DOS ain't dead - MPXplay 1.67

Laaca

Czech republic,
10.06.2023, 23:15

MPXplay 1.67 (Announce)

For those who haven't noticed it - the new version of MPXplay is out!

Mpxplay v1.67 (all console versions) is released on http://mpxplay.sourceforge.net

diffs between v1.67 and v1.66
-modifications/new:
-FFmpeg version (Win32): updated FFmpeg library from 4.4.0 to 6.0.0
-DOS: replaced PCI-Bios audio functions with direct PCI i/o port communication (some BIOSes have no correct PCI handling)
-DOS: Intel HDA: added -scc flag +4: use CORB (command ring buffer) with IRQ and Power-Up, instead of PIO mode (some chips have no PIO)
-DOS: Intel HDA: added new PCI ids (Intel RaptorLake chips)
-DOS: minor corrections in ICH and VIA soundchips handling
-bugfixes/modifications/general:
-FFmpeg: handling (ignoring) of incorrect ID3 tags (like spaces only)
-Win32: dialog window close (broken layout) under Win11 non-legacy console (re-initing ui after dialog close)
-more stable handling (closing) of file handler dialogs (F[n] keys)
-more stable closing of file handler dialogs (F[n] keys)
-create ID3 from filename: better handling of filenames with non "artist - title" format (like pictures)
-loading ID3 tags: artist/title infos are not pasted from other side, if the ID3-tag was created from filename there
-F3: better file info dialog handling (eg. at changing editorside with tab or at skip file), text items optimizations
-F4: editing tags of multiply files: the artist and title are discarded from common settings (common settings are loaded automatically from any entry in the list, which already has proper ID3 tags)
-F4: corrected editing of last index entry length/endtime (if new length/endtime is more than the rest/complete song)
-ctrl-'e': corrected too short cut of artist and title (60 -> 120 chars)
-ctrl-'e': a single filename is given, if there's no artist, and there's no title or tracknum or the ID3 was created from filename
-file rename (ctrl-'e' or alt-F6): proper playlist entries update, if the ID3-tag was created from filename
-ctrl-'r': reload of large playlist (subdir scan) (possible crash at standing at the end of list)
-alt-F6: Move and Rename are displayed separated ('Rename' if a file is moved to the same directory)
-ID3-search: exclude path(es) from search in filename(s)
-ID3-search: clear search/filter string, if it's invalid/obsolete (if non-filtered id3-search is enabled or string has not found)
-ctrl-'r': set properly editorhighline after reseting ID3-search filtering (first pressing of ctrl-'r' resets the filtering only, not reloading the dir/file content)
-alt-F5: don't prepare/rename filename from/by metadata at single file copy
-'m': increased mute duration (initial: ~0.4 to 0.8 sec) to avoid pops (on/off/on switching while pushing the button), corrected switching from ctrl-'m' to 'm' mode (without pop)

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DOS-u-akbar!

glennmcc

North Jackson, Ohio (USA),
11.06.2023, 23:08

@ Laaca

MPXplay 1.67

Post reply

> For those who haven't noticed it - the new version of MPXplay is out!
>
> Mpxplay v1.67 (all console versions) is released on
> http://mpxplay.sourceforge.net
>

Thanks for the heads-up. :-D

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--
http://glennmcc.org/

Zyzzle

12.06.2023, 23:35

@ Laaca

MPXplay 1.67

Post reply

Thanks very much for the news!

FYI: This is a major release. It fixes detection problems with many HDA cards, and incorporates fixes suggested by SBEMU author crazii, I believe.

It magically made two of my HDA cards work, even though they claimed to be "supported" before this release. So, try it out, compatibility is much, much better than previous versions of MPXPLAY.

Question: Is anyone able to provide a UPX'ed binary of this release, not a DOS32A LC compressed version? The LZMA mode of UPX will compress the executable much, much better than DOS32A's version. As the .exe is 739 kb compressed, any further savings will be appreciated. The DOS32A binaries produced by its EXE-compressor aren't extractable.

RayeR

CZ,
13.06.2023, 00:26

@ Zyzzle

MPXplay 1.67

Post reply

Good to know, nice to see that work on SBEMU brought back the fruit to Mpxplay :)
In my tools I never used PCIBIOS services as I found them buggy in the past so I do direct IO accesss too.

