WinCDG        MP3/CD+G Player    FREEWARE     (C)1998 Steve J. Gray
======        V0.50, Jan 31,1998              =====================

First public release  

What is WinCDG?
---------------

 WinCDG is a FREEWARE program to play MPEG audio files while
displaying CD+G graphics in sync to the music. WinCDG will also
play either separately.

 This is a beta release. I will eventually integrate this program
into SJGPlay (my Windows Media player with lyrics) once it has been
improved to playback at an acceptable speed. Currently you need a
very fast Pentium machine to display the graphics in real time. 


Program Requirements
--------------------

* Windows 95 or NT
* VB5 Runtime files
* ActiveMovie 2.0 or higher for MP3 support (may be included with IE4)
* CDG Files (See below. WinCDG does NOT read CD+G discs directly!)


What is an MPEG file?
---------------------

 An MPEG file is a highly compressed audio file that can be played
back at CD quality. A typical CD quality file (for example one track
from a standard CD audio disc) may normally take 30 to 40 megabytes
to store. Using MPEG audio this can be reduced to 2 to 3 megabytes
while still retaining it's high quality. The drawback however is the
need for a very powerful computer to de-compress these files in
real time.

What is a CDG file?
-------------------

 CDG files contain the data normally found in the subcode area of
CD+G audio discs (mostly Karaoke CD's). That area is used to hold
graphics that display in sync with the audio. Normally to view these
graphics you require a special CD+G player (some video game systems
can play them... CDTV, NEC TurboDuo, Sega Saturn). CD+G discs look
like standard audio cd's when played back on regular CD players or
CD-ROM drives.

 There are very few CD-ROM drives that will read the subcode area of
the audio cd in order to extract the CD+G info on the disc. WinCDG
does NOT read the data directly from the CD, rather it reads the info
from a CDG file that has been created using the proper equipment and
a piece of registered software called CDDA by Jim McLaughlin. He also
has a DOS CD+G player that will read the data directly from disc.

 Please see Jim's web page for info on creating CDG files.

 This release does not have a complete implementation of the CD+G
format. The following are NOT supported and/or not working 100%:

 * Color cycling
 * Transparency
 * Down-scrolling not working

 Future versions may support the above plus allow the CDG window to
be scaled and/or made full-screen.


Using WinCDG
------------

 To play a CDG file, MP3 file or both at the same time simply click
inside the window. This will bring up a common file requester where
you can choose your file. Playback will start automatically. To play
CDG files in sync with MP3 files BOTH files must be in the same
directory. At this time there are no play/stop/pause controls. The
program will play until the end of the file or until exited.


Where to get the software:
--------------------------

My homepage..: www.ryerson.ca/~sgray
CDDA homepage: www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aa571
VB5 runtimes.: www.windows95.com
ActiveMovie 2: www.microsoft.com/directx/pavilion/amovie/default.asp
CDG files....: ??? (if you know of a source please e-mail me!)

If you have some CDG files that do not display properly please send
them to me to look at and I will try to fix the player.

Steve Gray.
sgray@acs.ryerson.ca