AGABlaster - New CDXL Player Released

[gsoravil]

Originally Posted by nikosidis

That is looking great!! It is just stock A1200 CPU, 68020? It is NTSC?

Yes with a small caveat, I have run it with only a RAM expansion (and old DKB one?). Supposedly it doesn't even need that, but my workbench has too much it loads for me to run with only chip ram. The caveat is that at this frame rate I do need faster disk access. In my case I'm using an Elbox FastATA V. Other than that, it can run on a stock 1200. It uses the on-board chipset for both the video and the audio.

It is NTSC, though the process and programs are for use with both PAL and NTSC.

I'm amazed that the 1200 is this capable and we never knew it. Really credit has to go to both Commodore and Markus Schordan. Commodore patented this concept for use with the CD-TV but back then we didn't have the storage speed or space to take it to this level. Last year, Markus started writing AGABlaster and AGAConv to re-implement this technology for use with AGA. The core concept is that the video, audio, and palettes are stored in such a way as to do a sort of "split DMA" and load data real-time from disk into different sections of memory for instant consumption by the Amiga's graphics and sound chipset.

I've been experimenting with his programs and wrote some wrappers, tried to see what worked and what didn't and tried to see where his code breaks to see if I can push it "a bit too far". This attempt was me trying my best to reach my goal of overscan/borderless full motion, high quality audio.

My short term goal is to build up a music video library on the Amiga, and either wrap or, if I can get the source code, modify the program to run a continuous stream. An Amiga music video channel, if you will.

So yes, in 2020 I'm definitely still a Commodore junkie!

[movec]

Hi guys, AGABlaster 0.9.80 is now available:

https://mschordan.github.io/amiga/agablaster.html

* Fixed all flickering when skipping frames on slower devices
* Fixed error when video width was not a multiple of 16
* Reduced chip memory consumption for pre-buffering
* Added audio mute key F6 and option MUTE
* Added audio filter toggle key F7 (change persists after exit)
* Added audio filter option NOFILTER [thanks to gsoravil for suggesting it]
* Added video info output in console (width/height, FPS, Hz, etc.)
* Added PAL option (forces PAL mode even when NTSC is detected)

This version tunes itself to the speed of an Amiga system within the first second of video play. It also eliminates any flickering that some have observed before. So it should work on a broad range of Amigas now out of the box. There are no command line parameters required for agaconv generated CDXL videos.

It also prints an info line after video play now, for example this line can be:
320x220/AGA3-8 Lores FPS:24.35(25) 28000Hz/Stereo Loaded:493/506 V0.9.80

This means video dimensions are 320x220, frames in video have 3 to 8 bitplanes, measured frames per second (FPS) are 24.35, audio frequency is 28000 HZ in video with stereo mode, and for 493 frames it loaded all graphics data of 506 frames total (audio data is read for every frame). This shows the actual processed frames, if you exit early, the number of frames represents those displayed, not the total number in the video.

[movec]

Originally Posted by gsoravil

Hi all!

I don't know how long it will stay up, but I just uploaded to YouTube an OVERSCAN video using AGABlaster with smooth video and high quality audio...

skip to 3 minutes if you want to ignore my rambling...
[ Show youtube player ]

Thoughts anyone? I'm stoked. (I might have another minor feature request for Markus)

Greg

Good conversion, which video-width did you use? Interestingly you got the x-overscan working. Does this run on full 4x AGA speed?

[Apacher]

Hello everybody. And especially to the author of agablaster.
I apologize for my English, I am writing via google translator
I have been using agablestr since the first version, there is no limit to my admiration!) My respect to the author, and a deep bow !!) The work has been colossal, I have raved about watching videos on the Amiga since the 90s !!)
The latest version of agablaster pleased me, automatically shows statistics at the end, no need to write Stats now. Of course, there is still something to improve, I hope for the graphical interface in agablastr so that you can select a file with the mouse and press play, I saw on YouTube how a person launches CDXL with the help of an admission, selected a file and pressed play, I was looking in admittance for how to do it like this and did not find it. A question to the author, how, upon completion of the video, to make the next video file automatically picks up, I converted a bunch of clips, so I want them to be played one after another. Is it possible to do this? I would be very grateful. I have already converted more than 120GB of video, and films and cartoons, all at least 24fps. Finally, my examples of videos in the CDXL.
[ Show youtube player ]

[movec]

Hi Apacher,

Thanks for your feedback! - interesting setup with 2 monitors in your videos

Originally Posted by Apacher

I saw on YouTube how a person launches CDXL with the help of an admission, selected a file and pressed play, I was looking in admittance for how to do it like this and did not find it.

