README.TXT For REALmagic NetStream 2000 drivers for Win 2000
Release 2.0 (Build 129) ------ 8/25/00
=======================================
This file contains important information for the installation of
the drivers and application software for the Hollywood Plus.
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www.sigmadesigns.com
Latest Drivers & FTP Access - NetStream 2000
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SOFTWARE RELEASE NOTICE (for Release 2.0)
=======================
1 - If you are installing the NetStream 2000 for the first time, you
need to set its region code by running SETUP from the application
diskette. If the DVD-ROM drive is an RPC2 drive - carrying its
own region code - then you do not need to set a region code for
NetStream 2000 (NS2K). Make sure you set a region code for the new
DVD-ROM drive - this can be achieved with the Windows utility in
Device Manager\CD-ROM tab. If you insert a movie with a region
code mismatching the DVD-ROM drive region - for RPC2 drives, the
tray will be ejected and a Windows error message issued.
2 - The numeric keypad is not supported for the playback of SVCDs.
You'll get the message "Invalid MCI device ID".
3 - The "Eject" button of the DVD Station needs to be pressed twice
with DVD-ROM movies in the playback mode and only once in the
Stop mode.
4 - The installation will set DVD Station as the default player when
you insert a DVD-ROM movie disc.
5 - For a clean Uninstall, please check section I.
6 - DTS audio is supported : whenever you choose the DTS option in a
movie menu the OUTPUT WILL BE DIRECTED THRU THE SP/DIF OUPUT IN
DIGITAL FORMAT REGARDLESS OF THE DVD STATION AUDIO OUPUT SETTING,
so the DTS stream is NOT decoded thru the analog mini audio jack.
7 - The REALmagic logo is shifted in the opening screen of DVD Station.
8 - You need to be logging in as an Administrator or equivalent to
install and use the Hollywood Plus.
9 - You can use the NS2K without the pass-thru cable, but
in this case the video playback will be available on TV only
(and not on the VGA monitor). The system will detect the
presence of this cable at booting time. So connecting or
disconnecting it during a Windows session is not correct.
A reboot is needed to notify the NS2K driver.
CONTENTS
========
I - DRIVER AND APPLICATIONS INSTALLATION
II - BORDER ADJUSTMENT AND COLOR CALIBRATION
III - DVD REGION CODE CHANGE
IV - TV OUT
V - FULL SCREEN PLAYBACK
VI - HINTS TO RESOLVE PROBLEMS AND BETTER PLAYBACK
VII - SYSTEM MONITOR
VIII- RELEASE ISSUES AND KNOWN BUGS
I - DRIVER AND APPLICATIONS INSTALLATION
====================================
Note : You need to have the Administrator rights to be able to
install this software because of its modifications to the
registry.
=========================================================
YOU NEED TO INSTALL DIRECTSHOW PRIOR TO THIS INSTALLATION
IF YOU PLAN TO USE DIRECTSHOW APPLICATIONS. THE DVD STATION
PLAYER DOES NOT NEED DIRECTSHOW.
=========================================================
1. On booting your system, Windows 2K will detect the card. Insert the
REALmagic NetStream 2000 Drivers Disk in your floppy drive A and
click Finish. This will install NS2K drivers on your hard
disk.
2. To install the DVD navigation software insert Application Disk into
drive A and run SETUP.
3. The Setup program will show two options: Install the REALmagic DVD
application or Change the DVD region code.
4. Check the DVD application installation option and follow the
instructions.
5. After the files are copied, set a DVD region code as part of the
setup program (if not already set up under Win 9x or Win NT 4.0).
Note: Setup will not ask you to set the DVD region code if this
code is set in a previous installation.
6. Click Finish to complete the installation process by performing
Auto Calibration. PLEASE REBOOT THE SYSTEM.
