************************************************************************ * Copyright (c) Creative Technology Ltd, 1991-93. All rights reserved. * ************************************************************************ VIDEO BLASTER LATEST INFORMATION ================================ This file contains information not available during the printing of the manual. Please read all the sections before you proceed with any installation procedure. This file contains the following sections: 1. Software Installation 2. Package Contents 3. Changes Made to Software 4. Memory Conflict Problem on 16 MB Systems 5. PAL Video System Users 6. Loading of Large Image Files 7. Supports for JPEG file format 8. Clipboard support. 1. SOFTWARE INSTALLATION The installation program, INSTALL.EXE will modify your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. If you have Microsoft Windows 3.1 installed in your system, you can optionally select to modify WIN.INI to include the command to setup the drivers and applications for Video Blaster the next time you startup Windows. Your original files will be renamed with a .B~K extension. Note: We are in the process of shifting our Video Blaster drivers from the Windows directory to the Windows SYSTEM directory. As such, the installation program INSTALL.EXE will move existing Video Blaster drivers in the WINDOWS directory to the WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. Existing Video Blaster drivers in the WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory will be renamed with a .B~K extension. The procedure for installation is as follows. a. Run the program INSTALL.EXE from DOS prompt. This program can be found on Disk #1. b. Select "Begin Installation" and follow the instructions on the screen. c. Quit the installation program when it completes successfully. d. REBOOT YOUR SYSTEM. e. You may proceed to test your Video Blaster card with the program VBTEST.EXE located in the \VBLASTER directory. If you allowed the installation program to add a command to your WIN.INI, the program WINSETUP.EXE will be run the next time you startup Windows. Optionally you may follow the following steps to run WINSETUP.EXE. a. Startup Microsoft Windows 3.1. b. From the FILE menu in Program Manager, choose RUN. c. Type "C:\VBLASTER\WINSETUP" and press ENTER, assuming that you installed Video Blaster software onto drive C. d. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the installation. 2. PACKAGE CONTENTS The following are files contained in the distribution diskette(s): INSTALL.EXE - Software installation program README .COM - Program to display the README.TXT file README .TXT - This file INSTALL.001 - Installation data files DISK .ID - Disk identification file The following are files that will be installed to your hard disk. In the \VBLASTER directory: README .COM - Program to display this README.TXT file README .TXT - This file VBSETENV.EXE - Program to set up the VIDEOBLST environment variable VBSETUP .EXE - DOS program to set up video defaults VBTEST .EXE - DOS program for testing the Video Blaster card VBLSTDRV.COM - Video Blaster DOS driver VBSET .EXE - DOS command-line program to control the Video Blaster VID_ON .BAT - Batch file to turn video on (from DOS) VID_OFF .BAT - Batch file to turn video off (from DOS) WINSETUP.EXE - Video Blaster Windows 3.1 drivers and applications set up program WINSETUP.INF - WINSETUP program information file In the \VBLASTER\MMPLAY sub-directory: MMPLAY .EXE - The multimedia player program MMPLAY .CFG - MMPLAY configuration file MMVBDEMO.BAT - Sample MMPLAY batch file MMVBDEMO.ACT - Sample MMPLAY script FLCVESA .DRV - MMPLAY VESA FLC driver PCXDRV .DRV - MMPLAY PCX file-load driver *.VOC - Sample voice files *.CMF - Sample CMF files *.FLI - Sample FLI image files *.PCX - Sample PCX picture files In the \VBLASTER\WINDOWS sub-directory: VBSOUND .EXE - Windows program to control the Video Blaster VBWSETUP.EXE - Windows program to set up video defaults volume levels VIDEOKIT.EXE - Windows program to display video under Windows PCVIDEO .DLL - Windows Dynamic Link Library for controlling the Video Card CTJPEG.DLL - Windows Dynamic Link Library for JPEG compression/decompression CTRES.DLL - DLL for Custom controls CTCCW.DLL - DLL for Custom controls VBMISC.DLL - DLL for Custom controls MCIVBLST.DRV - Video Blaster MCI Overlay driver OVERLAY .WRI - Microsoft Write file documenting the overlay driver functions 3. CHANGES MADE TO SOFTWARE The following are changes made to the software that have not found their way into the manual: a. The Video Blaster will run at resolutions up to 640x480 only. However, we have provided a 800x600 compatibility feature for users who have 800x600 VGA cards. This feature will allow you to see clean video at 800x600. Note: Total compatibility is not possible, but we have tried to minimise the conflicts as much as we can. We recommend that you not set this feature on unless you really need to work at 800x600 with very clean video display. Please let us know if you find that with the 800x600 feature enabled, you experience difficulty with the video. b. We have included an MCI OVERLAY driver for use with our Video Blaster card. Details about this driver is available in the Microsoft Write file OVERLAY.WRI in the \VBLASTER\WINDOWS directory. 