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davilla
Retired-Team-XBMC Developer
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Ok, the strange delay was due to the presence of the 720p file in the same directory as the 1080i. Something that XBMC does not like about the 720p file. Why it causes the long delay in viewing the other content, not a clue. Renaming it from "720p.ts" to "720p.save" hides it from XBMC and long delay is gone.
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yuvalt
Retired Team-Kodi Member
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Any updates on performance on an AppleTV?
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davilla
Retired-Team-XBMC Developer
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720p mpeg2 is still troublesome and the existence of the 720p file in a scanned directory will cause problems with long delays viewing other formats. This makes no sense as mplayer and others has no problems with these 720p mpeg2 files.
It's an XBMC on Linux issue but I don't know enough about the internal video playback details to resolve. I do know that mplayer can handle 720p and almost 1080i mpeg2 using Vx. Using XvMC with 720p and 1080i mpeg2 is trivial but I don't know how to get XBMC to use XvMC. I see it listed in a config file.
It seems like I should be able to use mplayer instead of dvdplayer but the docs are sparse and circular on details of the video playback setup aside from what is present in the video setup screen. The different settings made no difference in 720p nor the other video resolutions. I'd have to dig into code and figure out how playback works, how it's really configured and what to do to fix it.
I've searched the forums for others with similar issue and found nothing relevant.
So unless someone can point me to instructions on how to tweek the video playback or use mplayer vs dvdplayer, there's not much more I can do besides wait for the next alpha release and try again.
I really need to get back to enhancements and refinements with atv-bootloader. I'd like to get direct boot LiveCD install of the OS working (oh so close) and much faster boot times and possibly a BIOS emulation layer (a truly obscene desire to boot WinXP on it just so show it can be done).
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davilla
Retired-Team-XBMC Developer
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I redid some mplayer tests,
mplayer using -vo vx -- 720p is fine, and 1080i is fine but close to max cpu.
mplayer using -vo xvmc -- 720p is fine and 1080i is fine with plenty of cpu capacity remaining.
mplayer using -vo gl -- 720p bad as is 1080i.
mplayer using -vo gl2 -- 720p plays but stutters as does 1080i.
So using this info, XBMC has to use at least Xv for playback to do 720p and 1080i.
I did find a thread about enabling an external player for XBMC on Linux. Seem to be a sensitive issue with some devs.
I might try a build with this patch and see what happens if I have time.
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davilla
Retired-Team-XBMC Developer
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Oh and forgot to mention the new page on installing direct from a LiveCD. No more doner PC required for partitioning and installation.
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s7mx1
Senior Member
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davilla,
Thanks for your great effort especially your detailed documents.
One thing I am not sure (cannot test right now) is that will the factory shipped ubuntu kernel to work in atv out of the box apart from the vesafb stuff? How about the clock patch?
Cheers,
s7mx1