60 fps video using SIDE 2

[jhusak]

Probably, Incognito owners should sy something... I have no Incognito, so I cannot tell.

 

However, the movie has to be on the card written sector by sector, raw.

And player has to be launched from SIO device. That is how it works with SIDE/SIDEII

 

@Peri Noid, hehe, postrace

Edited March 6, 2022 by jhusak

[Peri Noid]

But you know that you must raw-dump a movie file to your CF card?

[Beeblebrox]

Just now, Peri Noid said:

But you know that you must raw-dump a movie file to your CF card?

@Peri Noid  Hi. No I did not know that.  I am a little late to the party so the exact process to get a movie file onto the CF card is a little unknown to me.

 

With the original moveplayer I had assumed it played .img files such as the Tron one here. With Jhusak's version I had assumed it was able to play .avf files. 

 

I'd perhaps naively tried both .avf and also .img formats with the latest Movplayer.xex but none have worked.

 

I wonder would you be able to let me know how I might out how to raw dump one of the existing movie files, say one of Poison's, onto the CF?  Or perhaps there is one I can download to put on the CF?

 

Is a raw movie file format essentially an img file in this instance?

[flashjazzcat]

17 minutes ago, jhusak said:

Probably, Incognito owners should sy something... I have no Incognito, so I cannot tell.

The Incognito's IDE registers are on page $D1, so that's why the player isn't working.

 

[Beeblebrox]

Just to say I've been PM chatting with a fellow AA member and I think I've realised in doing so that I'm rather out of my depth here.  

 

Reading recent posts I had probably all to eagerly made a few assumptions as to the nature of the video files the movplayer, (old and new), and what it could read on SIDE and SIDE2. If I've misunderstood things and in fact the tweaked Side2 movplayer player can't read IMG or AVF files and that I can't simply copy one to the CF's Fat32 partition alongside my other files, (xex, Atr, ROM/CAR, etc), then fair enough. 

Edited March 6, 2022 by Beeblebrox
incorrect info corrected

[jhusak]

@flashjazzcatCould you test if simple change of the addresses works? If so, please make a pull request or so to the repo https://github.com/jhusak/side-sideII-avfplay

Edited March 6, 2022 by jhusak

[flashjazzcat]

17 minutes ago, jhusak said:

@flashjazzcatCould you test if simple change of the addresses works?

Not right at this moment, but it should work perfectly well providing it doesn't attempt to use the alternative IDE reset register (which isn't present on the Incognito). Avery's original player worked fine on the Incognito simply by changing the equates, IIRC.

[jhusak]

Ok, so I'll change registers and let people test.

[+Stephen]

1 hour ago, Beeblebrox said:

Just to say I've been PM chatting with a fellow AA member and I think I've realised in doing so that I'm rather out of my depth here.  

 

Reading recent posts I had probably all to eagerly made a few assumptions as to the nature of the video files the movplayer, (old and new), and what it could read on SIDE and SIDE2. If I've misunderstood things and in fact the tweaked Side2 movplayer player can't read IMG or AVF files and that I can't simply copy one to the CF's Fat32 partition alongside my other files, (xex, Atr, ROM/CAR, etc), then fair enough. 

No - it cannot.  Only the AVG cart can read movie files as actual files on the card.  Every other player needs one single movie, written as a raw image to the card.  No file system, no file names, etc.  Just the raw sector data.  A separate device has to load the movie player, which then pulls the raw data from the CF card.

 

This is what I used (I'm Windows only) - https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/

[flashjazzcat]

Storing the movie in a file system is a fairly trivial undertaking for any of the other devices providing the file occupies contiguous clusters. All one needs to derive is the start position. AVG has the advantage of the MCU on the device delivering file content via a data register which simply streams one byte after another from the open file.

 

The SIDE player could overcome the contiguous cluster problem by first mapping the cluster chain in extended RAM, but this doesn't help much since a single frame of video does not fit neatly into a single cluster of any size. SIDE3 could utilise DMA and SRAM to implement a read-ahead buffer which could allow the playing of non-contiguous files regardless of cluster size, but it's a fairly complex proposition.

[jhusak]

@flashjazzcat, the ide base address for Incognito is D1F0 or D100? 

 

What I do have change? (I ask about side_xxx_control mainly) - here are more things I do not know, so I will wait for you to do it, this is fairy simple to test with the incognito connected in, but without there will be a lot of unnecessary post-communication. 