4. MEMORY CONFLICT PROBLEM ON 16 MB SYSTEMS The Video Blaster has a built-in RAM buffer to hold video data that is being captured, which occupies 1 MB of system memory address space. This may cause conflict on some PC's that are equipped with 16 MB of memory or more, as there will be some system memory which is overlapped by the RAM on the Video Blaster. This would arise in unexpected and undesirable results with programs making use of extended memory, such as HIMEM.SYS or the Windows 3.1 system. Users running Windows 3.1 in enhanced mode may overcome this problem by setting the video buffer address beyond 16 MB (or the amount of memory installed in the system). This may be done by choosing the "Configure..." menu in the Windows VBSetup program and then bringing up the "Preferences..." choice. Under the "Frame Buffer Base Addr" setting, increase the value to something larger than your system memory. For example, if you have 20 MB installed in your system, set the "Frame Buffer Base Addr" to 22 MByte. WARNING: THE METHOD OUTLINED ABOVE WILL WORK ONLY FOR CERTAIN CPU MOTHERBOARD CHIPSETS. We have tested the following chipsets and found that there is a high probability that the above method may work correctly. : we will update this list when fully tested. : : We are constantly collecting data on the chipsets that is supported, and would appreciate it if you would perform the following simple steps to see if your chipset would support the Video Blaster: a) Set up the Video Blaster (and the software). b) Run Windows in Enhanced mode. c) Run VBSetup and set up the frame buffer address as described above. d) Run VideoKit and reduce the window height to about 200 lines. The window width is not important. e) Freeze the image and save it as a BMP file. f) Use PaintBrush to read the BMP file. g) If a correct picture is displayed in PaintBrush, the chipset is compatible. If you do run the above steps, please let us know of your results, so that we can keep our data updated. Kindly send a fax to our Technical Support, or send a mail to our bulletin board (whichever your preference), and let us know of the result of your test and which chipset your machine is running on. Note that RUNNING WINDOWS IN STANDARD MODE WILL CAUSE THE ABOVE METHOD TO FAIL AND MAY CAUSE A SYSTEM CRASH. DOS PROGRAMS WILL ALSO NOT WORK WITH THE METHOD. 5. PAL VIDEO SYSTEM USERS The Video Blaster by default accepts NTSC video signals. As such a default crop-window of nearly 500 lines is imposed on the video signal. PAL system users have a video signal that has about 600 lines. This means that the default crop-window will cut away almost 100 lines from a PAL source, or about an inch or so of video. PAL users may solve this problem by adjusting the crop-window for their live source. This can be done from inside the SETUP programs, both VBSETUP and VBWSETUP. Select the source that is connected to the PAL source, and then choose the Crop... option to adjust the crop-window for that source. Increase the crop height until almost all of the video may be seen in the video window again. 6. LOADING OF LARGE IMAGE FILES The Video Blaster has a video buffer that can hold only 512 lines of video data. Therefore files which have more than 512 lines cannot be loaded into the video buffer. In particular, files saved under the 800x600 compatibility mode of the VideoKit program when the display window has more than 512 lines cannot be loaded back into the video buffer. However, other applications will still be able to load these large files, as they do not make use of the Video Blaster video buffer, are therefore not constrained by the size of the video buffer. 7. SUPPORTS FOR JPEG FILE FORMAT The Windows program VIDEOKIT.EXE can save and load standard JPEG (or JFIF) files. While saving an image as a JPEG file, the Q factor (Quantization factor) will determine the JPEG compression level in the file. With a higher Q factor, blocking artifacts will be visible, leading to poorer image quality. Conversely, the lower the Q factor, the better the image will be,but file size will be larger. The recommended range for selecting the Q factor is 1 to 35, where the image result will be satisfactory in proportion to the file size. Note that the Q factor actually determines the level of compression and is NOT the compression factor. That is, the resultant file size is not proportional to the Q factor chosen. JPEG compression/decompression copyrighted by Xing Technology Corporation, 1990-93. All rights reserved. 8. CLIPBOARD SUPPORT The clipboard support have been added in VIDEOKIT.EXE. The available options are: 1. DIB (24-bit) 2. DIB (8-bit) 3. DIB (8-bit gray) 4. Bitmap (24-bit) 5. Bitmap (8-bit) 6. Bitmap (8-bit gray) ********** End of README.TXT **********