GP2X The Video Post Processor


TheDoktor

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Hello everyone!

While waiting for my GP2X I've been looking through the docs, particularly chapter 13 of the main technical doc.
It looks as though you should be able to do some really cool stuff with the video post processor. Although a lot of the hardware seems to be geared towards video playback, it does seem to have some cool other features.
I've been looking at the RGB region stuff and it looks as though you can have up to 5 playfields. Unfortunately the start address of all the regions seems to be the same address register so unless I'm missing something (I probably am) you can't scroll them independently.
Has anyone with a GP2X looked at this?
Also the OSD stuff looks quite interesting, almost like hardware sprites (except you only seem to be allowed 1 per scanline).
I'm really looking forward to getting my GP2X so I can hack around with this stuff myself.
Until then I would really like to discuss this on the forum with other like-minded individuals.
I think this is going to be a great 2D machine when all the hardware has been figured out.

Cheers,
Mark.
 
TheDoktor posted on Dec 10 2005 at 12:15 AM said:
Hello everyone!

While waiting for my GP2X I've been looking through the docs, particularly chapter 13 of the main technical doc.
It looks as though you should be able to do some really cool stuff with the video post processor. Although a lot of the hardware seems to be geared towards video playback, it does seem to have some cool other features.

Indeed. The MMSP2 chipset is for digital cameras/camcorders. The GP2x got it because it's a common part so not expensive and was already available.

TheDoktor posted on Dec 10 2005 at 12:15 AM said:
I've been looking at the RGB region stuff and it looks as though you can have up to 5 playfields. Unfortunately the start address of all the regions seems to be the same address register so unless I'm missing something (I probably am) you can't scroll them independently.

Even if they cann't be scrolled independently there is hardware translucency and this is a big plus. Scrolling will be fine in software or via 2d accelerator anyway.

TheDoktor posted on Dec 10 2005 at 12:15 AM said:
Has anyone with a GP2X looked at this?
Also the OSD stuff looks quite interesting, almost like hardware sprites (except you only seem to be allowed 1 per scanline).

No big deal here.

TheDoktor posted on Dec 10 2005 at 12:15 AM said:
I'm really looking forward to getting my GP2X so I can hack around with this stuff myself.
Until then I would really like to discuss this on the forum with other like-minded individuals.
I think this is going to be a great 2D machine when all the hardware has been figured out.

The most interesting part of the GP2x's MMSP2 chipset is the video processor. It can decode jpg/mpg/divx (and encode too) so perhaps we might see a surface using it? It's looking to be even better because it's not hardwired and has many functional blocks so other uses aren't unimaginable.

Anyway... there is a lots of things waiting to be discovered in the GP2x...
And there are two Arm9 cores capable of running over 266MHz probably. Resources are here... there is needed just some time to explore all of them.
 
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Radek posted on Dec 9 2005 at 11:44 PM said:
TheDoktor posted on Dec 10 2005 at 12:15 AM said:
I've been looking at the RGB region stuff and it looks as though you can have up to 5 playfields. Unfortunately the start address of all the regions seems to be the same address register so unless I'm missing something (I probably am) you can't scroll them independently.

Even if they cann't be scrolled independently there is hardware translucency and this is a big plus. Scrolling will be fine in software or via 2d accelerator anyway.
I'd rather try and do it in hardware. I know software is always an option and that the 2 ARM cores are very powerful but using hardware will give me extra CPU cycles that could be used for anything. I've looked at the 2D blitter part, unless I'm missing something it needs quite a lot of CPU intervention, certainly no command list DMA engine like I'm used to.

Radek posted on Dec 9 2005 at 11:44 PM said:
TheDoktor posted on Dec 10 2005 at 12:15 AM said:
Has anyone with a GP2X looked at this?
Also the OSD stuff looks quite interesting, almost like hardware sprites (except you only seem to be allowed 1 per scanline).

No big deal here.
Fairly big. Guess it could be used as a 8bpp playfield.
 
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