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Issues with CE7 BSP for AM3715EVM

John J Wu
Genius 3870 points
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: AM3715, DM3730

I'm trying to verify the peripherals on AM3715EVM Mistral board, on CE7.

Here is what I did:

1. Installed Microsoft Visual studio 2008 and SP1 on PC running Windows 7(64bit) Professional.

2. Installed Microsoft Expression Blend 3.

3. Installed Windows Embedded Compact 7.

4. Installed all the updates of Windows Embedded Compact 7.

5. Downloaded BSP_WINCE_ARM_A8_02_00_00_Source.exe from TI website and installed it to my c:\WINCE700.

6. Launched Windows Visual Studio 2008 and opened EVM_3530 project from OSDesigns folder.

7. Built EVM_OMAP3530_ARMV7 Release.

8. Formatted SD card and copied MLO, EBOOTSD.nb0, and NK.bin to SD card using TI’s TI_SDCard_boot_utility_v1_0.

9. Changed SW4 to make it boot from SDCard.

10. Insert SD card and turn on the EVM.

The OS was launched successfully and I have verified the following so far: LCD, touchscreen, SD card, USB memory stick, Ethernet, UART3, Audio player are OK.

 But I also noticed some issues:

  1. The USB keyboard and USB mouse are not working. (USB HID Keyboard and USB HID Mouse are selected in catalog)
  2. If you go to ControlPanel->System->Memory, The Storage Memory In Use has negative number sometimes.

I increase FSRAMPERCENT to 0x30303030 in config.bib for a test. The allocated Storage Memory is 20224KB. But if I click Memory tab, it still shows negative number, and then it settles to 20224KB which is the same as the memory allocated. I think the memory in use should be less than the memory allocated. At least that’s what happens in our CE6 platform devices.

  1. Photo viewer can show .jpg and .bmp images but fail to show .gif and .png images. (BMP, GIF, ICO, JPG, PNG are selected in Still Image Decoders in catalog)
  2. Video player cannot play video files. I have tried several different format such as .avi, .mpg, .wmv and none of them worked.
  3. I also add ceplayit to the OS image by adding ceplayit.exe $(_FLATRELEASEDIR)\ceplayit.exe NK to platform.bib and run it with video files and it doesn’t work either.

Are these known issues with the BSP source?

Thanks,

John

  • 0
    TI__Expert 4155 points

    John,

    Compared with DM3730, AM3715 does not have IVA2.2(DSP),  Multimedia features need to be removed from the OSdesign.

    Are you using the default OSdesign from the 2.0 release? There are some changes from CE6 OSdesign, have you incorporate those changes?

      "The USB keyboard and USB mouse are not working. (USB HID Keyboard and USB HID Mouse are selected in catalog)"

    Which USB port (OTG or EHCI) did you use for Mouse and Keyboard?  Are SYSGEN_USB_HID_CLIENTS and SYSGEN_USB_HID enabled in catalog?

    Could you please compared with the default OSdesign in 2.0 release to see if there is any difference?

      "If you go to ControlPanel->System->Memory, The Storage Memory In Use has negative number sometimes."

    In CE7, we switched to use RAMDisk as root filesystem, since it gives better performance compared with ObjectStore.

    I also saw the issue with negative number after open the memory tab, it stabilized after a few seconds.

     "Photo viewer can show .jpg and .bmp images but fail to show .gif and .png images. (BMP, GIF, ICO, JPG, PNG are selected in Still Image Decoders in catalog)"

    This looks like a question for Microsoft, Could you please post this question in MS forum?

     "Video player cannot play video files. I have tried several different format such as .avi, .mpg, .wmv and none of them worked."

    Since AM3715 does not have DSP, only file with ARM CODEC can be played. I have some samples in mpg, wmv and avi format, let me know if you need the files.

    In your OSdesign, is compositor enabled? Is VRFB enalbed? Could you please try DVI instead of LCD? Video player requires rotation to landscape mode.

      "I also add ceplayit to the OS image by adding ceplayit.exe $(_FLATRELEASEDIR)\ceplayit.exe NK to platform.bib and run it with video files and it doesn’t work either."

