AGABlaster - New CDXL Player Released

[movec]

AGAConv 0.9.5 is out!

It has now also an option to compute the ratio for a converted video. However, please read the section on "Monitor Ratio Issues" and check the video ratio on your respective monitor mode setting. It's easy to get it wrong.

0.9.5 also integrates ham_convert now and allows to convert to HAM8/HAM6/EHB. However, note that HAM conversion is by about a factor of about 20 (also depends on the options) slower. Hence, it's best to test first with the default options, and then try HAM. But it looks very good.

There is also a little tool available that allows to automatically crop black borders in height (for example if a video has 2.35 ratio), autocropy.

Webpage: https://mschordan.github.io/amiga/agaconv.html

There are many more options now, but you can actually use less
./agaconv-script --in=myvideo.mp4 --out=myvideo.cdxl

AGAConv now automatically determines the frame rate of the original video (and by default) limits it to 25. However, if it has less (like 24) it will use 24!

And make sure to check the video ratio, there are also new options for monitor-mode and scale-factor to address differences in modes and setups (to address 5:4, 4:3 ratio and fill/aspect settings on LCD monitors)

And one more thing: the script is now called agaconv (and no longer agaconv-script). This should make everybody type less

[Zarnal]

Thank you for this new version. I will try it.

[Nobby_UK]

Could only get one CDXL to play properly:
= moveback3.xl on Demo1_1r72

The rest either show half screen (interlaced ?)
with very slow sound or just give error messages

[jotd]

I really appreciate the "bare" aspect of this program. Copy to C, run, works. No libraries, no codecs. Simple

HAM8 demonstration video is very choppy on CD32 setup from ISO image though. Is that normal? AGA8 is 256 color. Is that supposed to be faster? or same?

[Zarnal]

I don't understand because when i try a ham8 conversion i get an error :

INFO: ham8 mode: removing color diversity setting. Not supported for HAM8
./agaconv: ligne 354 : printf: 25.00: nombre non valable ( number not valid )

My syntax is " ./agaconv --in=Zarnal.mp4 --out=Ham.cdxl --max-fps=25 --frequency=11025 --color-mode=ham8 " or

" ./agaconv --in=Zarnal.mp4 --out=Ham.cdxl --conversion-tool=ham_convert --max-fps=25 --fps=25 --frequency=11025 --color-mode=ham8 "

Same issue.

[jotd]

french locale for floats? try 25,0 ?

I'm going to give this converter a go under Windows/ubuntu too.

[Zarnal]

Originally Posted by jotd

french locale for floats? try 25,0 ?

I'm going to give this converter a go under Windows/ubuntu too.

Thank you.


Same issue with 25,0. Even with the default options.


It's 100% ok with AgaConv 0.9.4 ( with default options or others in 4 and 8 bits ).

I use Linux Mint in a VM under Windows 8.1.

[iXien]

Hi everyone,

what an interesting thread I'm currently trying to play CDXL files on my CDTV. I tried a lot of players... all requiring a 68020 and KS3.x...

The main idea was to play a HAM-6 converted version of the Alien Breed Tower Assault CD32 introduction made by Earok on my CDTV (here:
https://goo.gl/cm1jdu). But Earok used PlayMovie to play the CDXL file, an app that of course needs a 68020/KS3.x. Sad. So I made tests with other apps, without more success.

And I saw AGA-Blaster Compatible with 68000, ECS since the last version, and even working with every KS, even the old 1.3! Perfect... but doesn't work .

Using WinUAE cloning my CDTV configuration, this video is perfectly working using any CDXL player with 68020/KS3.1 emulation. But if I use AGA-Blaster, whatever is the CPU and KS/Workbench, I got blured video.

Is the video not really really respecting CDXL HAM-6 format ? Sadly, I haven't any other video to make other tests. Help


Playvideo : ECS / 68020 / Kickstart 3.1


AGA-Blaster: ECS / 68020 / Kickstart 3.1 or ECS / 68000 / Kickstart 2.10

PS: My configuration = 68000/7Mhz, 2Mb Chip-RAM, 8Mb Fast-RAM, Full-ECS, KS2.04, Workbench 2.10, 32Gb Compact Flash PFS3DS formatted.

[movec]

Originally Posted by Zarnal

Thank you.


Same issue with 25,0. Even with the default options.


It's 100% ok with AgaConv 0.9.4 ( with default options or others in 4 and 8 bits ).

I use Linux Mint in a VM under Windows 8.1.

Enter on the command line: export LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
Does this fix it?

[movec]

Originally Posted by Nobby_UK

Could only get one CDXL to play properly:
= moveback3.xl on Demo1_1r72

The rest either show half screen (interlaced ?)
with very slow sound or just give error messages

Interlaced is not supported. The other video might be in chunky format? AGABlaster only supports bit planar encoding. I will add some more error checking in the next version.

