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README.TXT
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1998-11-20
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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
PowerDVD 1.3
(c) Copyright CyberLink Corp. 1998
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Welcome to CyberLink PowerDVD!
This file contains the most up-to-date information and technical notes about
PowerDVD. PLEASE READ THIS FILE IN DETAIL BEFORE RUNNING PowerDVD!!
The following information is available in this README file:
- NEW FEATURES IN VERSION 1.3!
- SUPER 7 MOTHERBOARD SUPPORT
- SCSI DEVICES SUPPORT
- VIDEO FRAME CAPTURING
- SUPPORT FOR NEW SIS6326 CHIP REVISIONS
- GENERAL PLAYBACK PERFORMANCE AND QUALITY ISSUES
- DISPLAY CARD ISSUES
- AUDIO CARD ISSUES
- DVD-ROM ISSUES
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
NEW FEATURES IN VERSION 1.3
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
* Bob/Weave support for optimal display of regular NTSC interlaced and 3:2
pull-down titles
* Improved compatibility with Super 7 motherboards, including those use
VIA MVP3 and ALI Aladdin 5 chipsets.
* Improved compatibility with SCSI devices, such as SCSI card and SCSI
DVD-ROM.
* Support for new SiS6326 revisions, such as 6326AGP Rev.h0, 6326DVD Rev.d2
and Plain 6326 Rev.c5.
* Can capture video frames while playing a DVD/VCD title. The options of
capture to a file, capture as desktop wallpaper and capture to Windows
Clipboard are provided.
* Improved region control mechanism to work with phase II DVD-ROM/RAM drives
that have implemented the region control system in hardware.
* Modified region control mechanism for DVD-ROM drives that do not implement
the region control system in hardware.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
SUPER 7 MOTHERBOARD SUPPORT
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
* PowerDVD version 1.3 has been tested to work with motherboards based on VIA
MVP3 or ALI AladdinV chipset. However, you have to installed a bus master
driver in order to enable the DMA option of your DVD-ROM and get the best
performance. The bus master driver is chipset-dependent and can be found in
your motherboard support CD-ROM or disk. Although Win95 OSR2 and Win98
contain built-in support for DMA-enabled DVD-ROM drives, it is not absolutely
safe to just turn on that support on VIA or ALI platform.
* To play back DVD titles on Super 7 platforms, a K6-2 processor running at
300MHz or higher is required if no special hardware assistance, such as a
SiS6326 display card, is available.
You can find the newest bus master driver and other win9x patches for MVP3
or AladdinV chipset in the following URL :
http://www.via.com.tw
http://www.ali.com.tw
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
SCSI DEVICES SUPPORT
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
* The following SCSI host adapters have been tested :
Adaptec AHA-2940AU/2940U/2940UW PCI host adapter
Advansys ABP-930UA PCI host adapter
Symbios Logic 53C8xx based PCI host adapter
The following SCSI DVD-ROM/RAM drives have been tested :
Pioneer DVD-U02
Matsushita LF-D100(DVD-RAM)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
VIDEO FRAME CAPTURING
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
* Under Win95 and Win98, if Internet Explorer 4.x is installed and Active Desktop
is activated, you may find the 'capture as desktop wallpaper' option will not
immediately show the captured frame on the desktop. However, the captured frame
can be found under your windows directory and the capture video frames to BMP
files or to Windows Clipboard options will work with no problem.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
SUPPORT FOR NEW SIS6326 CHIP REVISIONS
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
* For SiS6326AGP Rev.h0, SiS6326DVD Rev.d2 and plain SiS6326 Rev.c3 users, it
is recommended that you make sure your driver is the most up-to-date version
to work with PowerDVD. Please contact your display card vendor or manufacturer
for the driver updating. Or you can link to the following URL for finding the
newest version of driver and BIOS image :
http://www.sis.com.tw
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
GENERAL PLAYBACK PERFORMANCE AND QUALITY ISSUES
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
* It is HIGHLY recommended that you enable the DMA option of your DVD-ROM
to reduce the CPU utilization overhead. Win98 and Win95 OSR2 have built-in
support for DMA-enabled IDE DVD-ROMs and HDDs. A system diagnostic program
will be automatically launched after installing PowerDVD to help you turn
on this option. Since Win95 OSR2 and Win98 contain native support for this
feature, any other third-party bus master driver is NOT recommended.
However, for Win95 retail version users, you must have a third-party bus
master driver installed to enable that option. Since old versions of bus
master driver may not properly support new IDE devices, such as DVD-ROMs
and IDE removable storage medium, always check the date of the driver and
make sure you got the newest version of driver that supports your DVD-ROM!!
To identify which version of Win95 you have, enter "Control Panel" and
click on the "System" icon, you'll see a version string with the form
"4.00.950 x". Win95 retail version has a version string "4.00.950" or
"4.00.950 A".