BTW lzma decompression is much slower on old pentium class so it may be the reason why author didn't use it.

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DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

Zyzzle

13.06.2023, 01:52

@ RayeR

MPXplay 1.67

Post reply

> BTW lzma decompression is much slower on old pentium class so it may be the
> reason why author didn't use it.

Yes, of course. But, on "modern" systems, it hardly makes a difference (~1/10 a second?), so saving an extra ~100k-200k on EXE size is worth it with using UPX lzma compression...
But, I can't get the MPXplay .exe decompressed in order to re-compress it with UPX lzma mode. Did you have any success?

RayeR

CZ,
13.06.2023, 02:44

@ Zyzzle

MPXplay 1.67

Post reply

I tried DOS32UNP.EXE but no succes, sorry. Try contact author.

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DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

Zyzzle

14.06.2023, 04:58
(edited by Zyzzle, 14.06.2023, 05:11)

@ RayeR

MPXplay 1.67

Post reply

> I tried DOS32UNP.EXE but no succes, sorry. Try contact author.
Thanks for suggestion. I posted a thread on the topic at mpxplay's forum at soundforge:
https://sourceforge.net/p/mpxplay/discussion/219198

And, RayeR, the DOS32UNP won't help, as that's not the compressor. The compressor used is the SC.EXE program of the DOS/32 extender package. It is part of the DOS/32 extender. There is an SD.EXE program as well, a debugger, but it won't support the LC-compressed .EXEs that SC.EXE produces, only the uncompressed DOS/32A Linear Executables.

EDIT: mpxplay replied on his forum, and posted an uncompressed version of 1.67 for DOS.

He got UPX error "The stack is not in the last object" and so did I when attempted to compress with UPX v 4.02. It seems a phantom error of UPX, as other DOS compressors (SC.EXE of DOS/32 and 32LITE.EXE) do not produce this error and compress the MPXPLAY.EXE file perfectly well without problems. Alas, these compressors don't have --lzma mode and also poor compression and produce un-extractable files.

CandyMan

08.07.2023, 14:28

@ Zyzzle

MPXplay 1.67

Post reply

> Question: Is anyone able to provide a UPX'ed binary of this release, not a
> DOS32A LC compressed version? The LZMA mode of UPX will compress the
> executable much, much better than DOS32A's version. As the .exe is 739 kb
> compressed, any further savings will be appreciated. The DOS32A binaries
> produced by its EXE-compressor aren't extractable.

I think I solved your MPXPLAY compression problem. There are 3 ways to compress (using CauseWay, DOS32A, D3X dos extender and several programs).

See here:
https://megawrzuta.pl/download/068eff11186e032b4a5d2d76140785c7.html

dggionco Buenos Aires - Argentina, 15.06.2023, 17:15 @ Laaca	MPXplay 1.67 Post reply
	Yes, that's good news. With the new version of that program, it now works well on a motherboard based on the NVidia nForce 430 sound chip (MCP61p).

sezeroz 08.07.2023, 14:45 @ Laaca	MPXplay 1.67 Post reply
	Has anyone had a chance to test this with Intel HDA hardware in interrupt mode (-scc 4, I think)? As far as I can see INTELHD_IRQRoutine() is never called because MIrq_Start and MIrq_Stop are never called from sc_inthd.c. Is that an oversight, or am I missing something? (I asked this at https://sf.net/p/mpxplay/discussion/219198/thread/b6dc89db02/ but got no response so far.)

Laaca

Czech republic,
08.07.2023, 20:30

@ sezeroz

MPXplay 1.67

Post reply

> Has anyone had a chance to test this with Intel HDA hardware in interrupt
> mode (-scc 4, I think)? As far as I can see INTELHD_IRQRoutine() is never
> called because MIrq_Start and MIrq_Stop are never called from sc_inthd.c.
> Is that an oversight, or am I missing something?
>
> (I asked this at
> https://sf.net/p/mpxplay/discussion/219198/thread/b6dc89db02/
> but got no response so far.)

I tried it on my computer with "NVIDIA TU106 - High Definition Audio Controller
"
(vendor: 10DE, device: 10F9), under FreeDOS.

without "scc command": OK
-scc 2: BAD (fixed stream address)
-scc 4: OK (option for IRQ based routine instead of PIO mode)

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DOS-u-akbar!