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diff --git a/doc/README.syncfb b/doc/README.syncfb deleted file mode 100644 index be8c2565d..000000000 --- a/doc/README.syncfb +++ /dev/null @@ -1,280 +0,0 @@ - - ===== ===== - XINE video output plugin for MATROX G200/G400/G450 cards *only* - ===== ===== - - -* WHAT IS THIS PLUGIN ABOUT and WHY SHOULD I EVEN CONSIDER TO USE IT? :) - - This xine video output plugin uses the so called SyncFB driver (from - the Teletux project) which provides special hardware features of - Matrox G200 and newer cards like hardware deinterlacing, scaling and - synchronization of your video output to the vertical retrace of your - monitor - just to name a few. The plugin makes all those features - available to xine and because all this tasks are done by the graphic - card there is no need for xine to do them in software -- so you save - precious CPU time which you may gonna need for other things. :-) - - Ok ok -- why should you want to have your video output synchronized to - something called the vertical retrace of your monitor?! Well... :) - - In order to have an optimal DVD playback the update of the image needs - to be syncronized with the vertical refresh of the screen. Otherwise - you will sometimes see part of frame n and part of frame n+1 during - playback of a movie. Resulting in tearing artefacts on moving objects. - - When using this plugin the update of the screen is done during the - vertical retrace of your monitor and those tearing artefacts are gone - forever. - - Also the SyncFB kernel module and this plugin totally by-pass XFree86 - for anything else but some data gathering routines needed to place the - overlay at the right spot. So on some machines you will gain some - performance too because of the different way the SyncFB kernel module - handles your video output. - - Last but not least, you may ask what's so special about deinterlacing? - There are already several deinterlacing methods available in xine and - why should you care about another one? Well (again)... ;-)) - - All current deinterlacers in xine are done in software and therefore - will cost you some CPU power. The SyncFB video out plugin will use the - hardware deinterlacing support of your graphic card, thus saving your - CPU power because everything is done by your GPU... - - -* WILL IT WORK WITH MY G200/G400/G450/... CARD? - - So far the plugin and the kernel module itself are only being tested - on G400 cards by its developers thus we cannot tell about newer - or older generation chips. - - Nevertheless we have received positive feedback that the SyncFB kernel - module and this plugin work fine with G450 cards too. - - If you have got things working on older/newer chips, please let us - know about your success and we will place a note here... :-) - - -* AND HOW DOES IT WORK? - - The SyncFB driver is a kernel module you will have to load that makes - a special device (e.g. /dev/syncfb) available which is opened by the - plugin and controlled with certain ioctl calls. Easy, isn't it? ;-) - - That module is based on the mga_vid driver from Aaron Holzmann and was - advanced (and reworked) by Matthias Oelmann. - - -* OK I HEARD ENOUGH - HOW DO I INSTALL and USE IT? :) - - Currently the Teletux project which maintains the kernel module seems - orphaned and therefore there hasn't been any progress nor release in a - fair amount of time. :( We will try to resolve this situation so that - the development continues again. As soon as there are any news on this - matter, this README will be updated accordingly. For the time being - you can still use the current Teletux SyncFB kernel module which works - just fine, so there is no need to worry. :-) - - Back to the original subject. In order to install and use the SyncFB - kernel module, you *will* need a fresh CVS checkout of the sources - because the last official release is rather outdated. - - This sounds more complicated than it actually is. You will only have - to execute the following two commands to get the sources in a sub-dir - called teletux. When you are asked for password, just press return. - - cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.teletux.sf.net:/cvsroot/teletux login - cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.teletux.sf.net:/cvsroot/teletux co -P teletux - - Now enter the directory teletux/syncfb, that's where the actual kernel - modul sources are located. Before you can compile the module, you will - have to change two lines in the Makefile itself to make it work. - - In the second line, there is a phrase like "-I/usr/include" which you - have to change to "-I/usr/src/linux/include". In line seven, you need - to remove syncfbtv and syncfb_test from the OBJ list. - - Now execute a "make" and the module will be compiled. Place the - resulting syncfb.o in your modules dir which is usually... - - /lib/modules/KERNEL_VERSION/ - - ... and issue a "depmod -a" after it. That's it - the kernel module is - installed. To load the syncfb module, execute "modprobe syncfb" every - time you (re)start your computer. This will automatically create the - required /dev/syncfb device if you have devfs support, otherwise you - need to issue a "mknod /dev/syncfb c 178 0" once to create the - device yourself permanently. - - Once the module is loaded, you can start xine with the "-V SyncFB" - option to use this plugin. xine automatically remembers the video out - plugin you last used, so you only have to use this option once too. :) - But don't forget, the module *always* has to be already loaded before - you start xine, otherwise xine will fallback to Xv/XShm or some other - available video out plugin. - - -* THE VIDEO IS JERKING - WHAT'S THE MATTER?! - - Playing back video material that is mastered for e.g. NTSC can cause - this jerking if your monitor is not running at a refresh rate that is - a multiple of 30 (PAL: 25). - - You can try to fix that by switching your monitor to the appropriate - refresh rates (e.g. 50/75/100 Hz for PAL, 60/90/120 Hz for NTSC). You - will need to add so called modelines to your XFree86 config to make - those modes available, if you don't already