8.2. Video outputs for traditional video cards
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## 8.2. Video outputs for traditional video cards

### 8.2.1. Xv

Under XFree86 4.0.2 or newer, you can use your card's hardware YUV routines using the XVideo extension. This is what the option '`-vo xv`' uses. Also, this driver supports adjusting brightness/contrast/hue/etc (unless you use the old, slow DirectShow DivX codec, which supports it everywhere), see the man page.

In order to make this work, be sure to check the following:

1. You have to use XFree86 4.0.2 or newer (former versions don't have XVideo)

2. Your card actually supports hardware acceleration (modern cards do)

3. X loads the XVideo extension, it's something like this:

       (II) Loading extension XVideo

   in `/var/log/XFree86.0.log`

   ### Note

   This loads only the XFree86's extension. In a good install, this is always loaded, and doesn't mean that the card's XVideo support is loaded!

4. Your card has Xv support under Linux. To check, try xvinfo, it is the part of the XFree86 distribution. It should display a long text, similar to this:

       X-Video Extension version 2.2
       screen #0
         Adaptor #0: "Savage Streams Engine"
           number of ports: 1
           port base: 43
           operations supported: PutImage
           supported visuals:
             depth 16, visualID 0x22
             depth 16, visualID 0x23
           number of attributes: 5
       (...)
           Number of image formats: 7
             id: 0x32595559 (YUY2)
               guid: 59555932-0000-0010-8000-00aa00389b71
               bits per pixel: 16
               number of planes: 1
               type: YUV (packed)
             id: 0x32315659 (YV12)
               guid: 59563132-0000-0010-8000-00aa00389b71
               bits per pixel: 12
               number of planes: 3
               type: YUV (planar)
       (...etc...)

   It must support YUY2 packed, and YV12 planar pixel formats to be usable with MPlayer.

5. And finally, check if MPlayer was compiled with 'xv' support. Do a mplayer -vo help | grep xv . If 'xv' support was built a line similar to this should appear:

         xv      X11/Xv

#### 8.2.1.1. 3dfx cards

Older 3dfx drivers were known to have problems with XVideo acceleration, it didn't support either YUY2 or YV12, and so. Verify that you have XFree86 version 4.2.0 or greater, it works OK with YV12 and YUY2. Previous versions, including 4.1.0, crashes with YV12. If you experience strange effects using `-vo xv`, try SDL (it has XVideo, too) and see if it helps. Check the SDL section for details.

OR, try the NEW `-vo tdfxfb` driver! See the tdfxfb section.

#### 8.2.1.2. S3 cards

S3 Savage3D's should work fine, but for Savage4, use XFree86 version 4.0.3 or greater (in case of image problems, try 16bpp). As for S3 Virge: there is xv support, but the card itself is very slow, so you better sell it.

There is now a native framebuffer driver for S3 Virge cards similiar to tdfxfb. Set up your framebuffer (e.g. append "`vga=792 video=vesa:mtrr`" to your kernel) and use `-vo s3fb` (`-vf yuy2` and `-dr` will also help).

### Note

It's currently unclear which Savage models lack YV12 support, and convert by driver (slow). If you suspect your card, get a newer driver, or ask politely on the MPlayer-users mailing list for an MMX/3DNow! enabled driver.

#### 8.2.1.3. nVidia cards

nVidia isn't always a very good choice under Linux ... XFree86's open-source driver supports most of these cards, but for some cases, you'll have to use the binary closed-source nVidia driver, available at nVidia's web site. You'll always need this driver if you want 3D acceleration, too.

Riva128 cards don't have XVideo support with XFree86's nVidia driver :( Complain to nVidia.

However, MPlayer contains a VIDIX driver for most nVidia cards. Currently it is in beta stage, and has some drawbacks. For more information, see nVidia VIDIX section.

#### 8.2.1.4. ATI cards

The GATOS driver (which you should use, unless you have Rage128 or Radeon) has VSYNC enabled by default. It means that decoding speed (!) is synced to the monitor's refresh rate. If playing seems to be slow, try disabling VSYNC somehow, or set refresh rate to a n*(fps of the movie) Hz.

