Supported audio codecs:
PCM MONO/STEREO 8/16 bit
QuickTime (.mov, .qt) as used on Apple Macintosh/Microsoft Windows:-
Supported video codecs:
Apple Animation (RLE) 8 bit (colour/gray) (+)
(+) = PPC Accelerated
Supported audio codecs:
RAW MONO/STEREO 8/16 bit
AVI/QT Movies can either be played on a separate screen or on a window via the Workbench. MooVId uses optimized 32 bit c2p (chunky to planar) routines, so playing in a window is very fast even on the Amiga's native AGA chipset and without a graphics card.
Playback speed is fast, but is further optimised depending upon the speed of your Amiga's processor. László also mentions if your movies are stored on your hard disk and your using Commodore's slow 'Fast-File-System', you should add plenty of buffers, either using the AmigaDOS 'AddBuffers' command or via HDToolBox. Alternatively use the TD64 or DirectSCSI versions of Greed's PFS v3 which gives even faster loading. Fast-File -System was never really designed for loading large very files quickly. Other things to note are playback speed also depends on the speed of your IDE/SCSI hostadaptor that your CD-ROM's / hard disks use as well. Z3 Fastlane SCSI uses transparent DMA with no CPU time used during disk transfer, Commodore's IDE connector and PowerFlyer's lack DMA, although the PowerFlyer provides faster playback when compared to Commodore IDE, but is considerably more processor intensive. HiSoft Squirrel SCSI controllers lack DMA as well.
Playback with regard to graphics cards is fast, even on my Z2 equipped test machine with a Cybervision 64/3D and PowerFlyer Z-IV! Obviously Z3 gives the best results, since Z3 is capable of transferring graphical data from your graphics card in 32 bit chunks at a time, whereas Z2 is based on a 16 bit bus and can only transfer data in 16 bit's of data at any one time.
There are some bugs I detected, although these are minor: the first is MooVId seems to produce a horrid metallic screaching sound when playing some AVI/QT codec formats. László recommend's if you encounter this to turn off surround sound via MooVId's 'NOSURROUNDMONO' tooltype. Although I still found some movies still inhibited this fault. Luckily, this is rare and only happens on some of the more obscure AVI/QT codec formats.
Secondly, if your using CybergraphX v3, flipping screens with RAMIGA+M to switch between MooVId's own screen and Workbench, and then back again results in MooVId's screen becoming trashed. This is minor and is caused by a bug in CybergraphX's V3. László recommends upgrading to CybergraphX's V4 which fixes this.
MooVId boasts an attractive graphic user interface which implements a number of gadgets including:
- A play/pause button.
I detail below tests I performed listing playback performance. See above for a full specification of hardware that was used for testing MooVId.
For all tests, the source file "Star Wars.mov" was used (the original trailer from the first Star Wars movie). The animation was a Quicktime movie file in Radius Cinepak (CVID) codec format, sized at 160x120, 24 bit (16.7 million colours). Audio is reported as 16 bit, 22050 Hz stereo:-
Test 1:
For this first test, I used a resolution set to 15 bit CybergraphX (320x240) screen mode. Zorro 2 argument was used to speed animation playback. The results are as follows:-
MooVId dither cgfx zorro2 verbose modeID ? [RETURN]
File: Star Wars.mov
Player statistic:
Test 2:
For this second test, I used a resolution of 15 bit CybergraphX (640x480). Zorro2 argument was used to speed animation playback. The results are as follows:-
MooVId dither cgfx zorro2 verbose modeid ? [RETURN]
File: Star Wars.mov
Video: Radius Cinepak (CVID), 160×120 24 bit, 15 fps
Player statistic:
Test 3:
In this third test, I used a resolution of 24 bit CybergraphiX (800x600). Zorro2 argument was used to speed animation playback. The results are reported as follows:-
MooVId dither cgfx zorro 2 verbose modeID ? [RETURN]
File: Star Wars.mov
Player statistic:
Test 4:
In this fourth test, the playback was tested in a small window on the Workbench screen (800x600 resolution), 24 bit (16.7 million colours). Zorro2 argument was used to increase animation playback.
MooVId dither cgfx zorro2 windowplay verbose modeID ? [RETURN]
File: Star Wars.mov
Player statistic:
Test 5:
For this fifth and final test, MooVId was tested on a Low Res 320x200 AGA screen. DITHER STORM was used to maximize playback speed and SDBL was used for double height viewing, allowing full screen size playback.
MooVId dither storm lo sdbl verbose modeID ? [RETURN]
File: Star Wars.mov
Player statistic:
There you have it: I believe the playback results speak for themselves. Even without a graphics card it possible to get 15fps in AGA Low Res 320x200 and at full screen thanks to the highly efficient c2p (chunky to planar routines) which MooVId Pro 2 utilizes !
László must be commended for his hard work. No other AVI/QT movie player exists on the Amiga which can boast such a wide-range of AVI/QT animation codecs which MooVId supports. Considering László has produced MooVId all by himself, it is a testament of the talent of Amiga developers. On older Amiga models with the ECS chipset (A1000, A15000, A2000 and A3000 which lack the AGA chipset, playback is in black and white only). Compare that to the high specification that is needed just to play QT/AVI's on a Peecee !
MooVId Pro 2 may be purchased from our sponsor, 'Formatt Home Computing'. To place your order and to check stocks and availability give them a ring on: +44 (0)8700 11 22 34. Remember when ordering any software from our sponsors to mention you saw MooVId reviewed in 'The Crypt' issue 17 and that Craig sent you... ;-)
