Vlc transcoding and CPU usage / bandwidth.

I like watching TV at home, and since the ‘server’ runs Ubuntu (I guess even if it ran Windows), the software of choice to do the transcoding and streaming is VLC.

I also like to have the highest quality over a limited bandwidth, so below you’ll see a summary of CPU / bandwidth usage that I’ve noticed while altering various standard transcoding parameters.

Before the graphs, a short introduction to the setup:
a) Intel Core2Duo E8500, 2Gb of DD-RAM 800Mhz running on Ubuntu 10.04.
b) Of course, I was using the RemoteCAdm I’ve created which you can see here.
c) Having the streaming port opened did not sound like a good idea, so for a long time I was using putty to create ssh tunnels for the streaming. Even with public keys, it was always a pain to start the .bat file to have the ports forwared, etc.
Now I’ve switched to OpenVPN which does a perfect job (I still need to investigate why, when resuming laptop from standby, it doesn’t reconnect, even if OpenVPN GUI says that I’m connected).

Anyway, the standard transcoding parameters that I was using were:

#transcode{venc=x264,vcodec=h264,vb=512,scale=1,fps=25,threads=1,acodec=mpga,
ab=96,channels=1,samplerate=22050}:std{access=http,mux=ts,dst=0.0.0.0:1234}

Changing only one at a time, the table below summarizes the impact on both CPU usage as well as bandwidth:

Bandwidth usage:

Conclusions:

a) Bandwidth is directly dependent on the vb parameter.
b) CPU usage is directly dependent on the scale and threads parameters. If you half any of the two, CPU usage drops in half. CPU usage is also not fixed, I put the average. Sometimes it sits at 35%, then it might jump to 48% for a bit, then to hoover at around 42% etc. I averaged it to 40%.
c) Tomato 1.27 running on my Router uses about 10kb/s when continually updating the Bandwidth reports in the browser. That’s why the screenshot shows 91kb/s on average. If I stop streaming, the bandwidth usage drops to 10kb/s while having the browser open to monitor the bandwidth.
d) hq parameter which stands for ‘high quality’ seems not to create any improvements (since the quality of the TV station (cable) is not crystal clear anyway).
e) OpenVPN CPU usage for VLC streaming is insignificant for 80kb/s stream. I did not even see it ‘up there’ while running top to check the CPU usage (sometimes appears as using 1% of CPU, but then disappears from the list).

Teaser on setup:

Symbian CTimer or “Porsche vs Ferrari” ?

I am appalled by Symbian’s implementation of a _basic_ concept, a TIMER.
Unless you read 30 pages of densely written book pages to find out how to properly use them, you are lost.
(Developing Software for Symbian OS: An Introduction to Creating Smartphone Applications in C++ (Symbian Press), Chapter 8, pages 235 to 267).

And don’t try to mention it threads that synchronize themselves to an experienced symbian programmer…
Remember that all programmers know/understand ‘interrupt vector’ concept (a list of pointers to callback routines). Magic. No more books, anguish, lost time, etc…

Implement timer NORMALLY and everybody knows how to do it..

If I would be a Big manager a Nokia, I would request a big analysis focusing on:
a) not use Symbian anymore.
b) Strike a deal with Oracle and use pure Java. And done properly. And fast. And laugh at Google with its Java like language.
c) keep a line of phones for geek users (such as N900 and followers). Allow them to use anything. Symbian firmware ? Java firmware ? QT over Symbian firmware ? Python over Symbian ? Ext-JS vs QT vs Symbian Browser ? Maybe they want Android on the devices ? Stripped down Ubuntu ?? Windows 95 on DosEmu ??? THEY ALL WORK!!!!
d) allow users to take some responsibility of what they allow on their phone.
e) ban certificates, third party testing houses, streamline OVI approvals.

Maybe phone manufacturers did not realize it yet, but in the future, the phone market will be what today the cars market is. Average / normal / cost conscious people will buy the average phone as they buy the average car.
BUT.
To be there in the ‘ring’ you have to compete professionally in tough circuits. On icy conditions. 10 days video playback with max screen brightness conditions. You name it.
An 800 euros Nokia has to beat an 800 euros IPhone and an 800 euros Android, and outshine those with a good margin, in MANY categories.
Then the winner has to be shown to the public.
Public needs to know Nokia is the best, and if they buy the model N900 they will actually ‘virtually’ own the famous N900TDI which beats everybody in all the tournaments.

As a Big manager at Nokia, this would be the vision I would try to share with the team …

Is Nokia Situations from BetaLabs really innovative ?

