miroVIDEO DC30 
README for Version 1.10                                               01/28/1997

This text contains important information for the miroVIDEO DC30 user.
If you encounter any problems when working with the miroVIDEO DC30,
please read the manual and this text. 

Attention, very important changes:
The playback error on Pentium Pro systems with Natoma chipset should be fixed
with this driver version. In case you are using a system with the Natoma
chipset please insert the following lines in your win.ini:

[miroDC30]
Natoma=1

Since this driver version the video overlay during playback of AVI files, which
are captured with miroVIDEO DC30, on the Windows desktop will be supported.
Further there is a complete deinstallation of the miroVIDEO DC30 drivers and
software incl. the registry entries available.
New are "miroVIDEO DC30 informations", an additional help file and the "miroAVI
converter", a tool which converts AVI files captured with the miroVIDEO DC20
into miroVIDEO DC30 format. After the installation of the miroVIDEO DC30 all
the software mentioned above is available in the miroVIDEO DC30 software group.
Further informations, tips and help you can get out of the miroVIDEO DC30
informations now.

On the miroVIDEO DC30 CD-ROM V.1.10 there is a program called UNINST.EXE, located 
in the subdirectory "UNINST", which should be started before the installation of 
the new miroVIDEO DC30 drivers. This program removes all miroVIDEO DC30 drivers 
and registry entries.(see additional Pt. 1.0.1.1 miroVIDEO DC30 driver update)
This UNINST.EXE program is available on the miro digital video internet page too.

Contrary to the description of fast decompress for playback made in the
miroVIDEO DC10 manual, this fast decompress function is not implemented 
in this software release. This means that in the DC10 CTRL program, 
the "Window (accelerated)" option is not yet available. 

Contrary to the description in the miroVIDEO DC30 manual page 14.3. Place the
CD ROM you received with your miroVIDEO DC30 (V.1.10 or higher) in your CD-ROM
drive and switch to the setup directory now. The installation has changed and
the miroDC30.inf file is not located in the root of the CD anymore, but it is
located in the setup directory.



Contents

1.0 	Installation miroVIDEO DC30
1.0.1 	Before you start the installation
1.0.1.1	miroVIDEO DC30 driver update
1.0.2  	Configurationtest miroVIDEO DC30
1.1    	miroVIDEO DC30 and Windows 95 Service Release 2
1.2    	Direct Video and miroVIDEO DC30
1.3    	Installation of miroVIDEO DC30 and S3 graphics boards with 868, 968
1.4    	Video overlay
1.4.1  	Video overlay support for miroMEDIA View and miroMEDIA 3D
1.4.2 	Video Overlay support in general
1.5	Changing the resolution during capturing with active video overlay 
1.6    	Video overlay and playback
1.6.1  	Video overlay during playback with miro graphics boards
1.6.2  	Video overlay during playback in general
1.7    	Interrupt Sharing
1.8   	System.ini entries after the installation
1.9    	miroVIDEO DC30 audio properties 
1.10   	Capturing and playback AVI sequences
1.11   	Jerks during playback
1.12    Switching the video standard

2.0	miroVIDEO Expert

3.0    	miroAVI Cache

4.0    	Changes to the last driver versions

5.0    	miro services





1.0   Installation miroVIDEO DC30

1.0.1 Before you start the installation 
Before you start the installation of the miroVIDEO DC30, make sure that
an already installed video device, for instance miroVIDEO DC1, miroVIDEO DC20
or competitor models should, be removed.

!!! Attention: Driver errors may occur !!!

Either more than one capture board has been installed in your computer,
or you remove a capture board from your computer but not from the Control
Panel. For more information, please read the "Hardware installation" section
in your User's Guide.

If you removed a miro capture board from your computer and have problems
with the capture driver, start the [CD drive]:\tools\miraser.exe program.
This is required to ensure that miroVIDEO DC30 can be installed correctly in 
your system.
This program searches the Registry for miroVIDEO DC1, miroVIDEO DC10,
miroVIDEO DC20, and miroVIDEO DC30 entries and removes some entries, if
necessary.

