Chip: Internet/Chip Internet.iso/viewer/mpegw32g.ins/faq.txt

Internet Message Format | 1994-09-19 | 19.0 KB

Subject: My MPEGPLAY.EXE FAQ. Lots of MPEG info included

Note this is not the MPEG FAQ.
It is the faq.txt file for my port of the Berkeley MPEG Video Player
It contains info about AVI->MPEG , CDI(tm) to .MPG etc
The lastest version can be found of ftp.ecel.uwa.edu.au (130.95.4.2)
in /users/michael
If you believe any of this information to be incorrect please contact
me as soon as possiable.
email: [e-mail]

=====================================================================================
DISCLAIMER - ALL OR PART OF THIS INFORMATION MAY BE THE PERSONAL RANTINGS OF A MAD
LUNATIC. IT SHOULD BE TREATED AS SUCH. USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK. DON'T BELIEVE ANY
OF IT.

=====================================================================================
QUESTION: WHY DOESN'T THE MPEG PLAYER SUPPORT SOUND

ANSWER:
MPEG Audio like MPEG Video is heavly compressed. Because of this it requires a large
amount of CPU in-order to decode it in real time.
A 486DX/33 can just decode (fully!) MPEG audio in real time.
Besides the computational load involved in decoding MPEG audio there is also the
overhead in syncronizing them properly.
I believe that a 486DX2/66 may just be capable of decoding 160x120 sized mpegs at
10fps with sound.
I have written some audio code but it is a low priority for me.

=====================================================================================
QUESTION: WHAT IS WIN32S

ANSWER:
Win32s is the Microsoft Windows 32 bit extender. It lets you run several NT
programs as well as the MPEG player. The lastest version of Mosaic requires it
to be installed. Win32s programs will be supported in Windows 4.
You can find Win32s on ftp.ecel.uwa.edu.au in /users/michael
The lastest version is on ftp.microsoft.com in /developer/devtools/win32sdk
Version 1.61 of the MPEG Player Requires the lastest Win32s. If you already
have an old copy of Win32s on your machine you should upgrade it.

=====================================================================================
QUESTION: WHAT IS WING

ANSWER:
WinG is a fast DIB library that is designed to allow programmers to transfer images
to the screen as fast as is possiable under windows.
More information on WinG can be found on ftp.microsoft.com in /developer/drg/wing
WinG will be a part of Windows95 (dumb name if you ask me) the next version
of Windows.
WinDoom the Windows version of DOOM uses the WinG Library.

=====================================================================================
QUESTION: THE MPEG PLAYER IS EXTREMLY SLOW AND DISPLAYING HORRIABLE COLORS

ANSWER:
Check that your video card is in a 256 color mode and not a 16 color mode.

==============================================================================
QUESTION: WHEN I RUN THE MPEG PLAYER SETUP IT FALLS OVER WITH AN INCORRECT FILE
          SIZE FOR README.TXT

ANSWER:
Make sure you unzip disk1.zip into a clean(empty) directory and install it from there.
I will be renaming the uncompressed versions of readme.txt to readmee.txt.

==============================================================================
QUESTION: I HAVE AN S3 GRAPHICS CARD THAT DOES NOT SEEM TO WORK WITH THE LATEST WIN32S

ANSWER:
There is a known conflict between win32s v1.15a and some S3 video drivers.
Try and obtain updated video drivers. A discussion of this problem was/has
been going on in comp.os.ms-windows.nt

=====================================================================================
QUESTION: HOW DO I CONVERT AVI FILE TO MPEGS AND VISA-VERSA

ANSWER:

(1) Load the AVI into the Video for Windows VIDEDIT program (comes on the
    Video for Windows CD)
(2) Export the AVI as a DIB sequence.
(3) Convert (and possiably scale) the DIB'S to .PPM files. There are shareware/
    freeware programs to do this. Alchemy is one.
(4) use the mpeg2enc.exe file from ftp.netcomm.com in /users/cfogg/mpeg2 to
    turn the .ppm files into a .mpg. Make sure you use the mpeg1.par file
    as a template.

To go the other way.
(1) use the mpeg2dec.exe file from the same site as mpeg2enc.exe to extract
    the MPEG frames to a whole lot of .TGA files.
(2) Convert the TGA files to .BMP (or .DIB)
(3) Import the .DIB sequence into VIDEDIT

I have done things like extracting sequences from the CDI movie "StarTrek VI"
and re-encoding them as a 160x120 MPEG sequence.

