[gentoo-user] gentoo on a raspberry pi with omxplayer

[gentoo-user] gentoo on a raspberry pi with omxplayer

[William Kenworthy]

Hi, I have a working gentoo base system on a new RPI B model.  I am
starting to add X and ratpoison with the aim of using omxplayer to a nfs
share from my mythbox, but hope someone else has been there before me.

In reality, I would like to just run omxplayer on a minimum framebuffer,
but not sure if it will use the acceleration (google hits are ambiguous)
as Ive bought the mpeg2 codec licence.

Any hints/guides on how to do this could save me a lot of time :)

BillK

Re: [gentoo-user] gentoo on a raspberry pi with omxplayer

[Alan McKinnon]

On Sun, 30 Dec 2012 19:27:21 +0800
William Kenworthy <billk@iinet.net.au> wrote:

> Hi, I have a working gentoo base system on a new RPI B model.  I am
> starting to add X and ratpoison with the aim of using omxplayer to a
> nfs share from my mythbox, but hope someone else has been there
> before me.
> 
> In reality, I would like to just run omxplayer on a minimum
> framebuffer, but not sure if it will use the acceleration (google
> hits are ambiguous) as Ive bought the mpeg2 codec licence.
> 
> Any hints/guides on how to do this could save me a lot of time :)


Hi Bill,

I have no experience using omxplayer on a Pi connecting to a mythbox,
but i do have experience running several ports of xbmc on a Pi to play
media (I reckon they are comparable), and I will happily share my
conclusions with you:

It's not worth the effort.

No matter what you do, no matter what tweaks you try to employ, the Pi
just does not have enough CPU grunt to do the job. Oh, it's fine with
small low-resolution files and straightforward audio, but sooner or
later you'll want to run some media that needs more and the Pi falls
down on that score. It's usually because it has to decode the audio in
software on the CPU. In my case I don;t have kit I can passthrough
audio to (I use a regular TV), so YMMV if you have decent audio kit.

I eventually gave up trying to coerce my Pi into working and asked
Santa Claus for an Xtreamer Ultra 2 instead (he complied) and all my
HTPC problems are fixed.

If your intent is to learn something by all means proceed (you will
learn, and lots of it :-). But if you are looking for something to use
that works, it's probably only fair you know up front the odds of
success are not good.


-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com

Re: [gentoo-user] gentoo on a raspberry pi with omxplayer

[William Kenworthy]

On 31/12/12 06:17, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On Sun, 30 Dec 2012 19:27:21 +0800
> William Kenworthy <billk@iinet.net.au> wrote:
> 
>> Hi, I have a working gentoo base system on a new RPI B model.  I am
>> starting to add X and ratpoison with the aim of using omxplayer to a
>> nfs share from my mythbox, but hope someone else has been there
>> before me.
>>
>> In reality, I would like to just run omxplayer on a minimum
>> framebuffer, but not sure if it will use the acceleration (google
>> hits are ambiguous) as Ive bought the mpeg2 codec licence.
>>
>> Any hints/guides on how to do this could save me a lot of time :)
> 
> 
> Hi Bill,
> 
> I have no experience using omxplayer on a Pi connecting to a mythbox,
> but i do have experience running several ports of xbmc on a Pi to play
> media (I reckon they are comparable), and I will happily share my
> conclusions with you:
> 
> It's not worth the effort.
> 
> No matter what you do, no matter what tweaks you try to employ, the Pi
> just does not have enough CPU grunt to do the job. Oh, it's fine with
> small low-resolution files and straightforward audio, but sooner or
> later you'll want to run some media that needs more and the Pi falls
> down on that score. It's usually because it has to decode the audio in
> software on the CPU. In my case I don;t have kit I can passthrough
> audio to (I use a regular TV), so YMMV if you have decent audio kit.
> 
> I eventually gave up trying to coerce my Pi into working and asked
> Santa Claus for an Xtreamer Ultra 2 instead (he complied) and all my
> HTPC problems are fixed.
> 
> If your intent is to learn something by all means proceed (you will
> learn, and lots of it :-). But if you are looking for something to use
> that works, it's probably only fair you know up front the odds of
> success are not good.
> 
> 

Thanks for the conclusions ... I agree in part at least that its
underpowered (already mildly overclocking it and using distcc) but its
both a learning experience and hopefully will be useful.

