@Spirantho

Oh man! the progress beeing made here is incredible. This is history beeing written I tell'ya. I'll be telling my grandkids about the time when the first version of AmiTV was written, and Spirantho posted it for the first time on the forums of AmigaWorld.net. (Sound like "At the hills of mount AmigaWorld.net )

Btw, don't you think this belongs on the front page as a news item about now?

/shoe

@shoe

Hey, down boy! You're getting drool all over everybodies windows!

@shoe

Quote:

shoe wrote: @Spirantho Oh man! the progress beeing made here is incredible. This is history beeing written I tell'ya. I'll be telling my grandkids about the time when the first version of AmiTV was written, and Spirantho posted it for the first time on the forums of AmigaWorld.net. (Sound like "At the hills of mount AmigaWorld.net ) Btw, don't you think this belongs on the front page as a news item about now? /shoe

And AmigaOS.dk was the first place where he posted a screenshot of it (hint)

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@hnl_dk

Quote:

hnl_dk wrote: @shoe And AmigaOS.dk was the first place where he posted a screenshot of it (hint)

noted!

/shoe

Heh..

No, it's nothing like ready for release yet. In fact, the program you see before you is probably never going to be released.. it's really just an experiment with the Bt848 card. Once I feel I know the hardware well enough, then I can start writing bt848.library and the TV program (BTW- can anyone think of a good name for it? :) )

@poweramiga2002

Still just composite at the moment (and Black and White S-Video probably). Working on the tuner is next after getting everything stable and non-crashing, but it's non-trivial because there are loads of types of tuners.

@Spirantho

No idea for a good name for the program, but I think maybe calling the library bt848.library is a bit shortsighted; why not support multiple chipsets in one library? If it supports 848, 878 and maybe some other chipsets, the name would be misleading. tv.library is already taken by Elbox's lib, which could be confusing, so how about :

telly.library
television.library
tvtuner.library
tvcard.library
tuner.library (since some cards support FM Radio also)
spiranthotv.library

Or something else.

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@xeron

Nice ideas (specially the last one ;) ) but I won't use anything with "tuner" in it because it wouldn't be accurate. That'd be like calling "exec.library" "interrupt.library" - it's only a small part of the whole deal. Heck, I don't even have the tuner working yet. :)

The reason I want to call it bt848.library (or rather, bt8x8.library probably) is because then other people can make a different library for a different chipset, i.e. cx32146.library or whatever, for the WinTV PVR cards. I want to make it an open API if possible, so one TV program will work with any library.

That's the idea, anyway! Kind of makes sense to me....

@Spirantho

Quote:

I'm not entirely sure that the problems I'm having aren't to do with the fact I'm using the PreRelease of OS4... if the PCI bus handling is less than optimal, then the Amiga can't keep up with the bandwidth needed for the picture!

erm, what exactly do you mean with "PCI bus handling less than optimal"? I certainly don't see any problems with PCI performance. If you're having trouble with your driver (sorry, didn't read the entire post) this might as well be a problem on your side. I propose that you contact me by email so we may try to work it out. I am certainly not aware of any issues in expansion library.

Quote:

Roll on the update.. it may make a big difference (or, alternatively, it may not. :) )

Nothing has changed in the PCi code for ages, so I have my doubts. However, I would bet that PCI is not the problem.

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@xeron

Or why not something not quite as dry and something totally unrelated to what it does. Like "miami" for a tcp/ip stack, "Nallehpuh" for a paula 'emulation' utility etc. An Asian name perhaps "Zhidong" ? ;)

If it becomes a part of the os4 distribution it would be better called "tv.library" though, regardless if anyone else uses that name, to make it clear what the library does. But as a standalone product it could really be named anything imho.

@Spirantho

It would also probably be better to use a generic library with separate sub libraries for specific chipsets and cards. That way you separate the generic "tv.library" from the actual implementetion for different hardware solutions. Then 3rd party developers can supply their own drivers without the need for the generic library to handle all tv cards out there.

/Björn

@Rogue

Quote:

Rogue wrote: erm, what exactly do you mean with "PCI bus handling less than optimal"? I certainly don't see any problems with PCI performance. Nothing has changed in the PCi code for ages, so I have my doubts. However, I would bet that PCI is not the problem.

That's why I said if the PCI handling was suboptimal! If the PR has good PCI handling, then yes, the problem will be at my end, which is good news because it means I can debug it!

One thing I do know however is that I need the next update anyway before I can use overlay code (i.e. native p96!), which is kind of necessary really for this sort of thing - at least if you don't want to bog down the entire system like I have to at the moment!

I didn't really think there would be a problem with the bus handling but I have to entertain all possibilities when working out why the silly thing doesn't do what I expect - I'm sure you understand..!

@Orgin

I don't think there's enough scope for sublibraries - 99% of all TV cards are based around the same chipsets anyway.
As for naming it strangely, I think we can name the TV app something cool, but the library should be functional - don't want to be perusing the LIBS: directory trying to clear some space and find a library called "quadrun.library" or something - you'd have no way of knowing what it was! The app is different, though, as that will clearly be a TV program, and can be run if you don't know what it is.

@Spirantho

>99% of all TV cards are based around the same chipsets

That may be true, But as we have seen from the last decade of being amigans is that the future isn't static and that developers don't always stick around to do updates ;)

>I think we can name the TV app something cool, but the library should be functional

Yeah I agree.

/Björn

@Spirantho

From what ive seen so far its all good !!!!

@Spirantho

Quote:

That's why I said if the PCI handling was suboptimal! If the PR has good PCI handling, then yes, the problem will be at my end, which is good news because it means I can debug it!

There are always things that can go wrong. Check out the block I/O if you need ot make larger I/O operations for example.

Quote:

One thing I do know however is that I need the next update anyway before I can use overlay code (i.e. native p96!), which is kind of necessary really for this sort of thing - at least if you don't want to bog down the entire system like I have to at the moment!

Overlay works even with the non-native Picasso96 if the driver supports it, you will only find that you cannot move/resize the overlay; other than that it is functional.

It needs support in the driver, though. The Radeon driver doesn't support it yet, the Voodoo does.

Quote:

I'm sure you understand

I do. Like I said, if you need help contact me by email. That's easier for me than to monitor threads on a forum.

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@Spirantho
Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner Spirantho. I live in the US. Just email when you're in need of testing the WinTV PVR 250 (with the CX23416 chip) and I'll send it over. I also have an AverMedia DVD EZMaker PCI card (just has composite and S-Video ports). It carries a Philips 7132 encoder chip which also does not work with the linux debian 2.4.22 kernel.
Keep up the good work.

OK, guess what? Another version for y'all to try out!

a) It's very likely to crash your machine at some point or another (but then
it's always been like that!)
b) It's more likely than before to get a good picture!

So please try this version (the usual place - www.retroreview.com/AmiTV.lha)
and let me know what happens! It usually runs second time for me now - if you
get loads of lines and corruption, keep closing it down (click in the window)
and rerunning it till its right. Should be a lot better now though!

It still relies on PAL at the moment, though....

@janimator

Ok, thanks for that! I'll let you know when and if I get the necessary
documentation!

@Spirantho
Yes, the imaging appears to be more stable, less lines, and yes, after a minute or two it will lock up the system. At that point rebooting via the reset button on the hardware is required. Making good progress Spirantho.

@janimator

What are you using as an input signal? I don't expect NTSC to work at all yet (I'm forcing it to the wrong frequency)...

I wish I knew why it crashed though... I swear it's something to do with the interrupts....

@Spirantho

Why don't you submit a bit of code to Rogue and see if he can help?

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