Forcing a clean Uninstall :
-------------------------
a - delete the following files from \WINNT\SYSTEM32 and
\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS :
24 bits.dib, 4bits.dib, 8bits.dib, cross.vbs
DLLs: IMPEG32, MCIFMP32, MPEGAPI, SDUDF
SYSs : RMSTREAM, RMQUASAR
b - right-click "My Computer", select Hardware - Device Manager -
"Sound, Video,...." - double-click "Sigma Designs NetStream 2000"-
select Driver - click Uninstall. This will uninstall the P-n-P.
c - delete the same sub-entries in the Registry entry :
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE - SYSTEM - CurrentControlSet - Services
d - delete the OEMx.INF file from WINDOWS\INF (where x is a number
depending on your system but the selected file should have the
"Sigma Designs ..." signature in its last two lines).
II - BORDER ADJUSTMENT AND COLOR CALIBRATION
=======================================
NOTE: If the border is not adjusted properly after Auto Calibration
you may need to set the Border Adjustment to get more
accurate adjustment. You need to set the Border Adjustment
only once for each setting of display resolution.
1. At the Start button, click Programs and select REALmagic NetStream
2000 program group. Click REALmagic Configuration.
2. Click on Adjust Border and use the proper buttons to adjust the
black rectangle in the magenta box.
3. Change different values to adjust stability if you are viewing
jumping pixels on MPEG video. Click OK when you are done.
4. The Reset Default button will reset the color calibration and
border adjustment values to the factory default settings.
Note 1: Color calibration is required if the colors are not
normal or the screen is pink or not clear. If color
calibration is required, Click on "Auto Calibration". The
screen will flash for 5 to 10 seconds then displays a
message that the calibration is complete. Click OK.
Note 2: In the cases where this calibration is unsuccessful,
you can click on Advanced..., then the Manual
Calibration. This will involve fixing the R, G, B
sliders as shown in the window four times. You can use the
up/down arrow keys for fine tuning and you don't need
necessarily to see the cross but just the disappearance
of the vertical bar.
III - DVD REGION CODE CHANGE
======================
1. Run the set program from Application disk. Select DVD Region Code
change option. Set the region code according to the country you
are in. You do NOT need to set the region code when Uninstalling/
installing new drivers.
_._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._
Note: The setup program will allow you to change the region code
for five times. If you want to reset the region code settings
after five times contact the card manufacturer or an
authorized distributor or service center. A nominal handling
fee will be charged.
IV - TV OUT
======
The REALmagic NetStream 2000 can display on a VGA monitor or a TV.
To switch between these modes an icon is provided on the left
corner of the DVD Station control panel that toggles between
computer monitor and TV.
In order to display on a TV, some additional settings may be
required. From the DVD Station control panel click Options button.
This will open a window for options setting. Click the settings tab.
Select the options according to your TV type. The color control,
brightness, and contrast controls have also been provided for TV.
Note : Some TVs are sensitive with video frequency input and may
show Black and White video on TV. This has specially been
noticed on some PAL TVs. In such a situation do the
following WHILE the TV-Out option is active and DVD/MPEG is
playing on TV.:
1. From the DVD station click the "Options Dialog -
Settings tab.
2. Press Configure and then press Advanced Settings.
3. Select Expert Settings and click the mouse. This
will open a pop-up window. Adjust different values
until you have color picture on TV. Notice that you
need to keep on going in one direction when changing
the values i.e. either always increasing or
decreasing because of the hysteresis nature of this
adjustment.
Some PAL TVs with SCART/S-Video adapters will not show
colors thru their S-Video inputs but will show a B&W picture.
Either the TV set is not tuned to the proper channel or the
TV set does not support S-Video input.
V - FULL SCREEN PLAYBACK
====================
In order to playback in full screen, double click the left button
of mouse anywhere in the MPEG window or press Ctrl+Z. This will
playback the video in full-screen mode. In order to go back to the
window mode, press Space in full-screen mode and it will resume
playback in the restored MPEG window.
VI - HINTS TO RESOLVE PROBLEMS AND BETTER PLAYBACK
=============================================
1. The drivers are installed and the NS 2000 appears in the
"Device Manager" but the CD's won't play.
