recent ACube updates solve DVD playback problems on Sams

[klx300r]

I hope this goes for all Sam owners, but the recent updates by ACube  have totally removed all slight glitches and audio timing issues from my  system..actually there were only a few DVD's that had this issue before  but now they are completely ok...thanks ACube
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[takemehomegrandma]

I hope this goes for all Sam owners, but the recent updates by ACube  have totally removed all slight glitches and audio timing issues from my  system..actually there were only a few DVD's that had this issue before  but now they are completely ok...thanks ACube

Good news for Sam owners!

But isn't the Sam CPU too weak to play all DVD streams without frame skipping anyways?

[klx300r]

@ takemehomegrandma

I think that's the case with early Sam's (non flex) @533 Mhz and 667 Mhz as I'ver never had such frame skipping issues with my Samflex@800

[Louis Dias]

Good news for Sam owners!

But isn't the Sam CPU too weak to play all DVD streams without frame skipping anyways?

I don't see why.  I believe I was watching DVDs on an Athlon 650Mhz way back in the day...  Clearly it seems like the PCI bus r/w speeds were the issue here.

Good news for all.

Perhaps new benchmarks will be posted when comparing speeds of various OS' and applications.

[haywirepc]

"I'ver never had such frame skipping issues with my Samflex@800 "
 
Yeah just don't try doing anything else, especially not anything really high tech, cutting edge and cpu intensive, like a text editor

[Iggy]

I too would have thought this problem was related to limited CPU power. X86 PCs benefit from GPU assisted decoding, but Amiga related systems do all video encoding/decoding with the CPU alone.

[takemehomegrandma]

I don't see why.

Well, it would be because the Sam CPU is a very low performing and weak "G2" class CPU, never really intended for desktop or media usage.

Nice to see Acube releasing bug fixes though!

[Louis Dias]

Well, it would be because the Sam CPU is a very low performing and weak "G2" class CPU, never really intended for desktop or media usage.

Nice to see Acube releasing bug fixes though!

Hmmm I doubt a Trident video card with a mere 16MB of RAM had alot of acceleration going on.

Even the Gamebube (G3) @ 487MHz could do it. ;-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panasonic_Q

[Iggy]

Hmmm I doubt a Trident video card with a mere 16MB of RAM had alot of acceleration going on.

Even the Gamebube (G3) @ 487MHz could do it. ;-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panasonic_Q

No, I don't remember Trident video cards offering video encoding/decoding acceleration either. But who uses these cards anymore?

I think the oldest common cards are probably the Voodoo3s (unless you count legacy Amiga RTG cards).

What's your point?

[takemehomegrandma]

Hmmm I doubt a Trident video card with a mere 16MB of RAM had alot of acceleration going on.

Even the Gamebube (G3) @ 487MHz could do it. ;-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panasonic_Q

Point is you are comparing apples and oranges, and maybe you are also putting too much attention to clock frequencies? And who was speaking about HW acceleration in video cards?

A G3 is usually faster than a "G2", for some application more than others. AFAIK a Pegasos 2 G3 is faster than any Sam. And a G4 is even faster, especially the newer ones, and especially for applications where Altivec make sense. As a result, MorphOS on a Mac Mini 1.42GHz plays x.264 720p streams better than a Sam plays DVD streams. A difference in work task that is a magnitude greater than the difference in clock frequency (of course other things affects the results as well, such as bus speed, etc).

[Karlos]

As a result, MorphOS on a Mac Mini 1.42GHz plays x.264 720p streams better than a Sam plays DVD streams. A difference in work task that is a magnitude greater than the difference in clock frequency (of course other things affects the results as well, such as bus speed, etc).

Since you are bringing different hardware in for comparison, I see your puny mac mini and raise you my (now not so hot) Q9450 with fully hardware-accelerated video decoding courtesy of nVidia's proprietary X drivers, which handles multiple 1080p streams no sweat at all :lol:

[Louis Dias]

Point is you are comparing apples and oranges, and maybe you are also putting too much attention to clock frequencies? And who was speaking about HW acceleration in video cards?

A G3 is usually faster than a "G2", for some application more than others. AFAIK a Pegasos 2 G3 is faster than any Sam. And a G4 is even faster, especially the newer ones, and especially for applications where Altivec make sense. As a result, MorphOS on a Mac Mini 1.42GHz plays x.264 720p streams better than a Sam plays DVD streams. A difference in work task that is a magnitude greater than the difference in clock frequency (of course other things affects the results as well, such as bus speed, etc).

Is a SAM considered a G2?  I don't think so.  It has something like 6 years of newer tech and faster(and much more) main memory than a Gamecube which was a G3. http://www.anandtech.com/show/858/2
The GC did have an incredibly fast memory interface for it's time.  Here ACUBE has fixed issues with moving memory hence the improved performance in DVD playback.  And besides my point is that SAM does have enough cpu performance to do it and not to compare x86 to PPC.

The memory interface was clearly the problem here.  SAM has a DDR(266) interface and my old PC was using SDR(100).  SAM should be able to outperform an Athlon 650 on large memory intensive tasks such as DVD playback ... but it wasn't.  I don't believe cpu performance has anything to do with it.  Even a P2 can decode Divx(@ SD resultions which is what resolution DVD is)...

Interesting:  I see here that A1 used PC-133 memory...
http://www.memoryx.net/amigaonexe.html

[Piru]

Is a SAM considered a G2? I don't think so.  It has something like 6 years of newer tech and faster(and much more) main memory than a Gamecube which was a G3.

Gekko has L2 cache and some SIMD instructions, both missing from the AMCC PPC440EP. While AMCC PPC440EP has some multimedia instructions they have little practical importance, while Gekko's SIMD is subset of altivec.

AMCC PPC440EP core is from 1999, same year as Gekko.

[Matt_H]

Where does a first-generation Athlon 500MHz with a 16MB Voodoo 3 and Windows XP (on 128MB of RAM!) fit into this comparison? If that old system of mine could multitask and play DVDs, I think the Sam hardware can manage it. Any problems have to be software-/firmware-related.

[takemehomegrandma]

Since you are bringing different hardware in for comparison, I see your puny mac mini and raise you my (now not so hot) Q9450 with fully hardware-accelerated video decoding courtesy of nVidia's proprietary X drivers, which handles multiple 1080p streams no sweat at all :lol:

I'm sure it was also cheaper than the Sam, I know my PC was! One of the many strenghts with x86. But my Mac Mini was ahelluvalot cheaper than my PC, and it runs MorphOS! Not using it for 1080p movies though...

Anyway, I'm not the one using the "I was watching DVDs on an Athlon 650Mhz way back in the day ... Even the Gamebube (G3) @ 487MHz could do it ...  Even a P2 can decode ... so surely the Sam can do it as well" logic in this discussion. Apples and oranges!

http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=32872&forum=33