In 2006-2007 there were already some products on the market which were able to automatically change the profile of the phone based on the GSM cell / calendar entries …

For example: Best Profiles or Magic Comm Manager (for Nokia 9300i).

Here’s some of what MCM could do: “Magic Comm Manager can determine your location within a GSM network (using cell ids). You will never make a mistake enabling profiles being at work or at home, because Magic Comm Manager always knows where you are.”

Here‘s what Best Profiles could do: “Best Profiles allows automatic profiles switching according to your schedule or calendar. For each profile Best Profiles allows selection of additional settings such as: backlight, cover open/close sounds, run custom application.”

So if I would be a Big manager at Nokia, I would ask the team to remove this phrase “We’d like to hear from you what you think about the concept and having this kind of capability in your phone.” from the product page, for the following reason:
- it’s not a new capability, it’s not a new concept users discover now, it’s a 4 years old PRODUCT for Nokia phones!

N8 does not work for me on Windows XP

If I try to connect the Nokia N8 to a Windows XP PC, I do get is a E: drive letter; but both the phone memory as well as the SD Card memory contents appear mingled (for example two Images folders, etc).

To solve it, I needed to install Nokia OVI Suite. Now N8 appears as “Portable Media Player” and I am able to see the phone’s contents properly appearing in an ‘Explorer’ look-a-like window; I believe is not an real Explorer window since Irfan View or other file viewers can’t navigate to the next image.
Also.
Double clicking on a file in that Nokia Explorer window, the path of what is opened in Irfan View is a temporary path (which makes me believe that file is first copied into the TEMP folder and then opened).
Copy/paste is the only thing that works to copy ALL things from that Nokia Explorer window to a standard Windows folder, where then I can navigate properly with an image viewer.

Why I am forced to copy the files manually to a temporary folder and a 30Mb softwarre ?

Conclusion: If I would be a Big manager in Nokia, I would quit forcing Nokia OVI Suite on people, because if people want an phone forcing you to interact with its PC companion – they already have a range of products doing that, available from Apple.

Controlling the backlight of Nokia N8

After playing around with the CHWRMLight interface of Nokia N8, I got the following values:

TInt val = iLight->SupportedTargets();

The returned value is: 241 (0xF1)

It supports all the defines in CHWRMLight (such as EPrimaryDisplay, EPrimaryDisplayAndKeyboard, and so on), and 4 custom lights.

In the firmware that came with my N8, they are like this:

ECustomTarget1 -> Charging battery LED, the white one next to the USB port.
ECustomTarget2 -> Menu button light, appearing as fade in / fade out.
ECustomTarget3 -> Menu button light, but blinking like when you have a missed call / missed SMS.
ECustomTarget4 -> Menu button light – just on, without any other light effects on it.

Following the extensive Light tutorial from here: http://wiki.forum.nokia.com/index.php/CS000912_-_Controlling_light_settings_using_CHWRMLight

the simplest way to achieve the light control is:

#include <HWRMLight.h>
...
CHWRMLight* iLight;
iLight = CHWRMLight::NewL();
...
if (iLight != NULL) {
	iLight-&gt;LightOnL(CHWRMLight::ECustomTarget1, 2000);
}

In your .mmp file you also have to link against the HWRMLightClient.lib library.

PS: I don’t know if it’s needed but I do have the WriteDeviceData specified on the CAPABILITY line in my .mmp file.

Un Kwak în Toone

Am ieșit la o bere.

De care ? Kwak – una din cele mai bune beri belgiene, cu o formă interesantă de prezentare -> o halbă clepsidră; 8.5 grade.

Kwak

Unde se servește ? Toone – Teatrul de Marionete din Brussels, la 2 pași de Grand Place.

Toone

Iată alte câteva poze, de pe drum, pe post de reper

Magazin de dulciuri, dacă sunteți pofticioși, nu faceți click.

Manneken Pis, with a beer twist!

Un musafir Toone:

Interiorul barului:

Paris – București, Vagonul 96

Chiar daca site-ul latrecut.ro confirma o “obsesie” cu colectionat chibrituri, afli totusi mai multe despre gusturile oamenilor plimbandu-te si prin targurile de vechituri.

Dând o raită prin Jeu de Balle, Brussels, te intrebi daca nu cumva unora sa le placa sa colectioneze placile cu destinatii de pe vagoanele de tren:

Alt unghi:

Drum bun!

Android on non-android phones…

There are attempts to get Android to run on non-Android phones. There are also attempts to run Ubuntu on mobile phones.

Useless. They only boot.

No Calling / Texting, not to mention sluggishness.

