@utri007

Yes, Matrox will provide very good documentation. And they make solid gfx cards, up to 2GB of RAM, multiple displays and PCIe connection. More then enough for any AmigaOS hardware today

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@DAX

Quote:

Now if we are talking the SamFlex or even better, the new 460EX (that's what you can buy today) DVDs are no problem at all.

well, i wouldn't go that far. my sam-flex has frame-skip rates of 5%+ on most DVDs.

Quote:

The Flex might currently have some difficulties with Hi-Bitrate discs, BUT I read on Italian forums (from m3x of Acube) that a new update involving an improved RTG library and "DMA everything" is being worked on. The latter will eliminate the remaining memory bandwidth bottleneck so that Flex owning DVD lovers will live happily ever after.

that's awesome! my SAM gets incrementally more performant with every update. is this from the OS4 development team, or something from acube? do you have a link?

-- eliyahu

_________________
"Physical reality is consistent with universal laws. When the laws do not operate, there is no reality. All of this is unreal."

@Gleng
The 440EP "minis" are discontinued, the 460EX doesn't replace the "Flex" variant (which is also called 440EP but with flex moniker at the end).

@Rose @Fab
Takes more doesn't it?
The important thing is that they are progressing though, and more work is being done on them now that Hans is directly involved in the X1000 project (he also received a 460EX).
We'll get them fear not

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

@eliyahu
english readers can have a small tease here:

http://amigaworld.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=5816&start=20

Also Cobra confirmed the new version of DVPlayer is in the testing/bugfixing stage (read post 31):

http://amigaworld.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=5828&start=20

Last edited by DAX on 16-Mar-2011 at 01:53 PM.

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

@DAX

Ah, got it. Cool.

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@utri007

Quote:

There where some kind of strategic partnership with matrox?

There was claimed to be one when zico specs launched. I remember even someone from Matrox to comment it in press. And we never saw anything out of it so I don't think that they would be too intrested to try it again. Beside all that Matrox can offer nowdays is abysmal performance at hilarious prices. Tho that isn't anything new in Amiga world...

there is still this open graphic card project where all docs are available

http://wiki.opengraphics.org/

@lionstorm

Quote:

there is still this open graphic card project where all docs are available http://wiki.opengraphics.org

In four years they have managed to get VGA text mode running... Would be neat another "two more weeks" project

Last edited by Rose on 16-Mar-2011 at 08:19 PM.
Last edited by Rose on 16-Mar-2011 at 08:18 PM.

@Rose

How about S3? Savage is not that bad and it is cheap.

It is sad that current problems are mostly because lack of documentation. What happend then, when new 3D system is ready? Still no 3D drivers because of documentation :(

Ofcourse gpu video codec would be also essential

Last edited by utri007 on 16-Mar-2011 at 08:29 PM.

@Daedalus

The deleted post didn´t say anything about "pathetic" or insulting. Just made a joke about that we would have it by 2015 and singing "only amiga..".

And I didn´t get angry because people don´t agree with me: I am ok with that, and they even can say "You are a dick! SAM is a great computer because blah, blah blah.."

What I feel unfair, is to CENSORE the post. This is what they did, and I will keep saying that's plainful wrong, and it's a shame for the community to do that kind of things.

That's the big difference. You can defend SAM and say it doesn´t need DVD playbak at all (but then, why everybody keep trying? XD), and I am ok with it: I will not argue against it, neither insult nor troll.

I just want express my personal feelings about this terrible situation. I used humor to be more polite, because I tried to avoid saying what in the end I said after that censorship.

Ok, enough of this. I will leave the thread and sorry if someone felt insulted. It was not my intention at all.

One of the goals of Gallium3D is to provide GPU-based acceleration for video codecs such as those used on DVD.

I don't think there has been much activity in this area lately but it is in the diagrams at least... Feature Matrix for Free Radeon Drivers

@gregthecanuck

There has been activity. I had a look at the code, and the beginnings of a VDPAU state-tracker is in there too.

