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN352"
-></A
->How can I make xine use the Xv extension and what drivers do I need?</H2
+NAME="AEN364">How can I make xine use the Xv extension and what drivers do I need?</H2
><P
> xine will normally use Xv by default if it is available. In some cases
you might need to choose Xv playback manually (when the <TT
@@ -2347,16 +2314,14 @@ TARGET="_top"
></LI
></UL
>
- </P
+ </P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN387"
-></A
->Some parts of my X Desktop get transparent when xine plays the video!</H2
+NAME="AEN399">Some parts of my X Desktop get transparent when xine plays the video!</H2
><P
> Looks like some colors on your GUI match the colorkey Xv uses. You can
change the colorkey value to avoid this. There should be a line like:
@@ -2386,11 +2351,9 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN392"
-></A
->The aspect ratio of the video is wrong!</H2
+NAME="AEN404">The aspect ratio of the video is wrong!</H2
><P
-> Try pressing "a" to change the aspect ratio
+> Try pressing "a" to change the aspect ratio.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
@@ -2398,9 +2361,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN395"
-></A
->What is the difference between discarded and skipped frames?</H2
+NAME="AEN407">What is the difference between discarded and skipped frames?</H2
><P
> Sometimes xine will output a message like that:
<TABLE
@@ -2437,7 +2398,7 @@ CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
output thread doesn't get scheduled in time by the operating system
to complete the operation, the frame is discarded. One cause might
be the disk access operation, which may halt the system for a few
- miliseconds without DMA. See section above.
+ miliseconds without DMA. See performance section tips above.
</P
><P
> Note that if a decoder can't skip frames for some reason, you would
@@ -2449,9 +2410,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN403"
-></A
->My xine is runing in black and white! / I only get a gray video output!</H2
+NAME="AEN415">My xine is runing in black and white! / I only get a gray video output!</H2
><P
> This frequently happens with new Xv drivers or when switching to a
different video card. Background is that different Xv drivers often
@@ -2467,22 +2426,54 @@ NAME="AEN403"
xine cleanly so the values are saved.
</P
></DIV
+><DIV
+CLASS="SECT1"
+><HR><H2
+CLASS="SECT1"
+><A
+NAME="AEN420">Which is the best video driver to use?</H2
+><P
+> xine support several video drivers for outputing the image. These will
+ differ on how the frames are copied to the video card memory, whether
+ colorspace conversion and scaling is done in software or hardware, among
+ other things. They may also differ on ease of use and stability.
+ </P
+><P
+> Most of the time, Xv should give the users a good trade-off between
+ quality, compatibility and ease of use. This is why xine tries to use
+ Xv by default.
+ </P
+><P
+> However some users may want to explore better the available hardware
+ capabilities (eg. syncing frame drawing with monitor refresh).
+ Also some Xv drivers contain slow copies and accessing the video card
+ directly may yield performance gains.
+ </P
+><P
+> Drivers that access hardware directly includes VIDIX (warning: requires
+ root priviledges) and SyncFB (requires kernel helper - Matrox only).
+ User may try one of those, but should be warned that with root access
+ they can cause the system to crash hard. The support is also limited to
+ a couple of graphics cards only.
+ </P
+><P
+> Graphic workstations like SGI have usually a good support for OpenGL.
+ In that case, using OpenGL may be a better choice than XShm. However for
+ most desktop systems the performance of OpenGL will be quite bad.
+ </P
+></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="CHAPTER"
><HR><H1
><A
-NAME="ERRORS"
-></A
->Chapter 7. Error Messages: What they mean and what you can do</H1
+NAME="ERRORS">Chapter 7. Error Messages: What they mean and what you can do</H1
><DIV
CLASS="SECT1"
><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN410"
-></A
->Starting xine fails with complains about audio drivers/devices!</H2
+NAME="AEN429">Starting xine fails with complains about audio drivers/devices!</H2
><P
> You can select the audio driver using the -A option. So try:
<TABLE
@@ -2551,9 +2542,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN417"
-></A
->"no video port found"</H2
+NAME="AEN436">"no video port found"</H2
><P
> You got the Xv extension, but your video card driver doesn't support it.