It will play the files I am interested in (I tested using xbmc), however
I am not as interested in gaudy eye candy (which seems to be what xbmc
is all about) as in something easy to use - and myth integration was
woeful on the version I tried.

I have (after an overnight compile) a working X on framebuffer (tested
at 720p) using ratpoison - omxplayer is now compiling.

I am thinking of a simple ncurses or perltk interface to spawn omxplayer
with a seleced file - need nothing more complex than that.  I already
have a "myth job" transcoding off-air recordings to an ipad friendly
720p with proper descriptive file names so I am aiming to start out with
a similar, quite basic setup.

I have overcome the versioning mismatch in the various components and
the licence is enabled according to a test.  Did you use the licenced
mpeg2 playback?

BillK

Re: [gentoo-user] gentoo on a raspberry pi with omxplayer

[Alan McKinnon]

On Mon, 31 Dec 2012 08:35:36 +0800
William Kenworthy <billk@iinet.net.au> wrote:

> > If your intent is to learn something by all means proceed (you will
> > learn, and lots of it :-). But if you are looking for something to
> > use that works, it's probably only fair you know up front the odds
> > of success are not good.
> > 
> >   
> 
> Thanks for the conclusions ... I agree in part at least that its
> underpowered (already mildly overclocking it and using distcc) but its
> both a learning experience and hopefully will be useful.
> 
> It will play the files I am interested in (I tested using xbmc),
> however I am not as interested in gaudy eye candy (which seems to be
> what xbmc is all about) as in something easy to use - and myth
> integration was woeful on the version I tried.
> 
> I have (after an overnight compile) a working X on framebuffer (tested
> at 720p) using ratpoison - omxplayer is now compiling.
> 
> I am thinking of a simple ncurses or perltk interface to spawn
> omxplayer with a seleced file - need nothing more complex than that.
> I already have a "myth job" transcoding off-air recordings to an ipad
> friendly 720p with proper descriptive file names so I am aiming to
> start out with a similar, quite basic setup.
> 
> I have overcome the versioning mismatch in the various components and
> the licence is enabled according to a test.  Did you use the licenced
> mpeg2 playback?

Hi Bill,

If it does what you need, then by all means fire away. If nothing else,
the learning experience will be worth it.

I don't have a purchased mpeg-2 license, so can't comment on that. All
my content is transcoded to h.264 in mp4 containers, or good old .avi

-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com

Re: [gentoo-user] gentoo on a raspberry pi with omxplayer

[William Kenworthy]

On 31/12/12 15:02, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On Mon, 31 Dec 2012 08:35:36 +0800
> William Kenworthy <billk@iinet.net.au> wrote:
> 
>>> If your intent is to learn something by all means proceed (you will
>>> learn, and lots of it :-). But if you are looking for something to
>>> use that works, it's probably only fair you know up front the odds
>>> of success are not good.
>>>
...

>> mpeg2 playback?
> 
> Hi Bill,
> 
> If it does what you need, then by all means fire away. If nothing else,
> the learning experience will be worth it.
> 
> I don't have a purchased mpeg-2 license, so can't comment on that. All
> my content is transcoded to h.264 in mp4 containers, or good old .avi
> 

Some numbers ... 1440x1080 off air mpeg2 recording via mythtv served
over nfs.

OMXplayer on framebuffer using the licenced hw decoding uses 20% and
load is just under .5

I need to test divx for some movies Ive previously transcoded but the
majority will be mpeg2 from myth.

Lessons learnt!:

Wasted "forever" compiling X and ratpoison only to find they are not
needed as omxplayer does fine on framebuffer

ext4 sucks (I dont know why I always start with the "recommended ext4"
as all the guides suggest, only to find it sucks and I lose data etc ...
in future start with reiserfs or maybe btrfs and forget the stone age.

Once I got it stable I synced portage and started compiling ffmpeg ...
ran out of inodes.  So Ive now got portage over nfs but ext4 has gotta
go (yes, I know I can reinstall with more inodes, but why go with it
when there is better).  Maybe someone can suggest something?

omxplayer needs some work as I have only minimal control from a keyboard
(basicly "q" for quit :)

BillK