Sam440ep-Flex performance - Is my system up to snuff?

I'm not sure that it is.

I have read that this system will not achieve 100 percent smooth DVD playback but that it should be "close." Mine is not even close. It stutters and skips to the point of being unwatchable. I'm using the latest registered version of DvPlayer. I really don't intend to use this computer for DVD playback as a routine, but I'm more concerned that various other video files do not play smoothly with DvPlayer or with MPlayer. No, I'm not attempting to play HD video files and don't expect that level of performance from the Sam.

Another problem area... With MilkyTracker, the playback is so bad at any program window or screen size other than 640 x 480 that the program is only useable at that size. I saw another thread here with another Sam user complaining of the same thing.

What gives me hope is that others said in that thread that they can run MilkyTracker at larger sizes and achieve smooth playback.

So my hope is there is some setting or something in my setup that is slowing me down. Is that a realistic hope?

My system is a 733MHZ "complete system" from AmigaKit. I am running OS4.1u2 and driving a 1920x1080 LCD screen at native resolution. I've tried running at lower resolutions and with the transparency effects off, and that hasn't helped.

Any ideas? Are my expectations just too high? I got better performance with multimedia files and DVD playback with a 1999 PowerMac G3 at 400mhz, a computer that's still in my collection.

@mbrantley

Check if the Radeon monitor tooltypes report "INTERRUPTS"
If this is the case, correct it in "INTERRUPT" without the ending "S"

@mbrantley

You might also want to check that the drives are using dma. This can be done with "idetool -l sii3114ide.device" in a shell, and check the output for each device found.

Simon

@m3x

Here's what the Radeon 9250 ToolTypes say...

CMPLENGTH=11
BOARDNAME=Radeon 9250
DDCMODE=All
(VSYNCMIN=60)
(VSYNCMAX=60)
(HSYNCMIN=31000)
(HSYNCMAX=85000)
(MODE=640x480@60)
(MODE=1280x720@60)
(MODE=800x600@60)
(MODE=1280x720@60)
(MODE=1024x768@60)
(MODE=1280x720@60)
(MODE=1920x1080@56+RB)
(MODE=320x240@60)
(MODE=320x256@60)
(FAKENATIVEMODES=Yes)
(INTERRUPT=Yes)


Should I remove the parenthesis from the (INTERRUPT=Yes) line? Won't hurt to try, so I'll be right back...

@mbrantley

Yes, I think INTERRUPT defaults to "NO", for safeties sake.

Simon

@mbrantley

Even if DMA is enabled for the DVD drive, the drive could still be the source of the problem. I used to have perfect playback on my A1-XE, but now encrypted DVD playback is jerky. The difference? I changed to a newer LG DVD writer, and it has issues (probably buggy firmware).

Playing from the hard drive is fast, playing unencrypted DVDs works as it should, but insert an encrypted DVD, and playback becomes jerky. I should add that CPU usage with encrypted DVDs never gets close to 100%, so it's not a question of processing power.

Hans

Thanks, guys. Enabling interrupts via the monitor tooltypes definitely helps matters, but I am frankly still not satisfied.

Now MilkyTracker can be run in a window larger than 640x480 without playback difficulty, but not all the way to a 1920x1080 full screen. A 1024x768 window on my 1920x1080 Workbench now seems to work, however.

I have been testing with an unecrypted DVD as well as encrypted ones. The drive is the LiteOn one provided in the AmigaKit system. Playback has now improved a little, but I still find it unwatchable. I have copied the VIDEO_TS folder from the unencrypted DVD to a hard drive and observed the same results when playing from the hard drive.

Like I said, I can live without smooth DVD playback, but I'd like to be able to play non-HD resolution video files smoothly on this system while I dream of an X1000.

Could somebody point me to a video file online somewhere in a format supported by either DvPlayer or MPlayer that I can download and try out on my system? Something that is known to play back smoothly on a 733mhz Sam???

Oh, and thanks for the DMA tip. My two hard drives and optical drive all have DMA enabled, so that can be ruled out.