    Not sure what is your issue. I am able to use ceplayit. Here is the command that I used:

    ceplayit \storage_card\demo.mpg

    Thanks,

    Tao

  • 0 in reply to Tao Zhang
    Genius 3870 points

    Thank you very much Tao for your quick response. Customer has more questions:

    1. Multimedia framework was removed from Catalog.
    2. A powered USB hub needs to be connected to the USB EHCI port in order to make USB keyboard and USB mouse work. They work fine after I use a powered USB hub.
    3. In CE7, if RAMDisk is used, can we ignore the negative number for memory with Objectstore?
    4. Regarding  “Photo viewer can show .jpg and .bmp images but fail to show .gif and .png images. (BMP, GIF, ICO, JPG, PNG are selected in Still Image Decoders in catalog)", I will post to MS CE forum. Butdo you notice the same issue with default 2.0 OS images?
    5. I would like to try some sample video files with ARM CODEC.
    6. In my OSdesign, I have tried with compositor enabled and disabled and there is no difference for me.
    7. I rotate the LCD to landscape by setting "Angle" to 1 in dss.reg and problem remains.
    8. So If AM3715 doesn’t have DSP, does that mean that we cannot play normal video files? If we want to play normal video files, do we have to use 3rd party media players?
    9. Are there any tools that can be used to convert video codec to ARM CODEC?

  • 0 in reply to John J Wu
    TI__Expert 4155 points

    1. Multimedia framework was removed from Catalog.
    2. A powered USB hub needs to be connected to the USB EHCI port in order to make USB keyboard and USB mouse work. They work fine after I use a powered USB hub.

    <Tao> This is expected behavior for EHCI port

    3. In CE7, if RAMDisk is used, can we ignore the negative number for memory with Objectstore?

    <Tao> To find out why the memory shows negative number, you can also post question to MS Forum. All the memory related allocation is defined in image_cfg.h


    4. Regarding  “Photo viewer can show .jpg and .bmp images but fail to show .gif and .png images. (BMP, GIF, ICO, JPG, PNG are selected in Still Image Decoders in catalog)", I will post to MS CE forum. Butdo you notice the same issue with default 2.0 OS images?

    <Tao> yes, GIF and PNG does not work for me.
    5. I would like to try some sample video files with ARM CODEC.

    6. In my OSdesign, I have tried with compositor enabled and disabled and there is no difference for me.

    <Tao> VRFB needs to be enabled, since our EVM has LCD in portrait mode while Video player requires landscape mode. This is an EVM limitation. If the LCD is in landscape mode by hardware design, then VRFB can be disabled.

    The following FAQ may help you understand more about VRFB:

    http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/WinCE-TIBSP_FAQ#Q:_Display_Driver_and_VRFB:_What_is_VRFB.2C_How_do_I_enable_it_and_under_what_use_cases_do_I_need_to_enable_it.3F

    7. I rotate the LCD to landscape by setting "Angle" to 1 in dss.reg and problem remains.

    <Tao>My understand is : This registry setting is for "GDI" interface, while Video playback goes through DDraw interface. So it will not help.


    8. So If AM3715 doesn’t have DSP, does that mean that we cannot play normal video files? If we want to play normal video files, do we have to use 3rd party media players?

    <Tao> It depends on what CODEC the video file uses. There are more Video CODECs supported with Multimedia Framework in DSP. I am not familiar with the 3rd party media players, but for AM3715, their CODEC has to run on ARM.

    9. Are there any tools that can be used to convert video codec to ARM CODEC?

    <Tao>Sorry, I am not aware of any such tools.

  • 0 in reply to Tao Zhang
    Genius 3870 points

    Tao, customer has more interesting issues with the BSP. They made some efforts, and summaried in the following. Please see what you can do to help. Very critical!

    I would like to update a little bit more about video player.

    Mistral board with demo WinCE6 images, we can playback wmv, mpg ,avi, and mp4 formats without problems.

    Mistral board with demo WinCE7 images, none of the video files plays.

    Mistral board with our built images with VRFB enabled, we can play wmv, mpg files. But no video player menu shows when playing mpg file. And after playing, we cannot close video player application. We need to restart EVM to do it.

    Mistral board with our built images with VRFB enabled, we play avi file. We can hear the audio but the screen is black. When I click the screen, video player menu shows up and I can close it.

    Mistral board with our built images with VRFB enabled, we play mp4 file. An error message pops up showing “Error An error occurred while playing the file”. I can close video player.

    Do you want to take the image they built and try in your end?

