************************************************************************* XingMPEG Player Version 1.4 Xing Technology Corporation 1540 West Branch Street Arroyo Grande, CA 93420 ************************************************************************* GETTING STARTED ************************************************************************* Preparing to Install the XingMPEG Player Before installing the XingMPEG Player, make sure the following hardware and software is installed and working: - IBM PC 486/Pentium or compatible computer (a Pentium with at least 8MB of RAM is recommended); - Microsoft Windows v3.1 or higher; - a hard disk drive with at least 3MB of free space; - a CD-ROM drive is optional; - a sound card with a Windows wave audio driver is optional. Installing the XingMPEG Player 1 Turn on your computer and start Windows. 2 Insert the XingMPEG Player Diskette into your diskette drive. 3 Open the Windows 3.x Program Manager and choose the "Run" command from the "File" menu (under Windows 95, choose Run from the Start menu); the "Run" dialog will appear. 4 Type "A:\SETUP" (substitute the drive letter of your diskette drive for "A", if necessary), and click the "OK" button; the XingMPEG Player setup program will start. 5 Follow the setup program's on-screen instructions. ************************************************************************* NOTES TO WINDOWS 95 USERS ************************************************************************* ** XingMPEG Player 2.0 for Windows95 is now available! ** ** Read "XingMPEG Support" at the end of this file for information ** ** about obtaining an update. ** REGARDING VIDEO ACCELERATION AVAILABILITY - Under Windows95, DCI acceleration is unavailable with most Display Systems. If you are using such a display system, you must obtain a Direct Draw version of the XingMPEG Player and Direct Draw drivers for your PC's Display System to access video acceleration (including hardware stretching and color space conversion). Read the "XingMPEG Support" at the end of this file for more information. REGARDING PLAYBACK OF CD-I TITLES - If you encounter problems playing CD-i titles (or Video CD titles opened with the "Open CD-i Movie" command) read the "Xing Tech Note" later in this file for more information. ************************************************************************* RELEASE NOTES TO XingMPEG Player VERSION 1.4 ************************************************************************* XingMPEG Driver (XMDRIVER.DRV) - Compatibility with non-standard MPEG file formats has been improved. ************************************************************************* RELEASE NOTES TO XingMPEG Player VERSION 1.3 ************************************************************************* XingMPEG Driver (XMDRIVER.DRV) - Embedded Media Objects now behave properly - Under Windows95, playback of WhiteBook (VideoCD) CDs is now supported via CDFS - Offscreen DCI is now available under Windows95 when using the Trident 9680 display system. - Audio buffer initialization routine has been modified to improve compatibility with audio cards that use IBM's MWAVE chip. - The MCI driver has been modified to support new clarifications to the OM1 (MCIMPEG) specification: - MCI_UPDATE_HDC is now supported - MCI SAMPLES PER SECOND is now supported - MCI STATUS_FRAME_RATE is now supported - MCI STATUS_AUDIO STREAMS now returns "0" when a video-only MPEG file is opened - MCI SET_AUDIO/VIDEO STREAMS is now supported - MCI SET_TIME_FORMAT now supports the BYTES (or "2") parameter - MCI SETAUDIO now supports LEFT and RIGHT parameters - MCI SEEK now supports OFFSET and FRAMEREF parameters - MCI CONFIGURE now returns proper error value - NOTIFY, SUPERCEDE, and SIGNAL fully supported - The XingMPEG Driver now returns "1.3" when responding to the MCI command "INFO VERSION". ************************************************************************* RELEASE NOTES TO XingMPEG Player VERSION 1.2 ************************************************************************* XingMPEG Driver (XMDRIVER.DRV) - The XingMPEG Driver's configuration dialog contains a new audio sampling rate option "44kHz". - The XingMPEG Driver now supports a wider selection of CD-i titles. - The XingMPEG Driver now handles changes in frame resolution when playing multiple tracks from a CDi or Video CD title. - Handling of on-the-fly switch from DIB to Primary Surface DCI has been improved. - Handling of on-the-fly resizing of a non-DCI video window under Windows 95 has been improved. - The XingMPEG Driver now properly accesses primary DCI surfaces when opened as a child of an application's