[maemo-developers] DVD content playback possible or not? Re: Wishlist (was:Re: N800 and USB host mode)

[From: Ville Reijonen]

>> Playback resolution is the problem and the hardware limitations will not
>> allow us to use the N800 screen as it is. That's a pity, alhtough I
>> understand the reasons for these limitations.
>
> In fact the screen _is_ used in its full resolution. Well sort of. The pixel 
> doubling feature on N770 (Epson S1D13742 chip) and the generic scaling feature 
> on N800 (Epson S1D13745 chip) both use pixel interpolation when doing the data 
> transfer to its dedicated video memory. This means the result is actually 
> better then having half resolution as color of those additional pixels are not 
> same -> full 800x480 resolution is used. So basically you have better picture 
> without overhead of larger movie resolution. I agree full resolution would be 
> even better for some people with lot of disk space but IMO current resolution 
> is still good enough.

So I understood that the problem with mpeg2 is that the used resolutions 
are too big to be transferred to the video memory. But mpeg2 itself 
doesn't need much resources when unpacking. So would it be possible to 
downscale the video before sending it to the video memory so the bus 
would not stall. Then let the chip double/scale it for the fullscreen? 
Of course it would be lower quality, but who cares if it would play!

I bought 4gb sdhc card and it works wonderfully with the custom kernel. 
Now if I could dump some mpeg from DVB to the card and play it straight 
up.. copying last nights tv-special or morning news takes less time and 
planning than compressing and copying.

-- 
VRe