Radeon VE - if you need X, use XFree86 4.2.0 or greater for this card. No TV out support. Of course with MPlayer you can happily get accelerated display, with or without TV output, and no libraries or X are needed. Read the VIDIX section.

#### 8.2.1.5. NeoMagic cards

These cards can be found in many laptops. You must use XFree86 4.3.0 or above, or else use Stefan Seyfried's Xv-capable drivers. Just choose the one that applies to your version of XFree86.

XFree86 4.3.0 includes Xv support, yet Bohdan Horst sent a small patch against the XFree86 sources that speeds up framebuffer operations (so XVideo) up to four times. The patch has been included in XFree86 CVS and should be in the next release after 4.3.0.

To allow playback of DVD sized content change your XF86Config like this:

    Section "Device"
        [...]
        Driver "neomagic"
        Option "OverlayMem" "829440"
        [...]
    EndSection

#### 8.2.1.6. Trident cards

If you want to use Xv with a Trident card, provided that it doesn't work with 4.1.0, install XFree 4.2.0. 4.2.0 adds support for fullscreen Xv support with the Cyberblade XP card.

Alternatively, MPlayer contains a VIDIX driver for the Cyberblade/i1 card.

#### 8.2.1.7. Kyro/PowerVR cards

If you want to use Xv with a Kyro based card (for example Hercules Prophet 4000XT), you should download the drivers from the PowerVR site

### 8.2.2. DGA

PREAMBLE. This document tries to explain in some words what DGA is in general and what the DGA video output driver for MPlayer can do (and what it can't).

WHAT IS DGA. DGA is short for Direct Graphics Access and is a means for a program to bypass the X server and directly modifying the framebuffer memory. Technically spoken this happens by mapping the framebuffer memory into the memory range of your process. This is allowed by the kernel only if you have superuser privileges. You can get these either by logging in as `root` or by setting the SUID bit on the MPlayer executable (not recommended).

There are two versions of DGA: DGA1 is used by XFree 3.x.x and DGA2 was introduced with XFree 4.0.1.

DGA1 provides only direct framebuffer access as described above. For switching the resolution of the video signal you have to rely on the XVidMode extension.

DGA2 incorporates the features of XVidMode extension and also allows switching the depth of the display. So you may, although basically running a 32 bit depth X server, switch to a depth of 15 bits and vice versa.

However DGA has some drawbacks. It seems it is somewhat dependent on the graphics chip you use and on the implementation of the X server's video driver that controls this chip. So it does not work on every system...

INSTALLING DGA SUPPORT FOR MPLAYER. First make sure X loads the DGA extension, see in `/var/log/XFree86.0.log`:

    (II) Loading extension XFree86-DGA

See, XFree86 4.0.x or greater is highly recommended! MPlayer's DGA driver is autodetected by `./configure`, or you can force it with `--enable-dga`.

If the driver couldn't switch to a smaller resolution, experiment with options `-vm` (only with X 3.3.x), `-fs`, `-bpp`, `-zoom` to find a video mode that the movie fits in. There is no converter right now :(

Become `root`. DGA needs root access to be able to write directly video memory. If you want to run it as user, then install MPlayer SUID root:

    chown root /usr/local/bin/mplayer
    chmod 750 /usr/local/bin/mplayer
    chmod +s /usr/local/bin/mplayer

Now it works as a simple user, too.

### Security risk

This is a big security risk! Never do this on a server or on a computer that can be accessed by other people because they can gain root privileges through SUID root MPlayer.

Now use `-vo dga` option, and there you go! (hope so:) You should also try if the `-vo sdl:driver=dga` option works for you! It's much faster!

RESOLUTION SWITCHING. The DGA driver allows for switching the resolution of the output signal. This avoids the need for doing (slow) software scaling and at the same time provides a fullscreen image. Ideally it would switch to the exact resolution (except for honoring aspect ratio) of the video data, but the X server only allows switching to resolutions predefined in `/etc/X11/XF86Config` (`/etc/X11/XF86Config-4` for XFree 4.X.X respectively). Those are defined by so-called modelines and depend on the capabilities of your video hardware. The X server scans this config file on startup and disables the modelines not suitable for your hardware. You can find out which modes survive with the X11 log file. It can be found at: `/var/log/XFree86.0.log`.