Might be my expectations are bigger than what can be realized with this system, but I want to make sure.

I also have MOS2.5 on an eMac and have an Imica Silent coming from Stephen, so I have higher-spec hardware to play on. But I really do feel most at home on AOS4.

@mbrantley

Since we can read DVDs at nearly full speed on a Sam440 667 Mhz, I think your setup must be wrong somewhere.

I too would have advised you to check DMA setting but it seems all is ok but tell us what is writtent with the command idetool -l sii3114ide.device

What did you do with the command INTERRUPT ? This should be :

INTERRUPT=YES (without parenthesis)

@K-L

Hey there. Thanks for the input, and what you say is encouraging.

Yes, now the tools type command is INTERRUPT=YES. And here's the output from the DMA check...

New Shell process 5
5.RAM Disk:> idetool -l sii3114ide.device
-------------------Unit 0 information------------------------
Flags : $000001A7 - present, LBA48 used, supports DMA, ATA, supports acoustic mgmt, supports cache flush, interrupts used,
Xfer mode : best pio 12 (PIO 4, 16 MB/s) / best dma 70 (UDMA 6, 133 MB/s) / current 70 (UDMA 6, 133 MB/s)
Total blocks : 976773168
Blocksize : 512
Power mode : 2 / idle (ready for operation)
IO1 / IO2 / BMCR @ : $1100 / $110A / $1120
-------------------Unit 1 information------------------------
Flags : $0000011D - present, supports DMA, removable media, ATAPI, interrupts used,
Xfer mode : best pio 12 (PIO 4, 16 MB/s) / best dma 69 (UDMA 5, 100 MB/s) / current 69 (UDMA 5, 100 MB/s)
Total blocks : 332769
Blocksize : 2048
SCSI devtyp : 5
Packet size : 12
Current medium read speed : x 65535 ('65535' stands for max.)
Current medium write speed : x 65535 (idem)
Power mode : 2 / idle (ready for operation)
IO1 / IO2 / BMCR @ : $1100 / $110A / $1120
-------------------Unit 2 information------------------------
Flags : $00000187 - present, LBA48 used, supports DMA, ATA, supports cache flush, interrupts used,
Xfer mode : best pio 12 (PIO 4, 16 MB/s) / best dma 70 (UDMA 6, 133 MB/s) / current 70 (UDMA 6, 133 MB/s)
Total blocks : 976773168
Blocksize : 512
Power mode : 2 / idle (ready for operation)
IO1 / IO2 / BMCR @ : $1110 / $111A / $1128
*** Error opening device sii3114ide.device / unit 3
*** Error opening device sii3114ide.device / unit 4
*** Error opening device sii3114ide.device / unit 5
*** Error opening device sii3114ide.device / unit 6
*** Error opening device sii3114ide.device / unit 7
*** Error opening device sii3114ide.device / unit 8
*** Error opening device sii3114ide.device / unit 9
*** Error opening device sii3114ide.device / unit 10
*** Error opening device sii3114ide.device / unit 11
*** Error opening device sii3114ide.device / unit 12
*** Error opening device sii3114ide.device / unit 13
*** Error opening device sii3114ide.device / unit 14
*** Error opening device sii3114ide.device / unit 15

Folks, I'm on to something. I don't know why I didn't think of this to start with, but I have booted my system from the AOS4.1 installation DVD. After doing so, I just ran MPlayer and have opened several of the video files I've been working with and all play smoothly.

So clearly something is configured incorrectly on the system on the HD.

It's getting into the wee hours here in the States, so I'll work on this some more tomorrow.

@mbrantley
Check you don't have something running in the background eating all the CPU time. First step is to add a CPU docky to AmiDock (I recommend CPUInfo from OS4Depot). Idle usage should be equal or under 5%.

Make sure you're not running nmbd as a network service - this has a habit of going postal and chewing up all your process time.

@mbrantley

You have a real SATA HD drive and an ATAPI DVD with an adapter, isn't it ???

If yes, maybe the hardware is the problem and using a real SATA DVD drive will help (but I'm sure of nothing).

