From what I have read a number of times, the SAM 440EP is not a good system for DVD playback. I am just curious if anyone knows if this is a software or hardware issue?

I have an old Apple PowerMac G4 Cube that is 450MHz and it plays DVDs fine. Even has a lesser video card that the SAM as it was a stock 16MB RAM card (I updated to 32MB but still half what the SAM has).

So, if the Cube can play DVDs, why can't a faster SAM 440ep do it?

Is the CPU in the SAM 440ep not as powerful as the G4?

tj

@MacSociety

Your G4 has AltiVec unit, which greatly helps in some cases (like DVD playback). I think last patches/upgrades from ACube slightly improved DVD playback, results of newer (still not released) DvPlayer could be also little bit better than today.

666 MHz 440EP in SAM is probably as fast as G3 500-600 MHz (in most cases).

@thread

Year 2011: FullHD, BluRAY, 3D, Ultra High Def. (example) etc... and these "amigas" (notice the quotes, please), cannot even play a dvd, a technology 15 years old which today even 100$ computers and telephones can play without pushing their processors

Last edited by vision on 14-Mar-2011 at 11:13 PM.

@vision

Don't worry DVD issues should be fixed soon

_________________
BACK FOR THE FUTURE

http://www.betatesting.it/backforthefuture

Sam440ep Flex 800 Mhz 1 GB Ram + AmigaOS 4.1 Update 6
AmigaOne XE G3 800 Mhz - 640 MB Ram - Radeon 9200 SE + AmigaOS 4.1 Update 6

@samo79

Removed, flamebait /tomazkid

Last edited by tomazkid on 15-Mar-2011 at 05:29 AM.

@MacSociety

Quote:

So, if the Cube can play DVDs, why can't a faster SAM 440ep do it?

With all the latest updates the Sam440 can actually play DVDs quite nicely, but mainly the higher clock speed versions, such as the 800MHz version. With a 667MHz or less there will be a small amount of frame-skipping.

Quote:

Is the CPU in the SAM 440ep not as powerful as the G4?

Yes, the CPU in the Sam440ep is less powerful than a G4. However on a Mac I believe that DVD playback is done mostly by utilizing the GPU (Graphics chip/card) and not by the CPU. Unfortunately the current graphic drivers we have on OS4 don't support MPEG decoding acceleration of gfx cards. If we were able to use this capability of graphics cards under OS4, then DVD playback would be perfectly smooth on any Sam440 hardware.

@vision

lol

_________________
Amiga A1200, 3.1 ROMs, Blizzard 1230 MKIV 64MB & FPU, 4GB DoM SSD, Workbench 3.1

@vision

Glad that this makes you laugh, out of curiosity did you have a Sam440 or you are laughting just for trolling ?

_________________
BACK FOR THE FUTURE

http://www.betatesting.it/backforthefuture

Sam440ep Flex 800 Mhz 1 GB Ram + AmigaOS 4.1 Update 6
AmigaOne XE G3 800 Mhz - 640 MB Ram - Radeon 9200 SE + AmigaOS 4.1 Update 6

@MacSociety

had no problems at all on my old Samflex@800 after the latest ACube PCI patches..not sure of the 440ep though.
btw, I would get a new Sa460ex or used Samflex@800 if you are concerned about dvd video playback

_________________
____________________________
c64-2sids, A1000, A1200T-060@50(finally working!),A4000-CSMKIII
! My Master Miggies- Amiga 1000 & AmigaOne X1000 !
mancave-ramblings
X1000 I BELIEVE

@vision

Quote:

vision wrote: @thread Year 2011: FullHD, BluRAY, 3D, Ultra High Def. (example) etc... and these "amigas" (notice the quotes, please), cannot even play a dvd, a technology 15 years old which today even 100$ computers and telephones can play without pushing their processors

I think you should have linked to a better example.

do we have 3D for consumers already? it's 2011 right or was I caught by vortex singularity during my last time jump? Btw during those travels I really enjoy watching DVD sized movies on my 2" phone display, best quality... ever!

@Amigo1

I think the comparison with mobile-phones doesn't hold as the screen-resolution on most is way smaller and also a few popular ones don't even proper multi-task. Then, also they have dedicated MPEG-decoder chips all to make the CPU having less to do.

_________________
Back home...

@MacSociety

It is very important to check your DMA-Setting for the optical Drive. If this settings are wrong, DVD-Playback on Sam440ep is incredibly slow.

You can do that within U-Boot promt or via Shell.

_________________
I´m back in 2023 on Classic Amiga with my A1200/Blizzard1230IB@50Mhz, 32MB RAM, AmigaOS3.2 and ROMs, Indivision AGA MK3, Author of Amiga-Flipclock (OS4)

@MacSociety

Quote:

I have an old Apple PowerMac G4 Cube that is 450MHz and it plays DVDs fine. Even has a lesser video card that the SAM as it was a stock 16MB RAM card (I updated to 32MB but still half what the SAM has).