    Thanks,

    John Wu

  • 0 in reply to John J Wu
    TI__Expert 4155 points

    John,

    Just to clarify, are all the tests for CE6 and CE7 running on the AM3715 EVM instead of DM3730 EVM?

    Did the customer try to run with DVI connection instead of LCD? Did the customer have a chance to try ceplayit?

    What CE7 Updates does the customer have?

    With VRFB enabled, I am able to play wmv, mpg and avi files, after playing, a black screen shows up. To close video player, right click the mouse and click on the "close" pop up menu. FYI, We have CE7 updates 1-4 installed. Please note that in CE7, there are quite some changes in the area of Video player, silverlight and graphics support.

    I still need to investigate further for mp4 files.

    Thanks,

    Tao

  • 0 in reply to Tao Zhang
    TI__Expert 4155 points

    Here is what I found out about mp4:

    1. In CE7, can not use Video Player to play mp4 files  . However, "ceplayit" can play the mp4 files that works in CE6.

    2. The mp4 files that I used always uses DSP for decoding.

    Thanks,

    Tao

  • 0 in reply to Tao Zhang
    Genius 3870 points

    Tao, thanks again. Here is the update:

    All the tests for CE6 and CE7 are running on the AM3715 EVM.

    Tried ceplayit. ceplayit can play wmv and mpg files. But when it finishes, the black screen still shows. Ctrl-C can terminate it.

    When using ceplayit to play avi file, Hyperterminal shows error message “Video window not visible.  Assuming audio file or unsupported video codec.” I could hear audio. No video displayed.

     Also tried with DVI. Similar results.

    After playing wmv and mpg files, the black screen shows up. Right click mouse, no response from video player. The black screen remains.

     I have installed WEC7 updates including Windows Embedded Compact 7 Monthly Update December 2011.

     

    Thanks,

    John

  • 0 in reply to John J Wu
    TI__Expert 4155 points

    John

    >>>When using ceplayit to play avi file, Hyperterminal shows error message “Video window not visible.  Assuming audio file or unsupported video codec.” I could hear audio. No video displayed.

    AVI format is a container, you need to find out what Video Codec it uses. It looks like you are using unsupported Codecs by ARM.

    >>>After playing wmv and mpg files, the black screen shows up. Right click mouse, no response from video player. The black screen remains.

    Sorry, I did not make it clear. First you need to move the mouse to "Video Player" tab on the bottom of the screen, then right click mouse. you can see a pop up window with "Close",

    Thanks,

    Tao

  • 0 in reply to Tao Zhang
    Genius 3870 points

    Tao, I visited the customer again, and they reported the mpeg-4 playback issue on DM3730 EVM targeting CE7. They have a  mp4 file which can be played on CE6 but not CE7. They tried the pre-built binary and they also built it by themselves, but it's the same. Any idea?

     

    Thanks,

    John 

  • 0 in reply to John J Wu
    TI__Expert 4155 points

    Hi, John,

    While playing mpeg-4 file, did you observe any traces from DSP? This will tell us if the mpeg-4 file the customer uses is decoded by DSP or ARM.

    If it is decoded by ARM, then we need to ask MS for more information about what has been changed from CE6 to CE7.

    I guess "ceplayit" is used on CE7 by the customer, correct? For pre-built binary, I was able to play mp4 file (using ceplayit)  which is decoded by DSP.

    Thanks,

    Tao

  • 0 in reply to Tao Zhang
    Mastermind 9310 points

    Hi John,

    CE7 does not ship with full MPEG-4 codec support out of the box.  The WMV decoder supports an early and limited version of the MPEG-4 codec.  Because of this it may be possible to play an old video encoded with an old revision of the codec.

    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg155659.aspx

    MSDN does state that the CE7 supports MPEG-4 part2 and part10 however when we tried to create an MPEG-4 in house using part2 or part10 it would still not play with the ARM based codecs installed with WEC7

    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg155659.aspx

    In general we are seeing the same results for with our test of playing MP4s on EVMs:

    • AM3715 cannot play any mp4 file with vplayer or ceplayit.
    • DM3730 cannot play any mp4 file with vplayer.
    • DM3730 is able to play some mp4 files only with ceplayit.

    So the current version of Windows Media Player is not able to play MPEG-4, and ceplayit only looks to be able to play a subset of MPEG-4 files if you use a DSP based Codec.  Because the AM3715 does not include a DSP we were unable to play any MPEG-4 based files.