I'm curious to know (general question) if user with real SATA DVD and HD seemed to have better playback with DVDplayer....

If you have real SATA DVD drive, I have lost

Hey, guys...

Here's where I am: The situation is much improved, although I am frankly looking forward to having an AOS4 machine with some more multimedia muscle.

I have dropped my Workbench color resolution down to 16 bit. Between that and changing the monitor tooltypes line to enable interrupts, I can now run MilkyTracker all the way to 1920x1080 without penalty.

And now video playback is much improved, although I am still not 100 percent satisfied. So far MPlayer is outperforming DvPlayer on most things, although MPlayer won't play a DVD .VOB file with the sound in sync. Smaller-resolution AVI files play fine. One of my test files is the Big Buck Bunny animation I downloaded from the Blender site -- at about 800 x 480 resolution it's the largest thing I've tried. It plays much better now in MPlayer but has little jerks in DvPlayer. One thing I notice on this video is that when there is a lot of movement it will update the video in large horizontal bands that are distracting. Also, between shots when the whole scene changes, you can easily detect the big refresh from top to bottom rather than all it once.

Oh, my DVD drive is SATA -- no adapter. And a CPU monitor shows idle is at 1 to 3 percent, and that network component that was mentioned is not running.

@mbrantley

Hum, ok, I have lost !!

@mbrantley

Regarding DvPlayer, could you post the ToolTypes ?

I suspect an overlay trouble there.

hmm have you checked if you have something else running in the background as prevuiously suggested?? my Samflex@800 with SATA DVD plays DVDs smoothly at 1024x768 and others have Samflex@733 with hgiher resolutions with no problems AFAIK

I turned off everything in WBStartup (nothing really unusual was there) and rebooted to observe no difference in playback. As mentioned, a CPU monitor shows nothing is gobbling up CPU cycles.

With your Sam, are you running Workbench in 16 or 32 bit color? As mentioned, my situation improved quite a bit by dropping to 16 bit, although I wish I could muscle on through with million of colors all the time.

I have experimented this afternoon with lots of screen modes and color depths, with and without the transparency effects turned on, with the DvPlayer tooltypes configured different ways, and I haven't improved anything beyond where I got this morning. To be clear, the little jerks in the DVD video playback occur whether I'm playing an actual DVD in the SATA drive or a .VOB file on the hard drive.

I'm pasting the DvPlayer tooltypes below with most everything in parenthesis, which is how it's configured now. I've messed with the NOOVERLAY and other things to no discernable effect, but maybe there is some combination I haven't tried.

MPlayer gives smoother playback of the .VOB files, but the sound is way out of synch.

I mentioned the jerky playback of DVDs to the DvPlayer author via e-mail a while back, and he commented that he Sam440ep is a bit underpowered for DVD playback. Fair enough, I figured, but what is giving me pause (no pun intended) is that so many of you report better performance with the same hardware. Maybe I'm too picky????

The DvPlayer tooltypes...

??? Icon by Viktor Soponyai ???
SKIN=nucleo.dvskin
DEFAULTDIR=Work:Data/Video
(LOOP)
(AUTOEXIT)
(XPOS=CENTER)
(YPOS=CENTER)
(NOOVERLAY)
(NOALTIVEC)
(USEBAND=YES|NO)
(AUDIOBOOST)
(NOTRIPLEBUFFER)
(DEPTH=16|32)
(DITHER=ON|OFF)
(SUBTITLEFONT=Helvetica.font)
(SUBTITLEFONTSIZE=24)
(SUBTITLEPOSITION=-8)
(SUBTITLECOLOUR=white|yellow|orange|green|blue|RRGGBB)
(SUBTITLECHARSET=4)

@mbrantley

mine is set up at 32 bit colour..it seems if you corrected the dma and interrupts etc that the problem may in fact be the dvd drive itself...I know from experience that they are built so cheap nowadays that they often are defective....at my old work we once had to buy 3 brand new dvd drives to finally get a good working one..or could it be a defective SATA cable??