window. - Corrections have been made to the return values of several MCI commands. - The XingMPEG Driver now returns "1.2" when responding to the MCI command "INFO VERSION". XingMPEG Player (XMPLAYER.EXE) - The XingMPEG Player’s Standard Bar and Advanced Bar display modes are now unavailable under Windows 95. - Clicking the "Step" buttons during playback now stops playback. ************************************************************************* RELEASE NOTES TO XingMPEG Player VERSION 1.1 ************************************************************************* XingMPEG Driver (XMDRIVER.DRV) - Installation of the XingMPEG Driver now registers two MCI device TYPES: In addition to the "MpegVideo" device type, the device type "CDIVideo" is registered to provide direct access to CD-i and VideoCD titles. - The XingMPEG Driver's configuration dialog contains a new option "Crop to fit in standard window" that affects the driver's behavior when playing CD-i movies. When this option is selected, CD-i movies whose horizontal dimension is greater than 352 pixels are cropped to fit in the standard 352 pixel wide Video Display window. This feature is provided because some DCI-compliant Windows display systems suffer degraded video playback performance when video frames' horizontal dimension exceed 352 pixels. If you notice slower video playback when playing CD-i titles, try enabling this feature. - The XingMPEG Driver now returns "1.1" when responding to the MCI command "INFO VERSION". XingMPEG Player (XMPLAYER.EXE) - The XingMPEG Player’s "File" menu now contains the entry "Open CD-i Movie". When this item is chosen, the XingMPEG Player automatically locates and opens all readable MPEG files on a mounted CD-i or VideoCD disk. - The File Information window’s "File Duration" field now displays the correct SMPTE formatted value; previously, calculation of this value failed to account for the loaded file’s frame rate and assumed 30 frames/second. - Clicking on the Track Bar now moves the current position indicator in increments equal to approximately 1/16 the total duration of the current file. In previous versions, clicking on the Track Bar moved the current position indicator in 1 second increments. ************************************************************************* RELEASE NOTES TO XingMPEG Player VERSION 1.03 ************************************************************************* XingMPEG Driver (XMDRIVER.DRV) - The XingMPEG Driver now returns "1.03" when responding to the MCI command "INFO VERSION". - Eliminated an unnecessary reinstallation of the color pallette (in 256 color display mode) that occurred when the XingMPEG Driver switched between DCI and DIB during video playback. * Note Regarding Unreadable MPEG Files: The XingMPEG Player can play any MPEG file that conforms to the MPEG-1 standard. Some MPEG files do not conform to this standard; e.g., they may have undergone data encryption that renders them readable only by the application that performed the encryption; or they may contain non-standard data. If you attempt to play such an MPEG file with the XingMPEG Player, an error message appears indicating that the file is unreadable. ************************************************************************* RELEASE NOTES TO XingMPEG Player VERSION 1.02 ************************************************************************* XingMPEG Player (XMPLAYER.EXE) - The "Rate Control Off" warning is re-enabled whenever the driver's Rate Control setting is toggled. XingMPEG Driver (XMDRIVER.DRV) - The XingMPEG Driver now returns "1.02" when responding to the MCI command "INFO VERSION". - Corrected method for sending a null region to DCI providers; prior to this change, clipping the video window occasionally produced unwanted remnants of the DCI surface. - Eliminated an unnecessary yield on Show Window call; prior to this change, some applications (e.g., video screen savers) might destroy the video window prior to closing the MCI driver instance. - Improved handling of bad data in an MPEG stream; prior to this change, corrupted data in an MPEG stream could cause cessation of video playback. - Eliminated problem whereby the Performance diagnostic failed to play video in some 256-color display environments; this change also eliminated potential playback problem when an MPEG file is passed to XMPLAYER as a command line argument. ************************************************************************* RELEASE NOTES TO XingMPEG Player VERSION 1.01 ************************************************************************* INSTALLATION - You can now deinstall XingMPEG