PC Compatible Card: ATI Player Readme Document (7/97)

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ATI Video Player Release Notes Dec. 5, 1996

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READ THIS FILE COMPLETELY BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO USE THIS PRODUCT !

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Contents

1.0 Introduction

2.0 System Requirements

3.0 Installation Notes

3.1 Uninstall

4.0 Notes and Known Bugs

4.1 General

4.2 Windows 95

4.3 Windows 3.1

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1.0 Introduction

This file contains last-minute notes and known bugs. Please read this file before proceeding with the installation.

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2.0 System Requirements

This product requires a mach64 PCI or VLB graphics accelerator. ISA cards and VLB cards with the aperture disabled will not be supported. The minimum recommended system is a Pentium (P5-60) with a double speed CD-ROM. This product is Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 compatible.

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3.0 Installation Notes

To install the ATI VIDEO PLAYER in Windows 95:

1) Insert the ATI CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive.

Note: If your CD ROM is configured for Auto insert notification (Auto Load), the ATI Installation program will be automatically launched. Proceed to step 5 of the Windows 95 installation notes.

2) Click Start.

3) Select Run.

4) Type the following:

D:\\ATISETUP (If D is not your CD-ROM drive, substitute D with the correct drive letter.)

5) Click on ATI VIDEO PLAYER.

6) Follow the online screen instructions to complete the installation.

To install the ATI VIDEO PLAYER in Windows 3.1x:

1) Start Windows.

2) Insert the ATI CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive.

3) Pull-down the File menu in the Program Manager.

4) Select Run.

5) Type the following:

D:\\ATISETUP (If D is not your CD-ROM drive, substitute D with the correct drive letter.)

6) Click on ATI VIDEO PLAYER.

7) Follow the online screen instructions to complete the installation

Note: Make sure you restart Windows for changes to take effect.

For information about using the controls of the ATI VIDEO PLAYER, see the online help.

3.1 Uninstall

To uninstall the ATI VIDEO PLAYER in Windows 95:

1) Insert the ATI CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive.

Note: If your CD ROM is configured for Auto insert notification (Auto Load), the ATI Installation program will be automatically launched. Proceed to step 5 of the Windows 95 installation notes.

2) Click Start.

3) Select Run.

4) Type the following:

D:\\ATISETUP (If D is not your CD-ROM drive, substitute D with the correct drive letter.)

5) Select OPTIONS from the ATI Installation toolbar and Click on UnInstall Mode

6) Click on ATI VIDEO PLAYER to uninstall.

7) Follow the online screen instructions to complete the uninstall.

To uninstall the ATI VIDEO PLAYER in Windows 3.1x:

1) Start Windows.

2) Insert the ATI CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive.

3) Pull-down the File menu in the Program Manager.

4) Select Run.

5) Type the following:

D:\\ATISETUP (If D is not your CD-ROM drive, substitute D with the correct drive letter.)

6) Select OPTIONS from the ATI Installation toolbar and Click on UnInstall Mode

7) Click on ATI VIDEO PLAYER to uninstall.

8) Follow the online screen instructions to complete the uninstall.

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4.0 Notes and Known Bugs

4.1 General

• The "Play CD" button in the "File" menu will be active only if there is a VideoCD disc in an XA compatible CD ROM.
• If a PAL or NTSC MPEG file is too large to fit in the Windows screen at 2x playback, the ATI Player will switch automatically to full screen.
• The "mpg" and "dat" file extensions denote a standard MPEG file. However, some files with a "dat" extension are not MPEG files and therefore will not play. On a Video CD, MPEG files are in the MPEGAV directory. Files with the "dat" extension in other directories may cause problems.
• CD-i discs which are not labeled "Video CD" will not play on some CD ROM configurations. CD-i discs which are labeled "Video CD" are known as CD-i Bridge discs, and are Video CD compatible. Non-bridge CD-i discs are not supported.
• If the ATI Player is opened while another application is accessing the CD ROM, there will be an interruption in that application. For example, if you are playing an audio CD as you open the ATI Player, the sound of the audio CD will stop.
• If playing a long movie, it is recommended that you disable any screen savers. If a screen saver begins operation during play, moving the mouse or touching the keyboard will stop it.
• The time/frame counter is not completely accurate. When seeking around a single file, the frame count or time becomes an estimate.
• In certain situations of high monitor refresh rates and high resolutions, the accelerated display path may fail due to lack of bandwidth. The point at which this failure occurs is system dependent.
• When there is no audio card present or a disabled audio driver, there may be a problem with some VideoCD 2.0 CDs. If there is a menu item which comprises a single still image and a lengthy audio track, the lack of audio card will cause this menu to terminate before the user can select anything, and will thus force the default setting.
• The video playback performance (frame rate) is directly dependent on your CPU and CD-ROM.

The minimum recommended system is:

Pentium class

Double speed CD-ROM

• To overcome any CD-ROM deficiencies you may have, you can copy the MPEG clips to your hard drive to increase the playback speed.
• Panning the desktop while loading or playing the ATI Video Player may result in lock-ups.

4.2 Windows 95

If you have installed Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95 some problems may occur in 8bpp. After playing full screen MPEG, the Windows colors may be incorrect. Opening any other application will correct the colors. Also, if you change the system colors while the MPEG application is open, the MPEG playback will be incorrect. Closing and restarting the ATI Player will correct the colors.

For MPEG playback and DirectDraw support under Windows 95, you must install the mach64 Enhanced Utilities version 2.2 or higher. Previous versions of the mach64 driver do not concurrently support DirectDraw and the ATI Player. DirectDraw must be installed on the system.

The MPEG playback application should be closed before changing resolutions. Problems may occur if an MPEG playback session is open when a resolution switch occurs.

For Video CD playback under Windows 95, enhanced CD ROM drives must not share the IDE connector with another hard drive or device. Otherwise, playback will be very slow.

Some Video CDs are recorded in such a way that they are not fully compatible with the Windows 95 file system. These Video CDs may experience playback problems on some CD-ROM drives. If you experience problems try adding the following 2 lines to the end of the MCIATIM1.INI file in your windows directory.

[fileaccess]

ReadCDsAsFiles=0

There may be problems accessing video CDs from Windows 3.x when using versions of smartdrive earlier than 4.02. If problems are experienced try modifying AUTOEXEC.BAT to reference the smartdrive included with DOS 6 or later.

4.3 Windows 3.1:

Under Windows 3.1, there is a conflict with WinSwitch, DeskScape and the Screen Adjustment program in the ATI DeskTop. It is recommended that you disable WinSwitch and DeskScape when playing MPEG files, and avoid using the Screen Adjustment program subsequently in that Windows session.

Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia, for MPEG, 1996 Edition will not play MPEG clips under Windows 3.1x.

On a mach64 CT-based product, under Windows 3.x, there are known problems when playing back MPEG clips at 200%. Please use the full screen mode instead.

On a mach64 CT-based product, under windows 3.x, when in 640x480 mode with an 800x600 desktop and 24 bits per pixel, fullscreen MPEG playback may not be stretched to fit the entire screen.