[Yozer]

AVCHD uses H.264 video and AC3 audio in m2ts but some of the camcorder makers use alternate extensions like m2t or mts, its the same thing they stupidly cant agree on just using one.

The camcorder makers definitely do wacky things, I once saw a AVCHD Panasonic output H.264/MP4 files that were unplayable on a WDTV Live but played fine in XBMC.

Those 1080p @ 60Hz camcorders are actually breaking the AVCHD spec, they use H.264 High Profile @ Level 4.2 and I think the Crystal HD handles up to Level 4.1 though I don't know if that ultimately makes any major difference.

[davilla]

The CrystalHD does not have the bandwidth to do 1080p/60. It's a 1X pcie interface and 1080p/30 or 720p/60 is just inside the bandwidth of 1X pcie. Remember, CrystalHD is just a decoder and the decoded picture frames get DMA'ed from the CrystalHD into system RAM over 1X pcie.

[iscraigh]

Are you having success with 720p 60fps yet?

I did not know they were close to the bandwidth limit but I assume a standard pci slot would have the same limit. My 720p 60fps hdpvr recordings play fine using a pci (not pcie) Nvidia vdpau card.

I look forward to testing out the new crystalhd drivers I may install linux on my atv again and try them out.


Craig

[dan1son]

Are you having success with 720p 60fps yet?

I did not know they were close to the bandwidth limit but I assume a standard pci slot would have the same limit. My 720p 60fps hdpvr recordings play fine using a pci (not pcie) Nvidia vdpau card.

I look forward to testing out the new crystalhd drivers I may install linux on my atv again and try them out.


Craig

PCI has a much lower bandwidth limit, the difference between vdpau and the CrystalHD is the fact that using VDPAU you only need to pump the compressed video stream into the card. It then decodes it and shows it on the screen internally.

The CrystalHD card has to be pumped the compressed video stream so it can decode it into uncompressed video then pulled through the PCI-E bus using DMA then processed and sent into the video card.

The amount of required bandwidth between VDPAU and CrystalHD is HUGE.

VDPAU = Compressed bitrate
Crystalhd = Compressed bitrate + resolution * color depth (probably 32bits) * framerate = HUGE data for 1080p.

For example, 1080p/24 is 1 592 524 800 bits per second. 1.6gigabits.

[pouldam]

FYI, it looks like a new version of the driver has just been released for Linux: http://www.broadcom.com/support/crystal_hd

From the readme:

FIXED ISSUES
Kernel oops during driver load
64-bit support
Power management
HW scaling

KNOWN ISSUES
Seeking hangs the player
Playlist functionality does not work correctly
VC-1 not functional

[davilla]

FYI, it looks like a new version of the driver has just been released for Linux: http://www.broadcom.com/support/crystal_hd

From the readme:

FIXED ISSUES
Kernel oops during driver load
64-bit support
Power management
HW scaling

KNOWN ISSUES
Seeking hangs the player
Playlist functionality does not work correctly
VC-1 not functional

And that one is already behind the source code at crystalhd-for-osx.

[sircube]

The CrystalHD does not have the bandwidth to do 1080p/60. It's a 1X pcie interface and 1080p/30 or 720p/60 is just inside the bandwidth of 1X pcie. Remember, CrystalHD is just a decoder and the decoded picture frames get DMA'ed from the CrystalHD into system RAM over 1X pcie.

Looks nobody posted a mediainfo for the problematic file(s) on camcorders.
So this is my Sony HDR-SR11 cam's output. I'm not using the full HD option for record, but I pretty much believe this format is a good compromise for quality and disk space and used by many.

