[mythtv-users] Re: Has anyone figured out how to foreground mplayer?

[Joseph Caputo]

Mike Green wrote:
>>>Also, not that it's related, but why are you using "-vo x11" in your
>>>command line? Unless you're using a PVR-350 for output, or some other
>>>video card that doesn't support Xv, you probably want "-vo xv".
>>>Running "mplayer -vo help" will list all available output methods.
>>>Some other good ones might be xvmc (for hardware-accelerated MPEG-2
>>>decoding, if your card has it), gl, gl2, dga, or sdl.
>>
>>I am using the tv-out port on an nvidia GeForce2 MX 400 to watch tv.  I
>>can't recall exactly why I am not using xv, but I think it had to do with
>>no xv support on the tv-out port on the card, or something like that :)
> 
> 
> From the nvidia-glx readme:
> 
> "This release includes support for the X-Video Motion Compensation (XvMC)
> version 1.0 API on GeForce4 and GeForce FX products only."
> 
> Is XvMC the same as the xv driver in mplayer?  How would I go about figuring 
> out if the disabled XvMC in the nvidia drivers is the same thing as the xv 
> video driver in mplayer?

Xv != XvMC.

Xv (XVideo) provides (among other things?) hardware accelerated 2D 
scaling, meaning when you play a 640x480 video on a display set to 
800x600, your video card will take care of performing the 640x480 -> 
800x600 upscaling for you in hardware.  The GeForce2 cards most 
definitely support Xv on both heads.

XvMC (XVideo Motion Compensation) provides *in addition to regular Xv* 
varying degrees of hardware accelerated MPEG-2 decoding.  I believe the 
cards (GeForce4/GeForce FX) support full decoding, but the Linux drivers 
only support IDCT acceleration, IIUC.

In any event, I don't believe there's any reason why you wouldn't be 
able to use Xv.

-JAC