I hope nobody tries to actually get those devices to work fully. For fun, just to boot, yes. But by the time of anything decent coming out of it, a newer, faster, better phone is out there, and nobody really cares anymore about the old phone that was doing so much.

InsydeFlash Bios downgrade.

After upgrading the BIOS of my Acer 3410 laptop, it started running hotter than usual, and more noisier …

Now I don’t know if this is specific to the newer BIOS, since the overly short description on Acer’s website doesn’t mention anything related to CPU speed / coolers, etc. It only says:

Improves battery charging performance.

And since I did not have any issue with its the battery, I was willing to try a downgrade.

The trouble ? The older 1.24 version did not want to cooperate:

The version of ROM file isn’t newer than version of BIOS.

Don’t know if all InsydeFlash BIOSes come with a platform.ini file, but the ZIP downloaded from Acer’s website included this file. I realized it is .ini file of the application and while looking through it I found the section below:

[Bios_Version_Check]
flag=1


I just had to put the flag=0 and that’s it!
I was able to proceed with the downgrade.

Dropped something inbetween the tube and the platform ?

Today I found out.

Location Brussels, morning rush hour, exiting the metro to allow other people behind to descend. In the commotion, my bag dropped between the metro wagon and the platform…

I waited it outside, and planned to jump on the lines to recuperate it. What stopped me were three things:

• It did not fall just below, it hit one of the electricity orange lines and went under the platform itself. I would have had to bend next to the electricity line and I did not want to learn new experiences
• I knew that the metro station was under supervision, and I did not want to justify my act to some security guys.
• I knew from a TV documentary that actually, for security reasons, the electricity line next to the platform is disabled (in the stations) in case somebody falls down – and this gave me courage. However … while carefully looking at both the electricity line, the one that seemed in use was the one that was just under the platform, the barrier between me and my bag.

So I did the next big thing, that is … wait for the next metro and talk to the driver. A jolly old fellow, took a while to bend over and open the door, coughing; I told the story using my poor French, he listened then said “You can’t go down there, I can’t go down there, there’s a guy with an Orange jacket that will help you.” (while pointing his finger upwards). I asked – “So shall I go upstairs and try to find him ?” and he said “No, no, I will call him”.

A glimpse of hope yeeey.

I think for 1-2 minutes, all people descending on the stairs were wondering why I stare at them. I was actually checking out which one of them is the guy in the orange jacket .. After a short while, I realized that even if I am in panic mode and believing others should act in panic mode too and get there ASAP, however there was actually nothing dramatic happening though, probably … it happened before and nobody rushes. To my surprise, the guys arrive very quickly after (Let’s say I did not wait more than 5 minutes). And BTW, the jacket was reflective green light, not orange. Duh.

Anyway, I explain again what happen, I show him the bag. I will now explain what happened next:

• He calls the control center / supervisor. I understand his French, but I do not hear what the center says back to him. Dialog is over an intercom that is somewhere at the beginning of the metro station, where he went after I told what happened. I can tell that he is reporting the issue. My mind wonders … will I have to sign some papers, to justify, to explain what happen ? How long will it take now ?
• After a short while I realize that he waits. I am thinking that maybe he waits for some sort of permission or something. It becomes clear that they have to cut off the electricity for him to be able to descend, but … when? Meanwhile, 2-3 more metros come then go …
• Now he gets the reply. He can decide, when, just at that moment, an annoyed old lady complains to him that the the her card was taxed twice when descending to the metro. She was such in distress (probably the lonely crazy one, which has 5 dogs at home) and revolted, betrayed, eeeetc. Just my luck now… you have to treat everybody polite, no matter what your instincts tell. So that’s what the green jacket guy is doing for a couple of phrases, until he realizes that the woman is a bit of a whack… Then he excuses that he can’t wait anymore (the time frame for him was short too). The lady is shocked and turns to me trying to find somebody else to complain how badly she was just treated!! But I was turning away too, going after the green jacket guy.
• He descends using some stairs in the beginning of the platform, walks proudly to where I told him the bag was (knowing probably that everybody looks at him), picks it up and rises it up to me.

That’s it! 15 minutes in total! I got my bag back! ID card, credit cards, phone …

The aftermath is that he went again to the intercom, and reported that all is ok. They restored the electricity back in the station, as there was already a metro train waiting (I could see it stopped 50 meters or so outside). I asked if I have to pay anything, he smiled at me and said no, it’s ok. He was very relaxed now, and so was I. And happy.

I like the way things work out in Belgium.

PS: all the ladies in the metro that saw me dropping the bag were like ‘Aaaa…’ – imaging themselves going through this. I think they were more scared than I do, why are the women so attached of their purses ?