Cursor, Navigation, Free Memory w/o resetav

Tonight I figured out how to set the graphics of the cursor. According to a system .x file in the common directory, the cursor is 32 x 32 x 2 bit color. So while I was direct drawing on the screen, I told it to use the same memory for the cursor. And it sure did. Color still seems limited to shades of green. But who knows, it may come in handy somewhere.

Also figured out how to navigate through a movie. I found out that the very routine that gives you how much time has elapsed in the movie also gives you the amount of time in the movie. Was able to jump around to the menu, move the menu selection, and activate it. All done through commands, not via the remote. Should be pretty easy to hook up to the remote once I want to, since I've previously figured out how to interact with the remote.

I was very concerned about calling the resetav all of the time. It would take the video bios and audio bios and put the information back in flash memory. Well, that's a problem if you do it too often. yet, it was the only way I could figure out how to recover once I displayed information on the screen. Well, that's no longer a necessity. It is still required if another program has done it, but mine seems to be able to recover from my own now. Can get all of the layers freed up and shut off.

This has all been pushed out to the git repository.

MP3 and LED

I've pushed out the changes so that MP3s can now be played, and that recording light was being turned on by the "setAVModeSCART" function, which made it very easy to track down what GPIO was controlling that light. Especially after I noticed that the light came on after the shutdown VideoPlayback process happened. So I just backtracked from the endin gof the program, commenting stuff out and rebooting (to turn off the light) until the light didn't come on.

Direct screen control

I am now able to control every pixel on the screen. Apparently they chose the R5G6B5 bitmap format for a reason -- it's the native storage format for the screen.

DG_GetSurfaceDesc (m_hSurface, &surfDesc);
DG_Lock(m_hSurface, 0, 0, unitRect.width, unitRect.height, 0);
x = horizonal value from 0 - 1920 (for 1080I)
y = vertical value from 0 - 1080 (for 1080I)
*((uint16_t *)((uint8_t *)surfDesc.lpsurface + (y*surfDesc.lPitch)) + x) = 0xffff;
// format is r5, g6, b5
DG_Unlock(m_hSurface);

edit: It was quite easy to switch it to a higher color format by just changing it from Format_16 to Format_32 when the surface was being created. It does not affect the video, it only applies to the overlay surfaces. But the SDK has Format_16 as the default, possibly inserted there by Ellion.

MPG, Dvd, ISO, and JPG now working

Latest adjustments to the HelloWorld-JC program now include the ability to playback MPG, Dvd files, and automatically mount ISOs. I was also able to extract some code for having the chip render JPG. I was concerned that the method used for decoding the JPG was to pass the information via RPC to the chip. I figured that would interfere with the playback. Turns out, it doesn't! Since all of the decoding is done on the chip, the processor continues to be free to read and unpackage the media it is streaming.

After nearly a month of having to work until late night to finish my project at work until I finished it Friday, I finally got a chance last night and tonight to continue hacking on the ScreenPlay. And the verdict? Success!

It's pretty limited right now. I've added several files and I'm still very dependent upon the library...For simplification, I've got only the AVI file types working right now (with corresponding audio). I now have the Hello World start up with a hard coded AVI filename that it launches and then it overlays the video screen with a translucent "Hello World", along with the cursor that continues to display as a green block (and the graphic structure still mystifies me).

Right now, it plays the video for about 10 seconds and then kicks out. Look at the main2.cpp program for more info. As always, I have checked this into the git repository on opensphd.sourceforge.net.