Description:
MintVID is a multi-codec video player for accelerated 68k Amigas, from
68030-class ECS/AGA systems through 68040/060 machines to PiStorm/Emu68.
It supports native chipset and RTG output, local files, HTTP/HTTPS, HLS,
IPTV and public YouTube playback.
WHAT'S NEW IN 1.2.0
- Speeds up H.264 m68k inverse-transform/reconstruction hot loops by
inlining tiny helpers and removing repeated BSR/RTS overhead.
- Adds a 68060-only branchless H.264 luma-deblocking primitive while keeping
the established shorter implementation for 68030/040.
- Enables CPU-aware AAC acceleration by default. The 68030/040 editions use
hardware full-result multiplication; MintVID060 uses bit-exact hardware
partial products and avoids the 68060's software-emulated register-pair
MULS.L form.
- Routes H.263, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 2, MP42/DIV2, WMV1 and WMV2 through the
shared table-driven/m68k-ASM YUV converter instead of six multiply-heavy
scalar output loops.
- Real-A1200 68060 testing confirmed clean stereo AAC and brought the
lowest-resolution BBC One H.264/HLS stream close to real time in AGA/HAM8.
Turbo+ provides continuous audio with keyframe/slideshow video when the
complete stream remains too demanding.
MintVID 1.2.0 is a performance release. The WMV7/8 and HLS shutdown fixes from
1.1.1, plus the TurboGT, Kalms C2P, RTG direct-write, YouTube, RAM-aware
queueing and audio-rescue work from 1.1.0, remain present.
See CHANGELOG.txt in the release archive, or CHANGELOG.md in the source tree,
for the detailed list.
Codec support does not imply real-time playback on every CPU. Practical
performance depends on processor speed, codec complexity, resolution,
bitrate and display mode. Lightweight older codecs are the natural fit
for classic accelerators. Very-low-resolution H.264 can now approach real time
on a fast real 68060, while PiStorm/Emu68 remains the practical target for a
broader range of modern streams and resolutions.
WHO THIS IS FOR
MintVID is aimed at accelerated Amiga hardware whose owner wants a broad
video player with local-file, network, YouTube and IPTV support. On classic
68030/040/060 accelerators, the supported online formats should not be read as
a promise of smooth H.264 streaming; those features are also useful for
compatibility testing and experimentation. PiStorm/Emu68-class systems are
the main target for practical H.264 YouTube/IPTV use.
MintVID uses the same feature set across its 68030, 68040 and 68060 builds.
There is no separate AGA, RTG or PiStorm feature edition; display mode and
practical playback performance depend on the hardware underneath it.
- 68030-class ECS/AGA systems - best suited to lightweight codecs and
modest frame sizes. Cinepak is the natural starting point; heavier
formats may decode correctly without being practical in real time.
- 68040/060 systems - older codecs such as Cinepak, MJPEG, MPEG-1/2,
MPEG-4 Part 2 and WMV7/8 become more practical at modest resolutions,
especially with RTG. H.264/AVC remains extremely demanding, but the 1.2.0
H.264/AAC improvements brought the lowest-resolution BBC One HLS stream
close to real time on a tested real 68060 using AGA/HAM8. Results depend
heavily on CPU clock, stream, audio, resolution and display mode; higher
resolutions are still not expected to be real-time on classic hardware.
- PiStorm/Emu68 - use the MintVID040 build. This is the build targeted for
the Emu68/PiStorm environment. H.264/AVC (Baseline through High Profile,
CABAC and B-frames) becomes much more practical here. On the tested
Pi3-based PiStorm 600, low-resolution H.264 streams below roughly 200p
have played well. Faster PiStorm hardware should provide more headroom,
but exact results depend on the stream and configuration.
- Vampire/Apollo 68080 - not yet validated by the MintVID project, so no
optimised build is officially recommended yet. Do not assume the 68060
build is the correct choice solely from the CPU name; feedback from real
Vampire hardware is welcome.
WHAT IT PLAYS
- Containers: AVI, QuickTime MOV/MP4, Matroska/MKV, MPEG-TS/M2TS, raw
MPEG-1 program streams, raw MJPEG/MPEG-4 Visual streams, and direct
HTTP(S)/HLS URLs (including live IPTV playlists and YouTube).
- Video codecs: Cinepak, Microsoft Video 1, Microsoft RLE8, uncompressed
UYVY422, H.263 baseline, Motion-JPEG, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (with B-frames),
MPEG-4 Part 2 (ISO ASP and Microsoft MP42/DIV2), Windows Media Video 7
(WMV1), Windows Media Video 8 (WMV2), and H.264/AVC Baseline/Main/High
Profile.