File: 00143.MTS

Code:

General
ID                               : 0
Complete name                    : 00135.MTS
Format                           : BDAV
Format/Info                      : Blu-ray Video
File size                        : 257 MiB
Duration                         : 2mn 56s
Overall bit rate                 : 12.2 Mbps
Maximum Overall bit rate         : 18.0 Mbps

Video
ID                               : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID                          : 1 (0x1)
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                   : [email protected]
Format settings, CABAC           : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames        : 2 frames
Duration                         : 2mn 56s
Bit rate                         : 11.3 Mbps
Width                            : 1 440 pixels
Height                           : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 16:9
Frame rate                       : 25.000 fps
Resolution                       : 8 bits
Colorimetry                      : 4:2:0
[b]Scan type                        : Interlaced[/b]
Scan order                       : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.290
Stream size                      : 237 MiB (92%)

Audio
ID                               : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID                          : 1 (0x1)
Format                           : AC-3
Format/Info                      : Audio Coding 3
Duration                         : 2mn 56s
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 448 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 6 channels
Channel positions                : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Video delay                      : -80ms
Stream size                      : 9.41 MiB (4%)

Text
ID                               : 4608 (0x1200)
Menu ID                          : 1 (0x1)
Format                           : PGS
Duration                         : 2mn 55s
Video delay                      : -80ms

I guess except that it is interlaced, it should play fine on Crystal HD . Many camcorders record in interlaced mode how I see, so home vids are a no go for ATV for now.

[pouldam]

Davilla,

Please be aware that revision 139 of the CrystalHD driver does not build on Hardy because crystalhd_hw.h contains the line

Code:

#include <linux/semaphore.h>

I believe it has to be changed to this to build on Hardy:

Code:

#include <asm/semaphore.h>

...do not know how it affects newer versions of Ubuntu though

[davilla]

Davilla,

Please be aware that revision 139 of the CrystalHD driver does not build on Hardy because crystalhd_hw.h contains the line

Code:

#include <linux/semaphore.h>

I believe it has to be changed to this to build on Hardy:

Code:

#include <asm/semaphore.h>

...do not know how it affects newer versions of Ubuntu though

yea, yea. just ran into that.

[ReggieX]

Finally got my Mac Mini back, 1.83Ghz/GMA950 model. Installed the Crystal HD card in no problem (unless you want to count the fact that I forgot to put all the screws back after putting the top case back on... )

Installed the drivers and grabbed a nightly of XBMC, and everything's looking good from the very quick testing I've done. All on the latest Mac OSX 10.6.4.

No 1080p material to check on hand, but the mix of MP4/MKV containers so far have all looked good, with CPU running around 25-30%.

[jag0]

I had a previous version of the CHD drivers running. I attempted to install 2.0. I was wondering if there was/is a way to check to see which version is currently installed?

[davilla]

I had a previous version of the CHD drivers running. I attempted to install 2.0. I was wondering if there was/is a way to check to see which version is currently installed?

dmesg will tell the driver. xbmc.log will indicate new API.

[snoopy86]

Hi.

I want to run movie on the lower spec and it does not run smooth.
On the apple tv are the latest drivers for crystalhd and tle leates night build of xbmc.

Movie:

Code:

Format                           : Matroska
FileSize/String                  : 17.6 GiB
Duration/String                  : 2h 35mn
OverallBitRate/String            : 16.2 Mbps
Encoded_Date                     : UTC 2010-09-11 19:45:16
Encoded_Application              : mkvmerge v3.2.0 ('Beginnings') built on Feb 12 2010 16:46:17
Encoded_Library/String           : libebml v0.7.9 + libmatroska v0.8.1