==============================================================================
QUESTION: DOES THE MPEG PLAYER WORK UNDER CHICAGO (WINDOWS95,WINDOWS 4 etc)

ANSWER:
Yes - but I can't give much support with this. Ask Microsoft why it doesn't
supply copies of WINDOWS95 to normal developers.

==============================================================================
QUESTION: WILL THE MPEG PLAYER BE AVAILABLE ON OTHER NT PLATFORMS (RISC etc)

ANSWER:
I am looking into this. POWERPC version is a very high possablity at the moment.

==============================================================================
QUESTION: DOES THE MPEG PLAYER DECODE MPEG2 FILES

ANSWER:
No.
MPEG2 is really designed for much higher bitrate applications (Cable TV etc)
There is no real advantages in Internet sites carrying MPEG2 movies.
It does not give any increase in compression.
MPEG2 files usually have a lower compression (for higher quality) and hence
have a larger file size (about 4 times).
MPEG2 decoders can decode MPEG1 streams.
Why limit your audience by putting up MPEG2 streams for no good reason.

==============================================================================
QUESTION: IS THERE A MAXIMUM LIMIT TO THE FILE SIZE THE MPEG PLAYER CAN PLAY

ANSWER:
The unregistered version is deliberatly limited to a maximum file size of 1 MB
this was done to encourage you to register.
The Registered version is only limited by the maximum file size allowed under DOS
(or NT). ie Very Big.

==============================================================================
QUESTION: CAN YOU EXTRACT MPEG MOVIES FROM VIDEO CD DISKS.

ANSWER:
Yes... But read on

        There are two types of Video CD Disk:

        (1) Original CDI(tm) disks intended for playback via a Phillips CDI(tm) Player
            Most Video CD disks are in this format.
            The TOC (table of contents) on these disks confuses almost all
            CDROM drives and drivers.

        (2) White Book standard VideoCD disks.
            All Video CD disk produced from June(July?) 94 should be in this format.
            The TOC is not a problem.

To read MPEG data from the disks you need to extract the RAW 2352 byte sectors. This
is similar to reading RAW digital audio from audio CD's but requires the drive/driver
to syncronize correctly to the sector headers. Not all drives/drivers are capable of this.
You may also need to remove the sector header bytes read depending on how flexable the
MPEG decoder is. You should also know that CDI(tm) MPEG system layer headers differ slightly
from the MPEG Standard. CDI(tm) streams use 0xb8 and 0xb9 instead of 0xc0 and 0xe0 as stream ID
numbers.

The only drive and driver configuration I know of that can extract MPEG sequences
from CDI disks is the SONY CDU33A with the Sony interface and Sony V1.73 CDROM driver.
Very few drive/driver combinations work.

I have placed utilities and source to do this type of thing on our site ftp.ecel.uwa.edu.au
in /users/michael . Read the cdi2mpg.txt file for a start.

Version 1.61 of the MPEG Player can play either a RAW CDROM read which includes sector
header bytes or a fully extracted MPEG SEQUENCE.

CDI is a trademark of Phillips.
==============================================================================

QUESTION: IS FULL MPEG SOFTWARE DECODING POSSIABLE

ANSWER:

Yes but only on fast RISC Machines.
I personally think MPEG decoding card are a much better idea.

>Newsgroups: comp.multimedia
>Path: news.uwa.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!yeshua.marcam.com!usc!sdd.hp.com!apollo.hp.com!netnews
>From: [e-mail] (Peter A. Kaczowka)
>Subject: Re: Importance of MPEG and Video in MM
>Sender: [e-mail] (Usenet News)
>Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
>Date: Fri, 17 Jun 1994 11:33:37 GMT
>References:  <[e-mail]>
>Nntp-Posting-Host: music.ch.apollo.hp.com
>Organization: Hewlett-Packard Company, Chelmsford, MA
>Lines: 37

> I'm looking for opinions as to the importance of Video (Especially
> MPEG) to the future of MM.  Doing MPEG well really implies that
> the audience have some sort of hardware assist for playback and there
> are costs associated with such hardware.

Not necessarily.  HP already does full frame rate 1.15 Mbps
MPEG-1, 352x240x30 fps or 352x288x25 fps on its 712/80 workstation.
That's currently video only; playing the audio causes (B) frames
to be skipped as necessary, but you still get better than 25 fps.
The quality BTW is still far superior to Indeo et al even with
the frame skipping.  If you reduce the MPEG bit rate down so
that the quality is equivalent to say Indeo you can easily do
30 fps with sound; the cost of decoding MPEG depends on
the bit rate.

