Automatic video mode switching when loading game

deluded Wrote:Can xbmc not just bash some new values into the video hardware registers to enable different video modes?

Not without restarting the xbe (Xbox executable) or loading a other xbe, and the Xbox can only run one executable/process at a time. You can read this topic thread and this other topic thread for more detailed explainations and some solution ideas and workaround suggestions. The XBMC source code is also of course a good source of information.

Maybe you could 'just' create a small xbe program with a matching .cfg file (or xml) which only quickly preforms video-mode switching on the EEPROM in RAM before launching a specific xbe, ...so kind of like how Team-XBMC's shortcut tool (source code available in the SVN) works but with the addition of on-the-fly video-mode switching. That way you could use that xbe to launch XBMC each time, and maybe even add an option to edit that cfg (or xml) file from XBMC settings in the GUI. (The source code from nkpatcher and/or cherry's videomode code could possible be of help, more information here)

Right - I've sorted my problem...

Xbox is put in to NTSC, and 480p enabled. Xbox then put back to PAL.

Following blunder code added to CApplication::Create, just after the GetModes() command:

// See if we can go to 480p - RH
BYTE currentCableMode = 0;
HalReadSMBusValue(0x20, 0x4, 0, (LPBYTE)&currentCableMode);

if((currentCableMode == 1)/*AV_PACK_HDTV*/ && g_videoConfig.HasPAL())
{
// We're in PAL mode, but connected to HDTV so switch to NTSC for 480p
char temp[1024];
helper.GetXbePath(temp);
char temp2[1024];
char temp3[2];
temp3[0] = temp[0]; temp3[1] = '\0';
helper.GetPartition((LPCSTR)temp3,temp2);
CStdString strTemp(temp+2);
int iLastSlash = strTemp.rfind('\\');
strcat(temp2,strTemp.substr(0,iLastSlash).c_str());
Destroy();
CUtil::LaunchXbe(temp2,("D:\\"+strTemp.substr(iLastSlash+1)).c_str(),NULL,VIDEO_NTSCM,COUNTRY_USA);

}

Basically, each time xbmc starts, it check to see if the HD component lead is connected (or in my case, the switch on the HD / Scart box) and if so, quits and re-runs itself in NTSC.

Must admit that XBMC looks a lot better in 480p (my projectors native resolution) than normal PAL.

Big thanks to the XBMC guys for making the thing compile 1st first time, and actually documenting the code

deluded Wrote:Basically, each time xbmc starts, it check to see if the HD component lead is connected (or in my case, the switch on the HD / Scart box) and if so, quits and re-runs itself in NTSC

hmm, I'm not a programmer myself but I still think it would be better to put the function into a separate XBE, like Team-XBMC's shortcut tool. That way you would not have to load the XBMC XBE twice, the XBMC XBE is much larger and thus takes much longer to load. I do however like the idea of the cable auto-detect feature you implemented.

How about this instead? Add on-the-fly video-mode switching of the EEPROM shadow-copy in RAM before launching a specific XBE to the Team-XBMC's shortcut tool, with the option of cable auto-detect (for both video and audio), configurable via a .cfg file (or xml). Maybe also add GetXbePath to is and make is pass that information along as a parameter to XBMC so if an option to edit that .cfg file (or xml) from XBMC's GUI was implemented then XBMC would automaticly know where that XBE and it's matching cfg file (or xml) is located. That XBE program would still be small and fast to load, and there would be no need to ever load the same XBE twice. The audio option would be nice if like myself use digital-audio when in NTSC-mode (connected to a Xbox HD cable-adapter and HDTV display-device) and analog-audio when in PAL mode (connected to a standard definition Xbox composite video cable and analog stereo to CRT TV built-in speakers).

Suggested .cfg file (or xml) example:
PS! Note that all this should only touch the EEPROM shadow-copy in RAM and never write to the EEPROM!
The EEPROM it's only capable of aprox. 1000 erase/write cycles so will get damaged if write to it too often.

Looks like a good idea.

Bizarely, the code I posted worked fine on Saturday, then failed to work on Sunday - it just constantly rebooted XBMC, suggesting that the NTSC shadow copy patch thing hadn't worked.

I'll try to get my code working reliably, then take a look at making it configurable. I like the idea of a config file, but I don't think it's possible to detect if digital audio is present - anyone confirm this??

loading XBMC twice is actually much quicker than you'd expect, and not really noticable.. I suspect XBMC spends most of it's time loading the graphics and other DLLs - my patch was run before all this was done.

I've fixed the code a bit - it might be worth putting something like as a setting for people that swap between PAL and 480p etc.

Changes made in Application.cpp

Below the line g_graphicsContext.SetGUIResolution(initialResolution);


// See if we can go to 480p - RH
BYTE currentCableMode = 0;
HalReadSMBusValue(XKUtils::SMBDEV_PIC16L, XKUtils::PIC16L_CMD_AV_PACK, 0, (LPBYTE)&currentCableMode);

if((currentCableMode == XKUtils::AV_PACK_HDTV) && XGetVideoStandard() == XC_VIDEO_STANDARD_PAL_I)
{
// We're in PAL mode, but connected to HDTV so switch to NTSC for 480p
F_VIDEO ForceVideo = VIDEO_NTSCM;
F_COUNTRY ForceCountry = COUNTRY_USA;
char temp[1024];

helper.GetXbePath(temp);

char temp2[1024];
char temp3[2];
temp3[0] = temp[0]; temp3[1] = '\0';
helper.GetPartition((LPCSTR)temp3,temp2);
CStdString strTemp(temp+2);
int iLastSlash = strTemp.rfind('\\');
strcat(temp2,strTemp.substr(0,iLastSlash).c_str());

Destroy();
CUtil::LaunchXbe(temp2,("D:\\"+strTemp.substr(iLastSlash+1)).c_str(),NULL,ForceVideo,ForceCountry);
}



Following code

else if ((DWVideo == XKEEPROM::VIDEO_STANDARD::PAL_I) && ((XGetVideoStandard() == XC_VIDEO_STANDARD_NTSC_M) || (XGetVideoStandard() == XC_VIDEO_STANDARD_NTSC_J) || initialResolution < 6))
{
CLog::Log(LOGINFO, "Rebooting to change resolution from %s back to PAL_I", (XGetVideoStandard() == XC_VIDEO_STANDARD_NTSC_M) ? "NTSC_M" : "NTSC_J");
ForceVideo = VIDEO_PAL50;
ForceCountry = COUNTRY_EUR;
bNeedReboot = true;
fDoPatchTest = true;
}


changed to


else if ((DWVideo == XKEEPROM::VIDEO_STANDARD::PAL_I) && ((XGetVideoStandard() == XC_VIDEO_STANDARD_NTSC_M) || (XGetVideoStandard() == XC_VIDEO_STANDARD_NTSC_J) || initialResolution < 6))
{
// See if we can go to 480p - RH
BYTE currentCableMode = 0;
HalReadSMBusValue(XKUtils::SMBDEV_PIC16L, XKUtils::PIC16L_CMD_AV_PACK, 0, (LPBYTE)&currentCableMode);

if(currentCableMode == XKUtils::AV_PACK_HDTV)
{
// Do nothing
bNeedReboot = false;
fDoPatchTest = false;

}
else
{
CLog::Log(LOGINFO, "Rebooting to change resolution from %s back to PAL_I", (XGetVideoStandard() == XC_VIDEO_STANDARD_NTSC_M) ? "NTSC_M" : "NTSC_J");
ForceVideo = VIDEO_PAL50;
ForceCountry = COUNTRY_EUR;
bNeedReboot = true;
fDoPatchTest = true;
}
}