Mpeg Playback Optimization for the Via EPIA

Forum: Multimedia
Topic: Mpeg Playback Optimization for the Via EPIA
started by: danaw

Posted by danaw on May 25 2005,18:39

As some of you undoubtedly know The EPIA M10000 supports hardware assisted Mpeg-2 decoding via the CLE266 chip. The generic VESA driver included with DSL works with the CLE266 but doesn't support any of its advanced features.

A dramatic improvement in both video quality and playback performance can be achieved by using a properly patched Kernel, XFree 4.4, the Unichrome Driver and the XvMC library. I know of no Live CD that fully utilizes the Mpeg features of the EPIA, but Freepia comes very close. I’d love to achieve the same results with DSL, but the modifications listed above exceed my abilities. Any takers?

Here are a few tips for achieving the best Mpeg-2 playback possible with the dsl-1.1.iso.

Install mplayer.dsl from myDSL Mutlimedia Extensions

Using Xvesa reduce the X Windows desktop size and set the bit depth to 24. I am watching NTSC videos so I set my desktop to 640x480x24

Maximize your video memory by choosing a simplified the X Windows style (one without a background image).

The following command does a fair job of playing back most of my Mpeg files.

mplayer –vo x11 –framedrop –fs filename.mpg

Because I’m usually playing back files encoded at a resolution of 740x480 and my desktop is only 640x480 a portion of the right side of the screen is cropped off unless I scale the video.

mplayer –vo x11 –framedrop –fs –zoom –xy 640 filename.mpg

It’s often a tossup between using a 800x600x24 desktop or using software scaling. Try both and see what works best for you.

You can also use nice to modify the priority of mplayer. For this to work you’ll need to be root.

sudo su
nice -n -20 mplayer –vo x11 –framedrop –fs –zoom –xy 640 filename.mpg

Kudos to everyone involved in making Damn Small Linux THE BEST small distribution available.

Posted by David on June 08 2005,10:36

I would like to know how to do this too - there are drivers available from Via and also at epiawiki.org, but all require a lot of Linux expertise to install. As DSL are promoting the Epia mini-ITX format, how about some simple instructions/downlaod to help newbies like me! I want to use my Epia ME6000 as a silent diskless multimedia player. I can watch DVDs but the framerate is very slow - I know the hardware can do it because I can get seamless DVD playback on the same box under Win2K - but i can't boot Win2K from a USB stick!