DVD playback on SAM440-system?

[Amiga_CDTV]

Hello!
I have an Amiga OS 4.1 system running on SAM440ep, bought from Alinea Computer. The setup includes a DVD-drive but I cant get any of my DVDs to play. When I insert the disc it mounts on the desktop. When I open DVplayer (the one that came with ths OS) and select "Open DVD/VCD" the drive light starts flashing like its be trying to read the disc but it never gets any further. After that the DVplayer usually fails completely with Grim Reaper -notification. With newer DVplayer demo it (in most cases) gives my an error per every track of the disc complaining it cant open them.

The drive itself does work as I can play music-CDs with it and use data-cds. Also burning CDs works.

Should I have some extra stuff installed or am I just missing something? (This is my first OS4 system, which I have used for only a week now so its more than likely that I am missing somethings here!).  I have downloaded an utility to change the region setting of the drive, its 2 as it should. I have also installed Update 1 and 2 of the OS.

[Amiga_CDTV]

Thanks for the ideas.

After searching the amigaworld.net I finally came across this nice little guide:
http://amigaworld.net/modules/features/index.php?op=r&rev_id=147&cat_id=4

After installing all the stuff mentioned there it works! Now DVDs play, perhaps a bit jitterly (not quite as smooth as I think it should be) but anyway it works. DVplayer doesn't seem to understand such thing as dvd menus (the menu is shown but it doesn't allow clicking on it so all I can do is to press skip to reach the video).

[Amiga_CDTV]

Thanks!

BTW; I came across this thread where the DMA mode is mentioned. After checking the status of my devices with "idetool -l sii3114ide.device" (showing best PIO) and changing it (as per the instructions on the thread) it now shows UDMA5 for the DVD drive. (Best pio vs. UDMA5 is 16 MB/s vs. 100 MB/s!).

I am not sure if this helped the DVD-playback jitter (too late to test now, 0:15 here) but at least this sounds like something that might speed things up in general?

EDIT: btw, the CPU seems to be at about 100% usage during DVD play. But as there are no settings for quality etc. in DVplayer I don't see much that I can do about it?

[Amiga_CDTV]

I wonder if there is something big still missing. As simple thing as running a screensaver full-screen ("Galaxy" from OS4depot) raises the CPU usage to almost max. Even the preview of the screen blanker shows about 50% CPU usage! :angry:

[Amiga_CDTV]

I am using an AmiDock- based CPU usage meter, just installed CPUinfo which is a bit newer than the one I used. It shows a bit more precise readings.

Some readings: workbench, no other programs running: around 2%, previewing ScreenBlanker: around 37%, running full-screen: around 80%, dvd-playback: constant 100%. During DVD-playback the value does relate to the video content, during black pauses or with little movement the CPU usage drops to 80-95%.

[Amiga_CDTV]

The CPU and RAM as per the Vesalia page ad. I will be back to the machine in a few days and I'll some more troubleshooting.

[Amiga_CDTV]

@Amiga_Nut: What is the CPU/speed of your system and the RAM?

Back at home. System information says it's AMCC PowerPC 440ep Rev C / 666 Mhz. RAM: 512 MB.

@takemehomegrandma: Where can I activate frame skipping?!

[Amiga_CDTV]

I sent a message to the Vesalia (with a link to this thread). They tested on similar setup and the playback only jitters when playing encrypted DVD's. Non-encrypted are told to work fine. So the problem seems to be the encryption that takes the CPU time.