On Amiga OS 3.9 you get a file requester when hitting <TAB> for auto-complete. Hence, you can use 'agablaster <TAB>' to get a file requester. I guess this is what this video is showing, and that's also what I am using.

Originally Posted by Apacher

A question to the author, how, upon completion of the video, to make the next video file automatically picks up, I converted a bunch of clips, so I want them to be played one after another. Is it possible to do this?

There is no explicit support for play lists, but you can use the Amiga console feature to enter multiple lines with CTRL+J. For example to play 2 videos you can use:

agablaster video1.cdxl <CTRL+J> agablaster video2.cdxl <ENTER>

This will play both videos. To finish a video early, it is best to use the left mouse button (LMB). ESC works too but for LMB there is explicit support to not start a new video before the mouse button is released.

[Apacher]

Originally Posted by movec

Hi Apacher, Thanks for your feedback! - interesting setup with 2 monitors in your videos

Yes, very interesting One monitor is connected via scart, the second monitor is connected via indivision AGA mk2cr. The monitor where it is connected via scart, there graphics and video looks more beautiful, the picture is softer and more pleasant, but where there is an indivision AGA mk2cr, the clarity is incredible !! the font under the system is gorgeous, a pleasure to watch!)

Originally Posted by movec

There is no explicit support for play lists, but you can use the Amiga console feature to enter multiple lines with CTRL+J. For example to play 2 videos you can use:

agablaster video1.cdxl <CTRL+J> agablaster video2.cdxl <ENTER>

This will play both videos. To finish a video early, it is best to use the left mouse button (LMB). ESC works too but for LMB there is explicit support to not start a new video before the mouse button is released.

It worked! BUT!!! If you touch the keyboard, pause, or something else during the video playback, then at the end of the video it will not jump to a new video. This is how agablaster works. HERE, if I could do something so that it automatically picks up the video files lying next to it. For example, to enter a command and put a number 1 at the end, this will mean that upon completion, automatically play adjacent files in turn. If you do not put the number 1, then it will log out on completion. It would be great!)) I convert the movie and divide it into 4 parts, all the files are next to each other, it would be great if they were automatically played one after the other. Thanks!)

[movec]

Originally Posted by Apacher

It worked! BUT!!! If you touch the keyboard, pause, or something else during the video playback, then at the end of the video it will not jump to a new video. This is how agablaster works.

Yes, if you jump around in the video you need to hit ESC to exit at the end, if you did not jump around it will exit at the end. I will add an option in the next version to make this more flexible.

Originally Posted by Apacher

HERE, if I could do something so that it automatically picks up the video files lying next to it. For example, to enter a command and put a number 1 at the end, this will mean that upon completion, automatically play adjacent files in turn. If you do not put the number 1, then it will log out on completion. It would be great!)) I convert the movie and divide it into 4 parts, all the files are next to each other, it would be great if they were automatically played one after the other. Thanks!)

Why do you divide the video in 4 parts? Agablaster can play hour long CDXL movies. You can also set the seek distance to longer jumps, e.g. 10min (SD=600). Cursor-Right would then jump by 10 minutes. Speed depends on your IO device and filesystem, but it should work.

However, if you want a "playlist", you can write a file 'myplaylist':
agablaster video1.cdxl
agablaster video2.cdxl

and then run "execute myplaylist".

You can also make the file myplaylist executable with "protect myplaylist +se". Then you don't need to type "execute" every time. I hope this helps.

[Apacher]

Originally Posted by movec

I will add an option in the next version to make this more flexible.

