README.TXT For REALmagic Hollywood Plus drivers for Win 2000
Release 2.2 beta (Build 139_5) ----June 15th, 2001
===================================================
This file contains important information for the installation of
the drivers and application software for the Hollywood Plus.
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Latest Drivers & FTP Access - Hollywood Plus
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IMPORTANT NOTES CONCERNING THESE DRIVERS :
========================================
1 - If you are using Microsoft Office XP and you have its utility
CTFMON.EXE running, it'll stop DVD Station - the Hollywood Plus-
DVD player from playing encrypted movies. This utility injects
MSCTF.DLL in the memory space given by Windows to hardware and
software manufacturers. A workaround is under investigation to
avoid this conflict. A temporary solution is to disable this
utility before the playback of movies : press CTRL+ALT+DEL,
click on CTFMON.EXE, and click "End Task". After the movie
playback, restart CTFMON.exe from Start-Run : ctfmon.exe & OK.
2 - The movie Stuart Little for Region 2 has some bad data at the
start of the movie disabling the playback. To enable it, click
IMMEDIATELY the Pause button after inserting the movie or after
starting DVD Station if the movie is already inserted (or
pressing STOP/Play and then Pause) and press next chapter.
WHAT'S NEW IN RELEASE 2.2
=========================
- The drivers are at the same level for Win 9x/Me, NT 4.0, and
Win 2K. They have the same functionalities but not
interchangeable.
- Fix for a bug in release 2.2 affecting the non English versions
of Windows related to the TV output switching to NTSC/PAL.
- Fix to re-enable the SCSI support after release 2.2.
- Fix for the playback of different movies, especially from
region 2, such as X-Men, Gladiator, .... We could not test all
movies but the support for ISO and UDF in reading the DVD discs
provide a larger compatibility with movies and DVD-ROM drives.
WHAT'S NEW IN RELEASE 2.1
=========================
- The drivers are at the same level for Win 9x/Me, NT 4.0, and
Win 2K.
- A fix for an out-of-synch between video and audio on the
external AC-3 decoder thru the S/PDIF.
- Implementing the UDF file format in its full features,
increasing the compatibility with most of the DVD movie discs.
No need anymore to turn off the UDF file format for some movies
(in the Registry). Examples of movies fixed :
Region 1 : The 10th Kingdom, The Abyss, Alice in Wonder-
land, Chinese Connection, The Doors, Entrapment, Last
of the Mohicans, Legends of Fall, Men in Black, Mulan,
Natural Born Killers, Out of Africa, Ravenous, Sneakers,
The Thin Red Line, The World is not Enough, ...
Region 2 : A Bug's Life, Blade, Heat, Tarzan, The Wedding
Singer,...
- A fix for movies changing the encryption keys in the middle of
the movie such as : "Man with the Golden Gun".
- A fix for a flicker on the lower third of some PAL TVs.
- Support for the Philips SVCD format where the folder name is
MPEG2 instead of MPEGAV and file names have extension MPG
instead of DAT.
SOFTWARE RELEASE NOTICE
=======================
1 - If you are installing the Hollywood Plus 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 Hollywood Plus. 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 "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.
3 - The installation will set DVD Station as the default player
when you insert a DVD-ROM movie disc.
4 - 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.
5 - You need to be logging in as an Administrator or equivalent to
install and use the Hollywood Plus.
6 - You can use the Hollywood Plus 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 Hollywood Plus 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
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.
1. On booting your system, Windows 2K will detect the card.
Insert the REALmagic Hollywood Plus Drivers Disk in your
floppy drive A and click Finish. This will install Hollywood
Plus 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.
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
Hollywood Plus 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 Hollywood Plus can display on a VGA monitor or a
TV set.
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 Hollywood Plus appears in
the "Device Manager" but the CD's won't play.
Run SETUP from the second diskette (Applications) to create
the "REALmagic Hollywood Plus" 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 Hollywood Plus 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 Hollywood Plus 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. Video is fine on VGA but is Black and White on TV.
Please see section for TV-Out.
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. 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
14. You want DVD Station to check your DVD-ROM first and it is
assigned a drive letter after the CD-ROM letter.
DVD Station allows you to set your preferred drive (Options -
Tab : Play List).
15. You see the video but no audio.
- Try first the speakers plugged in Hollywood Plus and be
sure the output from DVD Station is Stereo.
- Then check the audio jumper cable from the output of
Hollywood Plus 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.
16. The maximum refresh rates allowed with the Hollywood Plus
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
17. Hollywood Plus does NOT support the MP3 files playback.
18. 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, or use the Microsoft Windows
utility in Device Manager\CD-ROM tab.
19. You can add the option "/f=filename" on the command line of
DVD Station to allow the direct playback of the file.
20. 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) - PnP monitors
9:SCL (from pin15 of DB15) - PnP monitors
21. Connecting the digital audio output in the back of some
DVD-ROM drives to the S/P DIF input of some revisions of the
Hollywood Plus, might disable the S/P DIF output of the
Hollywood Plus. It depends on the drive model. If this
happens to your system, just disconnect the digital audio
cable (not supplied with Hollywood Plus) between the drive
and Hollywood Plus.
22. Hollywood Plus plays back DVD, Video CD, and S-VCD disc
formats besides regular MPEG 1 and MPEG 2 files. It does not
play the "what's called " DiVX format.
=================================================================
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.