MintVID-PiStorm

Full HD H.264 playback on a classic Amiga with a PiStorm accelerator.

The video is decoded by the Raspberry Pi's VideoCore hardware decoder. The audio is decoded on the Pi's second ARM core. The Amiga only reads the file and feeds both. This is how a PiStorm Amiga plays 1080p H.264 in real time with synchronised sound, as a hard full-screen picture on the Pi's HDMI output or in a P96 window on the Workbench.

This project is built on MintVID by Darren "boingball" Banfi, the modern 68k video player for AmigaOS, and includes it in full (MIT licence). MintVID's own README is in docs/MintVID-README.md.

Important

HDMI sound needs the patched Emu68 kernel Emu68-pistorm-BerryCore. The unmodified Emu68 kernel has no BerryCore service on CPU1, so the AAC/AC3/E-AC3 decoders for HDMI cannot run. Video with Paula sound (PAULA) also works with the original Emu68 1.0.7 kernel (tested on hardware, 23.10.2026).

Currently supported: only PiStorm Classic with a Raspberry Pi 3A+ and Emu68 version 1.0.7. The patch is made for exactly that kernel. Other Pi models, other PiStorm boards and newer Emu68 versions are not supported yet.

config.txt on the SD card must contain gpu_mem=64. The VideoCore needs this memory for hardware decoding. Add the line if it is not there.

What it plays

	Format	Decoded by	Output
Video	H.264 / AVC up to 1920x1080	Raspberry Pi VideoCore (MMAL)	HDMI hard full screen ("PiStorm / VC Hard Fullscreen", mrberry), real time, A/V sync
Video	same	Raspberry Pi VideoCore (MMAL)	P96 window on the Workbench ("PiStorm / VC Hard Fenster", mrberry W=10/25/50/75)
Audio	AAC-LC	FAAD2 on CPU1 of the Pi	stereo PCM over the Pi's HDMI
Audio	AC3 (Dolby Digital), up to 5.1	liba52 on CPU1	stereo downmix over HDMI
Audio	E-AC3 (Dolby Digital Plus), stereo	FFmpeg on CPU1	stereo PCM over HDMI
Audio	AAC, MP3, MP2, AC3, PCM	Amiga (Paula player by Darren 'boingball' Banfi)	Paula, full screen only ("PiStorm / VC Hard Fullscreen (Paula)", mrberry PAULA)
Container	MKV, MP4/MOV, MPEG-TS	mrberry (68k)

Multichannel E-AC3 (5.1) is refused, because the CPU1 decoder is not fast enough for it in real time yet. Tested on PiStorm Classic with a Raspberry Pi 3A+ and the patched Emu68 1.0.7 kernel.

How to use it

From the Shell:

mrberry movie.mkv

Window, start time, resume and Paula sound:

mrberry movie.mkv W=50
mrberry movie.mkv T=1:10
mrberry movie.mkv R
mrberry movie.mkv PAULA

Or with the GUI MintVID-pi: pick a film and choose the display mode PiStorm / VC Hard Fullscreen, PiStorm / VC Hard Fenster or PiStorm / VC Hard Fullscreen (Paula). MintVID-pi has Play/Pause, Stop, a time line and ">>" to jump to the time set on the slider. The Paula sound offset base is set in the menu ("Paula sound base"); during playback + and - fine-tune it per film.

Since v96.76 VPberry is no longer needed. All other MintVID playback modes work as in upstream MintVID.

Installation

1. Copy mrberry, berryvp.library, berry_faad03.module, berry_ac3.module and berry_eac3.module into the same drawer.
   • Add MintVID-pi too if you want the GUI.
2. For HDMI sound: replace the Emu68 kernel on the PiStorm's SD card (Emu68-pistorm) with the patched Emu68-pistorm-BerryCore.
   • This is Emu68 1.0.7 for PiStorm Classic / Raspberry Pi 3A+, with the BerryCore service on CPU1.
   • Without it there is no HDMI sound. Video with Paula sound works with the original kernel.
   • It only exists for this Emu68 version and this hardware.
3. Required: in config.txt on the SD card, set gpu_mem=64. If the line is missing, add it.

Ready-made files are under Releases.

How it fits together

MintVID GUI (optional) ──starts──> mrberry ──uses──> berryvp.library
                                  (reads MKV/MP4/TS)     │
                                                         ├─ H.264 ──> VideoCore ──> HDMI
                                                         └─ audio ──> BerryCore mailbox
                                                                         │
                                         Emu68 BerryCore kernel, CPU1: berry_faad03 / berry_ac3 / berry_eac3.module

Source and building

Everything is in pistorm/, with build scripts for each part:

Part	Directory
mrberry	pistorm/mrberry
VPberry (old window player, not needed since v96.76)	pistorm/vpberry
berryvp.library (68k assembler)	pistorm/berryvp_library
CPU1 audio modules	pistorm/modules
Emu68 BerryCore kernel patch	pistorm/emu68_berrycore
GUI changes ("PiStorm / VC Hard Fullscreen" / "Fenster")	player/amiga/mrgui*.c, player/core/mr_play_options.*

sh pistorm/build_all.sh

This builds all runtime files and compares them with the released v96.76 binaries. Tools needed:

• m68k-amigaos-gcc
• vasm
• clang/LLVM 17 or 18
• python3

Credits and licences

This project would not exist without:

• MintVID by Darren "boingball" Banfi: the player this project is built on.
• Emu68 by Michal Schulz (michalsc): the 68k JIT emulator for the Raspberry Pi that the PiStorm runs. BerryCore is a small patch to Emu68 1.0.7 that uses the Pi's second core.
• PiStorm by Claude Schwarz (captain-amygdala): the accelerator board that puts a Raspberry Pi into the Amiga's CPU socket.

Licences:

• MintVID © Darren "boingball" Banfi, MIT: the GUI, and the file readers inside mrberry.
• PiStorm parts (mrberry, berryvp.library, BerryCore) © Michael (MichiB210), MIT.
• CPU1 audio modules:
  • FAAD2 and liba52: GPL-2.0-or-later
  • FFmpeg: LGPL-2.1-or-later
• Emu68 © Michal Schulz, MPL-2.0. The BerryCore patch is under the same licence.

Details are in pistorm/LICENSES.md and THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.txt.

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Deutsch: MintVID-PiStorm spielt H.264-Videos bis 1080p in Echtzeit und synchron auf einem Amiga mit PiStorm ab:

• Das Bild entschlüsselt die VideoCore des Raspberry Pi. Es erscheint als Vollbild am HDMI-Ausgang des Pi oder im P96-Fenster auf der Workbench (mrberry).
• Im Vollbild kann der Ton auch über Paula laufen (Paula-Player von Darren 'boingball' Banfi).
• Den Ton in AAC, AC3 oder E-AC3 entschlüsselt der zweite ARM-Kern des Pi.

Wichtig: Für den Ton über HDMI braucht es den gepatchten Emu68-Kern Emu68-pistorm-BerryCore. Bild mit Ton über Paula läuft auch mit dem Original-Kern Emu68 1.0.7. Zur Zeit läuft alles nur auf dem PiStorm Classic mit Raspberry Pi 3A+ und Emu68 1.0.7.

Außerdem muss in der config.txt auf der SD-Karte gpu_mem=64 stehen. Fehlt die Zeile, bitte ergänzen.

Start aus der Shell mit mrberry film.mkv oder bequem über MintVID mit „PiStorm / VC Hard Fullscreen“. Grundlage ist MintVID von Darren Banfi. Der PiStorm läuft mit Emu68 von Michal Schulz (michalsc). Die PiStorm-Hardware stammt von Claude Schwarz.