The 440 CPU has no L2 cache. I think this is the major bottle-neck when it needs to handle large amounts of both code and data to decode the mpeg stream. A G4 has both L2 cache and Altivec (which is probably used in your old Mac).

Someone with something else than a Sam440, try switching off your L2 cache and see what happens to your system! Try playing DVDs for example. The Sam440 has faster memory than the A1s which makes the problem a bit less, but then again it sits on a 32-bit bus while the A1s (G3/G4) uses a 64-bit memory bus.

_________________
- Don't get fooled by my avatar, I'm not like that (anymore, mostly... maybe only sometimes)
> Amiga Classic and OS4 developer for OnyxSoft.

@Deniil715

I do not know if it helps, but a Wii can play DVD and DVX movies with full quality.
A Wii's PPC is clocked below 800Mhz and it has 24Mb of Video Memory.

So for a SAM it should not be an HW stress at all to play a DVD, I'd put my money on a SW issue here.

_________________
God created Paula so that Allister Brimble and Dave Whittaker could do music

Check my Amiga gameplays (ITA)!

@COBRA

Quote:

Yes, the CPU in the Sam440ep is less powerful than a G4. However on a Mac I believe that DVD playback is done mostly by utilizing the GPU (Graphics chip/card) and not by the CPU. Unfortunately the current graphic drivers we have on OS4 don't support MPEG decoding acceleration of gfx cards. If we were able to use this capability of graphics cards under OS4, then DVD playback would be perfectly smooth on any Sam440 hardware.

And you have found documentations for this feature ?

BTW, with differents patch from Acube, DVD playback for SAM is better now (but not perfect) and miss some percent to be smooth with 100% CPU.

With:
- New DVplayer registered version (when ?).
- Another Acube patch ?
- AOS 4.1.2 (with maybe better gfx drivers, better avcodec.library (verry buggy),.....)

Surely DVD playback will be smooth for SAMep 667 mhz (with CPU around 90% or little more).

This are of course IMHO.

_________________
BTW, what you have done for the amiga today ????

-A1200+Mediator+VooDoo3+060/50+96mo+SCSI-KIT
-SAM440EP-667mhz-on MapowerKC3000+AOS4.1

Amiga Docs Disks Preservation Project

@ErikBauer

Quote:

A Wii's PPC is clocked below 800Mhz and it has 24Mb of Video Memory.

Broadway (CPU in Wii) is probably based on the G3 architecture - faster per clock than 440EP. It even has L2 cache (256 kB).

@Amiga_3k

Quote:

Amiga_3k wrote: @Amigo1 I think the comparison with mobile-phones doesn't hold as the screen-resolution on most is way smaller and also a few popular ones don't even proper multi-task. Then, also they have dedicated MPEG-decoder chips all to make the CPU having less to do.

yes, I know. As you say, this is why the comparison doesn't hold, and I wonder why this "Sam is not even able to play DVDs get's repeated at nausea (I am lucky in this regard as it works on mine).
My post above was not meant to state the absolute truth.

@Amiga_3k

Quote:

I think the comparison with mobile-phones doesn't hold as the screen-resolution on most is way smaller and also a few popular ones don't even proper multi-task. Then, also they have dedicated MPEG-decoder chips all to make the CPU having less to do.

That last part is the keyphrase here: "dedicated MPEG-decoder chips". They have DSPs which are runtime loaded with the codec needed for the specific format. The CPU doesn't do anything really but update the progress bar...

If your phone cannot play music while using the camera for example it's because the DSP is needed by the camera and cannot play music at the same time

Last edited by Deniil715 on 15-Mar-2011 at 09:47 AM.

_________________
- Don't get fooled by my avatar, I'm not like that (anymore, mostly... maybe only sometimes)
> Amiga Classic and OS4 developer for OnyxSoft.

@Amigo1

Quote:

really enjoy watching DVD sized movies on my 2" phone display, best quality... ever!

Except most phones have now 3.6-4.1" displays, really good panels (AMOLED, SUPERAMOLED, Retina Display) and have no problem with decoding video files. So just because you have Nokia 3210 don't mean that "watching DVD on a phone" is a horrible experience.

Last edited by opi on 15-Mar-2011 at 09:54 AM.

_________________
OpenWindows Initiative. Port PS3 hardware to bananas. For free. Join today and receive expired $50 cupon from AI!

@MacSociety
It would seem that memory bandwidth more than anything else has generated the famous DVD playback problem (that's why recent updates have improved DVD playback).
There is a new update in the making which will solve remaining small issues.

I would go for a 460 in any case

_________________
SamFlex Complete 800Mhz System + AmigaOS 4.1 Update 4
Amiga 2000 DKB 2MB ChipRam GVP G-Force040 Picasso 2 OS3.9 BB2
AmigaCD 32