Welcome to release 0.2.037.0 of the Linux driver for NetStream2000.
DISCLAIMER
----------
This program has (for some parts) to operate as root and in kernel
land. As a result, it can crash your system and you may loose
critical data on your hard disk. Sigma Designs cannot be held
responsible for that.
LICENSING
---------
- shared object libraries (libEM8400.so, libnovaclient.so,
libsettings.so, libosd.so) in lib/ are only available in binary form.
Copyrighted (C) 1999-2000 Sigma Designs
- kernel land driver in directory kernelmode is distributed
under the terms of the GNU general public license.
- remote control client in directory RMREMOTE is distributed
under the terms of the GNU general public license
[For convenience a remotecontrol binary is included]
- trivial file player client in directory RMPLAYFILE is distributed
under the terms of the GNU general public license
[For convenience a playfile_binary binary is included]
- calibration application in directory RMCALIBRATION is distributed
under the terms of the GNU general public license
[For convenience a calibration binary is included. This binary
is statically linked with libXxf86vm.a from XFree3.3.6 and
should be recompiled if you run XFree4.0.1]
- simple windowing application in directory RMMINIPLAYER is distributed
under the terms of the GNU general public license
[For convenience a miniplayer binary is included]
- tv player with on screen display CelesteApp is ditributed
under the terms of the GNU general public license
[For convenience a celesteapp binary is included]
SUPPORTED PLATFORMS
-------------------
Linux on x86 processor, with kernel 2.2.x (2.3.x may work).
Any recent distribution should do.
Users of RedHat7.0: this distribution default installation is broken,
kernel is 2.2.16-22 and kernel headers are from 2.4.0-0.26. To correct this
just install kernel-source-2.2.16-22 RPM:
# rpm -i kernel-source-2.2.16-22
Kernel 2.4.0 is supported (tested on 2.4.0-test9).
All ATAPI DVD drives are supported.
If your kernel has the CDROM_SEND_PACKET ioctl (Linux >= 2.2.16)
SCSI DVD drives are supported.
You must have a NetStream2000.
LOADING THE KERNEL MODE DRIVER
------------------------------
As root, type
# ./loaddriver
then leave the root shell, cut&paste the appropriate line
for proper environment.
``loaddriver'' must be run once at each boot.
You *have to* cut&paste the environment setting line before
calling one of the following programs (especially if you open a new window).
USAGE (DVD PLAYBACK WITH RMREMOTE ON TV OUTPUT)
-----------------------------------------------
You must have a REALmagic remote control connected to the first
serial port (default).
Insert a DVD in your drive. Then issue
$ ./remotecontrol
Then, press the ``PLAYER'' button (maybe labelled ``PROGRAM'' on
some versions; this it the top right button) on the remote.
If you wish to stop it press Control-C.
You must first exit a running player to start over.
Note: if you want to use the second serial port type
$ export REMOTECONTROLPORT=/dev/ttyS1
at the shell, as user, before launching remotecontrol (bash or zsh syntax).
USAGE (VCD2.0 PLAYBACK)
-----------------------
Follow the same steps as DVD playback.
USAGE (FILE PLAYBACK)
--------------------
Follow the steps until leaving the root shell then
$ ./playfile s /samplempeg/movie.mpg
's' means system stream, also 'd' for dvd (.vob),
and 't' for transport stream. See source code.
For on screen example, issue the following command:
$ ./playfile
If you filename has white spaces, use "...".
To interrupt press Control-C.
File playback is not very stable, and interrupting/playing bogus
files/using wrong type will easily crash your computer.
CHANGING THE REGION CODE
------------------------
You can change the region code only five times.
- insert the DVD of the region code that you want to change to
- issue ./remotecontrol command (assuming that the driver is already loaded)
- press Player from Remote Control
- get another terminal window or console (Alt-F2)
- login again and go to the directory of the Linux driver
- issue ./regioncodechange 4 (assuming the region code wanting to change is 4)
- hit Enter to confirm
An unconfigured NetStream2000 will allow playing region code 1 DVDs
before first change.
If you have more than one NetStream2000, be careful to launch remotecontrol
with the appropriate environment so that the right board is changed.