First try to find a driver that does support Xv on your hardware (check
@@ -2584,9 +2573,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN422"
-></A
->"Unable to open dvd drive (/dev/dvd)"</H2
+NAME="AEN441">"Unable to open dvd drive (/dev/dvd)"</H2
><P
> You probably don't have /dev/dvd (check that). If so, simply create a
link /dev/dvd that points to your DVD device. Something like...
@@ -2614,9 +2601,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN426"
-></A
->"demux error! 00 00 00 (should be 0x000001)"</H2
+NAME="AEN445">"demux error! 00 00 00 (should be 0x000001)"</H2
><P
> Probably xine can't access your input source. Most commonly this happens
when you're trying to play locked/encrypted DVDs. Remember that xine
@@ -2637,9 +2622,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN431"
-></A
->"audio driver 'oss' failed, using null driver instead"</H2
+NAME="AEN450">"audio driver 'oss' failed, using null driver instead"</H2
><P
> First of all, make sure that your OSS Audio drivers are working (i.e.
you can play music with other software). Maybe you're using alsa?
@@ -2714,9 +2697,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN442"
-></A
->"video_out: throwing away image with pts xxx because it's too old"</H2
+NAME="AEN461">"video_out: throwing away image with pts xxx because it's too old"</H2
><P
> This is a performance related problem.
@@ -2730,9 +2711,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN445"
-></A
->"No video plugin available to decode 'xxxxxx'."</H2
+NAME="AEN464">"No video plugin available to decode 'xxxxxx'."</H2
><P
> You have tried to play a stream using a unknown or unhandled codec.
Possibly the file uses some obscure proprietary format and no
@@ -2749,9 +2728,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN449"
-></A
->"w32codec: decoder failed to start. Is 'xxxxxx' installed?"</H2
+NAME="AEN468">"w32codec: decoder failed to start. Is 'xxxxxx' installed?"</H2
><P
> You probably don't have the win32 dll needed to decode this file.
</P
@@ -2761,9 +2738,7 @@ CLASS="SECT1"
><HR><H2
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN452"
-></A
->xine just crashed on me - i didn't get any error message</H2
+NAME="AEN471">xine just crashed on me - i didn't get any error message</H2
><P
> OK, yes, that shouldn't happen and you're upset. We can understand that.
But, to help you and of course to fix this, we need some information.
@@ -2786,13 +2761,19 @@ NAME="AEN452"
></LI
><LI
><P
+> is that a specific media file or format which crashes xine? (have you
+ tried other files types?)
+ </P
+></LI
+><LI
+><P
> check the console output (and include it in a bug report), maybe earlier
there is some output that points to the problem.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
-> Your X server just froze on you? unfortunately that's a know problem
+> Your X server just froze on you? unfortunately that's a known problem
with some chipsets and drivers (most commonly Savage chipsets) when
using Xv. You might want to try running <B
CLASS="COMMAND"
diff --git a/doc/faq/faq.sgml b/doc/faq/faq.sgml
index 98e46bc7e..a1a2ac07f 100644
--- a/doc/faq/faq.sgml
+++ b/doc/faq/faq.sgml
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@
In the future you will likely see more and different types of apllications
being developed which will use the xine engine for video processing
and other multimedia purposes.
- <para>
+ </para>
<para>
If you simply want a media/dvd player, you'll need to install xine-lib
@@ -721,6 +721,8 @@
</para>
</sect2>
+
+ </sect1>
<sect1>
@@ -797,12 +799,13 @@
<para>
Your hardware might be too slow for xine. Make sure you turn on all
- speed optimizing options. A few things you should check:
+ speed optimizing options. A few things you should check (in order of
+ importance):
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
- first of all, run the <command>xine-check</command> script included in xine-lib
+ First of all, run the <command>xine-check</command> script included in xine-lib
package (probably already installed in your system).
<command>xine-check</command> will report several of the most common problems
listed here. Sample output from xine-check:
@@ -838,29 +841,20 @@
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- use a recent kernel which is optimized for your hardware
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- use the latest gas/gcc
+ Try to use the Xv driver, it greatly improves performance and quality
+ because hardware does image scaling and color conversion. The
+ <link linkend="video">video section</link> contains important information
+ about several Xv drivers.