To ensure that your miroVIDEO DC30 board can be installed correctly in your
computer, restart the computer now!

1.0.1.1 miroVIDEO DC30 driver update
Before you try to install an update of the miroVIDEO DC30 drivers, please make
sure that the old drivers and registry entries are removed.
Since driver version V.1.10 there is a complete deinstallation of drivers and
registry entries available !!! There is a complete uninstall program in the
miroVIDEO DC30 program group.
If you like to update an older miroVIDEO DC30 driver version to version V.1.10,
please insert the miroVIDEO DC30 CD into your CD-ROM drive and start the program
UNINST.EXE, which is located in the "UNINST" subdirectory. Then the old drivers
and registry entries will be completely removed. Then you should start the 
installation of the new drivers.
The UNINST.EXE program is available on the miro digital video internet page too.


1.0.2 Configuration test miroVIDEO DC30
After a successful installation of the miroVIDEO DC30 sofware the configu-
ration test will start automatically. If you get an error message during
this test, please shut down Windows 95 and restart your system. Then, start the
program "Configuration miroVIDEO DC30" located in the miroVIDEO DC30 folder and
click the "Test" button. The configuration test will run once again.


1.1 miroVIDEO DC30 and Windows 95 Service Release 2
Recommendation:
Before you install the miroVIDEO DC30 hardware in your system, please first
start the setup programm out of the setup directory of the delivered
miroVIDEO DC30 CD-ROM. 

Known bugs:
The playback of MJPG compressed AVI files out of the Explorer only appears in
a window. A video output to TV is not possible. Please use the MediaPlayer
for playback yout AVI files to TV.


1.2 Direct Video and miroVIDEO DC30
If you have installed "Direct Video" on your computer and you like to playback
an AVI movie with the Media Player to TV, you have to start DC30CTRL
before starting the Media Player, otherwise you only get a preview and no
output to video or TV.


1.3 Installation of miroVIDEO DC30 and S3 graphics boards with 868, 968
If you have installed a graphics board with S3 chip 868, or 968, please make 
sure that this graphics board really uses a 64MB memory area. You can check 
this in the Device Manager of Windows 95. Computers with older AWARD BIOS 
report only a 32MB memory area back to the Device Manager.
As soon as you like to install another device which memory area is located 
directly behind the memory area of the graphics board the system can hang up, 
because the memory areas overlap.

Solutions: 
	- Update of the AWARD BIOS
	- Change the memeory area of your graphics board in the Device Manager



1.4   Video overlay

1.4.1 Video overlay support for miroMEDIA View and miroMEDIA 3D
The video overlay functionality for the graphics boards mentioned above 
will be implemented in the latest Windows 95 driver versions for this boards. 
These Windows 95 drivers support the Video Overlay Surface function. 
With this function a video overlay is possible during capturing.
Since diver version V.1.10 it is possible to get a video overlay windows during 
playback AVI files on the Windows desktop on condition that the graphics board 
will be supported  with a Direct Draw driver, which supports the overlay surface 
function. This means if you alreday get a video overlay during the capture, you 
will get a video overlay during playback too. Ensure that in the miroVIDEO DC30
control the output option S-Video or Composite Video is enabled. If you have 
enabled the ouput option window you won't get a video overlay in a window.


1.4.2 Video Overlay support in general
In general, state-of-the-art PCI graphics adapters with S3 Trio 64V+ or 
S3 Virge graphic processors are able to support a PCI overlay. 
Some manufacturers don't support this function in their Windows 95 drivers. 
You can easily check if your graphics board supports this function 
by opening the "VIDEO DC30 Configuration" program and click the "Test" button.
If you notice any disturbances in the overlay windows during capturing,change
the overlay scaling in VidCap32 in the "Options" menu and and switch Video
Display into the next smaller level. In doubt, select the "Small resolution"
option for the overlay scaling. This should fix the disturbances in the video
overlay windows.
Since diver version V.1.10 it is possible to get a video overlay windows during 
playback AVI files on the Windows desktop on condition that the graphics board 
will be supported  with a Direct Draw driver, which supports the overlay surface 
function. This means if you alreday get a video overlay during the capture, you 
will get a video overlay during playback too. Ensure that in the miroVIDEO DC30
control the output option S-Video or Composite Video is enabled. If you have 
enabled the ouput option window you won't get a video overlay in a window.