These entries are known to work fine with a Riva128 chip, using the nv.o X server driver module.

    Section "Modes"
      Identifier "Modes[0]"
      Modeline "800x600"  40     800 840 968 1056  600 601 605 628
      Modeline "712x600"  35.0   712 740 850 900   400 410 412 425
      Modeline "640x480"  25.175 640 664 760 800   480 491 493 525
      Modeline "400x300"  20     400 416 480 528   300 301 303 314 Doublescan
      Modeline "352x288"  25.10  352 368 416 432   288 296 290 310
      Modeline "352x240"  15.750 352 368 416 432   240 244 246 262 Doublescan
      Modeline "320x240"  12.588 320 336 384 400   240 245 246 262 Doublescan
    EndSection

DGA & MPLAYER. DGA is used in two places with MPlayer: The SDL driver can be made to make use of it (`-vo sdl:driver=dga`) and within the DGA driver (`-vo dga`). The above said is true for both; in the following sections I'll explain how the DGA driver for MPlayer works.

FEATURES. The DGA driver is invoked by specifying `-vo dga` at the command line. The default behavior is to switch to a resolution matching the original resolution of the video as close as possible. It deliberately ignores the `-vm` and `-fs` options (enabling of video mode switching and fullscreen) - it always tries to cover as much area of your screen as possible by switching the video mode, thus refraining from using additional cycles of your CPU to scale the image. If you don't like the mode it chooses you may force it to choose the mode matching closest the resolution you specify by `-x` and `-y`. By providing the `-v` option, the DGA driver will print, among a lot of other things, a list of all resolutions supported by your current `XF86Config` file. Having DGA2 you may also force it to use a certain depth by using the `-bpp` option. Valid depths are 15, 16, 24 and 32. It depends on your hardware whether these depths are natively supported or if a (possibly slow) conversion has to be done.

If you should be lucky enough to have enough offscreen memory left to put a whole image there, the DGA driver will use double buffering, which results in much smoother movie playback. It will tell you whether double buffering is enabled or not.

Double buffering means that the next frame of your video is being drawn in some offscreen memory while the current frame is being displayed. When the next frame is ready, the graphics chip is just told the location in memory of the new frame and simply fetches the data to be displayed from there. In the meantime the other buffer in memory will be filled again with new video data.

Double buffering may be switched on by using the option `-double` and may be disabled with `-nodouble`. Current default option is to disable double buffering. When using the DGA driver, onscreen display (OSD) only works with double buffering enabled. However, enabling double buffering may result in a big speed penalty (on my K6-II+ 525 it used an additional 20% of CPU time!) depending on the implementation of DGA for your hardware.

SPEED ISSUES. Generally spoken, DGA framebuffer access should be at least as fast as using the X11 driver with the additional benefit of getting a fullscreen image. The percentage speed values printed by MPlayer have to be interpreted with some care, as for example, with the X11 driver they do not include the time used by the X server needed for the actual drawing. Hook a terminal to a serial line of your box and start top to see what is really going on in your box.

Generally spoken, the speedup done by using DGA against 'normal' use of X11 highly depends on your graphics card and how well the X server module for it is optimized.

If you have a slow system, better use 15 or 16 bit depth since they require only half the memory bandwidth of a 32 bit display.

Using a depth of 24 bit is even a good idea if your card natively just supports 32 bit depth since it transfers 25% less data compared to the 32/32 mode.

I've seen some AVI files be played back on a Pentium MMX 266. AMD K6-2 CPUs might work at 400 MHZ and above.

KNOWN BUGS. Well, according to some developers of XFree, DGA is quite a beast. They tell you better not to use it. Its implementation is not always flawless with every chipset driver for XFree out there.

- With XFree 4.0.3 and `nv.o` there is a bug resulting in strange colors.
- ATI driver requires to switch mode back more than once after finishing using of DGA.
- Some drivers simply fail to switch back to normal resolution (use Ctrl+Alt+Keypad + and Ctrl+Alt+Keypad - to switch back manually).
- Some drivers simply display strange colors.
- Some drivers lie about the amount of memory they map into the process's address space, thus vo_dga won't use double buffering (SIS?).
- Some drivers seem to fail to report even a single valid mode. In this case the DGA driver will crash telling you about a nonsense mode of 100000x100000 or something like that.
- OSD only works with double buffering enabled (else it flickers).