- Audio to Paula: PCM, MP2, MP3, AAC-LC (raw/ADTS/LATM), and fixed-point
AC-3 (stereo downmix). MP3/AAC decoding reuses the proven MintAMP/Helix
code.
- Two complete GUI sets over the same player: ReAction (V44) and plain
GadTools/Intuition (V37) for a standard AmigaOS 3.0 install, each with
matching file, IPTV-directory and YouTube-search browser windows.
WMV compatibility notes: WMV1's low-bitrate spatial intra/inter prediction
mode is not implemented and is rejected rather than approximated. WMV2's
IntraX8 (J-frame) mode is likewise not supported. Normal tested WMV1/WMV2
AVI I/P streams use the native decoders.
MintVID's core decoders are regression-tested against ffmpeg using the
project's test fixtures where applicable. The portable core is also
cross-built and exercised on a big-endian m68k target under QEMU to catch
endianness and alignment problems that a little-endian x86 host build can
miss - see the project page for details.
DEFAULTS AND H.264 SPEED MODES
Kalms is the default C2P choice for AGA/HAM playback. If the selected geometry
or BitMap layout cannot use its CPU-matched converter, MintVID automatically
falls back to the established graphics.library path. RTG ignores C2P choices.
TurboGT is the default H.264 mode. Auto currently selects the same policy.
- Quality: full filtering, no deliberate frame skipping.
- Balanced: reduces work only on non-reference pictures; often close to
Quality on streams with few B-frames.
- Fast: cheaper filtering on non-key pictures, but keeps every frame.
- Turbo: Fast policy plus B-frame skipping; preserves the P-frame chain.
- Turbo+: skips both P- and B-frames and applies maximum degradation
(including disabling I-frame deblocking) to every displayed keyframe, so
the one remaining expensive decode stays short enough on a slow CPU to
keep audio from stuttering between frames. This is a last-resort
keyframe/slideshow mode, not the normal fastest setting.
- TurboGT: skips B-frames, retains P-frames, and applies maximum degradation
to every decoded picture. It is the recommended aggressive PiStorm/Emu68
setting and the default from the 1.1.x line.
WHAT IT IS NOT
MintVID uses a modular decoder architecture, so its supported format list can
grow without tying the player to one fixed codec. It is not a video editor or
encoder: use ffmpeg or similar on a modern machine to prepare source material,
then play the result on the Amiga. Timeline seeking (cursor left/right,
10 seconds at a time, landing on the nearest keyframe) works for local
QuickTime MOV/MP4 files; AVI, MKV, and network/live sources don't have a
keyframe index yet, so cursor-right stays a fast-forward toggle there instead.
Cursor up/down adjust Paula's volume, and once playback starts, the
controller's Info: field - and, on RTG (CGX/P96), the video window's own title
bar - mirrors a live H:MM:SS/M:SS playhead so you can see where a seek actually
landed.
INSTALLATION
Choose the MintVID030, MintVID040 or MintVID060 drawer for a normal 68030,
68040 or 68060 system respectively. PiStorm/Emu68 users should use
MintVID040. Vampire/Apollo 68080 has not yet been validated, so there is no
official optimised-build recommendation for it yet. Copy the chosen drawer to
your Amiga and keep its contents together.
Run MintVID on systems with ReAction V44, or MintVID-GT for the plain
GadTools/Intuition interface used by a standard AmigaOS 3.0 installation.
IPTV and YouTube browsing are reachable from the controller's menus.
Everything else in the drawer (mrplay, iptvgui, ytgui, the GadTools -GT set,
mr_decode) is a support binary loaded on demand. Nothing in the release drawer
is intended to be split up or copied out on its own.
PROJECT / SOURCE
https://github.com/boingball/MintVID
Clone with submodules to obtain the pinned MintAMP and libavc sources used by
the build:
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/boingball/MintVID.git
SOURCE / LICENSING
MintVID's own source is MIT-licensed. It links several dependencies that keep
their own licences (GPL-2.0-or-later, Apache-2.0, and RealNetworks RPSL among
them). The release archive includes a LICENSES drawer with the MintVID licence
and upstream licence/notices available from the checked-out dependencies.
See the project README for the full breakdown before redistributing binaries,
and provide the corresponding source required by the licences of the binary
components you redistribute.
SUPPORT
If MintVID is useful, or YouTube on an Amiga made you laugh, you can help
keep the hardware testing and development going at:
https://buymeacoffee.com/boingball
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