</para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
<para>
- close other applications (use a tool like "top" to find out
- what applications are using up CPU power)
+ If Xv cannot be used for some reason, make sure your display is set up
+ to 16bpp, not 24 or higher (reduces memory bandwith). Some Xv drivers
+ may also have better performance with 16bpp.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- if you are not using Xv, make sure your display is set up
- to 16bpp, not 24 or higher (reduces memory bandwith)
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- make sure the hard drive (or cdrom/dvd drive) which supplies the
+ Make sure the hard drive (or cdrom/dvd drive) which supplies the
video data is in DMA mode (if supported)
</para>
<para>
@@ -888,6 +882,67 @@
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
+ <para>
+ Use a recent kernel which is optimized for your hardware. Old kernels
+ may lack support for accelerated instructions like SSE, for example.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Close other applications (use a tool like "top" to find out
+ what applications are using up CPU power). Programs that update the
+ system clock like ntp should also be disabled.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Enable MTRR support in your kernel. If you are still using XFree 3.x,
+ you'll have to tell the kernel yourself where the graphics memory is.
+ You'll find details about that in the linux dvd howto.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ If you're using XFree 4.x, enabling MTRR support in your kernel should
+ be enough (use a recent kernel!).
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Try a <command> cat /proc/mtrr </command> - if the file exists and you find an entry
+ corresponding to the amount of graphics memory you have, everything
+ should be fine.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Have your X-server (usually XFree86) running with higher priority.
+ Most recent linux distributions (like RedHat 8.0 or Mandrake 9.0) should
+ do that for you, improving not only xine but desktop responsiveness
+ in general.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Use the "top" utility and verify under the "NI" column if
+ the X process has a negative value, this indicates a higher priority.
+ See "The X Window User HOWTO - Performance considerations" for
+ further instructions
+ <ulink url="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/XWindow-User-HOWTO/performance.html">
+ http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/XWindow-User-HOWTO/performance.html</ulink>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Use the latest or a known-good gcc version.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Besides boosting X-server priority, sometimes it's possible to avoid
+ discarding frames by making xine itself higher priority. This is not
+ a recommended pratice since it will require to run xine as root,
+ but you may give it a try if you want:
+ <programlisting>
+ nice --5 xine
+ </programlisting>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
<para>
xine needs high speed memory access which depends on your chip set.
Make sure you enable all speed-improving options.
@@ -915,22 +970,6 @@
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- enable MTRR support in your kernel. If you are still using XFree 3.x,
- you'll have to tell the kernel yourself where the graphics memory is.
- You'll find details about that in the linux dvd howto.
- </para>
- <para>
- If you're using XFree 4.x, enabling MTRR support in your kernel should
- be enough.
- </para>
- <para>
- Try a <command> cat /proc/mtrr </command> - if the file exists and you find an entry
- corresponding to the amount of graphics memory you have, everything
- should be fine.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
Set up and use raw devices for dvd access. Please note that
this is usually not worth the effort as the performance gain
from it is very small if any.
@@ -955,7 +994,9 @@
raw /dev/raw1 /dev/hdc
</programlisting>
</para>
+ </listitem>
</itemizedlist>
+ </para>
</sect1>
@@ -1061,7 +1102,7 @@
<para>
Well, first try a different audio driver (<command> gxine -A oss </command>,
- <command> gxine -A arts </command> ...).
+ <command> gxine -A arts </command>, <command> xine -A alsa </command> ...).
</para>
<para>
If this problem only occurs with one specific stream, maybe switching to
@@ -1133,10 +1174,16 @@
<para>
Some xine drivers do not support volume changing although the GUI
- will show the volume bar. Usually this is not xines fault: aRts C
+ will show the volume bar. Usually this is not xine's fault: aRts C
API, for example, doesn't offer any volume property to applications.
Similarly, with ac3 pass through it is not possible to set the volume.
</para>
+ <para>
+ Note that recently we added support to "simulate" volume in aRts by
+ changing sample values on-the-fly before delivering them to the driver.
+ Not as good as having access to sound card's mixer but at least users
+ will not complain about lacking of volume bar anymore! :)
+ </para>
</sect1>
<sect1>
@@ -1155,6 +1202,11 @@
process running which is messing with the clock (like some ntp client -
chronny, ntpd, ...).