DISPLAYING ON VGA MONITOR
-------------------------
Video can be output on VGA monitor using the analog overlay capability
of the NetStream2000, instead of tv output.
*** Make sure the pass-through cable is connected between your videocard
output and the connector labelled ``VGA IN'' on the NetStream2000. The
monitor must be plugged on the ``VGA OUT'' connector on the NetStream2000. ***
The analog overlay must be calibrated before used, if you use
different resolutions it must be calibrated for each resolution.
The miniplayer application allows video displaying in a gtk+ window.
AUTOCALIBRATION
---------------
To be able to autocalibrate you must run X at a resolution less
than 1280x1024. Better supported resolution are 1024x768 and under.
*** You cannot run the autocalibration process while the card is
playing. The script will first kill other applications
accessing the device ***
Be sure the loaddriver script has been run.
Then leave the root shell and issue the command:
$ ./autocalibrate
Run the auto calibrate button then adjust border to have a clean image.
Don't forget to push the ``ok'' button to leave and have your settings
saved (they are saved in $HOME/.realmagicanalogoverlayrc0).
Autocalibration depends on analog signal value comparisons and may
fail.
USING RMMINIPLAYER (SIMPLE WINDOWING APPLICATION ON VGA MONITOR)
----------------------------------------------------------------
When a DVD is playing (with remotecontrol) or a file is playing (with
playfile) you can at any time issue the command:
$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=./lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
$ ./miniplayer
Assuming you ran before the autocalibrate script for the resolution
you're in, the image will now be displayed on the VGA monitor, can be
moved and resized.
TV OUTPUT (YUV / RGB / NTSC / PAL)
----------------------------------
$ ./remotecontrol --yuv
"yuv" means YUV, "rgb" means RGB, "ntsc" means NTSC, and "pal" means PAL outputs.
Two parameters can be issued in the same command line as needed.
$ ./remotecontrol --yuv --pal
That will give you YUV PAL output.
For on screen example, issue the following command.
$ ./remotecontrol -h
API FUNCTION
------------
We have included more API functions in this build.
ChapterPlay
TimePlay
ChapterSearch
Karaoke - audio presentation
GoUp - a dvdsearch
TopSearch
TimeSearch
DVD Domain
MenuLanguageSelect
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
----------------------
* objects are linked against libc-2.1.3.so (RedHat 6.2)
* loaddriver must be run after each boot (script that executes insmod)
* it's not necessary and not advised to run everything as root. Create
a user account (adduser joe)
* You can monitor CPU load with the following shell command:
(computed by adding the CPU usage of all threads)
$ while true; do sleep 10; echo DVD playback CPU load is about `ps auxw |grep remotecontrol |awk '{u+=$3} END {print u}'`; done
* normal load after some minutes playing DVDs is
about 2.6% CPU on PIII 450MHz (3.5% with PCM audio)
about 5% CPU on PII 266MHz
about 12% CPU with two NetStreams and two DVD playing at the same
time on PIII 519MHz
Please report any abnormal observation.
* the loaddriver script will make your /dev/ttyS0 and /dev/ttyS1 a+rw,
and also the appropriate dvd drive device
* region code change is implemented by signal reception on remotecontrol.
Signal patterns are quite unusual, so an unwanted region change is
really unlikely to happen.
NOT YET IMPLEMENTED FEATURES
----------------------------
* support under Linux 2.0.x may be possible after patching of
the kernel modules (untested).
* SMP kernels untested but should run ok
KNOWN BUGS
----------
* the program can *really* hang your computer, requiring a hard reset
This is rare now (especially with dvd playback, very stable)
* after a process crash there are still message queues
listed by ipcs. You can remove them (and any other owned by the user) with:
$ for x in `ipcs -q |grep $USER |awk '{print $2}'`; do ipcrm msg $x; done
REPORTING BUGS
--------------
As root, run the script
./bugreport
and send as an attachement the bugreport.log.gz file to linux@sdesigns.com
Since we cannot guess it easily, include also:
* your distribution identification and version (RedHat, Debian, Slackware...)
* the DVD you tried (complete title identification, region code).
LEARNING MORE
-------------
If this file is not enough, also read README.advanced, and the ChangeLog.
Join the newsgroup nntp://news.sigmadesigns.com/REALmagic.linux.