README.TXT Darim Vision Co., Ltd. 2003/11/19 MPEGator for Windows 2000 Version 2.96 for all MPEGator rev. 3.x boards This file contains the most up to date information about the MPEGator and the supplied software (please see the HISTORY.TXT file for the list of changes in the software) This file consists of the following sections: 1. Contents of this package 2. Installation issues 3. Optimizing MPEG encoding quality 4. MPEGator SDK and software development components 4.1 Custom MPEGator OCX control (MTRX.OCX) 4.2 MPEGator source filter (MTRSRC.DLL) 5. Current limitations and other important notes 6. Contacting Technical Support service 1. Contents of this package: ---------------------------- Low level drivers for Windows 95/98/Me (installed to \Windows\System) MTREMPG3.VXD MTRIFRM3.VXD MTRACC3 .VXD MTRPNP .VXD Device Information file for Windows 95/98/Me (installed to \Windows\INF) MTR.INF Device Information file for Windows 2000 (installed to \WinNT\INF) MTRW2K.INF Low level drivers for Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 (installed to \WinNT\System32\Drivers) MTREMPG3.SYS (for Windows NT4) MTRIFRM3.SYS (for Windows NT4) MTRACC3 .SYS (for Windows NT4) MTRPNP .SYS (for Windows 2000 & NT4) MPEGator DLL files (installed to \Windows\System or \WinNT\System32) MTR32 .DLL (for Windows 95/98/Me) MTRNT .DLL (for Windows NT/2000) MTRC .DLL MTRR .DLL MTRAVI .DLL (for Windows 95/98/Me) MTRAVIU .DLL (for Windows NT/2000) MTRA32 .DLL MTRCFG .CPL DVICMA .DLL (for Windows 95/98/Me) DVICMAU .DLL (for Windows 2000) DVACMA .DLL (for Windows 95/98/Me) DVACMAU .DLL (for Windows 2000) DVIFRM .DLL (for Windows 95/98/Me) DVIFRMU .DLL (for Windows 2000) DVMSA .EXE (for Windows 95/98/Me) DVMSAN .EXE (for Windows 2000) MPEG2MUX.DLL (MPEG multiplexor) MPEGDMX .DLL (MPEG demultiplexor) Redistributable files (installed to \Windows\System or \WinNT\System32) MFC42.DLL MSVCRT.DLL OLEPRO32.DLL OLEAUT32.DLL REGSVR32.EXE STDOLE2.TLB MPEGator Application files (installed to \Program Files\MPEGator\Tools) M-CODER .EXE AVI2MPEG.EXE MUXONE .EXE DEMUXONE.EXE Custom application support files (installed to \Program Files\MPEGator\Tools) MTRX .OCX (Custom MPEGator control for VB) MTRSRC .DLL (MPEGator source filter for DirectShow) Files required for MPEG Editor (installed to \Program Files\MPEGator\Tools) NRZCTRL.TLB NRZFILE.DLL NRZMPEG.DLL NRZMVC.DLL NRZPROX.DLL NRZSRV.EXE MPEG2DEC.DLL 2. Installation issues ---------------------- IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO SPECIFY THE PROPER HARDWARE REVISION OF MPEGATOR CARD DURING SOFTWARE SETUP. OTHERWISE, THE SYSTEM WILL BECOME UNSTABLE AFTER THE FIRST REBOOT WITH LOCK UP OR CRASH AS THE FINAL RESULT. IF NOT SURE, POWER OFF YOUR PC AND VISUALLY VERIFY THE REVISION MARK ON THE MPEGATOR BOARD BEFORE CONTINUING. In order to simplify software installation process in Windows 2000 it is now made possible to install MPEGator software simply by running SETUP program before or after installing hardware. In the former case, all necessary files will be copied to the proper places Windows 2000 should be able to automatically locate and install the Plug-and-Play drivers with minimum or no user interraction. In you encounter troubles installing Plug-and-Play drivers this way, you may need to access Windows 2000 'Device Manager', remove 'PCI multimedia device' in the 'Other devices' branch (marked with yellow question mark '?') and restart the system. Refer to section 3.2 in the MPEGator User's Guide for more information 3. Optimizing MPEG encoding quality ----------------------------------- There are several ways to optimize and improve the quality of the encoded MPEG video. They are NOT mutually exclusive and in order to achieve the best results, they are recommended to be used altogether. These methods are listed below, the most effective of them first. * Use the highest quality source material available. The order of preference is as follows: Betacam SP tape DV/Digital8 tape S-VHS/Hi-8 tape VHS/Video8 tape It is very unlikely that you can achieve quality MPEG output from a third generation (or older) VHS tape. * Use video signal conditioning and pre-filtering provided