PCI HomeVideo Install Disks for Windows 95 and Windows 3.1x - Version 2.31
Release Note ============== The following are updated in this version. 1. Improve in general compatibility. 2. Improve of video quality. 3. Removed of SECAM support from software because Tuner do not support SECAM. 4. Remove one bug that will cause fatal error in Quick Setup. 5. README file has been enhanced. Compatibility Notes =================== The PCI video capture card requires an available 32-bit PCI slot that supports PCI bus mastering. Check the motherboard manual to ensure that the PCI slot supports PCI bus mastering capability. PCI bus mastering allows transfer of data directly to the system's memory, hard disk, or the VGA graphics memory without CPU intervention or loading. This PCI mastering capability uses less CPU resource utilization thus give you the best performance in video capturing or conferencing. Based on the intensive compatibility testing, it was identified that most PC system based on Intel, SiS & VIA motherboard chipsets work great, whereas there are others which uses the ALi chipsets (like Acer Aspire II) or OPTi chipsets that may not work properly. With the additional integration of audio recording function built-in on this PCI video card, video conferencing applications that can support this will perform and work much better than a separate sound card. Audio synchronization with video is no longer a problem like what most others do. This feature is more important for video/audio capturing or conferencing applications. This PCI video capture card works well in the two viewing modes, namely preview and overlay. Overlay mode is a visual mode of two pictures superimposed or merged together. During overlay mode, our PCI video capture card allows video data streams to be captured directly to the graphics cards. On the other end, in the preview mode, the captured video utilizes the CPU resources to display the video on the screen. Due to the high performance and less CPU utilization of this card, the difference between both modes is not so significant any more. This provides you an edge because most video conferencing applications still rely heavily on preview mode. Note: as from ver2.31, the default viewing mode has been changed to preview mode. However, the user can still change the viewing mode to overlay if the user's system configuration is compatible. Use the Quick Setup application to change. This PCI requires a PCI graphics card that supports linear memory addressing to work side by side. Most newly introduced PCI VGA card has support for linear memory addressing. For a full screen and full motion video capture, different VGA card will perform differently. Not all cards are created equal and if your results are different from the results shown here, don't be alarm. There are still some older versions of VGA cards like MGA ATHENA, Hercules Dynamite and S3 that do not support overlay mode. With the intelligent software algorithm embedded in our driver, this allows it auto-detect and select the appropriate viewing mode available on the VGA cards. The following graphics cards were tested with good results on our PCI video capture card: Manufacturer & Model Chipsets Preview ======================================================================== ATI Expression ATI Mach 64 Yes Cirrus Logic on Compaq & Packard Bell PCs CL-GD3534 Yes Diamond Speedstar Cirrus Logic GD5430 Yes Diamond Stealth 64 S3 86c868c Yes Diamond Stealth 64 2001 ARK 2000 PV Yes Diamond Stealth 64+ S3 86c765 Trio 64V+ Yes Number Nine Image 128 Cirrus Logic 80QC Yes Paradise Bahamas64 S3 86C764 Yes Paradise Bali32 ARK 1000 Yes Paradise Bali64 ARK 2000 Yes STB Power Graph 32 S3 86C732-p Yes STB Velocity 64 PCI S3 86C968-p Yes Trident on IBM Aptiva Trident TGUI 9680 Yes Cirrus Logic OEM CL-GD5430 Yes Cirrus Logic OEM CL-GD5436 Yes MGA OEM MGA PG IS-STORM R2 9613EU03 Yes S3 OEM S3 Trio 64 86C764-p Yes S3 OEM S3 Trio 64V+ 86C765 Yes S3 OEM S3 ViRGE 86C325 Yes Trident OEM Trident TGUI 9680 Yes Matrox Mystique MGA Yes Matrox Millennium MGA Yes Matrox MGA Impression Plus MGA Yes Hercules Dynamite Tseng W32P Yes Tseng OEM Tseng Lab ET4000/W32P Yes Cirrus Logic OEM CL-GD5434 Yes OPTi OEM OPTI 82C264 Yes S3 OEM S3 Version 864 Yes ALi OEM ALi ALG2302A Yes MGA OEM MGA PG IS-ATHENA R1 1948 Yes IMPORTANT NOTE: For unbranded VGA cards (for example those using the S3 chipset), the original S3 OEM driver SHOULD always be used for graphics card set-up, DO NOT USE Windows 95 supplied S3 drivers. It is an old version. The OEM manufacturers have modified their driver to suit their cards for optimize compatibility. Software Compatibility ======================= Below is a list of application software found compatible with our PCI video capture card. Software Application Comment ============================================================================== Video for Windows (16 bit) Video capture Pass Video for Windows (32 bit) Video capture Pass Microsoft Netmeeting with Video Audio/Video Conferencing Pass* VDOnet VDOPhone Audio/Video Conferencing Pass CU-SEE-ME Audio/Video Conferencing Pass* Intel Video Phone Audio/Video Conferencing Pass* V-Phone Audio/Video Conferencing Pass* Smith Micro VideoLink H324 Audio/Video Conferencing Pass Vocaltec Internet Phone v4.5 Audio/Video Conferencing Pass* Ulead Video Suite 2.0/2.5 Video Capturing/Editing Pass Ulead Media Studio Video Capturing/Editing Pass Asymetrix Digital Video Producer v.4.0 Video Capturing/Editing Pass Adobe Premiere Video Capturing/Editing Pass SeeMail for Windows VideoMail Pass VideoMail by SysTech VideoMail Pass NOTE: For Audio capturing to be done through this PCI video card, you are required to manually change your default audio recording devices to the "PCI audio recording device". In Windows 95, you can do that under Control Panel-Multimedia. Make sure you set this device to the preference device. In Windows 3.1x, you do that under Control Panel-Sound Mapper. Also make sure you set this device to the preference device. Pass* For some Audio/Video Conferencing software, it may not utilise the audio recording from this PCI video card. These audio/video conferencing software was written originally to support only sound card devices. Therefore, it cannot utilise the audio recording from this video capture card. VDOPhone was tested and found to work with our PCI video card utilising the PCI audio capture driver. Some of the known problems encountered during compatibility test: Know Problem: Line Updating Occurrence: Full Screen Symptoms: Lines appear in fast motion video Possible Causes: Hardware Limitation Know Problem: Window Refreshing Occurrence: Depends on VGA Symptoms: Your VGA screen contains trace of video graphic Possible Causes: VGA compatibility issues Know Problem: Menu Font Destroyed Occurrence: Depends on VGA Symptoms: Problem in font display Possible Causes: VGA compatibility issues Know Problem: Self-View Video black-out Occurrence: Rarely Symptoms: Cannot see video Possible Causes: VGA compatibility issues If you have any comments, please let us know. - End -