Converting Video to Play on Hardware MPEG Cards

[Phipli]

I decided to have a go at converting video files to play on my Performa 630 with an MPEG card today.

I used FFMPEG and the command...

ffmpeg -i ./For\ the\ Birds.mp4 -c:v mpeg1video -s 352x240 -r 30000/1001 -b:v 1000k -minrate 1000k -maxrate 1000k -bufsize 40k -g 15 -bf 0 -c:a mp2 -ar 44100 -ac 2 -b:a 224k -f mpeg ./output.mpg

It threw a couple of errors so I'm sure it isn't perfect, but this was the result on my Performa 630 once I got it transferred over (I made two slightly different versions, each was about 30MB for the full video).

Sorry about the auto-focus on my phone camera. It really doesn't like screens.

If you mess about too much and use funny scaling or move the window about and click around, the sound does get out of sync, but it fixes if you set it back to a sensible size (100% or 200%), pause, click somewhere slightly different on the playback position and then click play again.

I'll dismantle the machine in a moment and film performance without the card for comparison.

Edit - without the MPEG card, even when booted from a system without any of the extensions, you just get a blank white window and no sound.



If anyone is wondering, the DAV cables are about 120mm long.

 

[croissantking]

That is cool!

 

[Phipli]

That is cool!

Do you have one? Do you have a 630?

The hardware technically works in the 6200 / 6300 and AIO equivalents, but it is less useful because you can actually play MPEG files with the processor alone in them.

 

[croissantking]

Do you have one?

Nope

 

[Phipli]

Nope

630 is an interesting machine. It feels like Apple used it as a development platform - it has so many quirky hardware options and "firsts" like IDE (great because you can use cheaper adapters), AV, TV, FM Radio modules, DOS cards PPC upgrades, IR... And optional hardware VCD playback.

It's the 68k Performa AV Mac. In some ways it does more than the 840av. They trivially overclock to 40MHz.

Also the video and memory subsystems are probably the best of any 68k Mac and it supports hardware pixel doubling in Marathon for full screen, making it the best 68k Marathon experience...

But ssssh, they're still some of the cheapest 68k macs, so don't tell anyone!

 

[croissantking]

Yeah, I had a 6320 once, a long time ago. I always thought the slide-out motherboard tray was pretty cool. Unfortunately I never had any of the AV modules, which was a pity.

 

[Callan]

That's awesome. I have a couple nubus mpeg cards. One of them is a 3do development card (i believe), but i havent run across the the 630 card yet. I do have a 630 though, and agree! It's a great machine. Alas, It has terrible plastics (probably the reason they're still cheap)

 

[Phipli]

That's awesome. I have a couple nubus mpeg cards. One of them is a 3do development card (i believe), but i havent run across the the 630 card yet. I do have a 630 though, and agree! It's a great machine. Alas, It has terrible plastics (probably the reason they're still cheap)

Do you have the drivers for the Nubus cards? Do they support quicktime?

Be interesting if we could get them working with MoviePlayer.

I have a TrueVision. I'm not sure how different their JPEG transcoding and MPEG are.

 

[Bolacore]

That's cool! I had no idea this was even an option on the 630s - how much did you pay for it if you dont mind me asking? Kinda want to start looking out for one for my 630 too. Does it fit in with the network comm card too, or do you have to sacrifice any slots to use it?

 

[Phipli]

That's cool! I had no idea this was even an option on the 630s - how much did you pay for it if you dont mind me asking? Kinda want to start looking out for one for my 630 too. Does it fit in with the network comm card too, or do you have to sacrifice any slots to use it?

I've had it for about 5 years sorry, I can't remember what I paid. The problem is they're hidden inside machines so hard to know what machines have one.

It goes in the LC PDS. The comm slot is free, I have an ethernet card in mine.

I've gone a bit overboard with my 630, it is overclocked to 40MHz, has 132MB RAM, has the AV card, the UHF and FM module, ethernet and the MPEG card.

 

[Durosity]

I have an MPEG card for the 630 somewhere but I’ve never used it. I should really have a play with it someday!

 

[Phipli]

I have an MPEG card for the 630 somewhere but I’ve never used it. I should really have a play with it someday!

The quality is good enough - similar to pirated films in the early 2000s allegedly.