Run SETUP from the second diskette (Applications) to create the
"REALmagic NetStream 2000" group. This group contains the
DVD-Station, README file, REALmagic Configuration, and Uninstall.
2. The REALmagic Configuration can be run but when the DVD-Station is
started (or the Media Player with an MPEG file ) the system hangs.
Check the Device Manager for a conflict in the IRQ resources and
make the necessary change(s).
3. After installing the first disk for the drivers, and run SETUP from
the second disk, the following message comes up : "Driver cannot be
loaded, another instance from the driver may be running". Or when
playing an MPEG file after the software installation, there is an
error message "MMSYSTEM 266 : undetectable error ...".
Reseat NS 2000 in different PCI slots because of some of
the motherboards BIOSes handling of the resources.
4. The MPEG files play and the audio can be heard but the video is a
solid color.
Run "REALmagic Configuration" and select "Auto Calibration." Or,
make sure that the output of the Display Adapter is routed to the
NS 2000 input and the Display Adapter's output is routed to
the monitor.
5. The picture is waving.
Run "REALmagic Configuration," select "Border Adjust" and adjust
the STABILITY: smoothness of the two vertical sides.
6. MPEG 1 files run normally, but DVD movies are shaky.
Make certain that the DVD-ROM drive is connected as a Master on the
IDE controller. Also you can turn ON the DMA flag in the
"Device Manager-DVD ROM drive-Settings-DMA."
7. For DVD-ROMs that require high data transfer rates, it is better to
have the DVD-ROM drive connected to an IDE controller with the
"Bus Master" mode activated.
8. Capturing of an MPEG frame from an encrypted DVD movie is not
supported because of Copyright issues. In other cases the capture
feature gives its best results at a color depth of 64K (16 bits)
or higher.
9. Playing VOB files using the Media Player might not show the best
performance because of different navigation schemes. Use the
DVD Station for this.
10. The playback of some DVD movies might jump unvoluntarily to different
parts of the movie. Fix this by : Start - Run - MSCONFIG - General -
Advanced - Disable UDF file system. This is under Win 98.
11. Video is fine on VGA but is Black and White on TV.
Please see section for TV-Out.
12. When watching the movie on TV, the picture gets dimmer and brighter
at short intervals and with some movies some yellow horizontal
lines appear on the TV screen.
The TV set is connected to the PC system via a VCR or an alike
device. This device initiates the Macrovision protection of the
movie. Connect the TV directly to the PC system.
13. The S-Video connector on Hollywood Plus is a 7-hole jack and
my S-Video cable has a 4-pin socket only.
The 4-pin cable is compatible with the 7-pin socket. There are
more pins on the 7-pin socket to provide for the composite TV
output.
14. I lost the S-Video/Composite Adapter cable and have no access to
another one.
Order another one from your supplier. In the USA, you can check
the phone number or the email address of the fulfillment center on
the web site . The pinout of this adapter is as follows :
_________
/ \
| 7 6 5 |
| 4 3 2 1 |
| |
\ OOOOO /
---------
1:GND
2:Composite
3:GND
4:GND
5:Luma
6:not connected
7:Chroma
15. You want DVD Station to check your DVD-ROM first and it has a
drive letter after the CD-ROM.
DVD Station allows you to set your preferred drive (Options -
Tab : Play List).
16. You see the video but no audio.
- Try first the speakers plugged in NS 2000 and be sure the
output from DVD Station is Stereo.
- Then check the audio jumper cable from the output of NS 2000
to the input of the sound card. If no sound, check the
volume mixer to have Line-in NOT muted or at low level.
- If you are using a Dolby Digital Receiver, make sure that it
accepts AC-3 streams and your setting in DVD Station is AC-3.