It would be great! I would be grateful, and I'm not the only one

Originally Posted by movec

Why do you divide the video in 4 parts? Agablaster can play hour long CDXL movies. You can also set the seek distance to longer jumps, e.g. 10min (SD=600). Cursor-Right would then jump by 10 minutes. Speed depends on your IO device and filesystem, but it should work.

An hour of video will occupy more than 4GB, it won't fit on a memory card, since Fat 95 is limited to 4GB. In addition, it is tiring to wind, set SD = 3000, for 5 minutes, so pressing the rewind key to the right waited about two minutes until it jumps. I thought it was already hanging . It is better to split the movie into 4 or more parts, there will be quick access to any part of the movie.

Originally Posted by movec

However, if you want a "playlist", you can write a file 'myplaylist':
agablaster video1.cdxl
agablaster video2.cdxl

and then run "execute myplaylist".

You can also make the file myplaylist executable with "protect myplaylist +se". Then you don't need to type "execute" every time. I hope this helps.

Here I did not understand anything, I am not so strong in Amiga teams and similar things, I am guided by the fact that I saw what and how it works live, and I try to repeat it

[thairacerjp]

For me i i converted entire movies , it's huge , around 15/17GB, splited in files of 2GB(20mn) cause my system psf3 or SFS don't support files bigger on classic Amiga but it works ! and with a 128 GB CF card it's not to much.with a simple script and modify tool type files are played continuously , the quality in 640x196 gave me about 11/13 fps, it's correct for a 68030 cpu.
moved let me do some previous tests at the beginning of this project, it was a great adventure !!
spit files is not the ultimate option but it's worth to get a sort of chapter and go fast where you stopped the movie before ^^
[ Show youtube player ]

[Apacher]

Originally Posted by movec

Why do you divide the video in 4 parts? Agablaster can play hour long CDXL movies.

An error was noticed, one of the nuances is why I split the film into 4 or more parts, I tried not to do more than 28 minutes, because if a piece of video exceeds this time, it throws an error when trying to rewind. Backward does not want to rewind at all.

[nikosidis]

Originally Posted by thairacerjp

For me i i converted entire movies , it's huge , around 15/17GB, splited in files of 2GB(20mn) cause my system psf3 or SFS don't support files bigger on classic Amiga but it works ! and with a 128 GB CF card it's not to much.with a simple script and modify tool type files are played continuously , the quality in 640x196 gave me about 11/13 fps, it's correct for a 68030 cpu.
moved let me do some previous tests at the beginning of this project, it was a great adventure !!
spit files is not the ultimate option but it's worth to get a sort of chapter and go fast where you stopped the movie before ^^
[ Show youtube player ]

Are you using SCSI?

[thairacerjp]

@nicosidis , no, i use à CD32 with tf330 card from terriblefire who have
a ide port with CF adaptor .

[nikosidis]

Originally Posted by thairacerjp

@nicosidis , no, i use à CD32 with tf330 card from terriblefire who have
a ide port with CF adaptor .

The CPU will use quite some time on the IDE transfers. Would be nice to see how many more FPS it would run with a SCSI controller.

[movec]

AGABlaster 0.9.81 is now available:

https://mschordan.github.io/amiga/agablaster.html

This is only a small update:
* Changed behavior when player reaches end of video
* Added option NOEXIT (otherwise always exits now)

By default the player always exits at the end of the video now. The only exception is when 'Cursor Right' seeks beyond the end of video, in this case it stops at last frame (to be able to find the end). If option NOEXIT is used then it always remains active at end of video.

[Apacher]

Originally Posted by movec

AGABlaster 0.9.81 is now available:

https://mschordan.github.io/amiga/agablaster.html

This is only a small update:
* Changed behavior when player reaches end of video
* Added option NOEXIT (otherwise always exits now)

By default the player always exits at the end of the video now. The only exception is when 'Cursor Right' seeks beyond the end of video, in this case it stops at last frame (to be able to find the end). If option NOEXIT is used then it always remains active at end of video.