I'd happily watch a TV series on it .

I don't have a CRT TV or I could use the composite out to watch things on TV from my 630. That would feel very 90s

Do you have the cable that goes to the AV card? I can make you one of you're missing it.

 

[Durosity]

I had a huge collection of pirated videos in the early 90s.. one of the pleasures of having a fast internet connection quite early on

Yeah I do have the original cable for it. Shame it wouldn’t fit into the 630 DOS i have, it already uses the PDS slot for part of its setup. It coulda been the ultimate 68K Mac if I did the 40mhz upgrade.. it already has the tv/fm tuner (which came from a 6500 and does work on a 630) and av input card, and I think maxed out RAM too.

 

[Phipli]

I had a huge collection of pirated videos in the early 90s.. one of the pleasures of having a fast internet connection quite early on

Yeah I do have the original cable for it. Shame it wouldn’t fit into the 630 DOS i have, it already uses the PDS slot for part of its setup. It coulda been the ultimate 68K Mac if I did the 40mhz upgrade.. it already has the tv/fm tuner (which came from a 6500 and does work on a 630) and av input card, and I think maxed out RAM too.

Maxing out RAM on a dos compatible 630 is a lot of RAM That is 196MB!

I'm lucky enough to have a maxed out non-DOS machine plus a DOS machine. I haven't overclocked the DOS board because I wasn't sure if it would make the DOS card struggle in some way or if data timings would be less well synced. Long and short, I wasn't fussed because the other one is 40MHz.

The DOS one's logic board has had a hard life though. I had to remove the serial chips because it was badly damaged by lightning at some point in the past. The lightning had also cooked the DOS card's sound card, the negative rail voltage regulator and it was saved from a pallet, outside in the rain, at the dump.

Mostly works though

 

[MB.68k]

Are we talking about Apple MPEG Media System, card with C-Cube CL450 decoder? I have the card, but sadly no Performa 630. The card was listed on eBay recently for ca. 80 euros. I'm curious: Which QuickTime and QuickTime Player versions does it use (in addition to the AMMS extensions)?

 

[Phipli]

Are we talking about Apple MPEG Media System, card with C-Cube CL450 decoder? I have the card, but sadly no Performa 630. The card was listed on eBay recently for ca. 80 euros. I'm curious: Which QuickTime and QuickTime Player versions does it use (in addition to the AMMS extensions)?

Yes the Apple MPEG Media System card with the CL450 and the Ti TMXF320.

I'm using QuickTime 2.5 and MoviePlayer 2.5.1.

Drivers / codecs etc are all the ones that install from this :

Apple MPEG Media System - Macintosh Garden

The Apple MPEG Media System is a set of hardware and software released by Apple Inc. in 1995 to add MPEG-1 video decoding to Macintosh computers equipped with an LC-style PDS (Processor Direct Slot).

macintoshgarden.org

 

[Callan]

I haven't really done much with them. I remember finding the Mason drivers on the Waback, but I wasn't able to find anything for the 3DO. I believe it's just for encoding, though (now that I'm looking at it again).

 

[Phipli]

I haven't really done much with them. I remember finding the Mason drivers on the Waback, but I wasn't able to find anything for the 3DO. I believe it's just for encoding, though (now that I'm looking at it again).

The TMS320AV120 chip on the smaller card is a video decoding chip I think I read earlier (the apple card has a 320AV110 which is for audio). But the TMS320C on the other card is a much more interesting general purpose DSP, more like what is in the 840av.

Interesting looking cards

 

[Phipli]

Oh, sorry, don't know how I misread that. The Ti chip is the same TMS320AV110 - so that is the MPEG audio decoder chip.

Get a sticker over the window on that ROM chip. It reduces the chance of bit rot. You don't want the software on the card to corrupt.

 

[Snial]

I've had it for about 5 years <snip> 40MHz, has 132MB RAM, has the AV card, the UHF and FM module, ethernet and the MPEG card.

I remember you demoing it at the 68KMLA-UK workshop in .. 2023 so that means you'd only had it for about 2 years then. I was very impressed!

Yes the Apple MPEG Media System card with the CL450 and the Ti TMXF320

Aaah, from the command line I realise you generated MPEG-1 video, which I think is the same as VCD video isn't it?