17. The maximum refresh rates allowed with the NS 2000 MPEG
playback depends on a combination of the display adapter, and
the monitor and some of these combinations may show
a little degradation in the desktop display because of the
overlay. The MPEG playback is not affected. However, the
following can be used as a guideline:
640 x 480 100 Hz
800 x 600 100 Hz
1024 x 768 85 Hz
1152 x 864 75 Hz
1280 x 1024 60 Hz
1600 x 1200 60 Hz
18. The NS 2000 does NOT support the MP3 files playback.
19. You have a third generation DVD-ROM drive (RPC2 specs that require
a region code on the drive) and you cannot playback movies.
Run the manufacturer utility for this drive to set the region code
to your country code.
20. You can add the option "/f=filename" on the command line of
DVD Station to allow the direct playback of the file.
21. What is the pinout of the VGA signals on the pass-thru cable ?
View of the 9 pin socket of the pass-through cable,
seen from the bracket:
_________
/_________\
| |
| 9 8 7 |
| 6 5 4 3 |
\ 2 1 /
---------
1:Blue IN
2:GND
3:Green IN
4:GND
5:Vsync IN
6:Hsync IN
7:Red IN
8:SDA (from pin12 of DB15) - for PnP monitors
9:SCL (from pin15 of DB15) - for PnP monitors
VII - SYSTEM MONITOR
==============
There are a variety of statistics that are displayed in the
Windows System Monitor utility under the heading RM 8400.
This can be a very useful tool for developers.
These are described below:
1) # interrupts/sec
2) Audio int/sec - "Audio interrupts per second"
3) Video events pending
4) Audio events pending
5) Video bytes queued - "Video bytes queued not sent yet to HW"
6) Audio bytes queued - "Audio bytes queued not sent yet to HW"
7) Video bytes/second - "Video bytes sent per second"
8) Audio bytes/second - "Audio bytes sent per second"
9) VideoFullness - "Bytes in VideoHardware Fifo"
10) AudioFullness - "Bytes in AudioHardware Fifo"
11) MemoryCheck
12) LockedMemorySize
13) LockedPages
14) AllocMemory
15) NewMemory
16) NodesAllocated
VIII- RELEASE INFO AND KNOWN BUGS
===========================
Transport Streams containing multiple Programs (PID's) are supported
under DirectShow. You can select the PID you desire by using the Property
Page of the REALmagic Splitter Filter. This can also be programmably
controlled through C++ programming in DirectShow.
The MCI driver will open the MPEG file window by default with the same
size of the MPEG file frame size. DirectShow will open by aspect
ratio.
DirectShow support is implemented for MPEG-1 and -2, including System,
Program and Transport Streams.
The standard I_Async_Reader interface (Pull) is supported.
The new I_Mem_Input interface (Push) is supported.
MPEG-1 Payload data is supported.
You can play back video using the standard Windows Media Player
DirectShow - which is installed with Internet Explorer.
Playing a high bit rate file from a slow device as
a CD-ROM drive, multiple quick SEEKs might cause the player to stop
responding.
Playback from some 24x CD-ROM drives does not work well because some of
these high-speed drives repeatedly speed up and slow down, which causes
the MPEG data to stream very poorly. This causes frequent "drops." Use
the System control panel to set the buffer value for your CD-ROM drive
as high as possible.
We have experienced AV out-of-synch of up to 2 sec. at the play start.
With a combined slow CPU and a high bit rate of the MPEG streams, it
may take longer to synchronize.
======================================================================
END OF FILE
Download Driver Pack
After your driver has been downloaded, follow these simple steps to install it.
Expand the archive file (if the download file is in zip or rar format).
If the expanded file has an .exe extension, double click it and follow the installation instructions.
Otherwise, open Device Manager by right-clicking the Start menu and selecting Device Manager.
Find the device and model you want to update in the device list.
Double-click on it to open the Properties dialog box.
From the Properties dialog box, select the Driver tab.
Click the Update Driver button, then follow the instructions.
Very important: You must reboot your system to ensure that any driver updates have taken effect.
For more help, visit our Driver Support section for step-by-step videos on how to install drivers for every file type.