@all

Sadly the documentation required to use the Radeon's video decoding hardware just isn't available. I have seen snippets of MPEG stuff in the R500 documentation, but not enough to actually use it.

Hans

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@Hans

Have you(or Hyperion) considered maybe using some other gfx cards like S3 or Matrox that would be available with full documentation?

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@Hans

Thanks for the pointers.


@Wolftothemoon

Surely you are joking? Matrox is no longer relevant. Neither is S3.

@gregthecanuck

relevant for what?

You wont be playing Crysis on OS4 anytime soon either

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@WolfToTheMoon

Quote:

WolfToTheMoon wrote: @Hans Have you(or Hyperion) considered maybe using some other gfx cards like S3 or Matrox that would be available with full documentation?

I can only speak for myself. No, I have not considered writing drivers for other graphics cards, and definitely not S3 nor Matrox. I'm not familiar with what either S3 or Matrox offer at present, but they started lagging behind in terms of GPU functionality and performance a long time ago. AFAIK, nothing they deliver comes close to what AMD and nVidia offer.

Hans

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@Hans

Quote:

Sadly the documentation required to use the Radeon's video decoding hardware just isn't available. I have seen snippets of MPEG stuff in the R500 documentation, but not enough to actually use it.

That's bad news I suppose. I found no video decoding info available for R1xx/2xx a few years back when I was looking for it, but I was hoping that they're opening things up a bit more these days with the newer cards. Even if our current hardware (Sam460 and soon X1000) will have no issues with DVD playback, FullHD h264 content may still be an issue.

@Hans

You are 100% right about s3 and matrox. BUT you miss the point, only results are important. Current situation with ati is difficult and 100% working drivers for lets say for s3 savage would be better result than current partially working and diffucult to do drivers for ati

Of course I understant that this is nonsense, but there should be options and s3/matrox might be slightly more interested to give documentations and some support for tiny community like us.

@utri007

Quote:

utri007 wrote: @Hans You are 100% right about s3 and matrox. BUT you miss the point, only results are important. Current situation with ati is difficult and 100% working drivers for lets say for s3 savage would be better result than current partially working and diffucult to do drivers for ati

Where do I start with this. Firstly, I have extensive documentation for the Radeon HD cards, AMD have released source code, and I have even received support from their developers on the few occasions where I have been so stuck that I needed help. Yes, the video decoding docs are missing, but the situation is NOT "difficult," as you put it.

Secondly, the video decoding hardware is a minor part of the graphics card, and is much less important than the GPU. As such, it would most definitely NOT be better to sacrifice the powerful and feature-rich GPUs of the Radeon HD series for S3 or Matrox cards, just so that the video decoding unit could be supported.

Thirdly, the open-source community is already working on GPU-assisted video decoding for these cards (see my first post in this thread). Added to that, plenty of people are badgering AMD for the documentation, so they may yet be released.

Fourth, writing drivers is hard, and will be no different for S3 or Matrox cards. Writing those drivers would take a similar amound of time, at the end of which you have drivers for cards that are vastly inferior (GPU-wise). As a spare time project, it would take years before every feature is supported.

Finally, I have put a lot of time and effort into the Radeon HD drivers, and will continue to do so. I am getting results; I'm just not finished yet. Support for 3D, etc., will come. The best option is undoubtedly for me to finish what I started, and NOT even contemplate writing drivers for other cards, especially ones that are inferior (GPU-wise).

Quote:

Of course I understant that this is nonsense, but there should be options and s3/matrox might be slightly more interested to give documentations and some support for tiny community like us.

I doubt that S3 or Matrox will provide us with any more support than AMD already do. They would provide the documentation, but the rest would be up to us. I see no point in supporting their cards which I - like gregthecanuck - consider to be irrelevant. I'm interested in using the GPU, and their GPUs don't deliver.

Hans

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@Hans

Quote:

@all Sadly the documentation required to use the Radeon's video decoding hardware just isn't available. I have seen snippets of MPEG stuff in the R500 documentation, but not enough to actually use it.

It's not possible to have the informations by using an open source Linux player (who support hardware DVD playback) and look at the source code ?

_________________
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