mplayer (and hence AlienBBC) on a mipsel Linkstation

[andybryant]

Message followup moved from original general forum to here - the plugins forum.
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22251

The situation regarding PPC and linkstation should have changed with the recent versions of mplayer. Since about mid-Jan 06, mplayer has a native RealAudio codec builtin which works for the BBC which means if you build a version of mplayer on a MIPS linkstation it should work.

However nobody has reported trying AlienBBC/mplayer on a MIPS so it can't be guaranteed. I am not sure the processing power of the MIPS linkstation compared to PPC and it may be an issue.

Ok... So I've tried it (at least as far as mplayer). Have just installed mplayer-1.0pre7try2 on a mipsel linkstation, and compiled. I didn't bother installing any of the optional codec packs as I believe they are all only coded for i86 & PPC.

I used the test feed specified in this thread
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=17015

It looked encouraging as it was buffering; then barfed as it couldn't find any of the realaudio codecs.

Any suggestions?

How do I enable the built-in Real codec?

Andy.

root@NAS:/mnt/hda/linux/mplayer/MPlayer-1.0pre7try2# /usr/local/bin/mplayer rtsp://rmlivev8.bbc.net.uk/farm/*/ev7/live24/radio1/live/r1_dsat_g2.ra
MPlayer 1.0pre7try2-3.3.5 (C) 2000-2005 MPlayer Team
CPU: SGI MIPS
Creating config file: /root/.mplayer/config

Linux RTC init error in ioctl (rtc_irqp_set 1024): Invalid argument
Try adding "echo 1024 > /proc/sys/dev/rtc/max-user-freq" to your system startup scripts.
Playing rtsp://rmlivev8.bbc.net.uk/farm/*/ev7/live24/radio1/live/r1_dsat_g2.ra.
Resolving rmlivev8.bbc.net.uk for AF_INET...
Connecting to server rmlivev8.bbc.net.uk[212.58.225.101]:554 ...
Cache size set to 640 KBytes
Connected to server: rmlivev8.bbc.net.uk
Cache fill: 18.75% (122880 bytes)    REAL file format detected.
Stream description: Audio Stream
Stream mimetype: audio/x-pn-multirate-realaudio-live
demux_real: invalid chunksize! (0)
Clip info:
 name: BBC Radio 1
 author: BBC
 copyright: (C) British Broadcasting Corporation 2006
==========================================================================
Requested audio codec family [ra10cook] (afm=realaud) not available.
Enable it at compilation.
Requested audio codec family [racook] (afm=realaud) not available.
Enable it at compilation.
Requested audio codec family [racookwin] (afm=realaud) not available.
Enable it at compilation.
Requested audio codec family [racookmac] (afm=realaud) not available.
Enable it at compilation.
Cannot find codec for audio format 0x6B6F6F63.
Read DOCS/HTML/en/codecs.html!
==========================================================================
Audio: no sound
Video: no video

[bpa]

See my response on the other Linkstation AlienBBC thread before you moved this post to a new thread.

[andybryant]

Sorry... you were too quick for me

The pre7 version of mplayer does not have a built in RealAudio codec and there is no external MIPSEL codec for RealAudio.

Normally I would advise to get the most recent CVS tarball snapshot and compile it instead but the snaphsot is broken. So use CVS to get your own snapshot and then compile it.

So does the current CVS code version contain the built-in?

Thanks, A.

[bpa]

CVS is the code management system - each day revisions are added and so each day is a new version.

A RealAudio codec (ffcook) was built into Mplayer from about mid jan 2006. This codec handles most RealAudio streams (Realplayer 8 I think).

A CVS snapshot done today will have the necessary code.

[andybryant]

Thanks.

Ok - installed CVS using the instructions from here
http://linkstationwiki.org/forum/ind...c=799&page=0#1

Then - pulled down mplayer using the instructions from here
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html#cvs

Now compiling. May take some time.

Andy.

[andybryant]

Compiled, and tested using the command line specified earlier in the thread.

I can confirm that the mplayer CVS source DOES include a RealAudio decoder suitable for the Radio1 stream, and it does compile and run on a MIPSel box.

BUT... and this is the big but... the stream is unintelligable. I get 1/4 second bursts of radio, with 5 second gaps. I guess the processor just isn't man enough for the task.

If you want to run AlienBBC on a LinkStation, DON'T get the MIPS based box.

Andy.

[bpa]

The problem may be related to buffering and the inability to get data through the mplayer rather than raw CPU.

People have no problem running on the HG and it only ups %CPU by a modest amount 20-30% IIRC.

Have you tried a listen Again program with a large cache setting ?

[squeezebox_huf]

Well, I got the mplayer pre08 compiled (it took 2.5 hours!), but like andybryant The output (at least to my softsqueeze player) is choppy - to say the least. I get approx half second scratchy sound followed by 5-10 seconds silence. Can anyone advise how you would change to a "large cache setting" , and what value is "large", anyway!

Thanks.

Hamish.

[bpa]

As part of AleinBBC Mplayer is given a cache of 128k which should be fine. I feel that increasing the cache won't solve the problem just delay it happening.

Have you checked CPU and memory utilisation ?

Mplayer has become very big and you may be getting memory problems with swapping and this may be the root of your problem. The only way to tell is to look at the system performance statistics.

[squeezebox_huf]

Thanks for the reply bpa.

I noticed, while it was taking 2.5 hours to compile, that there were a huge number of codecs and whatnot being compiled, and linked in! I'm wondering if I can somehow remove all but the BBC-needed ones to make a smaller executable. Unfortunately I don't know if or how this would be possible. Any thoughts? Should I ask on the mplayer/alien forum?