### 8.2.3. SDL

SDL (Simple Directmedia Layer) is basically a unified video/audio interface. Programs that use it know only about SDL, and not about what video or audio driver does SDL actually use. For example a Doom port using SDL can run on svgalib, aalib, X, fbdev, and others, you only have to specify the (for example) video driver to use with the `SDL_VIDEODRIVER` environment variable. Well, in theory.

With MPlayer, we used its X11 driver's software scaler ability for cards/drivers that doesn't support XVideo, until we made our own (faster, nicer) software scaler. Also we used its aalib output, but now we have ours which is more comfortable. Its DGA mode was better than ours, until recently. Get it now? :)

It also helps with some buggy drivers/cards if the video is jerky (not slow system problem), or audio is lagging.

SDL video output supports displaying subtitles under the movie, on the (if present) black bar.

### 8.2.4. SVGAlib

INSTALLATION. You'll have to install svgalib and its development package in order for MPlayer build its SVGAlib driver (autodetected, but can be forced), and don't forget to edit `/etc/vga/libvga.config` to suit your card and monitor.

### Note

Be sure not to use the `-fs` switch, since it toggles the usage of the software scaler, and it's slow. If you really need it, use the `-sws 4` option which will produce bad quality, but is somewhat faster.

EGA (4BPP) SUPPORT. SVGAlib incorporates EGAlib, and MPlayer has the possibility to display any movie in 16 colors, thus usable in the following sets:

- EGA card with EGA monitor: 320x200x4bpp, 640x200x4bpp, 640x350x4bpp
- EGA card with CGA monitor: 320x200x4bpp, 640x200x4bpp

The bpp (bits per pixel) value must be set to 4 by hand: `-bpp 4`

The movie probably must be scaled down to fit in EGA mode:

    -vf scale=640:350

or

    -vf scale=320:200

For that we need fast but bad quality scaling routine:

    -sws 4

Maybe automatic aspect correction has to be shut off:

    -noaspect

### Note

According to my experience the best image quality on EGA screens can be achieved by decreasing the brightness a bit: `-vf eq=-20:0`. I also needed to lower the audio samplerate on my box, because the sound was broken on 44kHz: `-srate 22050`.

You can turn on OSD and subtitles only with the `expand` filter, see the man page for exact parameters.

### 8.2.5. Framebuffer output (FBdev)

Whether to build the FBdev target is autodetected during `./configure`. Read the framebuffer documentation in the kernel sources (`Documentation/fb/*`) for more information.

If your card doesn't support VBE 2.0 standard (older ISA/PCI cards, such as S3 Trio64), only VBE 1.2 (or older?): Well, VESAfb is still available, but you'll have to load SciTech Display Doctor (formerly UniVBE) before booting Linux. Use a DOS boot disk or whatever. And don't forget to register your UniVBE ;))

The FBdev output takes some additional parameters above the others:

`-fb`
  specify the framebuffer device to use (default: `/dev/fb0`)
`-fbmode`
  mode name to use (according to `/etc/fb.modes`)
`-fbmodeconfig`
  config file of modes (default: `/etc/fb.modes`)
`-monitor-hfreq`, `-monitor-vfreq`, `-monitor-dotclock`,
  important values, see `example.conf`

If you want to change to a specific mode, then use

    mplayer -vm -fbmode name_of_mode filename

- `-vm` alone will choose the most suitable mode from `/etc/fb.modes`. Can be used together with `-x` and `-y` options too. The `-flip` option is supported only if the movie's pixel format matches the video mode's pixel format. Pay attention to the bpp value, fbdev driver tries to use the current, or if you specify the `-bpp` option, then that.

- `-zoom` option isn't supported (use `-vf scale`). You can't use 8bpp (or less) modes.

- You possibly want to turn the cursor off:

      echo -e '\033[?25l'

  or

      setterm -cursor off

  and the screen saver:

      setterm -blank 0

  To turn the cursor back on:

      echo -e '\033[?25h'

  or

      setterm -cursor on

### Note

FBdev video mode changing does not work with the VESA framebuffer, and don't ask for it, since it's not an MPlayer limitation.