1.5 Changing the resolution during capturing with active video overlay 
Avoid changing the resolution during capturing AVI files with activated
video overlay. The video overlay can be enabled in VidCap32 or in the
Premiere capture program.


1.6   Video overlay and playback

1.6.1 Video overlay during playback with miro graphics boards
With the miroVIDEO 20TD live, the miroMEDIA TV and the miroMEDIA 3D boards, 
a video overlay during playback AVI files can be realized on the computer
monitor. Therefore you have to connect the composite input of miroVIDEO 20TD
live, or the composite input (S-VHS -> composite adapter) of the miroMEDIA TV
with the composite output of the miroVIDEO DC30. After this please start
the miroTV application. 
You can connect the miroMEDIA 3D board via an S-VHS cable to the S-VHS output
of the miroVIDEO DC30. Then start the miroTELEVISION application.
Since diver version V.1.10 it is possible to get a video overlay windows during 
playback AVI files on the Windows desktop on condition that the graphics board 
will be supported  with a Direct Draw driver, which supports the overlay surface 
function. This means if you alreday get a video overlay during the capture, you 
will get a video overlay during playback too. Ensure that in the miroVIDEO DC30
control the output option S-Video or Composite Video is enabled. If you have 
enabled the ouput option window you won't get a video overlay in a window.

Hint: If you loop through the a video signal to the miroVIDEO DC10, please watch
that the S-VHS output of the miroVIDEO DC10 only has a S-VHS signal if a S-VHS
source is connected to the input of the miroVIDEO DC10 !!! You can't convert a
composite signal into a S-VHS signal with the miroVIDEO DC10.


1.6.2 Video overlay during playback in general
If you installed a graphics board in your computer, which can also display 
a video overlay, connect the video input of the graphics board(Composite or
S-VHS) to the miroVIDEO DC30 composite output and start the Video Overlay
application of the manufacturer of your graphics board.
Since diver version V.1.10 it is possible to get a video overlay windows during 
playback AVI files on the Windows desktop on condition that the graphics board 
will be supported  with a Direct Draw driver, which supports the overlay surface 
function. This means if you alreday get a video overlay during the capture, you 
will get a video overlay during playback too. Ensure that in the miroVIDEO DC30
control the output option S-Video or Composite Video is enabled. If you have 
enabled the ouput option window you won't get a video overlay in a window.

1.7 Interrupt Sharing
This miroVIDEO DC30 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 test the behaviour of SCSI controllers.
Under Windows95, we tested miroVIDEO DC30 together with Adaptec SCSI 
controllers and the Adaptec driver software EZ-SCSI 4.0. This combination
works without any problems.


1.8 System.ini entries after the installation
After successful installation of the miroVIDEO DC30 you should find the follo-
wing entries in the system.ini in the section "drivers" and "mci":

{drivers]
VIDC.MJPG=DC30CDC.DRV
wave_m=DC30AUD.DRV
mixer_m=DC30AUD.DRV

[mci]
AVIVideo1=miroAVI.DRV

1.9 miroVIDEO DC30 audio properties 
In System control you can set the audio properties of the miroVIDEO DC30 by 
double-clicking the Multimedia icon. If you have already installed, or 
integrated a sound board in your system, you can choose between your sound-
board or the miroVIDEO DC30 in "properties for multimedia audio". 
By default, the miroVIDEO DC30 is set as sound device. In case you didn't
install a sound device before, you can use the miroVIDEO DC30 for capturing
and playing back files in *.wav format

Important hint:
If you get an errormessage during capturing an AVI like "Not enough Audio
Buffers", or "Cannot open Audio Device", please open in the control panel the
mulimedia icon and select the "Advanced" folder. Then open in the list of
"Media Control Devices" the "Wave Audio Device" and click the "Settings"
button. A further windows opens where you can select the reserved seconds for
audio capturing. Increase this value to the maximum of 9 seconds.


