[mythtv-users] Sony VAIO Media Changer...... GOOD News!!

[Will .]

>>As a user of myth for a while I wish to tell anyone who is interested that
>>I've managed to get the Sony VAIO XL1B2 changer working under linux and
>>myth!!!!
>
>
>That's super sweet!  I had no idea what this box was, but for the price, it
>seems like a great "jukebox".  I take it from the rest of your note that
>this can be used to just watch movies through firewire?
>

Thanks...glad at least one person read my post :) .... Just wanted to make 
sure anyone who was interested in this knew that it can be made to work and 
was not just some windows only thing or whatever.

I'm going to try to integrate the changer back with MythDVD for direct 
playback and also support sequential DVD ripping via the changer via mtd. I 
havent checked the playback of movies but can see no good reason why it wont 
work as the drive is essentially just a SCSI DVD reader / writer unit. I'll 
let you know as soon as I've got more details. Even without the integration 
work it should still be possible to use the changer from the shell as I have 
been doing.


>
>
>P.S. I have a number of other small pathches for myth and a very patched
>>beta i915 driver that supports custom modelines for proper frame rates (or
>>as close as possible), also automatic modeline switching for xine based on
>>whether the video stream is PAL / NTSC, patches to set xmame to display
>>within the visible display area and what not based on an over scanned
>>display and probably some I've forgotten too!
>>
>
>I was curious as to how you can do an automatic modeline adjustment with
>Xine.  Specifically, I would want to change the video mode on 4:3 versus
>16:9 video streams.  I'm in NTSC land but that shouldn't matter as I will 
>be
>using (basically) an LCD monitor 4:3.  My goal is to use Myth in 16:9
>(1280x720p) then when I have a 4:3 video, make it fill up the entire 4:3
>(1280x1024p) of the monitor.  Does that make sense?  Thanks for your great
>work!
>
>Jim

I'm afraid that altough I think what you are asking is possible (I think I 
know what you're after) that it's rather more complex than what I have done. 
I wanted to add a system that allows the appropriate mode to be chosen 
acording to the content and some user definable rules etc (this would of 
included aspect as one of the criteria). This sort of functionality would 
take alot more time to write. If memory serves there is more than one set of 
criteria that are required to determine if it's 4:3 or 16:9 stream and these 
may be encoded in different ways depending on the stream type, they can also 
be missing in certain cases as well. Xine does support some auto aspect 
features but I dont remember exactly what they do under each circumstance vs 
each chosen aspect model. You may have a bit more luck trying to specify a 
specific xine command line for the files if you can figure out which one you 
would like.

I forget all the available options under myth but I'm pretty sure you could 
make a new file extention for you're 4:3 content and write a script file or 
specify the appropriate command line flags for this new file extention. The 
options for this are available in myth although I'm not sure whether xine 
supports the required command line functionality for this.

As a rogue developer I can't really guarantee much as the changes I have 
made may never make it into any official release etc. I'd just like to make 
them available if someone wants them or can do something useful with them.