have them. - - Here is is a short listing of some sample modelines. Please add only - those two lines (for NTSC and PAL) which exactly fit the screensize - you are running your X Server with. You need to add those lines to the - monitor section of your XF86Config file as well as include their names - in the screen section (subsection display of the color depth your are - using). - - USE THE FOLLOWING MODELINES AT YOUR OWN RISK. THEY COULD DAMAGE YOUR - MONITOR PERMANTELY - PLEASE TAKE CAUTION AND DON'T BLAME US. YOU HAVE - BEEN WARNED. - - So much for the standard disclaimer. :) - - Note: If you want to be on the safe side, generate your very own - modelines with an application like kvideogen for example. - - Also the modelines may need some fine tuning for your setup. You - can use xvidtune (comes with XFree86) to do that. - - # 1024x768 - - Modeline "1024x768pal" 64.94 1024 1040 1216 1328 768 768 775 802 - Modeline "1024x768ntsc" 54.32 1024 1040 1216 1328 768 768 774 802 - - # 1152x864 - - Modeline "1152x864pal" 68.82 1152 1168 1384 1496 864 864 871 902 - Modeline "1152x864ntsc" 80.93 1152 1168 1384 1496 864 864 872 902 - - # 1280x1024 - - none yet - might be added in the future - - So before you run xine just turn to the appropriate refresh rate and - the jerking *should* be gone. (you may also want to have a look at the - XF86VidMode support included in xine which makes on-the-fly resolution - switching possible when fullscreen is toggled) - - -* WHAT SCREENSIZE SHOULD I PREFER? - - Well. It is important that the screensize you choose for DVD playback - is exactly the same screensize you're starting up your X Server with - if you are not using the XF86VidMode extension which will properly do - the switching for you and take care that the plugin is updated - accordingly. So you shouldn't switch down to 1024x768 yourself if you - are running 1280x1024 because that gives you a virtual screensize - of 1280x1024 in a resolution of 1024x768 - and the plugin can't handle - that - and probably never will... ok... never say never. ;) - - You may want to have a look at the XF86VidMode support in xine which - will enable on-the-fly resolution switching when activating fullscreen. - - Now back to the question. A screensize of 800x600 should be it for - non-anamorphic DVDs because their resolution is 720x576 for pal DVDs - and 720x480 for ntsc ones. If you've an anamorphic DVD, you should use - a higher resolution - 1024x768 will be best because the image only has - to be horizontally scaled to get back to the original geometry of 16:9 - which is easier to be done. - - -* WHAT ABOUT DEINTERLACING?! - - Pressing 'i' during playback will toggle hardware deinterlacing. A - decrease in picture quality is a known side effect, yet you won't see - any artefacts caused by interlacing anymore. :-) - - One more note, hardware deinterlacing uses BOB as deinterlacing method - and is totally independent from the software deinterlacing in xine. So - specifing a different deinterlacing method in your .xinerc won't have - any effect on this feature. - - Nevertheless we are thinking about making software deinterlacing also - available as an option. It's on the TODO list... :) - - -* HEY! THE OVERLAY TURNS OFF WHEN THE WINDOW IS PARTLY OFF THE DESKTOP!? - - That's done on purpose. It prevents possible yet harmless screen - corruption. And by the way - why would you want to see a movie just - partly?! ;-) - - -* MY DESKTOP BACKGROUND IMAGE GETS CORRUPTED WHEN USING THIS PLUGIN! - - Even though it doesn't look nice, it's nevertheless harmless. So no - need to worry about it. XFree86 is using your free video memory as - cache for certain things. Now when you use this plugin that part of - your video memory could also be used by the syncfb module. So your - image data cached there will be corrupted. Unfortunately there is no - way to avoid it. Yet, like stated earlier, it is truely harmless and - just a cosmetical side effect. - - -* THE XINE PANEL DOES NOT APPEAR WHEN I WATCH A MOVIE IN FULLSCREEN?! - - Actually it does appear - you just don't see it. :) This is a side - effect of how SyncFB works. The X server can't display anything where - the actual overlay from SyncFB is being displayed because this area in - your video memory is constantly over written - so are the changes done - by your X Server (like a window graphic that is placed there). - - This is just cosmetical and harmless, so no need to worry. If you want - to do something with the xine panel when the video overlay is taking - all your screen, just switch back to window mode and do what you have - to do and after that, back to fullscreen it goes. :-) - - -* KNOWN BUGs - - + the default_repeat config option is currently hardcoded to 0 because - any higher value than 1 will trigger a bug with the SyncFB kernel module - that results in a distorted picture (depending on video resolution) - [this bug is hard to trace, so don't hold your breath for now] - - + SyncFB overlay won't turn off when video window is minimized or - somehow else hidden. - [currently there is no way for the SyncFB plugin to know about the - state of the video window except if the original xine-ui hide function - is used to hide the video window... this will be fixed soon] - - + zooming feature is currently deactivated because it exposes a bug - with the SyncFB kernel module - [for now, don't expect this to be fixed soon - sorry] - - + the syncfb kernel module needs updating pretty badly - - -* WHAT IS ON THE TODO LIST? - - + fix above listed bugs in the SyncFB kernel module - - + make software deinterlacing available as an option - - + RGB support - (unlikely at the moment because there is no need for it) - - + check if the video source is not too big in terms of dimensions for - the video memory left (video memory - X reserved video memory) - - + bug fixes - + more sanity checks - + new features - + optimizations - - -* CONTACTS and FEEDBACK - - Your first starting point should be this README followed by the FAQ. :-) - If you don't find your answers there or if you found a bug, please leave - a message on the xine user mailinglist (see the general README). - |