Video
ID/String                        : 1
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
Format_Profile                   : [email protected]
Format_Settings_CABAC/String     : Yes
Format_Settings_RefFrames/String : 3 frames
MuxingMode                       : Container [email protected]
CodecID                          : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration/String                  : 2h 35mn
BitRate_Mode/String              : Variable
BitRate_Nominal/String           : 12.0 Mbps
BitRate_Maximum/String           : 24.0 Mbps
Width/String                     : 1 920 pixels
Height/String                    : 1 080 pixels
DisplayAspectRatio/String        : 16:9
FrameRate/String                 : 23.976 fps
ColorSpace                       : YUV
ChromaSubsampling                : 4:2:0
BitDepth/String                  : 8 bits
ScanType/String                  : Progressive
Bits-(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.241
Encoded_Library/String           : x264 core 78 r1309M 4d77de8
Encoded_Library_Settings         : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=5 / psy=1 / psy_rd=0.0:0.0 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=12 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=0 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=6 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / wpredb=1 / keyint=24 / keyint_min=1 / scenecut=40 / rc_lookahead=0 / rc=2pass / mbtree=0 / bitrate=12000 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.50 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=24000 / vbv_bufsize=30000 / ip_ratio=1.10 / pb_ratio=1.10 / aq=1:1.00

Audio
ID/String                        : 2
Format                           : DTS
Format/Info                      : Digital Theater Systems
Format_Profile                   : MA
CodecID                          : A_DTS
Duration/String                  : 2h 35mn
BitRate_Mode/String              : Variable
Channel(s)/String                : 6 channels
ChannelPositions                 : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
SamplingRate/String              : 48.0 KHz
BitDepth/String                  : 24 bits
Language/String                  : English

Text
ID/String                        : 3
Format                           : UTF-8
CodecID                          : S_TEXT/UTF8
CodecID/Info                     : UTF-8 Plain Text

Is there any solution to this?

Tnx

[davilla]

Hi.

I want to run movie on the lower spec and it does not run smooth.
On the apple tv are the latest drivers for crystalhd and tle leates night build of xbmc.

Movie:

Code:

Format                           : Matroska
FileSize/String                  : 17.6 GiB
Duration/String                  : 2h 35mn
OverallBitRate/String            : 16.2 Mbps
Encoded_Date                     : UTC 2010-09-11 19:45:16
Encoded_Application              : mkvmerge v3.2.0 ('Beginnings') built on Feb 12 2010 16:46:17
Encoded_Library/String           : libebml v0.7.9 + libmatroska v0.8.1

Video
ID/String                        : 1
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
Format_Profile                   : [email protected]
Format_Settings_CABAC/String     : Yes
Format_Settings_RefFrames/String : 3 frames
MuxingMode                       : Container [email protected]
CodecID                          : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration/String                  : 2h 35mn
BitRate_Mode/String              : Variable
BitRate_Nominal/String           : 12.0 Mbps
BitRate_Maximum/String           : 24.0 Mbps
Width/String                     : 1 920 pixels
Height/String                    : 1 080 pixels
DisplayAspectRatio/String        : 16:9
FrameRate/String                 : 23.976 fps
ColorSpace                       : YUV
ChromaSubsampling                : 4:2:0
BitDepth/String                  : 8 bits
ScanType/String                  : Progressive
Bits-(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.241
Encoded_Library/String           : x264 core 78 r1309M 4d77de8
Encoded_Library_Settings         : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=5 / psy=1 / psy_rd=0.0:0.0 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=12 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=0 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=6 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / wpredb=1 / keyint=24 / keyint_min=1 / scenecut=40 / rc_lookahead=0 / rc=2pass / mbtree=0 / bitrate=12000 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.50 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=24000 / vbv_bufsize=30000 / ip_ratio=1.10 / pb_ratio=1.10 / aq=1:1.00

Audio
ID/String                        : 2
Format                           : DTS
Format/Info                      : Digital Theater Systems
Format_Profile                   : MA
CodecID                          : A_DTS
Duration/String                  : 2h 35mn
BitRate_Mode/String              : Variable
Channel(s)/String                : 6 channels
ChannelPositions                 : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
SamplingRate/String              : 48.0 KHz
BitDepth/String                  : 24 bits
Language/String                  : English

Text
ID/String                        : 3
Format                           : UTF-8
CodecID                          : S_TEXT/UTF8
CodecID/Info                     : UTF-8 Plain Text

Is there any solution to this?

Tnx

sample please.

[snoopy86]

50MB sample