Hooray! Super!!! Thanks! It works now. You can pause while watching the movie, and it will jump to a new piece at the end. But what about the error ?, what I wrote above. If the video is longer than 28 minutes, at the end, if you try to rewind, it jumps into the system with this error ...

[movec]

Originally Posted by Apacher

But what about the error ?, what I wrote above. If the video is longer than 28 minutes, at the end, if you try to rewind, it jumps into the system with this error ...

I don't know yet. You are the first one reporting it. I need some time to reproduce/test this case.

[Apacher]

Originally Posted by movec

I don't know yet. You are the first one reporting it. I need some time to reproduce/test this case.

I see. Well, we'll wait. For complete confidence, a piece of video should be at least 30 minutes, 28 minutes is an approximate time. Thanks

[movec]

Originally Posted by Apacher

I see. Well, we'll wait. For complete confidence, a piece of video should be at least 30 minutes, 28 minutes is an approximate time. Thanks

This is fixed in the new version(s) now. There is a 2GB limit of the Amiga OS seek functions. This is now detected by agablaster 0.9.82 (seek functions are turned off, but you can still play the video up to 4GB. Backwards always takes you back to the 2GB limit and before 2GB it continues to work. Whatever you do, it won't crash anymore.

Another issue might have been that your video had more than 65535 frames. If you convert the video with agaconv 0.9.6 this will work now.

The "crash" is most likely fixed by using agablaster 0.9.82, if it "hangs" at some point, you need to re-convert the video with agaconv 0.9.6.

[movec]

AGAConv 0.9.6 released:

• Simplified command line options and auto-complete (TAB) works now on input/output file names
  --color-mode=... can now be used to select any conversion, e.g. aga8, aga7, ham8, ham6, ocs5, ehb, ...
• For those who enjoy generating gigantic CDXL files - the frame number is encoded as 32-bit number now. This allows more than 65535 frames.
• Enabled ham_convert's new EHB anim mode (gives more stable frame sequences, reduces noise).
• Added support for standard CDXL 12bit color videos with fixed frame size. Generated standard CDXL videos can also be played with other CDXL players such as cdgsxl and ffplay now. Note that standard CDXL videos only use 12 bit colors and are of lower quality also on AGA systems.
• Added automatic adjustments for standard CDXL format. If necessary, the audio frequency is adjusted to ensure that the audio-video synchronization can be maintained in the CDXL video.
• Fixed CDXL PlaneArrangement entry bug. This is now set as BIT_PLANAR (instead of BYTE_PLANAR). Generated videos also work with ffplay now.
• Fixed memory leak in IFF-file-based conversion.

There are now many more conversion examples on the webpage for standard CDXL using 12-bit colors, and custom CDXL using 24-bit colors.

Webpage: https://cutt.ly/AGAConv

[movec]

AGABlaster 0.9.82 released:

• Added support for standard 12-bit AGA6-8 and HAM8 videos (used in some games in the late 90s)
• Optimized versions for 68000, 68020, 68060, 68080
• Extended one-line info message after video play has finished
• Added support for 2GB limit of AmigaOS seek functions (it is still possible to play up to 4GB)
• Some new features require agaconv 0.9.6 (e.g. big CDXL files with 32-bit frame number)

A number of old CDXL videos (including AGA CDXL videos) are now working as well; e.g. the Alien Breed AGA CDXL videos are working now. Those videos are 12-bit HAM8 videos (not using the 24-bit AGA color range) - therefore equivalent to a HAM6 CDXL with a 64 color palette. They can only be played on AGA hardware, but they only use the OCS color range.

There are also optimized AGABlaster versions for 68000/20/60 now. I didn't see a significant runtime difference on my 68060, but it might help a bit on a 68020/30.

There is also a "vampireized" version now. This one uses a few 68080 instructions. Therefore this one doesn't run on any other Amiga. Whether it runs on a Vampire, I don't know (because I cannot test it), but it should . If you have one, let me know!

The extended info line that is printed after running a video shows now also whether it's standard/custom 12-bit/24-bit CDXL video, etc.

The version number includes for which processor it's optimized, e.g. v0.9.82/20 is optimized for 68020.

Website: https://cutt.ly/AGABlaster