1.10 Capturing and playback of AVI sequences
For capturing and playback AVI movies with the miroVIDEO DC30 we recommend 
abolutely to set the miroVIDEO DC30 as well as an active video capture device
and as an active audio device too. Only this setting can ensure that audio and 
video can be captured and playback lipsync. If you have installed another sound
device in your system and you like to use this board any further, please make 
sure that the miroVIDEO DC30 is set as an active primary sound device before 
capturing and playback AVI files.


1.11 Jerks during playback
To make sure that you get synchronous video and audio during playback, we 
redesigned our miroVIDEO DC30 driver for video playback. Now every frame will
be marked with an internal time code. Because the captured frames will be
buffered, there are no problems to digitize more frames than your hard disk
can write but during playback problems may occur. As yet, frames will be
dropped if the hard disk cannot achieve the selected data rate. 

Result: No runtime difference between video and audio after long playback,
        using the miroVIDEO DC30 for video and audio capture and playback.

Now with the internal time code, every frame has to be played back up to 
a defined point in time. In case the hard disk cannot achieve the 
selected data rate, you get jerks because some frames will be dropped for 
keeping the selected datarate. Playback without loss of frames there is no
runtime difference between audio and video data.

Solution:
 - if you have plenty of RAM memory in your system, you can disable the
   virtual memory of your Windows 95.
 - insert the following lines in your system.ini below the section [vcache]:
   MinFileCache=4096
   MaxFileCache=4096
   Both values should be equal and about 25% of the main memory.
   i.e  for a system with 16MB you should use a value of 4MB (4096Byte).
 - otherwise you should reduce your selected data rate during capturing.

Hints:
1. During playing back AVI movies using the Media Player or Adobe Premiere
at a high resolution, with two fields and a high data rate, few frames 
are jerky and jittering during the startup of the playback.
First, the frames will be loaded into an internal cache memory, before they
can be played back with the Media Player. For playing back an AVI movie to
a VCR we recommend to insert a short trailer of about a few seconds before
the movie starts, or to use the miroAVI cache with the "synchronized start" 
option enabled.

2.AVI files, captured with Vidcap32 or another capture program mostly have a
worse interleave factor between the video and audio blocks, ths means that 
first a number of video blocks and then the audio blocks are located in the 
file. This could cause jerks during playback.
This worse interleave factor you can change with Adobe Premiere by calculating
the AVI file once again with the "Make MOVIE" function. The resoluton and 
datarate should be kept, but in the output options make sure that the setting
for "Audio Blocks" is set to "1 Frame". In the miroVIDEO DC30 presets for Adobe
Premiere 4.2 this is already the default setting.

1.12 Switching the video standard
Under certain conditions it might happen that the switching of the video
standard doesn't work with your miroVIDEO DC30 board. Therefore we recommend
to reboot your system after changing the video standard.


2.0 miroVIDEO Expert
The miroVIDEO Expert is a program which calculates a recommended data transfer
rate out of the read and write speed for the selected hard drive.
During the standard test a 20 MB file will be written to the hard disk first 
and then read. The file size can be changed manually. The miroVIDEO Expert
only offers a "rough value" of the current hard disk's performance!!!
The value depends on the used system and on whether the data will be written 
and read on the outer sectors of the hard disk or on the inner sectors. 
On the outer sectors the real transfer rate is higher than on the inner sectors.
The calculated value of the "reachable video data rate" can be used on 
most systems without any problems, but there might be systems where this 
value cannot be achieved for whatever reasons. This may occur with E-IDE 
disks which offer a very high data transfer rate on the outer sectors, 
but a considerable performance loss on the inner sectors. 


3.0 miroAVI Cache

Common:
miroAVI Cache is a MCI based driver which can be used by the Media Player of 
Windows 95. miroAVI Cache makes it possible to playback AVI-movies in MJPG-
format. These files could be created i.e. with a miroVIDEO DC10, miroVIDEO DC20 
and the miroVIDEO DC30.

To ensure a non-jerky playback even at high data rates, the video and audio data
are buffered in the memory (cached). When the hard disk interrupts its operation 
(i.e. during swapping), the video clip will be temporarily taken from the memory.
If necessary, you can adjust the cache size using miroVIDEO DC30 Control.