The 712/60 will do around 20 fps with audio.  The 712/60 sells
for $3995 US with 16MB memory, disk and 1024x768 color monitor.
So these are not expensive high end workstations; fairly
comparable in price to Pentium PCs.  What they do have is
special instructions and frame buffer support added to support
video.

Presumably if we (HP) can do it eventually "commodity" PC/Mac
type machines will be able to do it also.  By then of course
everyone will want CCIR type resolutions and MPEG-2 support :-)

BTW MPEG-2 mainly is important for interlaced video.  If you
are coming from a film source (which is not interlaced) or
displaying to CRT rather than a TV MPEG-2 does not offer
much advantage over MPEG-1, so I believe MPEG-1 will be
the standard for computers for quite some time.  MPEG-2 is
much more important to broadcasters.

Pete Kaczowka
HP Collaborative Desktop Lab
Chelmsford MA


============================================================================
QUESTION: I AM GETTING A GPF IN POINTER.DLL. WHAT DO I DO?

ANSWER:

============================================================================
Date: Tue, 30 Aug 1994 17:19:11 +0000 (GMT)
From: Peter Caplan <[e-mail]>
Subject: Solution to gpf with mpegplay and Pointer.dll
To: [e-mail]
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Organization: University College Dublin
X-Envelope-to: [e-mail]
Priority: normal

Hi.
The problem with pointer.dll and mpegplay is a clash between the
enhanced MS mouse driver v9.01 and win32s. Micro$soft have released
an updated pointer.dll to circumvent this problem - see attached app
note.
The updated file can be found at ftp.microsoft.com
(\softlib\mslfiles\hd1061.exe).
This self extracting archive contains a replacement pointer.dll
It only works with v9.01

I suggest you encourage people to pick this up and hope it solves
this problem (I appreciate its not an mpegplay problem)

Peter.
DOCUMENT:Q119775  24-AUG-1994  [H_MOUSE]
TITLE   :HD1061: POINTER.DLL Corrects GP Fault with Win32 Apps
PRODUCT :Microsoft Mouse
PROD/VER:9.01
OPER/SYS:WINDOWS
KEYWORDS:Appnote HD1061 Softlib

-----------------------------------------------------------------
The information in this article applies to:

 - Microsoft Mouse driver version 9.01
-----------------------------------------------------------------

When you start a Win32-based application using Win32s under Windows 3.1 or
3.11 or Windows for Workgroups, you may receive a general protection (GP)
fault in POINTER.DLL caused by the Microsoft Mouse driver 9.01 GROWSTUB
component. This Application Note, "HD1061: Updated POINTER.DLL Corrects GP
Fault with Win32 Applications," contains an updated POINTER.DLL file that
prevents this problem.

You can obtain this Application Note from the following sources:

 - CompuServe, GEnie, and Microsoft OnLine
 - Microsoft Download Service (MSDL)
 - The Internet (Microsoft anonymous ftp server)
 - Microsoft Product Support Services

For complete information, see the "To Obtain This Application Note" section
at the end of this article.

THE TEXT OF HD1061
==================

======================================================================
  Microsoft(R) Product Support Services Application Note (Text File)
             HD1061: UPDATED POINTER.DLL CORRECTS GP FAULT
                      WITH WIN32(R) APPLICATIONS
======================================================================
                                                   Revision Date: 8/94
                                                       1 Disk Included

The following information applies to Microsoft Mouse Driver,
version 9.01.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
| INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT AND ANY SOFTWARE THAT MAY    |
| ACCOMPANY THIS DOCUMENT (collectively referred to as an Application|
| Note) IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER     |
| EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED     |
| WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND/OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR      |
| PURPOSE. The user assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and   |
| the use of this Application Note. This Application Note may be     |
| copied and distributed subject to the following conditions:  1) All|
| text must be copied without modification and all pages must be     |
| included;  2) If software is included, all files on the disk(s)    |
| must be copied without modification (the MS-DOS(R)  utility        |
| diskcopy is appropriate for this purpose);  3) All components of   |
| this Application Note must be distributed together;  and  4) This  |
| Application Note may not be distributed for profit.                |
|                                                                    |
| Copyright (C) 1994 Microsoft Corporation.  All Rights Reserved.    |
| Microsoft, MS-DOS, and Win32 are registered trademarks and Windows |
| and Win32s are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.                |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|

INTRODUCTION
============

When you start a Win32-based application using Win32s(TM) under
Windows(TM) 3.1 or 3.11 or Windows for Workgroups, you may receive a
general protection (GP) fault in POINTER.DLL caused by the Microsoft
Mouse driver 9.01 GROWSTUB component.