</para>
+ <para>
+ Occasional messages of "fixing sound card drift" may happen on start and
+ when playing a long stream (like a movie). This is normal behaviour,
+ nothing to worry about.
+ </para>
</sect1>
</chapter>
@@ -1169,6 +1221,10 @@
Probably your hardware is simply too slow - see above for some
hints on how to speed things up.
</para>
+ <para>
+ Another possibility is that you using a buggy Xv driver, see the next
+ question.
+ </para>
</sect1>
<sect1>
@@ -1268,6 +1324,7 @@
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
+ </para>
</sect1>
<sect1>
@@ -1288,7 +1345,7 @@
<title>The aspect ratio of the video is wrong!</title>
<para>
- Try pressing "a" to change the aspect ratio
+ Try pressing "a" to change the aspect ratio.
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1>
@@ -1320,7 +1377,7 @@
output thread doesn't get scheduled in time by the operating system
to complete the operation, the frame is discarded. One cause might
be the disk access operation, which may halt the system for a few
- miliseconds without DMA. See section above.
+ miliseconds without DMA. See performance section tips above.
</para>
<para>
Note that if a decoder can't skip frames for some reason, you would
@@ -1346,6 +1403,41 @@
xine cleanly so the values are saved.
</para>
</sect1>
+
+ <sect1>
+
+ <title>Which is the best video driver to use?</title>
+
+ <para>
+ xine support several video drivers for outputing the image. These will
+ differ on how the frames are copied to the video card memory, whether
+ colorspace conversion and scaling is done in software or hardware, among
+ other things. They may also differ on ease of use and stability.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Most of the time, Xv should give the users a good trade-off between
+ quality, compatibility and ease of use. This is why xine tries to use
+ Xv by default.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ However some users may want to explore better the available hardware
+ capabilities (eg. syncing frame drawing with monitor refresh).
+ Also some Xv drivers contain slow copies and accessing the video card
+ directly may yield performance gains.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Drivers that access hardware directly includes VIDIX (warning: requires
+ root priviledges) and SyncFB (requires kernel helper - Matrox only).
+ User may try one of those, but should be warned that with root access
+ they can cause the system to crash hard. The support is also limited to
+ a couple of graphics cards only.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Graphic workstations like SGI have usually a good support for OpenGL.
+ In that case, using OpenGL may be a better choice than XShm. However for
+ most desktop systems the performance of OpenGL will be quite bad.
+ </para>
+ </sect1>
</chapter>
<chapter id="errors">
@@ -1531,13 +1623,19 @@
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
+ is that a specific media file or format which crashes xine? (have you
+ tried other files types?)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
check the console output (and include it in a bug report), maybe earlier
there is some output that points to the problem.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Your X server just froze on you? unfortunately that's a know problem
+ Your X server just froze on you? unfortunately that's a known problem
with some chipsets and drivers (most commonly Savage chipsets) when
using Xv. You might want to try running <command> gxine -V XShm </command>
to see if the problem is related to the Xv driver. This will unfortunately
diff --git a/doc/faq/faq.txt b/doc/faq/faq.txt
index eb5e0394d..474abc32a 100644
--- a/doc/faq/faq.txt
+++ b/doc/faq/faq.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
The xine engine FAQ
-Copyright © 2001-2003 the xine project team
+Copyright © 2001-2003 by the xine project team
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -86,6 +86,7 @@ Table of Contents
The aspect ratio of the video is wrong!
What is the difference between discarded and skipped frames?
My xine is runing in black and white! / I only get a gray video output!
+ Which is the best video driver to use?
7. Error Messages: What they mean and what you can do
@@ -155,8 +156,6 @@ sinek and totem develop additional frontends. In the future you will likely see
more and different types of apllications being developed which will use the
xine engine for video processing and other multimedia purposes.
-
-
If you simply want a media/dvd player, you'll need to install xine-lib first
and then choose and install a player frontend like xine-ui or gxine.
@@ -606,9 +605,9 @@ Chapter 4. Running xine
I have a lot of dropped frames - what can I do?
