aMiPEG - a MPEG video stream player for the Commodore Amiga
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This is version 0.4 (22-Apr-94), (c) 1994 Michael Rausch

See the file COPYRIGHT for the copyrights accompanied with the sources
this work is based upon.


INTRODUCTION

  aMiPEG is a player for MPEG video streams for the Commodore Amiga. It
  is based upon the Berkeley X-Windows player version 2.0, with major
  changes in speed and size.
  Main advantages are much faster decoding of the streams compared with
  other products based on the Berkeley sources, and a real-time scaling
  to fit on a complete HAM screen (no thumbnail animations anymore!).

  In addition, aMiPEG comes with full source code supplied for the 
  technical interested. Extensive technical information will be written
  for the next release, if there's enough interest (on your and my side).


DISCLAIMER

  This software is provided as-is, without warranty of any kind, either
  expressed or implied. In no event will the author be liable for direct,
  indirect, incidental or consequential damages or data loss resulting 
  from the use or application of this software. The entire risk as to the
  results and performance of this software is assumed by the user.


REQUIREMENTS

  AGA chipset is recommended, OS 2.04 or up required. With version 0.3,
  rendering to a HAM6 screen is supported.
  Implied with the usage of MPEG is some speedy processor as well. 68020
  will do, but don't expect too much. "DebbieHarry.mpeg", which I use for
  testing purposes, is played with 1.0 fps on my chipmem-only A1200 (PAL
  screen), compared with 6.5 fps on the A4000/040 (Euro72 screen) and
  3.1 fps on an A2000 with 28Mhz 2630 (PAL screen).

  For recompilation, SAS/C and Devpac assembler is required. Other compilers
  and/or assemblers may work with some fiddling.


BACKGROUND

  The main work with aMiPEG was done in about one week, mainly with modular
  usage from within other productions in mind. In fact, it is thought to be
  used in my next game for some background animation.
  This implies that it is far from being perfect, but you are free to modify
  and use the source, as long as you are so kind and report bugs and post
  your improvements to me, if possible.


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

  An optimized JPEG codec is also available. Mail me if you are interested in
  it and want it to be released like this one.


LOOKING FOR

  Information on MPEG system streams or complete (CD-I) movies in general. If
  you got any of those ... please contact me asap.


CONTACT

  You can reach me via email at

	linux@uni-koblenz.de

  In fact, my account is rausch@uni-koblenz.de; but with this, I'm not allowed
  to receive/send any mail from/to outside the campus.
  Alternatively, you might try FidoNet

	2:245/5618.3

  or snail-mail:

	Michael Rausch
	Schanzenpforte 33-35
	D-56068 Koblenz


HISTORY

  V0.1	* First public release
	* Some cosmetic changes to be done.

  V0.2  * Oops, wrong ZIP code in the snail-mail address
	* Bug with scaling of animations >200 pixel vertical is fixed.
	* Little bit faster & tighter

  V0.3  * HAM6 rendering
	* Somehow, the times got mixed up. NOW it renders to HAM8 with
	  6.5 fps (was 6.3) on the A4000/040 as the code is somewhat
	  streamlined and more parts are moved to assembler.
	* Uses default public screen's mode ID now instead of default monitor's.

  V0.4  * Forgot the Multiscan monitor ID (several people mailed me about this;
	  really sorry guys)
	* Autodetect non-AGA chipset, force HAM6 in this case
	* Minor speed-up in the iDCT (in fact not worth mentioning)
	* This is an intermediate release; 0.5 will contain the TODO stuff
	  listed down there.


BUGS

	* When dragging the screen on a Kick 2 machine, the copper stuff gets
	  messed up and it displays video in the vblank. No idea why, but who
	  cares anyway.
	* Problems with large anims on a PAL screen; don't know why and don't
	  care either.

TODO

	* asynch I/O
	* 96 pixels or 80 pixels wide animations look awful.
	  New scaling modes are not ready yet.
	* MPEG audio is on it's way. The demo codec from DEC is running,
	  Tobias Bading's maplay is ported to Amiga and rewritten for integer
	  arithmetic ...