Can you figure out which formats the videos are using? If you can copy the videos to your PC, you can use agaconv --cdxl-info=myvideo.cdxl
to get all infos about it.

[movec]

Originally Posted by iXien

Hi everyone,

what an interesting thread I'm currently trying to play CDXL files on my CDTV. I tried a lot of players... all requiring a 68020 and KS3.x...

The main idea was to play a HAM-6 converted version of the Alien Breed Tower Assault CD32 introduction made by Earok on my CDTV (here:
https://goo.gl/cm1jdu). But Earok used PlayMovie to play the CDXL file, an app that of course needs a 68020/KS3.x. Sad. So I made tests with other apps, without more success.

And I saw AGA-Blaster Compatible with 68000, ECS since the last version, and even working with every KS, even the old 1.3! Perfect... but doesn't work .

Using WinUAE cloning my CDTV configuration, this video is perfectly working using any CDXL player with 68020/KS3.1 emulation. But if I use AGA-Blaster, whatever is the CPU and KS/Workbench, I got blured video.

Is the video not really really respecting CDXL HAM-6 format ? Sadly, I haven't any other video to make other tests. Help


Playvideo : ECS / 68020 / Kickstart 3.1


AGA-Blaster: ECS / 68020 / Kickstart 3.1 or ECS / 68000 / Kickstart 2.10

PS: My configuration = 68000/7Mhz, 2Mb Chip-RAM, 8Mb Fast-RAM, Full-ECS, KS2.04, Workbench 2.10, 32Gb Compact Flash PFS3DS formatted.

Does it play the music/sound correctly? It looks like it's only a width issue. What's the exact width of the video?

[movec]

Originally Posted by jotd

I really appreciate the "bare" aspect of this program. Copy to C, run, works. No libraries, no codecs. Simple

HAM8 demonstration video is very choppy on CD32 setup from ISO image though. Is that normal? AGA8 is 256 color. Is that supposed to be faster? or same?

Is this a stock CD32 with CD-ROM? That's too slow for this video, the CD-ROM doesn't have the required band width. Run it with the additional option STATS. What does it report for FPS? Does the sound play ok?

[movec]

Originally Posted by Zarnal

Thank you.

Same issue with 25,0. Even with the default options.

It's 100% ok with AgaConv 0.9.4 ( with default options or others in 4 and 8 bits ).

I use Linux Mint in a VM under Windows 8.1.

OK, I cannot reproduce this on my system, but I may have found a fix for this and uploaded a new version 0.9.5.1.

[iXien]

Originally Posted by movec

Does it play the music/sound correctly? It looks like it's only a width issue. What's the exact width of the video?

That's a problem, as I found this video "as is", I don't really know its specifications for width, height, fps. But sound plays correctly.

[movec]

Originally Posted by iXien

That's a problem, as I found this video "as is", I don't really know its specifications for width, height, fps. But sound plays correctly.

The ECS version works just fine. It's a 224x104 video. The AGA version is a non-standard CDXL (not working for this reason).
Do you use agablaster 0.9.71? 0.9.70 didn't support this width, you need to use 0.9.71.

agablaster plays it by default with 11025Hz which gives 12 FPS. If you increase the audio frequency it will play faster (e.g. FR=14000).

[movec]

Originally Posted by Nobby_UK

Could only get one CDXL to play properly:
= moveback3.xl on Demo1_1r72

The rest either show half screen (interlaced ?)
with very slow sound or just give error messages

Looking at the output, AGABlaster reports that the video has a width of 238. That's not a multiple of 16, and that's not supported yet.

Is this video available somewhere? It would be interesting to know what padding it is using. AGABlaster computes the byte width for a line for a word alignment, which is what it should be (I just checked). There might be something else off.

[Zarnal]

Originally Posted by movec

OK, I cannot reproduce this on my system, but I may have found a fix for this and uploaded a new version 0.9.5.1.

Thank You.


With your last version, all is OK.

[thairacerjp]

thanks you Markus for update, yes, it's a very great thread , for me i wait TF360 with more horsepower for have 25fps with "hd" 640x196 videos !

[iXien]

Originally Posted by movec

The ECS version works just fine. It's a 224x104 video. The AGA version is a non-standard CDXL (not working for this reason).
Do you use agablaster 0.9.71? 0.9.70 didn't support this width, you need to use 0.9.71.

agablaster plays it by default with 11025Hz which gives 12 FPS. If you increase the audio frequency it will play faster (e.g. FR=14000).

I'm sorry but I'm sure I'm using INTRO.ECS file and I verified I'm using AGABlaster 0.9.71 too. Don't understand

[movec]

Originally Posted by iXien

I'm sorry but I'm sure I'm using INTRO.ECS file and I verified I'm using AGABlaster 0.9.71 too. Don't understand

Add the following option: FMODE=0
Does this work? You will see a message on the screen after exiting the player.
Which message do you see without this additional option?