This text contains important information for the user of the miroVIDEO DC20 system. If you encounter any problems when working with the DC20, please read the manual and this text.
Overlaysupport for miroMAGIC 40PV and miroVIDEO 20TD
The overlay functionality for the above boards is implemented since version 1.01 of the DC20-driver.
Controlling DC20CTRL.EXE from the keyboard
It is not possible to switch with the TAB-key from one button to the next in DC20CTRL.EXE. Instead of this the program should me used with a mouse.
Play a PAL-AVI in NTSC-format
An AVI which was captured in PAL-format can not be played back on the video-output in NTSC-format. The video-output delivers just a disturbed black/white picture, but there is no errormessage.
Interrupt-Sharing
This miroVIDEO DC20 version supports PCI interrupt sharing. This function is necessary if the motherboard allocates a single interrupt to all PCI slots. In this case, all PCI devices have to share one interrupt which means that every driver has to check if the current interrupt comes from its device. If this is not the case, the driver must not handle this interrupt and has to pass it to the next PCI device.
If only one of the devices involved (or its driver) fails to do so, the system will not function properly. Because the devices which are mostly used for recording and playing back video are SCSI hard disks and SCSI controllers, we examine the behaviour of SCSI controllers.
Under Windows95, we tested miroVIDEO DC20 together with Adaptec SCSI controllers and the Adaptec driver software EZ-SCSI 4.0. This combination works without any problems.
For Windows 3.x you have to distinguish two cases:
1. If you use Realmode drivers, for example ASPI8DOS.SYS, for your SCSI controller, it tells the DC20 driver that the interrupt is sharable. If the interrupt is used, the system crashes without sending an error message.
2. If e.g. EZ-SCSI is used, the interrupt is declared by EZ-SCSI as "non-sharable". This can be tested in the configuration dialog. Then the message "non sharable" appears when you press the "Test" button in the "VSYNC interrupt" field.
Unfortunately, there is no SCSI driver for Windows 3.x we know of which is capable of interrupt sharing. It is, however, possible that such a driver can be obtained from the manufacturer of the SCSI controller in the meantime.
HARD DISKS
Windows95
Windows95 supports the 32-bit access to hard disks. Please check under Control Panel|System|Device Manager, if your hard disk drive or your SCSI controller has been detected by Windows95 correctly. If not, the data transfer rate of your hard disk will not suffice for a satisfying quality when recording and playing back video.
Install a second hard disk to which you save the complete video clips for recording and playing back. You can save temporary files to your system hard disk. During recording and playing back Windows95 accesses system files. If these are located on the same hard disk as the video clips, the head has to be repositioned which leads to one or more dropped frames (unsmooth playback). Even the DC20 cache (which is part of the driver) cannot avoid this if the hard disk is used at the peak performance.
Enhanced-IDE hard disks
With some E-IDE hard disks, high data rates result in an unsmooth playback when playing back AVI files because the hard disk is recalibrated while a file is read. This is no problem of miroVIDEO DC20 but is due to the functionality of your hard disk and the other system components. This DC20 driver version will eliminate these unsmooth "jerks".
miro MAILBOX: +49 531 2113-112
Internet: ftp.miro.com
CompuServe: GO MIRO
VidCap32 for Windows 95
Using the DC20 under Windows 95 we recommend for capturing AVI files the VidCap32 of Microsoft, which is also available on the installation disk of the miroVIDEO DC20. VidCap32 fully supports the 32Bit capture-class, so that you can reach higher data rates during capturing.
Known bugs:
VidCap32 sets default the capture file to C:\CAPFILE.AVI. If you llike to set another drive for capturing, it could happen that VidCap32 stops with a General Protection Fault (GPF). Start once again the VidCAp32, ignore the error message that the device is already active and set now the desired drive for capturing. Close now VidCap32 and start Windows 95 again.
VidCap32 supports under Windows 95 the overlay functionality of a miroVIDEO 20TD, this means you can switch between the preview- and the overlay modes and you don't have to connect a TV to the output of the DC20.
Avoid to reduce VidCap32 into an icon if you are in the overlay mode because this could cause a GPF.
If you would like to reduce VidCap32 that this application will be shown in the status line, please switch into the preview mode before.
This bugs could be fixed by using a newer MDI.DLL. Please overwrite the existing MDI.DLL in your WINDOWS\SYSTEM subdirectory by this new MDI.DLL
DC20 & Adobe Premiere
Acceleration:
The full-version of Adobe Premier 4.0 (starting with version 4.0a) supports the accelerator functions of the DC20: The display of thumbnails in the construction view is up to 10 times faster, the preview during scrubbing as well as in the transition-preview is heavily faster (in DC20CTRL the option "print to video" has to be disabled). Older versions of Premiere do not support these accelerations.
DC20 & 3D F/X
Settings
To get the best results when usig 3D f/X animations in a Premiere project it we recommend the following settings:
Select the menuitem "Scene->Generate Animation".
Under "Compression" click on "Change" and select the miroVIDEO DC20-Codec. Set "Quality" to 100%. The animation will now be rendered using the fast DC20-hardware , it has a smaller size since it is compressed and Premiere does not need to recompress it.
Click on "Animation Settings" and "Colors". Set "Palette" to "16 million (24bit). Set "Quality" and "Size" to the samevalue as the rest of your videos in the project.
Hints
In genaral: The animations which are created using 3D F/X should have the same size (frame size) as the videos in your Premire project, so that Premiere does not need to resize and recompress.
If your Project works with smooth motions and you have captured the videos with "both fields" (which is 50fps PAL or 60fps NTSC) then you should set the value of "frames per second" to 50 for PAL or 60 for NTSC.
DC20 and VIDEO Mouse
The VIDEO Mouse doesn't support the DC20 yet. This is planned for the future.