### 8.2.6. Matrox framebuffer (mga_vid)

This section is about the Matrox G200/G400/G450/G550 BES (Back-End Scaler) support, the `mga_vid` kernel driver. It has hardware VSYNC support with triple buffering. It works on both framebuffer console and under X.

### Warning

This is Linux only! On non-Linux (tested on FreeBSD) systems, you can use VIDIX instead!

Installation:

1. To use it, you first have to compile `mga_vid.o`:

       cd drivers
       make

2. Then create `/dev/mga_vid` device:

       mknod /dev/mga_vid c 178 0

   and load the driver with

       insmod mga_vid.o

3. You should verify the memory size detection using the dmesg command. If it's bad, use the `mga_ram_size` option (rmmod mga_vid first), specify card's memory size in MB:

       insmod mga_vid.o mga_ram_size=16

4. To make it load/unload automatically when needed, first insert the following line at the end of `/etc/modules.conf`:

       alias char-major-178 mga_vid

   Then copy the `mga_vid.o` module to the appropriate place under `/lib/modules/`kernel version`/`somewhere``.

   Then run

       depmod -a

5. Now you have to (re)compile MPlayer, `./configure` will detect `/dev/mga_vid` and build the 'mga' driver. Using it from MPlayer goes by `-vo mga` if you have matroxfb console, or `-vo xmga` under XFree86 3.x.x or 4.x.x.

The mga_vid driver cooperates with Xv.

The `/dev/mga_vid` device file can be read for some info, for example by

    cat /dev/mga_vid

and can be written for brightness change:

    echo "brightness=120" > /dev/mga_vid

### 8.2.7. 3Dfx YUV support

This driver uses the kernel's tdfx framebuffer driver to play movies with YUV acceleration. You'll need a kernel with tdfxfb support, and recompile with

    ./configure --enable-tdfxfb

### 8.2.8. OpenGL output

MPlayer supports displaying movies using OpenGL, but if your platform/driver supports xv as should be the case on a PC with Linux, use xv instead, OpenGL performance is considerably worse. If you have an X11 implementation without xv support, OpenGL is a viable alternative.

Unfortunately not all drivers support this feature. The Utah-GLX drivers (for XFree86 3.3.6) support it for all cards. See http://utah-glx.sf.net for details about how to install it.

XFree86(DRI) 4.0.3 or later supports OpenGL with Matrox and Radeon cards, 4.2.0 or later supports Rage128. See http://dri.sf.net for download and installation instructions.

A hint from one of our users: the GL video output can be used to get vsynced TV output. You'll have to set an environment variable (at least on nVidia):

export $__GL_SYNC_TO_VBLANK=1

### 8.2.9. AAlib - text mode displaying

AAlib is a library for displaying graphics in text mode, using powerful ASCII renderer. There are lots of programs already supporting it, like Doom, Quake, etc. MPlayer contains a very usable driver for it. If `./configure` detects aalib installed, the aalib libvo driver will be built.

You can use some keys in the AA Window to change rendering options:

Key | Action
--- | ---
1 | decrease contrast
2 | increase contrast
3 | decrease brightness
4 | increase brightness
5 | switch fast rendering on/off
6 | set dithering mode (none, error distribution, Floyd Steinberg)
7 | invert image
8 | toggles between aa and MPlayer control

The following command line options can be used:

`-aaosdcolor=`V``

  change OSD color

`-aasubcolor=`V``

  Change subtitle color

  where `V` can be: `0` (normal), `1` (dark), `2` (bold), `3` (bold font), `4` (reverse), `5` (special).

AAlib itself provides a large sum of options. Here are some important:

`-aadriver`
  Set recommended aa driver (X11, curses, Linux).
`-aaextended`
  Use all 256 characters.
`-aaeight`
  Use eight bit ASCII.
`-aahelp`
  Prints out all aalib options.

### Note

The rendering is very CPU intensive, especially when using AA-on-X (using aalib on X), and it's least CPU intensive on standard, non-framebuffer console. Use SVGATextMode to set up a big textmode, then enjoy! (secondary head Hercules cards rock :)) (but IMHO you can use `-vf 1bpp` option to get graphics on hgafb:)

Use the `-framedrop` option if your computer isn't fast enough to render all frames!