 

IDE_BASE = $d5f0

 

side_sdx_control        equ     $d5e0

side_cart_control       equ     $d5e4

 

ide_data        equ     IDE_BASE+0

ide_feature     equ     IDE_BASE+1

ide_errors      equ     IDE_BASE+1

ide_nsecs       equ     IDE_BASE+2

ide_lba0        equ     IDE_BASE+3

ide_lba1        equ     IDE_BASE+4

ide_lba2        equ     IDE_BASE+5

ide_lba3        equ     IDE_BASE+6

ide_cmd         equ     IDE_BASE+7

ide_status      equ     IDE_BASE+7

Edited March 7, 2022 by jhusak

[flashjazzcat]

2 hours ago, jhusak said:

@flashjazzcat, the ide base address for Incognito is D1F0 or D100? 

Base address is $D1E0. Equates from the PBI BIOS:

; IDE registers

	.if build = hardware.Incognito

IDE_DATA	equ $D1E0
IDE_ERR		equ $D1E1
IDE_SCNT	equ $D1E2
IDE_SNUM	equ $D1E3		; LBA 0
IDE_CYLL	equ $D1E4		; LBA 1
IDE_CYLH	equ $D1E5		; LBA 2
IDE_HEAD	equ $D1E6		; LBA 3 ($Ex)
IDE_STAT	equ $D1E7

	.endif

The SDX banking address is $D5E0 on the Incognito too, meanwhile. There's no 'external' cart, so there's no secondary cartridge control register. I would say that simply changing IDE_BASE to $D1E0 will do the trick.

[jhusak]

Ok, thanks.

 

Base address changed to $D1E0. Please test, if it works, I'll try to add the dynamic recognition of base address.

movplay_incognito.xex

[Peri Noid]

I'll give it a try but mater this week. My 800 is in my office. @jhusak

[jhusak]

20 hours ago, jhusak said:

Ok, thanks.

 

Base address changed to $D1E0. Please test, if it works, I'll try to add the dynamic recognition of base address.

 

That version from post #338 does not work.

 

Here is the right version.

movplay_incognito.xex

Edited March 8, 2022 by jhusak

[Beeblebrox]

@jhusakCool - I can confirm the new fixed Incognito player above (post #340) does work on my Incognito'd PAL 800!

 

Just viewed 5mins of Tron and the Dragon lair intro, (for latter PAL version attached), off my 800 on my 10" CRT.

Played smoothly although I noticed the documented video/audio glitch every 4 seconds but I believe this is to do with the Transcend Compact Flash card performance itself. I don't have another cf card to hand at the mo but might try a Sandisk brand at some stage.

 

The sound volume initially appeared to be non existant until I turned my CRT's volume almost up to max - Then it was fairly clear, AND without any notable humming/ringing, albeit still fairly quiet.

   Good job getting rid of the humming/ringing sound!

 

Worth noting watching on my large 21" CRT because of the resolution, it's much hard on the eyes as expected and IMHO not really watchable for any length of time. On a 10" CRT it's pretty good.

 

****

Here are the steps for newbies like myself:

 

After getting rather overwhelmed trying to make sense of things in this thread, (there is a lot to read through from a few years back, especially things around the RAW format) - I finally managed to get a handle on it. Thanks to those for putting me on the right track yesterday.  It's relatively simple once you know how.

 

FYI the video in this post in the thread from 2017 is great and really helped me understand things as a newbie,

(where it also illustraites/explains the video/audio glitch some CF cards like mine produce):

 

So as advised I used Win32 Disk imager to write the raw file to my CF. I took a raw BIN file of the Tron movie, renamed it to .img, and copied it to a spare 2GB Transcend 133x CF card I had lying around.

 

So in essence:

• Download a BIN or DD file movie in the format for your setup (PAL or NTSC) (PAL Dragon's Lair file attached for convenience)
• Rename it .img so that the Win32 disk imager software can use it. (The Dragon's lair file attached is already renamed)
• Download and install Win32 disk imager on your Windows PC/Laptop
• Pop your CF card into your PC/Laptop (eg via CF adapter)
• Point the Win32 disk imager's path to the .img file and write it to the CF
• Pop the CF into the Incognito slot in the 800
• I then booted into Incognito bios, enabled the spartaDosX boot, disabled PBI (not sure if latter needed disabling but did it anyway).