by the M-Filter board. Consider the following guidelines: For high quality video sources (Betacam or DV tape) use Median filter and/or Low pass Filter #1 to remove excessive high frequency components of video (ultra fine picture details) that negatively affect MPEG encoding quality and may cause a 'pixelation' effect. For lower quality video tapes such as VHS and some S-VHS use Time Base Corrector (TBC) to prevent color and geometrical distortions of the captured video. You may optionally use Low Pass Filters #2 or #3 to achieve additional quality improvements. * Adjust bitrate allocation ratio between static and moving portions of MPEG video (I-frames and P- and B- frames respecively). These parameters are accessible from the 'BitrateControl' branch of the 'MPEG adv' dialog. Starting from version 2.65 two quality adjusting templates have been added that affect only 'BitrateControl' group of the advanced MPEG parameters and should be used in conjunction with other templates to achieve the desired quality. These templates are 'Slow moving video' and 'Fast moving video'. The details are as follows. The 'Slow moving video' template sets the following values: I_percent_bits = 31 P_percent_bits = 42 B_percent_bits = 27 The 'Fast moving video' template sets the following values: I_percent_bits = 19 P_percent_bits = 36 B_percent_bits = 45 You may further experiment with these three parameters to find out the optimum for your video clip. Consider increasing the 'I_percent_bits' parameter and decreasing the other two if there is little motion in your video or it looks more like a slideshow. Decrease 'I_percent_bits' and give the maximum to the 'B_percent_bits' parameter if your video contains a lot of fast moving objects or have a camera panning effects. Remember that the sum of all three parameters should always equal to 100. 4. MPEGator SDK and software development components --------------------------------------------------- Starting with version 2.68 the entire MPEGator SDK is included into the installation package. It can be installed using a 'Custom' installation type during software setup. The package includes all necessary C++ header files, online reference guide and sample code illustrating various aspects of MSDK usage. The MSDK is typically installed into the \Program Files\MPEGator\SDK folder and contains several folders with corresponding files. The most recent version of the MSDK is also availale online by downloading from the MPEGator support page following the link http://www.darvision.com/support/mpegator.html (MSDK.EXE) or http://www.darvision.com/ftp/mpegator/msdk.exe NOTE that the SDK is compatible with previous versions of MPEGator software (2.51 and later) and revisions of the MPEGator hardware (starting with 1.1). MSDK covers differences between hardware revisions so that custom applications do not even need to be recompiled unless otherwise recommended in the SDK release notes. 4.1 Custom MPEGator control (MTRX.OCX) -------------------------------------- The MSDK also includes a custom MPEGator control (MTRX.OCX) that can be used from Visual Basic and C++ applications for the simplified implementation of MPEGator preview and capture functions. The MTRX.OCX is copied by 'Typical' installation into the \Program Files\MPEGator\Tools folder. Before you start using a custom control in your project your have to register it by typing in the following command from the Windows DOS box from, folder with MTRX.OCX located inside C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\REGVR32 MTRX.OCX and note a confirmative message of the successful registration completion. (Users of Windows NT may omit the explicit path to the REGSVR32 program because it is located in the WINNT\SYSTEM32 folder). The complete C++ source code of the OCX control is supplied as part of the MSDK. 4.2 MPEGator MPEG source filter for Microsoft DirectShow -------------------------------------------------------- The filter (MTRSRC.DLL) allows custom ActiveMovie/DirectShow-based applications to use MPEGator as a source of MPEG video and audio data (streaming). The MTRSRC.DLL is copied by 'Typical' installation into \Program