Playing on terminal you'll get better speed and quality using the Linux driver, not curses (`-aadriver linux`). But therefore you need write access on `/dev/vcsa`<terminal>``! That isn't autodetected by aalib, but vo_aa tries to find the best mode. See http://aa-project.sf.net/tune for further tuning issues.

### 8.2.10. `libcaca` - Color ASCII Art library

The `libcaca` library is a graphics library that outputs text instead of pixels, so that it can work on older video cards or text terminals. It is not unlike the famous `AAlib` library. `libcaca` needs a terminal to work, thus it should work on all Unix systems (including Mac OS X) using either the `slang` library or the `ncurses` library, on DOS using the `conio.h` library, and on Windows systems using either `slang` or `ncurses` (through Cygwin emulation) or `conio.h`. If `./configure` detects `libcaca`, the caca libvo driver will be built.

The differences with `AAlib` are the following:

- 16 available colors for character output (256 color pairs)
- color image dithering

But `libcaca` also has the following limitations:

- no support for brightness, contrast, gamma

You can use some keys in the caca window to change rendering options:

Key | Action
--- | ---
d | Toggle `libcaca` dithering methods.
a | Toggle `libcaca` antialiasing.
b | Toggle `libcaca` background.

`libcaca` will also look for certain environment variables:

`CACA_DRIVER`
  Set recommended caca driver. e.g. ncurses, slang, x11.
`CACA_GEOMETRY (X11 only)`
  Specifies the number of rows and columns. e.g. 128x50.
`CACA_FONT (X11 only)`
  Specifies the font to use. e.g. fixed, nexus.

Use the `-framedrop` option if your computer is not fast enough to render all frames.

### 8.2.11. VESA - output to VESA BIOS

This driver was designed and introduced as a generic driver for any video card which has VESA VBE 2.0 compatible BIOS. Another advantage of this driver is that it tries to force TV output on. VESA BIOS EXTENSION (VBE) Version 3.0 Date: September 16, 1998 (Page 70) says:

> Dual-Controller Designs. VBE 3.0 supports the dual-controller design by assuming that since both controllers are typically provided by the same OEM, under control of a single BIOS ROM on the same graphics card, it is possible to hide the fact that two controllers are indeed present from the application. This has the limitation of preventing simultaneous use of the independent controllers, but allows applications released before VBE 3.0 to operate normally. The VBE Function 00h (Return Controller Information) returns the combined information of both controllers, including the combined list of available modes. When the application selects a mode, the appropriate controller is activated. Each of the remaining VBE functions then operates on the active controller.

So you have chances to get working TV-out by using this driver. (I guess that TV-out frequently is standalone head or standalone output at least.)

ADVANTAGES

- You have chances to watch movies if Linux even doesn't know your video hardware.
- You don't need to have installed any graphics' related things on your Linux (like X11 (AKA XFree86), fbdev and so on). This driver can be run from text-mode.
- You have chances to get working TV-out. (It's known at least for ATI's cards).
- This driver calls `int 10h` handler thus it's not an emulator - it calls real things of real BIOS in real-mode (actually in vm86 mode).
- You can use VIDIX with it, thus getting accelerated video display and TV output at the same time! (Recommended for ATI cards.)
- If you have VESA VBE 3.0+, and you had specified `monitor-hfreq, monitor-vfreq, monitor-dotclock` somewhere (config file, or command line) you will get the highest possible refresh rate. (Using General Timing Formula). To enable this feature you have to specify all your monitor options.

DISADVANTAGES

- It works only on x86 systems.
- It can be used only by `root`.
- Currently it's available only for Linux.

### Important

Don't use this driver with GCC 2.96! It won't work!

COMMAND LINE OPTIONS AVAILABLE FOR VESA

`-vo vesa:`opts``
  currently recognized: `dga` to force dga mode and `nodga` to disable dga mode. In dga mode you can enable double buffering via the `-double` option. Note: you may omit these parameters to enable autodetection of dga mode.