Player components by running the SETUP program and deselecting items. XingMPEG Player (XMPLAYER.EXE) - Clicking the "Seek to Start" button during playback no longer stops playback. - When the Performance Diagnostic dialog is opened, the default "Drive" is now your PC's local fixed drive on which the XingMPEG Player is installed. XingMPEG Driver (XMDRIVER.DRV) - The XingMPEG Driver now automatically determines if your PC's Windows Sound System is capable of 16-bit audio playback; this feature insures proper audio playback on PC's equipped with 8-bit-only sound systems. - The XingMPEG Driver now returns "1.01" when responding to the MCI command "INFO VERSION". XingMPEG Saver (XMSAVER.SCR) - The Montage option has been removed from the XingMPEG Saver's setup dialog. ********************************************************************** ************************* XingTech Note ************************** ********************************************************************** Title Windows 95 and GreenBook CDi Titles Catalog# W9500010 History created 8/2/95 by tsilva modified 8/30/95 by saiena modified 11/21/95 by saiena ********************************************************************** Windows95 uses a new interface (CDFS) to CD-ROM device drivers. Because CDFS does not support Greenbook CD-i "Digital Video" disks, such disks are currently unplayable under Windows95; WhiteBook CD-i "VideoCD" disks are however supported. If, when attempting to play MPEG data from a CD disk, your PC produces an error message (e.g., "no CD" or "CD not ISO-9660 or High-Sierra compatible"), you likely have a GreenBook CD-i title. Because the XingMPEG Player version 1.3 supports the older MSCDEX interface to CD-ROM devices, it may be possible play GreenBook titles by reconfiguring your PC to use MSCDEX instead of CDFS; BUT there are some considerations: - MSCDEX is slower than CDFS; - because the CD-ROM driver must be loaded in REAL mode, system performance is slightly slowed; - some CD-ROM drivers/drives may not work with GreenBook CD-i titles even after the reconfiguration; replacement of the CD-ROM driver/drive may be necessary to enable playback of GreenBook titles; - There may be other ill effects of which we are currently unaware. * DISCLAIMER: * Because of these considerations, we strongly recommend that you * back-up your PC's file system prior to performing the reconfiguration. * * The procedure described in this file is not guaranteed to enable * GreenBook and WhiteBook CD playback on all PCs. ********************************************************************** To enable reading of GreenBook CDi titles from within Windows 95, complete the following steps (you must have a properly functioning CD in your PC before completing these steps): - Type the CONFIG.SYS file on the root of your Windows 95 boot drive, and note the line that loads your PC's CD-ROM driver; e.g., the following command types the config.sys file: type c:\config.sys And the following line loads the CD-ROM driver: DEVICE=C:\UTILS\SCSI\ASPICD.SYS /D:ASPICD0 - Edit the AUTOEXEC.BAT file on the root of your Windows 95 boot drive, and add a line that loads the MSCDEX program, e.g.: MSCDEX.EXE /D: Where is the path to the MSCDEX program, and is the name of the driver specified in your PC's CONFIG.SYS file, e.g.: C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:ASPICD0 - Edit the IOS.INI in your PC's Windows 95 directory, and find the line that specifies your PC's CD-ROM driver, e.g.: aspicd.sys ; adaptec PM driver exists If this line appears in the [SafeList] section of the file, move it from the [SafeList] section to the [CDUnsafe] section; e.g.: after you move the line, your IOS.INI file should have lines that look like this: [CDUnsafe] aspicd.sys ; adaptec PM driver exists - Reboot your PC. At this point, if problems persist, try diabling 32-bit disk access: - Run the SYSTEM control panel - Go to the PERFORMANCE panel - Click the "File System" button - Go to the "Troubleshooting" panel - Enable the option: "Disable all 32-bit Protect Mode Disk Drivers" - Reboot your PC ************************************************************************* ************************* XingMPEG Support ************************** ************************************************************************* Product updates and general support information are available electronically via: Compuserve: GO XINGSUPPORT Internet: http://www.xingtech.com/ XingBBS: (805) 473-2680 (modem speed=14.4, 8N1) If you need further information, please contact your dealer or the manufacturer of the product with which the XingMPEG Player came bundled.