Your hardware might be too slow for xine. Make sure you turn on all speed
-optimizing options. A few things you should check:
+optimizing options. A few things you should check (in order of importance):
- * first of all, run the xine-check script included in xine-lib package
+ * First of all, run the xine-check script included in xine-lib package
(probably already installed in your system). xine-check will report several
of the most common problems listed here. Sample output from xine-check:
$ xine-check
@@ -639,17 +638,15 @@ optimizing options. A few things you should check:
[ good ] Xv ports: YUY2 YV12 I420 UYVY
- * use a recent kernel which is optimized for your hardware
-
- * use the latest gas/gcc
+ * Try to use the Xv driver, it greatly improves performance and quality
+ because hardware does image scaling and color conversion. The video section
+ contains important information about several Xv drivers.
- * close other applications (use a tool like "top" to find out what
- applications are using up CPU power)
+ If Xv cannot be used for some reason, make sure your display is set up to
+ 16bpp, not 24 or higher (reduces memory bandwith). Some Xv drivers may also
+ have better performance with 16bpp.
- * if you are not using Xv, make sure your display is set up to 16bpp, not 24
- or higher (reduces memory bandwith)
-
- * make sure the hard drive (or cdrom/dvd drive) which supplies the video data
+ * Make sure the hard drive (or cdrom/dvd drive) which supplies the video data
is in DMA mode (if supported)
On most linux-based systems, you can use hdparm to check this. Example:
@@ -667,6 +664,42 @@ optimizing options. A few things you should check:
More information about this may be found here: http://oreilly.linux.com/pub
/a/linux/2000/06/29/hdparm.html
+ * Use a recent kernel which is optimized for your hardware. Old kernels may
+ lack support for accelerated instructions like SSE, for example.
+
+ * Close other applications (use a tool like "top" to find out what
+ applications are using up CPU power). Programs that update the system clock
+ like ntp should also be disabled.
+
+ * Enable MTRR support in your kernel. If you are still using XFree 3.x,
+ you'll have to tell the kernel yourself where the graphics memory is.
+ You'll find details about that in the linux dvd howto.
+
+ If you're using XFree 4.x, enabling MTRR support in your kernel should be
+ enough (use a recent kernel!).
+
+ Try a cat /proc/mtrr - if the file exists and you find an entry
+ corresponding to the amount of graphics memory you have, everything should
+ be fine.
+
+ * Have your X-server (usually XFree86) running with higher priority. Most
+ recent linux distributions (like RedHat 8.0 or Mandrake 9.0) should do that
+ for you, improving not only xine but desktop responsiveness in general.
+
+ Use the "top" utility and verify under the "NI" column if the X process has
+ a negative value, this indicates a higher priority. See "The X Window User
+ HOWTO - Performance considerations" for further instructions http://
+ www.tldp.org/HOWTO/XWindow-User-HOWTO/performance.html
+
+ * Use the latest or a known-good gcc version.
+
+ * Besides boosting X-server priority, sometimes it's possible to avoid
+ discarding frames by making xine itself higher priority. This is not a
+ recommended pratice since it will require to run xine as root, but you may
+ give it a try if you want:
+ nice --5 xine
+
+
* xine needs high speed memory access which depends on your chip set. Make
sure you enable all speed-improving options.
@@ -684,17 +717,6 @@ optimizing options. A few things you should check:
* a nice performance tuning tool can be found here: http://
powertweak.sourceforge.net
- * enable MTRR support in your kernel. If you are still using XFree 3.x,
- you'll have to tell the kernel yourself where the graphics memory is.
- You'll find details about that in the linux dvd howto.
-
- If you're using XFree 4.x, enabling MTRR support in your kernel should be
- enough.
-
- Try a cat /proc/mtrr - if the file exists and you find an entry
- corresponding to the amount of graphics memory you have, everything should
- be fine.
-
* Set up and use raw devices for dvd access. Please note that this is usually
not worth the effort as the performance gain from it is very small if any.
@@ -776,7 +798,8 @@ Uhm. So you don't like it. Well, there are two things you can do:
When I play this stream, xine shows video but there's no audio!
-Well, first try a different audio driver ( gxine -A oss , gxine -A arts ...).