KNOWN PROBLEMS AND WORKAROUNDS

- If you have installed NLS font on your Linux box and run VESA driver from text-mode then after terminating MPlayer you will have ROM font loaded instead of national. You can load national font again by using setsysfont utility from the Mandrake/Mandriva distribution for example. (Hint: The same utility is used for localization of fbdev).
- Some Linux graphics drivers don't update active BIOS mode in DOS memory. So if you have such problem - always use VESA driver only from text-mode. Otherwise text-mode (#03) will be activated anyway and you will need restart your computer.
- Often after terminating VESA driver you get black screen. To return your screen to original state - simply switch to other console (by pressing Alt+F<x>) then switch to your previous console by the same way.
- To get working TV-out you need have plugged TV-connector in before booting your PC since video BIOS initializes itself only once during POST procedure.

### 8.2.12. X11

Avoid if possible. Outputs to X11 (uses shared memory extension), with no hardware acceleration at all. Supports (MMX/3DNow/SSE accelerated, but still slow) software scaling, use the options `-fs -zoom`. Most cards have hardware scaling support, use the `-vo xv` output for them, or `-vo xmga` for Matrox cards.

The problem is that most cards' driver doesn't support hardware acceleration on the second head/TV. In those cases, you see green/blue colored window instead of the movie. This is where this driver comes in handy, but you need powerful CPU to use software scaling. Don't use the SDL driver's software output+scaler, it has worse image quality!

Software scaling is very slow, you better try changing video modes instead. It's very simple. See the DGA section's modelines, and insert them into your `XF86Config`.

- If you have XFree86 4.x.x: use the `-vm` option. It will change to a resolution your movie fits in. If it doesn't:
- With XFree86 3.x.x: you have to cycle through available resolutions with the Ctrl+Alt+plus and Ctrl+Alt+minus keys.

If you can't find the modes you inserted, browse XFree86's output. Some drivers can't use low pixelclocks that are needed for low resolution video modes.

### 8.2.13. VIDIX

PREAMBLE. VIDIX is the abbreviation for VIDeo Interface for *niX. VIDIX was designed and introduced as an interface for fast user-space drivers providing such video performance as mga_vid does for Matrox cards. It's also very portable.

This interface was designed as an attempt to fit existing video acceleration interfaces (known as mga_vid, rage128_vid, radeon_vid, pm3_vid) into a fixed scheme. It provides a high level interface to chips which are known as BES (BackEnd scalers) or OV (Video Overlays). It doesn't provide low level interface to things which are known as graphics servers. (I don't want to compete with X11 team in graphics mode switching). I.e. main goal of this interface is to maximize the speed of video playback.

USAGE

- You can use standalone video output driver: `-vo xvidix`. This driver was developed as X11's front end to VIDIX technology. It requires X server and can work only under X server. Note that, as it directly accesses the hardware and circumvents the X driver, pixmaps cached in the graphics card's memory may be corrupted. You can prevent this by limiting the amount of video memory used by X with the XF86Config option "VideoRam" in the device section. You should set this to the amount of memory installed on your card minus 4MB. If you have less than 8MB of video ram, you can use the option "XaaNoPixmapCache" in the screen section instead.
- There is a console VIDIX driver: `-vo cvidix`. This requires a working and initialized framebuffer for most cards (or else you'll just mess up the screen), and you'll have a similar effect as with `-vo mga` or `-vo fbdev`. nVidia cards however are able to output truly graphical video on a real text console. See the nvidia_vid section for more information.
- You can use VIDIX subdevice which was applied to several video output drivers, such as: `-vo vesa:vidix` (Linux only) and `-vo fbdev:vidix`.

Indeed it doesn't matter which video output driver is used with VIDIX.

REQUIREMENTS

- Video card should be in graphics mode (except nVidia cards with the `-vo cvidix` output driver).
- MPlayer's video output driver should know active video mode and be able to tell to VIDIX subdevice some video characteristics of server.

USAGE METHODS. When VIDIX is used as subdevice (`-vo vesa:vidix`) then video mode configuration is performed by video output device (vo_server in short). Therefore you can pass into command line of MPlayer the same keys as for vo_server. In addition it understands `-double` key as globally visible parameter. (I recommend using this key with VIDIX at least for ATI's card). As for `-vo xvidix`, currently it recognizes the following options: `-fs -zoom -x -y -double`.