Installation:
During the installation of the miroVIDEO DC30 the miroAVI Cache will be copied 
automatically into the Windows\System subdirectory. To use the miroAVI Cache, 
select "miroAVI Cache (MJPG)" in the device menu of the Media Player 
instead of "Video for Windows". Then a file selection window appears. 
Please make sure that you set the video output options either to 
composite video or to S-video in the miroVIDEO DC30 control.
At the time, miroAVI Cache does not support the video output in a window.

Settings:
With the miroVIDEO DC30 Control the size of the cache for video and audio 
data can be changed. Therefore please start miroVIDEO DC30 Control and 
click the "AVI Cache" button. Now you can set the desired cache size in the 
field "Video Buffer" in frames between 6 and 128. The changes of the buffer
number take effect the next time the AVI is loaded. If the driver has to
increase the buffer number, the number will be reset as soon as a new AVI
file will be loaded or the Media Player will be closed. This is only the
case, if the user has not changed the buffer number in the meantime.
By clicking the default button the value can be set to default, which will
be sufficient for most of the applications.
Please remember that a large cache size needs a high amount of memory and 
especially on systems with low memory the system performance will go down.
A hint at the bottom of miroVIDEO DC30 Control specifies the approximate 
required cache size for a data rate of 3MB per second.

The magic word for this driver version is "Cinderella"

4.0 Changes to the last driver versions

Version 1.01

-supporting French language (Dialogs and all online helps)
-supporting SECAM,PAL-N and PAL-M output
-supporting an alpha version of the miroAVI.drv 
-GPF fixed, if no miroVIDEO DC30 is installed and DC30CTRL will be started
-The application VIDEO CRAFT works with the miroVIDEO DC30 now
-During the calculation of video clips in Premiere a higher data rate than 3MB/s
 can be used now
-general changes to make sure the playback of AVI files 
-miroEXPERT: limitation of the max. compression to 3:1


Version 1.04

-miroAVI Cache implemented
-miroVIDEO DC10 adaptions
-Premiere: Playback backwards with Adobe Premiere possible now
-Premiere: Clip Player can be controlled via keyboard
-Premiere: Capturing of audiodata without videodata possible now
-Premiere: sporadic system hangup in preview fixed 
-fixed: 20ms difference between audio and video during capturing with only
 one single field
-Correction of the automatic pixelratio adaption to get an video output of most 
 of the formats which are not in an 4:3 or 16:9 format.
-fixed: flickering videooutput, using graphics boards which are not PCI conform
-fixed: jerks during playback of AVI files which contain audiodata of a lower 
 quality than 22kHz, 16bt stereo
-fixed: mixer settings will be saved now
-new VidCap32 which saves the audio settigs will be delivered now
-new PAL/SECAM presets for Adobe Premiere 

Version 1.10

-Video overlay during playback of AVI files only with graphics boards, which
 supports the "Overlay Surface" function in Direct Draw.
-Automatic scaling of the video overlay if overlay window will be drawn to one
 border of the Windows 95 desktop
-miroAVI Cache expanded to 32 bit and playback behavior essential improved
-miroAVI Cache can be selected as primary driver in the miroVIDEO DC30 Control
-miroAVI Cache can be used for playback in Premiere now
-miroVIDEO DC30 Installation program video standards PAL/NTSC/SECAM selectable
-miro logo can be displayed during capture and playback. Default is off
-complete deinstallation of all drivers and registry entries
-miroAVI converter will be added during installation
-Help database "miroVIDEO DC30 informations" will be added during installation
-fixed: error during playback of AVI files on Pentium Pro systems Natoma chipset
-fixed: hangups on machines with VIA chipset 
-fixed: GPF during Installation of Games (Hellbender)
-fixed: during a new installation the external mixer for recording will be added


5.0 miro services
For new miroVIDEO DC30 drivers or driver updates please look at the following 
services:

miroMAILBOX:		+49 531 2113-112
Internet:			ftp.miro.com
			http://www.miro.com
CompuServe:		GO MIRO