Files\MPEGator\Tools folder. The installation and use of this filter requires the presence of Microsoft DirectX Media/DirectShow SDK or its runtime components. The DirectShow SDK can be obtained from Microsoft by following the link below http://www.microsoft.com/directx/dxm The DirectShow runtime component is also available from the Redistributable software support page of Darim Vision web site as follows: http://www.darvision.com/support/redist.html (DXMWEB.EXE) or http://www.darvision.com/ftp/redist/dxmweb.exe Before you start using a source filter in your project, you have to register it by typing in the following command from the Windows DOS box, the folder with MTRX.OCX located inside C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\REGVR32 MTRSRC.DLL and note a message about successful registration completion. (Users of Windows NT may omit explicit path to the REGSVR32 program because it is located in the WINNT\SYSTEM32 folder). Note that the installation of the MPEGator software as well as Microsoft DirectShow runtime components must be completed and the system rebooted before starting source filter registration. Also, it is recommended to test the installation by running M-Coder before registering the filter. This is done because the filter registration process uses lower level drivers that attempt to access the MPEGator hardware and may cause system lockup or crash during the registration. If that happens, reboot the system and eliminate the problem before trying a registration again. The simplest way to use the MPEGator source filter is to start the Graph Editor apllication (GRAPHEDT.EXE) that comes with Microsoft ActiveMovie or DirectShow SDK. Then insert the 'MTR Source' filter from the filter selection dialog. Once the filter appears in the Graph Editor, right-click somewhere within a filter rectangle and select 'Properties' to access filter-specific and generic MPEG encoding parameters. To begin MPEG capture process, right-click on the filter output pin and select 'Render'. Graph Editor will automatically load and connect appropriate MPEG decoding and displaying filters. Press the 'Play' button to actually start capturing. As described in Microsoft DirectX Media/DirectShow SDK your custom application can connect and use filters in a similar fashion. See programmer's document that comes with DirectShow SDK on details how to do this. Note that you cannot change MPEG encoding options while rendering filters are connected to 'MTR Source' (the 'Options' button is greyed). You need to disconnect rendering filters by pressing the 'Del' button to access the 'MPEGator Properties' dialog. 5. Current limitations: ----------------------- The software 2.96 version supports Windows NT/2K/XP. However, in order to use Windows NT you need to adjust IRQ in BIOS manually! The MPEGator board can't use shared IRQ with other units! You are also recommended to disable the "Plug&Play OS" mode (set the parameter - "NO")! Captured video contains two scanlines at the top invisible during preview. The workaround is to add 2 to the 'Y offset' parameter in the Video parameters dialog. IMPORTANT notes: ---------------- 1. Pentium CPU running at 166 MHz is required for the I-frame MPEG AVI capture. Higher quality capture requires more powerful systems. 2. Users of Windows 2000 will need to login using 'Administrator' or equivalent user account (must be a member of the 'Administrators' group) in order to use the MPEGator software properly. This is because Windows 2000 OS does not allow allocation of the sufficient amount of pagelocked system memory requested by MPEGator drivers under a 'normal' user account. There is no workaround available other than including the given user account into the 'Administrators' group thus giving him the administrative priviledges. 3. To use an "MPEG Playback" mode under Windows NT you have to install DirectX5 or higher. Please send us your questions, problems, suggestions or if you want to be notified whenever a new software version becomes available, send a message to Darim Technical Support on the following address: support@darim.com Thank you for purchasing our Darim Vision's MPEGator!