************************************************************************ * 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 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. 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. The PC AT with a 24-bit address bus provides for a system address space of up to 16 MB. Even on 386 systems which can address up to 4 gigabytes, the ISA bus limits direct addressing to only 16 MB. Therefore, for the system to access the Video Blaster RAM buffer, the 1 MB buffer must be mapped into the system memory at an address from 1 MB to 15 MB. This method of mapping allows fast storage and retrieval of image data, but causes conflict when physical memory exists at the address range used by the Video Blaster. The result of this address range contention is that any attempt to access the video buffer will read from or write to the system memory instead. This means that Video Blaster users will get garbage data when saving to image files, and will corrupt system memory when loading from image files. This can yield unexpected and undesirable results with programs that make use of extended memory. However, viewing of live video without loading or saving image files will still be possible. As a result of this memory-mapping conflict, the Video Blaster may run into problems on machines equipped with 16 MB memory or more. Some machines which have more than 16 MB perform some form of paging in which only certain banks of memory are active at any one time. This method is system-dependent, however, and could not be applied to solve the memory conflict problem of the Video Blaster. It is therefore regretted that there is no solution to the problem except to free up some system memory space for the Video Blaster. 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. ********** End of README.TXT **********