Sometimes you can find the DMA option is not available even if you have
OSR2 installed in your computer. This is because OSR2 do not recognize
some of those new chipsets, such as Intel 440LX, 440BX and 440EX, thus
the default driver with DMA support is not installed. A patch program from
Intel named "Intel 82371xB INF Update Installer" can be launched inside
the CyberLink system diagnostic program to do necessary patches for Intel
chipsets. After that, you have to reboot your system, wait for Win95 to
find all the new hardwares, reboot one or several times again, and run
the system diagnostic program which can be located in the CyberLink PowerDVD
folder to enable the DMA option.
For chipsets from other vendors, you should find the proper patch programs
for OSR2 in your mainboard support disk/CD-ROM or vendor's web site.
* Please make sure the DirectDraw driver of your display card is properly
installed. Refer to your display card manual for detailed instructions.
Or you can have the most up-to-date Microsoft DirectX Runtime installed
to enable this support.
PowerDVD will use DirectDraw overlay surface for best playback quality
and performance provided your display card supports it. Most display
cards to date support this feature. To determine what kind of surface
PowerDVD is using, click on the "Configuration" button, which has an icon
like a hammer, on the PowerDVD user interface, then select "DVD Playing
Config..." and you will see the fields "Display Mode" and "Surface Type".
If you have a "DDRAW/Overlay" combination, the overlay surface is detected
by PowerDVD and is utilized. For other combinations, video playback
quality and performance will be sacrificed since some video decoding
operations have to be performed by software. That may be due to your
display card's limitations or improperly installed driver.
* To get the best viewing experience of DVD video, it is recommended not
to playback DVD video under 640x480 desktop resolution because the original
video resolution provided by most DVD movie titles is 720x480 or 704x480.
* If you playback 16:9 titles under 800x600 desktop resolution, PowerDVD
has to adjust the vertical size of video window to maintain the correct
video aspect-ratio even under full-screen mode. The result may be scanline-
drops since some display cards simply omit some scanlines if video window
is sized to be smaller than the original video size in the vertical
direction. You can switch the desktop resolution to 1024x768 manually to
avoid the problem. Under that mode, PowerDVD will adjust the horizontal
size of video window rather than the vertical size to provide better
viewing experience.
PowerDVD can also switch resolution automatically by prompting user once
16:9 titles are detected. Even further, you can specify which resolution
you want to switch to for 4:3 and 16:9 titles separately. To configure
that setting, click on the "Configuration" button on the PowerDVD user
interface, select "Choosing PowerDVD Setting.." and set accordingly. This
automatic switching feature do not apply to SiS6326-based display cards.
Refer to the "DISPLAY CARD ISSUES" section for explanation.
On some display cards, dynamical resolution switching can cause system
misbehavior or crash. You can disable this feature also in the "Choosing
PowerDVD Setting..".
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
DISPLAY CARD ISSUES
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
* For plain SiS6326 and SiS6326DVD users, PowerDVD will detect and utilize
the MPEG acceleration engine automatically to speedup MPEG-2 video decoding
process. Since this acceleration consumes local frame buffer and hardware
resources, you may find desktop resolution and screen refresh rate
automatically swtiched down to accomodate with this engine under some
circumstances. Desktop resolution and screen refresh rate will be switched
back once PowerDVD is terminated.
For the case of SiS6326AGP display chip, it doesn't has the MPEG acceleration
support in the chip thus pure software playback will be utilized.
* For 3DLabs PermediaII or PermediaIIv users, please update the display
driver to version 4.10.01.2105-0346 or later and run PowerDVD only under
high color modes for best performance.
* For Intel 740 users, it is recommended not to enlarge the video window
if you can perceive obvious video frame rate degradation after doing that.
Or just switch the desktop resolution to 720x480 or 800x600 if you would
like to play the video in full-screen mode.
* For Matrox MillenniumII users, since the display card does not have hardware
overlay surface support, a slower mode named DirectDraw RGB mode will be used
instead of DirectDraw overlay mode.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
AUDIO CARD ISSUES
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
* For some ISA-based audio cards, the highest sampling rate supported by
hardware is 44.1KHz thus 48KHz Dolby AC-3 audio channels provided by most
DVD video titles have to be down-sampled before playback. With this hardware
limitation, you may hear background noises under some circumstances.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
DVD-ROM ISSUES
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
* Those DVD-ROM/RAM drives that have been tested with PowerDVD are listed below
in an alphabetical order according to their manufacturer's name :
ATAPI interface :
Hitachi GD-2000
Hitachi GD-2500
Matsushita SR8582 or Creative PC-DVD Dxr2
Philips DRD5200
Pioneer DVD-A02
Toshiba SD-M1102
Toshiba SD-M1202
Toshiba SD-C2002
Sony DDU220E
SCSI interface :
Pioneer DVD-U02
Matsushita LF-D100(DVD-RAM)
You may find other products not in the list. PowerDVD should work fine with
them if they follow the most updated SFF8090 specification.
However, the list of DVD-ROMs above is only for reference since there may
be many revisions for each model. If you encounter any reading compatibility
problems between your DVD-ROM and DVD titles, please contact the original
DVD-ROM vendor or title supplier to see if they already have a solution for
that problem.
* There are other first generation DVD-ROM drives, which provide poor CD-R
backward compatibility, also available in the market. Using PowerDVD on those
drives is no longer recommended.