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To: Denis DeLaRoca <CSP1DWD@MVS.OAC.UCLA.EDU>
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Subject: Re: Multimedia usage on FreeBSD 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Sat, 25 Jan 1997 19:52:00 PST."
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Date: Sat, 25 Jan 1997 20:02:32 -0800
From: Amancio Hasty <hasty@rah.star-gate.com>
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>From The Desk Of Denis DeLaRoca :
> On Sat, 25 Jan 1997 18:57:39 -0800,
>    Amancio Hasty <hasty@RAH.STAR-GATE.COM> said:
> >
> > Video capture:
> >   Hardware : Matrox Meteor PCI, Intel Smart Video Recorder III PCI,
> > 	     Talisman MPEG Player.
> > 	
> >
> >   Applications:
> > 	o Save live images akeen to taking a picture.
> > 	o Watch tv with the "tv"
> > 	o audio/video conferencing with vic/vat using at ISDN speed
> > 	o Play back CDI or VIDEOCD at 30fps with the Talisman MPEG Player.
> > 	o metgrab -- only with the Matrox Meteor -- real time special
> > 	  effects while capturing live video on PPRO 200MHz.
> 
> Re Metgrab, I thought the Matrox Meteor and PPRO 200Mhz combo was
> a no-no, ie., would lock the system in question. Has that been fixed?

The problem has been isolated to YUV 422 capture that is that 
the Matrox Meteor sends three consecutive dma transfers and
in this mode it locks up solidly your system. However, there is 
a work around for this in that we can capture YUV Pack mode which
seems not to lock up a system. A modified version of vic's grabber-meteor.cc
which uses YUV packed mode was posted on the list for people to try and 
I must say I have not heard back anything from anyone.

I still don't trust the Matrox Meteor with a Natoma chipset.




> Re the Matrox and Intel cards, besides the better price are there
> compelling technicals reason to choose the Intel card over the
> Matrox?
> 
> I recall your mentioning the DMA programmable feature of the Intel
> card, was it fun programming that, did you get to do anything clever
> to optimize dma transfers?

It turns out that the dma performance on a Triton chipset is better
for video capture than for the Natoma chipset. The Intel card works okay
on my PPRO system however it works much better on my P100 with a Triton 
chipset. Right now, I am watching tv on my P100 at 640x480 15 bits 
and it compares very well against my tv. At 640x480 32 bits in order
for me to see 30fps I need to modify the driver to display directly
to the video display buffer.


	Amancio