Genuine Tips or Insight for AmigaOS

While I felt the urge to share a small tip with people in a thread relating to MPlayer tonight I thought it wasn't a bad idea to perhaps ask everyone if they have a similair insight in regards to something else software wise or some other form of manipulation relating to hardware and/or software for AmigaOS that wouldn't really be straight forward to accomplish without luck or indepth research...

Anyone that already knows something please bare with us, and no need to reply thanks for that tip, it's really just to have a list of tips ok?

Now MPlayer isn't exactly AmigaOS specific and probably what I state next will work on other platforms... I just know alot of people use this player and will probably do crazy things to overcome it... when I first installed MPlayer I was annoyed with the default brightness and later size related concerns...

I finally found a solution that worked for me so perhaps it'll work for you...

so on with the show:

Under extras in MPlayer-GUI v1.44 by Deniil 715!

in additional parameters

type this line



remove the -xy 2 part if you don't want to double the size of your movie (I run in 1680x1050 so like to have it bigger at times without going Fullscreen)

the -vf eq2=1.8 is what I consider the best settings for added brightness, contrast & gamma etc...

yes, no need to turn those settings on the monitor WAY up to see that dark detail any longer!

So there you go!

please share your knowledge

@Slayer

I really liked the idea of Greg Donners (semi-)official OS3.5 and OS3.9 FAQs - this were at least for me a very valuable source of tips, workarounds and clarifications. For OS4.1 you really have to search through different forum threads to solve or adress some ... errm ... specials (i.e. the default muted AHI settings for example).

MPlayer: To save a screenshot with the latest version of MPlayer, just hit "s" (without the quotes of course) while the video is playing. The screen grab will be saved to RAM:

@RacerX

Quote:

I thought default save was to progdir.

Anyway..to save exact "clear" frame, you can:
(1)view video
(2)when you see the approximate point you want, use "left arrow" to go back a bit
(3)press spacebar to "pause"
(4)advance frame-by-frame with "period"
(5)then grab exact frame with "s", since you have a bit more control this way and might well grab an unclear frame just by pressing "s" while the video is moving.

I just wish MPlayer -stayed- in pause mode after using "s" to grab. It should only revert to play mode by pressing "space" again really. If it stayed in pause mode you could continue paging with "period" key, which is very useful.

#6

@Slayer

What would be the best playback settings for mplayer...in order keep audio/video in sync. A high quality mp4 that I downloaded from a youtube donwload site, didn't play so well. A much lower quality was fine in playing.

@my_pc_is_amiga

I haven't toyed with that much at all... except for trying to play it in grayscale I don't think I'd bother, even with skip frame etc there is limited appeal...

we are just going to have to wait for more grunt... it'll come so it doesn't bother me...

If I want to play something at full speed I either burn it to a DVDR or RW and watch it on 360 or, use the network to send it through to my modded xbox

I know this doesn't help (I have loads of HD movies etc) but it's the reality of it I think...

@Slayer

Here are a few tips that I had picked from various forums:

1) Workbench:Prefs/Env-Archive/Sys/def_drawer.info
Change icon to suite your needs (show all, sort by name, etc.) so that psuedo-drawer icons work as you expect.

2) For a quicker boot sequence:
Uboot -- minmize delay for uboot prompt / menu progress prompt
Change these with NVSetVar in Amiga shell:
menuboot_delay
bootdelay

Change startup-sequence to this:
Run >NIL: C:AddNetInterface QUIET DEVS:NetInterfaces/~(#?.info)

3) For "Unarc" change the tooltype "DESTINATION=RAM:" or to another path to suite your need.

4) PlayCD has capablity to set a URL for it to check the names of songs on a CD and keep this as a database. Only issue here is that PlayCD assumes the DVD/CD drive is connected to the audio in. Newer drives like mine doesn't have this (so how to play AIFF except through TuneNet).

Things I have not figured out:

a) how to get ctrl-backslash to work. (to close shell window)
b) how to reverse "window"/alt key so that alt becomes "Amiga" and "Windows" alt.
c) How to get the Radeon monitor to work with my HDMI input on my TV.
Modes like MODE=1920x1080@60i+RB should work but I just get a black screen. Only DE=640x480@60 works through DVI-HDMI cable I have
d) How to setup serial port to a serial terminal on another computer.
Can a telnetd server be installed on the Amiga? And then another computer has the client?
e) How to map multimedia keys with Fkey?
f) How does AmigaInput work? I don't quite understand the 4 port mappings for lowlevel.library. As the Amiga has only 2 ports. Which one was the common port for mouse and joystick?

