//++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ MEDIAMATICS MPEG ARCADE(tm) Player (C) 1993, 1994, 1995 Mediamatics Inc. //++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This is the Release 1.00.6 of the Mediamatics MPEG Arcade(TM) Player. This is a OM-1 compatible MCI driver enabling Software only Decode of MPEG-1 streams. The playback of VideoCD, CD-i and CD-Karaoke disks is availabe by using the "Mediamatics VideoCD Arcade Player" Device entry. This player reads MPEG-1 System, Video and Audio Streams of up to 1.5Mbits/sec from Hard Disk or ISO/High Sierra CD Roms and plays back on a DCI enabled graphics subsystem. Hardware Requirements: --------------------- (1) Any 8/16 bit Wave Card with Windows Drivers. The factory default is 16-bit PCM Wave data. For 8-bit Cards - please configure the driver using Control Panel/Drivers/Mediamatics Setup. (2) For best results, a Pentium 75/90Mhz Processor based System with 256K second level cache is recommended. (3) For playback of CD's - any CD-ROM drive with < 10% CPU utilization while reading 170Kb/sec (see NewMedia Magazine article 1/6/95 - pp 22). capable of CD-i or VideoCD playback. NOTE: Most CD-ROM drives and firmware which support CD-i and Video-CD playback are high-end CD-ROM Drives Typically these drives are not found the the Multimedia Kits. Installation Notes ------------------ IMPORTANT: You must install the Windows driver and the runtime version of MS Video for Windows shipped with this product before the Mediamatics MPEG drivers to operate properly. Use the Setup program to install the MPEG drivers from the MS Windows Program Manager. Once installed you will be prompted to restart Windows. The driver will not work correctly if you do not restart Windows. To view an MPEG, open the Media Player, select Device, select Mediamatics MPEG Arcade[tm] Player, and browse your drive for the desired file. To view CD-i or Video CD formats, open the Media Player, select Device, select Mediamatics VIDEOCD Arcade[TM] Player. The CD-ROM drive should automatically start playing your selection. (NOTE: You must have a CD-ROM driver capable of reading the Video-CD and CD-i discs.) Performance Tuning ------------------ Use a high performance CD-ROM subsystem for playback of ISO MPEG CD's i.e. - any CD-ROM drive with less than 10% CPU utilization while reading 150Kb/sec. (see NewMedia Magazine article 1/6/95 - pp 22). The amount of CPU time consumed by your Hard Disk driver or the CD-ROM device driver is the main culprit in systems with poor performance. The best performance is obtained by using Enhanced IDE Hard Disks and Enhanced IDE CD-ROM drives connected to PCI IDE controllers. SCSI Disks and SCSI CD-ROMS connected to PCI SCSI controllers also offer good performance. A performance drop of 20-40% (as seen by 20-40% poorer frame rate) will be seen in systems with slow Hard Disk's or CD-ROMs. Examples are older Hard Disk's connected to ISA bus based IDE controllers which take 10% of the CPU (Pentium 90) to read 150 kbytes/sec. ISA bus based CD-ROM controllers take typically 30-40% CPU to read 150kbytes/sec - rendering your Pentium 90 to the level of a Pentium 60 at best. In comparison, an Enhanced IDE hard disk connected to a PCI IDE controller takes about 3% CPU, and an Enhanced IDE CD-ROM device driver (again connected to PCI IDE controller) takes as low as 6-8% CPU when properly configured. MPEG has a very low data-rate unlike AVI files - therefore the overall bandwidth available on the drive is not as important as the amount of CPU time consumed while reading data from the drive. Make sure your Pentium system has a Second level cache (at least 256K) and that it is enabled. You can also optimize the Video peformance for the MPEG driver in the following manner: Open the Media Player, select Device, select Mediamatics MPEG Arcade[TM] Player, and browse your drive for the desired file. Select Device again, Select configure, and then click the Performance button in the Video section. Reopen a new file for these changes to take effect. Enhanced IDE configuration tips: -------------------------------- Use Enhanced IDE Hard Disk and Enhanced IDE CD-ROM. Connect only Enhanced IDE components to the PCI IDE controller on your motherboard. Any non-enhanced IDE components on the PCI-IDE controller force the entire IDE system to operate at normal IDE speeds (about 2Mbytes/sec). Enhanced IDE offers up to 10 Mbytes/sec I/O speed. Enhanced IDE controllers connected to the ISA bus will not give you the same performance as a PCI motherboard IDE controller. Known Restrictions ------------------ Your CD-ROM drive, firmware, and drivers must comply with the Green Book, White Book specification to view CD-i, or Video-CD encoded files. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ All product names listed are trademarks or copyrights of their respective owners.