RealMAGIC EM8300 : Hollywood Plus MPEG decoder PCI

Hi all,

I've found in my old storage a PCI card I own from now a several time ... A PCI REALmagic EM8300 ... An hollywood + MPEG-2 DVD decoder card.

Does it exist some software under AmigaOS4 that can take benefit of it ?

Thank you.

Regards,
Fred

@freddix

No.

Doesn't mean you can't get support for it though.

You'll need
a) A friendly programmer
b) The EM8300 datasheet.
c) (preferable) Linux drivers

If you can't find a) and b) then you're a bit stuffed, to be honest. I think b) is the harder to find... I wouldn't mind having a crack at it myself!

@Spirantho

3) http://www.google.com/codesearch/p?hl ... es/em8300_main.c&q=EM8300

RWO

Now all you need is a) and b)!

Doesn't look too hard to program for, but not especially easy either. Maybe I'll take a look sometime if I can get my AmiTV program to an acceptable standard. But that could be a while off yet.

@All:
Thank you for these informations.
I'll take a look at these ...

Generally, when someone adapt a Linux drivers to Amiga, are there several or few changes to do ?

Kindest Regards,
Fred

@freddix

In general there is not several nor few changes to do... but a complete rewrite, the linux driver can only help on the way to communicate with the device (i.e. protocol to use, data to exchange, and sequences of commands)

@freddix

Quote:

Usually you can only use the Linux driver as a way to see what other people do. There are some part of code you can lift directly if you want to but it's rarely worth it. The best idea is to rip out the fundamentals, put them into your own harness, and then build on that, using the Linux source to see how they do it, and the datasheet to see why they do it like that.

That's what I did with my TV card drivers, anyway. I made frequent reference to the Linux drivers, but there's no code in my program that's used from it, as I've done it in a much cleaner (in my opinion) and more Amiga-like system

It's not massively difficult, but you'll need to persevere when things get complicated. It is a great way to learn about drivers though, and can be quite fun and very rewarding. The sense of satisfaction gleaned from seeing the first successful output is very strong!

Good luck if you decide to give it a go yourself, there's plenty of people here who'll be more than happy to help (myself included)!

@Spirantho
Yes, I understand what you say :)
I feel the same when my developments like X-Quad Editor (on PC computer) started to give results :)