Also you can specify VIDIX's driver directly as third subargument in command line:

    mplayer -vo xvidix:mga_vid.so -fs -zoom -double file.avi

or

    mplayer -vo vesa:vidix:radeon_vid.so -fs -zoom -double -bpp 32 file.avi

But it's dangerous, and you shouldn't do that. In this case given driver will be forced and result is unpredictable (it may freeze your computer). You should do that ONLY if you are absolutely sure it will work, and MPlayer doesn't do it automatically. Please tell about it to the developers. The right way is to use VIDIX without arguments to enable driver autodetection.

Since VIDIX requires direct hardware access you can either run it as root or set the SUID bit on the MPlayer binary (Warning: This is a security risk!). Alternatively, you can use a special kernel module, like this:

1. Download the development version of svgalib (for example 1.9.17), OR download a version made by Alex especially for usage with MPlayer (it doesn't need the svgalib source to compile) from here.

2. Compile the module in the `svgalib_helper` directory (it can be found inside the `svgalib-1.9.17/kernel/` directory if you've downloaded the source from the svgalib site) and insmod it.

3. To create the necessary devices in the `/dev` directory, do a

       make device

   in the `svgalib_helper` dir, as root.

4. Move the `svgalib_helper` directory to `mplayer/main/libdha/svgalib_helper`.

5. Required if you download the source from the svgalib site: Remove the comment before the CFLAGS line containing "svgalib_helper" string from the `libdha/Makefile`.

6. Recompile and install libdha.

#### 8.2.13.1. ATI cards

Currently most ATI cards are supported natively, from Mach64 to the newest Radeons.

There are two compiled binaries: `radeon_vid` for Radeon and `rage128_vid` for Rage 128 cards. You may force one or let the VIDIX system autoprobe all available drivers.

#### 8.2.13.2. Matrox cards

Matrox G200, G400, G450 and G550 have been reported to work.

The driver supports video equalizers and should be nearly as fast as the Matrox framebuffer

#### 8.2.13.3. Trident cards

There is a driver available for the Trident Cyberblade/i1 chipset, which can be found on VIA Epia motherboards.

The driver was written and is maintained by Alastair M. Robinson

#### 8.2.13.4. 3DLabs cards

Although there is a driver for the 3DLabs GLINT R3 and Permedia3 chips, no one has tested it, so reports are welcome.

#### 8.2.13.5. nVidia cards

An unique feature of the nvidia_vid driver is its ability to display video on plain, pure, text-only console - with no framebuffer or X magic whatsoever. For this purpose, we'll have to use the `cvidix` video output, as the following example shows:

    mplayer -vo cvidix example.avi

#### 8.2.13.6. SiS cards

This is very experimental code, just like nvidia_vid.

It's been tested on SiS 650/651/740 (the most common chipsets used in the SiS versions of the "Shuttle XPC" barebones boxes out there)

Reports awaited!

### 8.2.14. DirectFB

> "DirectFB is a graphics library which was designed with embedded systems in mind. It offers maximum hardware accelerated performance at a minimum of resource usage and overhead." - quoted from http://www.directfb.org

I'll exclude DirectFB features from this section.

Though MPlayer is not supported as a "video provider" in DirectFB, this output driver will enable video playback through DirectFB. It will - of course - be accelerated, on my Matrox G400 DirectFB's speed was the same as XVideo.

Always try to use the newest version of DirectFB. You can use DirectFB options on the command line, using the `-dfbopts` option. Layer selection can be done by the subdevice method, e.g.: `-vo directfb:2` (layer -1 is default: autodetect)

### 8.2.15. DirectFB/Matrox (dfbmga)

Please read the main DirectFB section for general information.

This video output driver will enable CRTC2 (on the second head) on Matrox G400/G450/G550 cards, displaying video independent of the first head.

Ville Syrjala's has a README and a HOWTO on his homepage that explain how to make DirectFB TV output run on Matrox cards.

### Note

the first DirectFB version with which we could get this working was 0.9.17 (it's buggy, needs that `surfacemanager` patch from the URL above). Porting the CRTC2 code to mga_vid has been planned for years, patches are welcome.

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