<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><title>2.5. RTC</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="default.css" type="text/css"><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.73.2"><link rel="start" href="index.html" title="MPlayer - The Movie Player"><link rel="up" href="install.html" title="Chapter 2. Installation"><link rel="prev" href="fonts-osd.html" title="2.4. Fonts and OSD"><link rel="next" href="usage.html" title="Chapter 3. Usage"><link rel="preface" href="howtoread.html" title="How to read this documentation"><link rel="chapter" href="intro.html" title="Chapter 1. Introduction"><link rel="chapter" href="install.html" title="Chapter 2. Installation"><link rel="chapter" href="usage.html" title="Chapter 3. Usage"><link rel="chapter" href="cd-dvd.html" title="Chapter 4. CD/DVD usage"><link rel="chapter" href="faq.html" title="Chapter 5. Frequently Asked Questions"><link rel="chapter" href="containers.html" title="Chapter 6. Containers"><link rel="chapter" href="codecs.html" title="Chapter 7. Codecs"><link rel="chapter" href="video.html" title="Chapter 8. Video output devices"><link rel="chapter" href="audio.html" title="Chapter 9. Audio output devices"><link rel="chapter" href="tv.html" title="Chapter 10. TV"><link rel="chapter" href="radio.html" title="Chapter 11. Radio"><link rel="chapter" href="ports.html" title="Chapter 12. Ports"><link rel="chapter" href="mencoder.html" title="Chapter 13. Basic usage of MEncoder"><link rel="chapter" href="encoding-guide.html" title="Chapter 14. Encoding with MEncoder"><link rel="appendix" href="bugreports.html" title="Appendix A. How to report bugs"><link rel="appendix" href="bugs.html" title="Appendix B. Known bugs"><link rel="appendix" href="skin.html" title="Appendix C. MPlayer skin format"><link rel="appendix" href="history.html" title="Appendix D. History"></head><body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">2.5. RTC</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="fonts-osd.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 2. Installation</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="usage.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr></div><div class="sect1" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="rtc"></a>2.5. RTC</h2></div></div></div><p> There are three timing methods in <span class="application">MPlayer</span>. </p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul type="disc"><li><p> <span class="bold"><strong>To use the old method</strong></span>, you don't have to do anything. It uses <code class="systemitem">usleep()</code> to tune A/V sync, with +/- 10ms accuracy. However sometimes the sync has to be tuned even finer. </p></li><li><p> <span class="bold"><strong>The new timer</strong></span> code uses the RTC (RealTime Clock) for this task, because it has precise 1ms timers. The <tt class="option">-rtc</tt> option enables it, but a properly set up kernel is required. If you are running kernel 2.4.19pre8 or later you can adjust the maximum RTC frequency for normal users through the <code class="systemitem">/proc </code> filesystem. Use one of the following two commands to enable RTC for normal users: </p><pre class="screen">echo 1024 > /proc/sys/dev/rtc/max-user-freq</pre><p> </p><pre class="screen">sysctl dev/rtc/max-user-freq=1024</pre><p> You can make this setting permanent by adding the latter to <tt class="filename">/etc/sysctl.conf</tt>. </p><p> You can see the new timer's efficiency in the status line. The power management functions of some notebook BIOSes with speedstep CPUs interact badly with RTC. Audio and video may get out of sync. Plugging the external power connector in before you power up your notebook seems to help. In some hardware combinations (confirmed during usage of non-DMA DVD drive on an ALi1541 board) usage of the RTC timer causes skippy playback. It's recommended to use the third method in these cases. </p></li><li><p> <span class="bold"><strong>The third timer code</strong></span> is turned on with the <tt class="option">-softsleep</tt> option. It has the efficiency of the RTC, but it doesn't use RTC. On the other hand, it requires more CPU. </p></li></ul></div><p> </p></div><div class="navfooter"><hr><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="fonts-osd.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="install.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="usage.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">2.4. Fonts and OSD </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> Chapter 3. Usage</td></tr></table></div></body></html>