 

Loading the movplayer (in this instance the Incognito movie player):

• Next you will need some way to load the Movplayer in the above post onto the 800, (because the CF card isn't available/formatted with a file structure to hold this on there having just been used to store the RAW format data.)
• You can use an SIO2PC with Respeqt or APE drive emulators, or your 1050 drive to load the movplay_incognito.xex. I used Resepqt and and SIO2PC cable. 
• To mount it in Respeqt go to FILE--Boot Atari executable ..and find the movplay_incognito.xex
• Plug in an SIO2PC cable into the 800 and the CF/laptop
• Cold boot your 800 into SpartaDosX
• Type Cold /n at the D1: prompt to reboot the 800
• Respeqt kicks in and the movplayer loads up and should look like it's all set with some onscreen info/prompt
• Hit any key (I hit the space bar)

 

The movie should play.

 

The volume - in my experience, was very low so you'll likely have to crank it up. Just make sure you turn it down afterwards or your ears will be in for a nasty shock!

 

I'll try downloading a few more movies over the next day or so. Wanna find a really colourful one.

 

Very gratifying seeing my 1980's 800 playing a 1980's Sci-fi movie - it's likely both were made within a year or two of each other  - cool!

 

Thanks to Phaeron of course and Jhusak recently for all the work involved.

 

Few pics (800 with S-video cable on my Panasonic 10" CRT):

                  

 

 

               

 

 

dl_intro_pal.img

Edited March 8, 2022 by Beeblebrox

[jhusak]

Great and very informative post! Thanks!

[jhusak]

Last versions, with corrected text. Compiled from sources on https://github.com/jhusak/side-sideII-avfplay 

(theese are original avf format players).

MOVPLAY_SIDE.XEX MOVPLAY_INCOGNITO.XEX

[Peri Noid]

Now all that's left is to buy a hundred of CF cards for all the films I gathered ?

[jhusak]

1 minute ago, Peri Noid said:

Now all that's left is to buy a hundred of CF cards for all the films I gathered ?

Or one 128GB uSD for AVGCart

[+Stephen]

9 hours ago, Beeblebrox said:

@jhusakCool - I can confirm the new fixed Incognito player above (post #340) does work on my Incognito'd PAL 800!

Glad to see you got it working!  Nice little guide you posted too, I am sure that will help people in the future trying this out.

[Peri Noid]

17 minutes ago, jhusak said:

Or one 128GB uSD for AVGCart

I already have one 64GB and ~40GB of clips and movies on it. But it's about Side2 now ?

[Beeblebrox]

Wow - just found this 2017 post by Grzybson and the collection of ready made PAL conversions. Amongst them was the Daft Punk conversion which is actually a short trailer for the Tron Legacy movie. 

It can be found in this collection here: https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=!AKdWJTKd1Q_0jjo&id=871269DD56DAB15F!224478&cid=871269DD56DAB15F

 

The sound is really very impressive once the volume is turned up when played on the new tweaked player. (No humming/ringing). The video's colours have come across very well too. Very nice.

 

I am really after a colourful PAL conversion to watch if there are any recommendations. Or if there are any improved upon PAL conversions of late anyone has done who wants to share them.

 

I downloaded a PAL examples Zip earlier which had the Skyfall sample amongst other things but unfortunately the colours haven't really come through, (compared with the aforementioned Daft punk vid). I guess it's hit and miss given we are limited to 256 colours.

 

I am going to invest in a 2GB Samsung Ultra II CF I think as several people on this thread have recommended it with the player. My Transcend 133x 2GB just can't handle it and I am getting the 4 second noise blip and general brief visual distortion across screen that comes with it.

[Peri Noid]

2 hours ago, jhusak said:

Last versions, with corrected text.

Plays really nicely. It's just quiet. I had to try 2 CF cards, the first one was probably too slow and I had and awful noise instead of music. It's fine with the second one. 

Edited March 8, 2022 by Peri Noid

[jhusak]

@phaeron, I re-ask: why there is a need 8KB of empty/pad bytes on the beginning of the movie? I see different start sector settings in sources. Is it the artifact form testing on the free part of CF card?

 

The second question: how long in minimum you must wait for another sectors after read 17 sectors command on SIDE/II? Those 4ms mentioned in sources, shorter, or the longer the better? I have not ehough cards to test it thoroughly...

 

On AVGCart there is no need to wait and you can divide sectors even in the center of the DMA line, and it works. However, no seek (for now, which is possible in SIDE/II) and all the data must be read sequentially, there is no way to "toss" the bytes at the end by invoking new read.