README.TXT For NetStream 2000 (TM) 
Version 2.3 (Build 139_2) FOR WINDOWS NT 4.0 -- 6/29/01
=======================================================

Congratulations on your purchase of REALmagic NetStream 2000 DVD/MPEG2
multimedia Playback .  This file contains important information for 
installation of the drivers and application software for this card.

	      _____________________________________
			
	   FOR FUTURE updates DRIVERS VISIT OUR WEB SITE
		     www.sigmadesigns.com
              Latest Drivers & FTP Access - NetStream 2000
		     ____________________


NOTE FOR DIRECTSHOW 8 USERS :
===========================
DirectShow version 7 and earlier accepted the high priority of
the REALmagic splitter and decoder filters, upon registration
during the installation time.  As a result, it uses them
when playing back MPEG files using Windows Media Player versions
6.x and 7.x.  However, DirectShow 8 assigns its own priorities
for the filters and as a result, the REALmagic splitter and 
decoder filters might not be the ones selected for an MPEG file
playback.  To ensure that you are using the REALmagic filters,
hence the REALMagic board, use GRAPHEDT and insert the proper
filters ('Sigma splitter', 'Sigma Hardware decoder', and 'Video
Renderer'). You can also connect the proper filters in your 
DirectShow application.


What's new for Rel 2.3
----------------------
- A fix for the access of data on the old Pioneer A101 DVD drives
  with old firmware. Most movies are playing now (Stuart Little of
  region 2 is still a problem).  
- Support for movie playback on SCSI DVD drives is fixed.
- RGB Connection Option

What's new for Rel 2.2
----------------------
- Support for Microsoft Windows Media Player 7.0  (WMP)
- Support for HDTV under DVD Station (details in section VIII)
- Added support for IMediaSeeking interface (Seeking now possible using Microsoft 
  Splitter and WMP).
- Audio lost in the playback of some MPEG files under DirectShow.
- Stuttering during the playback of WAV files while MPEG drivers are loading
  or unloading
- Faster and more accurate Auto Calibration
- Higher stability in handling the interrupts 


CONTENTS
========					
I   - GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
II  - HARDWARE & SOFTWARE INSTALLATION	
III - BORDER ADJUSTMENT AND COLOR CALIBRATION	       
IV  - TV OUT
V   - FULL SCREEN PLAYBACK
VI  - HINTS TO RESOLVE PROBLEMS AND BETTER PLAYBACK
VII - SYSTEM MONITOR
VIII- RELEASE ISSUES AND KNOWN BUGS


I   - GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
      =======================

You can use either the new, DirectShow-based Media Player (MPLAYER2.EXE), 
or the older, MCI-based Media Player (MPLAYER.EXE) to play files on your
computer using the NetStream 2000. 

1 - MCI Support : 

    	A standard MCI driver is supplied.  Interactive multimedia 
    	titles can use the MCI interface to display high quality 
	MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video. To play an MPEG file using MCI, open
	the standard Windows Media Player (MPLAYER.EXE), select
	"REALmagic" from the "Device" menu, and open an MPEG file.
	Standard MCI compliant programs will automatically select the
	NetStream 2000 for playback of MPEG files.

2 - DirectShow Support:
	A standard DirectShow driver is installed with NetStream 2000.
	To use DirectShow with the NetStream 2000, install the latest
	version of the Windows Media Player (MPLAYER2.EXE), which can
	be found on the Microsoft web site at www.microsoft.com/Windows/
	Downloads/Contents/Products/MediaPlayer. The Windows Media Player
	and other DirectShow compatible applications will automatically
	select the NetStream 2000 hardware to play MPEG video. In addition,
	a wide variety of 3rd party streaming video products provide
	DirectShow filters and players which use the DirectShow interface
	to stream MPEG video using the NetStream 2000. 

3 - File Format Support :

        MPEG-1 Video Streams
        MPEG-1 Audio Streams
        MPEG-1 System Streams

        MPEG-2 Video Streams 
        MPEG-2 Audio Streams 
        AC-3 Audio Streams    
        MPEG-2 Program Streams
        MPEG-2 Transport Streams 
        MPEG-2 System Streams

        Video Servers/Clients used :

        - Microsoft NetShow Theater
	- Minerva VNP Encoder
	- OptiVision LiveWare
	- 2NetFx's StreamRider
	- InfoValue QuickVideo Suite (VOD and multicast)
	- FVC's VCache and VCaster
	- Oracle Video Server 
	- Silicon Graphics MediaBase - Kasenna
	- Starlight Networks
	- Cisco IP/TV  (in progress)
		
II  - HARDWARE & SOFTWARE INSTALLATION
      ================================

HARDWARE INSTALLATION :
---------------------
- Open the PC case according to its manual.
- Insert the NetStream 2000 (NS 2000) in one PCI slot and fix its
  bracket in the chassis with the screw that was covering the slot.
- Connect the pass-thru cable between the NS 2000 and the display
  adapter.
- Connect the audio patch cable between the audio output of NS 2000
  and the Line-In of the sound card.
- close the PC case.