+Well, first try a different audio driver ( gxine -A oss , gxine -A arts , xine
+-A alsa ...).
If this problem only occurs with one specific stream, maybe switching to a
different audio channel (using the gui) helps. Some DVD streams have audio on
@@ -834,10 +857,15 @@ xine can do that too. Pretty much the same story as for 4-/5-channel surround
Changing the volume with the GUI control has no effect! What's up!?
Some xine drivers do not support volume changing although the GUI will show the
-volume bar. Usually this is not xines fault: aRts C API, for example, doesn't
+volume bar. Usually this is not xine's fault: aRts C API, for example, doesn't
offer any volume property to applications. Similarly, with ac3 pass through it
is not possible to set the volume.
+Note that recently we added support to "simulate" volume in aRts by changing
+sample values on-the-fly before delivering them to the driver. Not as good as
+having access to sound card's mixer but at least users will not complain about
+lacking of volume bar anymore! :)
+
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Audio is stuttering and i see a lot of "metronom: fixing sound card drift by
@@ -852,6 +880,10 @@ Another, whole different possibility is that you have some background process
running which is messing with the clock (like some ntp client - chronny, ntpd,
...).
+Occasional messages of "fixing sound card drift" may happen on start and when
+playing a long stream (like a movie). This is normal behaviour, nothing to
+worry about.
+
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 6. Video related questions
@@ -861,6 +893,8 @@ I can hear the audio - but I don't see a picture!
Probably your hardware is simply too slow - see above for some hints on how to
speed things up.
+Another possibility is that you using a buggy Xv driver, see the next question.
+
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How can I make xine use the Xv extension and what drivers do I need?
@@ -927,7 +961,7 @@ for the video overlay.
The aspect ratio of the video is wrong!
-Try pressing "a" to change the aspect ratio
+Try pressing "a" to change the aspect ratio.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -952,7 +986,7 @@ When the frame is decoded to be shown somewhere in future but the output thread
doesn't get scheduled in time by the operating system to complete the
operation, the frame is discarded. One cause might be the disk access
operation, which may halt the system for a few miliseconds without DMA. See
-section above.
+performance section tips above.
Note that if a decoder can't skip frames for some reason, you would never see
frames skipped (they would be all discarded).
@@ -974,6 +1008,33 @@ the values are saved.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Which is the best video driver to use?
+
+xine support several video drivers for outputing the image. These will differ
+on how the frames are copied to the video card memory, whether colorspace
+conversion and scaling is done in software or hardware, among other things.
+They may also differ on ease of use and stability.
+
+Most of the time, Xv should give the users a good trade-off between quality,
+compatibility and ease of use. This is why xine tries to use Xv by default.
+
+However some users may want to explore better the available hardware
+capabilities (eg. syncing frame drawing with monitor refresh). Also some Xv
+drivers contain slow copies and accessing the video card directly may yield
+performance gains.
+
+Drivers that access hardware directly includes VIDIX (warning: requires root
+priviledges) and SyncFB (requires kernel helper - Matrox only). User may try
+one of those, but should be warned that with root access they can cause the
+system to crash hard. The support is also limited to a couple of graphics cards
+only.
+
+Graphic workstations like SGI have usually a good support for OpenGL. In that
+case, using OpenGL may be a better choice than XShm. However for most desktop
+systems the performance of OpenGL will be quite bad.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
Chapter 7. Error Messages: What they mean and what you can do
Starting xine fails with complains about audio drivers/devices!
@@ -1107,10 +1168,13 @@ mailing list:
* can you reproduce the bug? (e.g. do you remember what you did and when you
do it again it crashes again?)
+ * is that a specific media file or format which crashes xine? (have you tried
+ other files types?)
+
* check the console output (and include it in a bug report), maybe earlier
there is some output that points to the problem.
- * Your X server just froze on you? unfortunately that's a know problem with
+ * Your X server just froze on you? unfortunately that's a known problem with
some chipsets and drivers (most commonly Savage chipsets) when using Xv.
You might want to try running gxine -V XShm to see if the problem is
related to the Xv driver. This will unfortunately be much slower, as lots
generated by cgit v1.2.3 (git 2.25.1) at 2025-04-21 23:24:28 +0000