@all

Using roadshow without DHCP, by modifying the DHCP connection.

Sys:Prefs/Internet :

Interfaces -> modify
- Use static IP adress: enabled
- Adress IP = adress of your computer. For example: 192.168.1.2.
- Subnet mask = 255.255.255.0
- Try DHCP settings: disabled.

Routes:
- Adress of the modem/router. Not by clicking on "New", but by writing directly (192.168.xx.xx) on the line "Default Gateway Adress". For example: 192.168.1.1

Name Resolution:
- The place where the DNS must be entered by using "New" each time, for example: 219.27.32.171 & 219.27.32.171

Connection better because less wait state caused by roadshow DHCP. Sometime site very long to come here...

NOTE:
- 192.168.1.1 (modem adress)
- 192.168.1.2 (the first computer
- 255.255.255.0 (allways)
- DNS (given by your provider. Ask them or use google).

In exchange, explanations for:

- installing KingCON on AOS4.1
- Usefull keys when computer boot (shell).
- Uboot commands.
- the command for recovering a grim reaper after a reboot (don't remember).
- ......

@Mrodfr

Quote:
If you're after just the plain list, here it is:

? - alias for 'help'
askenv - get environment variables from stdin
autoscr - run script from memory
base - print or set address offset
bdinfo - print Board Info structure
boot - boot default, i.e., run 'bootcmd'
boota - start AmigaOS boot procedure.
bootd - boot default, i.e., run 'bootcmd'
bootelf - Boot from an ELF image in memory
bootm - boot application image from memory
bootp - boot image via network using BootP/TFTP protocol
bootvx - Boot vxWorks from an ELF image
cmp - memory compare
coninfo - print console devices and informations
cp - memory copy
crc32 - checksum calculation
date - get/set/reset date & time
dcache - enable or disable data cache
dhcp - invoke DHCP client to obtain IP/boot params
diskboot- boot from IDE device
echo - echo args to console
exit - exit script
fdcboot - boot from floppy device
fdosboot- boot from a dos floppy file
fdosls - list files in a directory
go - start application at address 'addr'
help - print online help
icache - enable or disable instruction cache
ide - extended IDE sub-system
iminfo - print header information for application image
imls - list all images found in flash
Control the Level 2 Cache
loadb - load binary file over serial line (kermit mode)
loads - load S-Record file over serial line
loop - infinite loop on address range
md - memory display
menu - Show preferences menu
mm - memory modify (auto-incrementing)
mtest - simple RAM test
mw - memory write (fill)
nfs - boot image via network using NFS protocol
nm - memory modify (constant address)
pci - list and access PCI Configuraton Space
post
- memtest/mousetest/kbdirqtest/rtctest/pcitest/idetest/usbtest
- ethernettest/lpttest/serialtest/alltest
printenv- print environment variables
rarpboot- boot image via network using RARP/TFTP protocol
reset - Perform RESET of the CPU
run - run commands in an environment variable
saveenv - save environment variables to persistent storage
scsi - SCSI sub-system
scsiboot- boot from SCSI device
setenv - set environment variables
sleep - delay execution for some time
test - minimal test like /bin/sh
tftpboot- boot image via network using TFTP protocol
usb - USB sub-system
usbboot - boot from USB device
version - print monitor version
vesa - run a vesa bios call

@my_pc_is_amiga

Answer to your question "a":

There is a problem with key mapping for USB keyboards. As a result, the "\|" key doesn't always work.
To force it to work, tick the "Amiga Keyboard" checkbox in Prefs/Input. It doesn't seem to have any unwanted effects.

@tonyw

Nice!

@my_pc_is_amiga

Part-answer to question f: there where 4 player adaptors for the Amiga, connected to the parallel port of the classics. lowlevel.library supports these adaptors, and so does AmigaInput?s lowlevel.library wrapper.

There where some classic games that support 4 joysticks via lowlevel.library, too.

Regards