CORRECTING THE PROBLEM
======================

To correct this problem, do one of the following:

 - Remove POINTER.EXE from the load= line in the WIN.INI file and then
   restart Windows.

   -or-

 - Upgrade to the Microsoft Mouse IntelliPoint software version 1.0.
   For information about obtaining this upgrade, call the Microsoft
   Sales Information Center at [phone]. There is a charge for
   this upgrade.

   -or-

 - Install the Microsoft Mouse driver version 9.01b POINTER.DLL file
   included with this Application Note.

The 9.01b POINTER.DLL file does not include any new functionality. It
prevents the GP fault by removing some of the software functionality
of the 9.01 driver (such as large pointer size and the Snap-to
feature) when you are using the mouse in a Win32 application. This
version of POINTER.DLL works with the 9.01 driver only; it generates
various error messages when used with other versions.

To install the 9.01b POINTER.DLL
--------------------------------

1. Quit Windows or Windows for Workgroups.

2. Make a backup copy of the currently installed POINTER.DLL file by
   typing the following at the MS-DOS command prompt and then pressing
   ENTER

      ren <drive>:<path>\pointer.dll pointer.old

   where <drive>:<path> is the location of your Microsoft Mouse files.

   For example, if your Microsoft Mouse files are installed in your
   C:\WINDOWS directory, type the following at the MS-DOS command
   prompt and then press ENTER:

      ren c:\windows\pointer.dll pointer.old

3. Insert the enclosed HD1061 disk in the appropriate floppy disk
   drive.

4. To copy the file to the directory containing your Microsoft Mouse
   files, type the following at the MS-DOS command prompt and then
   press ENTER

      copy <drive>:\pointer.dll <destination>

   where <drive> is the floppy disk drive containing the HD1061 disk
   and <destination> is the drive and directory containing your
   Microsoft Mouse files.

   For example, if the HD1061 disk is in drive A and your Microsoft
   Mouse files are in C:\WINDOWS, type the following at the MS-DOS
   command prompt and then press ENTER:

      copy a:\pointer.dll c:\windows
---------------------------------------------------------------------

TO OBTAIN THIS APPLICATION NOTE
===============================

 - On CompuServe, GEnie, and Microsoft OnLine, Application Notes
   are located in the Microsoft Software Library. You can find
   HD1061 in the Software Library by searching on the word HD1061,
   the Q number of this article, or S14865. HD1061 is a compressed,
   self-extracting file. After you download HD1061, run it to
   extract the file(s) it contains.

 - Application Notes are available by modem from the Microsoft
   Download Service (MSDL), which you can reach by calling (206)
   936-6735. This service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
   The highest download speed available is 14,400 bits per second (bps).
   For more information about using the MSDL, call [phone] and
   follow the prompts. To obtain HD1061, download HD1061.EXE.
   HD1061.EXE is a compressed, self-extracting file. After you
   download HD1061, run it to extract the file(s) it contains.

 - On the Internet, Application Notes are located on the Microsoft
   anonymous ftp server, which you can reach by typing "ftp
   ftp.microsoft.com" (without the quotation marks) at the ">" command
   prompt. You can find HD1061.EXE in the SOFTLIB\MSLFILES directory.

 - If you are unable to access the source(s) listed above, you can
   have this Application Note mailed or faxed to you by calling
   Microsoft Product Support Services Monday through Friday, 6:00 A.M.
   to 6:00 P.M. Pacific time at [phone]. If you are outside the
   United States, contact the Microsoft subsidiary for your area. To
   locate your subsidiary, call Microsoft International Customer
   Service at [phone].

Additional reference words: 9.01

=============================================================================

THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THE MICROSOFT KNOWLEDGE BASE IS
PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.  MICROSOFT DISCLAIMS
ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE WARRANTIES
OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  IN NO
EVENT SHALL MICROSOFT CORPORATION OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR
ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
CONSEQUENTIAL, LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS OR SPECIAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF
MICROSOFT CORPORATION OR ITS SUPPLIERS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.  SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION
OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES
SO THE FOREGOING LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY.

Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1994.


Michael Simmons                     Office of Executive Dean
Computer Officer         Faculties of Economics & Commerce, Education and Law
Phone: (w)[phone]       University of Western Australia
Fax:      [phone]      Stirling Highway Nedlands WA 6009
Email: [e-mail]           Australia