SOFTWARE INSTALLATION :
---------------------
=========================================================  
YOU NEED TO INSTALL DIRECTSHOW PRIOR TO THIS INSTALLATION
IF YOU PLAN TO USE DIRECTSHOW APPLICATIONS.   THE DVD STATION
PLAYER DOES NOT NEED DIRECTSHOW.
=========================================================
After the hardware installation of the card do the following:

Run Setup from disk 1.  Follow instructions.

If this is the first time to use the board (the region code
used by the DVD movies not set on the board from a previous
installation under Win NT nor Win 98) then you need to run 
Setup a second time and select "Set Region Code..." from the 
menu offering also to install the software.  Otherwise, do
NOT run Setup to set the region code again.

Note : the region code is set on the board hardware and does
not get erased when the board is moved to another system.
 

   
III - BORDER ADJUSTMENT AND COLOR CALIBRATION
      =======================================

    NOTE: If the border is not adjusted properly after Auto Calibration
          you may need to set the Border Adjustment to get more 
          accurate adjustment. You need to set the Border Adjustment 
          only once for each setting of display resolution.

1.  At the Start button, click Programs and select REALmagic NetStream
    2000 program group. Click REALmagic Configuration.
2.  Click on Adjust Border and use the proper buttons to adjust the 
    black rectangle in the magenta box.
3.  Change different values to adjust stability if you are viewing 
    jumping pixels on MPEG video. Click OK when you are done. 
4.  The Reset Default button will reset the color calibration and 
    border adjustment values to the factory default settings.

    Note 1: Color calibration is required if the colors are not 
            normal or the screen is pink or not clear. If color 
            calibration is required, Click on "Auto Calibration". The
            screen will flash for 5 to 10 seconds then displays a 
            message that the calibration is complete. Click OK.
    Note 2: In the cases where this calibration is unsuccessful, 
            you can click on Advanced..., then the Manual 
            Calibration. This will involve fixing the R, G, B 
            sliders as shown in the window four times. You can use the
            up/down arrow keys for fine tuning and you don't need
            necessarily to see the cross but just the disappearance
            of the vertical bar.

IV  - TV OUT
      ======

    The REALmagic NS 2000 can display on a VGA monitor or a TV.
    The TV could be NTSC or PAL regardless of the NTSC/PAL encoding
    of the MPEG/movie data.  A PAL 60 option is provided for a
    smoother playback of NTSC movies on PAL TVs with this support.
    To switch between VGA/TV modes, an icon is provided on the left 
    corner of the DVD Station control panel that toggles between 
    computer monitor and TV.

    In order to display on a TV, some additional settings may be 
    required. From the DVD Station control panel click Options button.
    This will open a window for options setting. Click the settings tab.
    Select the options according to your TV type. The color control, 
    brightness, and contrast controls have also been provided for TV.

    The TV output option has four settings :
     -  MultiSystem :   the output will follow the source of the movie,
                        i.e. if NTSC movie the output will be NTSC 
                        and if PAL movie the output will be PAL (50)
     -  NTSC :  For NTSC TVs
     -  PAL :  For standard PAL TVs with 50 Hz frequency
     -  PAL 60 : the output will be at a frequency of 60 Hz, the same
                 as NTSC but with PAL colors (needs TV set with this
                 capability)

    Note :  Some TVs are sensitive with video frequency input and may 
            show Black and White video on TV. This has specially been
            noticed on some PAL TVs. In such a situation do the 
            following WHILE the TV-Out option is active and DVD/MPEG is
            playing on TV.:
		1. From the DVD station click the "Options Dialog -
                   Settings tab.
		2. Press Configure and then press Advanced Settings.
		3. Select Expert Settings and click the mouse. This 
                   will open a pop-up window. Adjust different values
                   until you have color picture on TV.  Notice that you
                   need to keep on going in one direction when changing
                   the values i.e. either always increasing or 
                   decreasing because of the hysteresis nature of this
                   adjustment.
     Some PAL TVs with SCART/S-Video adapters will not show 
     colors thru their S-Video inputs but will show a B&W picture.
     Either the TV set is not tuned to the proper channel or the
     TV set does not support S-Video input.

		     					

V  - FULL SCREEN PLAYBACK
     ====================

    In order to playback in full screen, double click the left button
    of mouse anywhere in the MPEG window or press Ctrl+Z. This will 
    playback the video in full-screen mode. In order to go back to the
    window mode, press Space in full-screen mode and it will resume 
    playback in the restored MPEG window. If you need to start 
    DVD Station in full-screen mode, you can do it by adding the line
    "fullscreen=1" in the [Settings] section of WVP.INI in the 
    directory where you installed the applications (usually REALmagic).

      


VI - HINTS TO RESOLVE PROBLEMS AND BETTER PLAYBACK 
     =============================================

1.  The MPEG files play and the audio can be heard but the video is a 
    solid color.

    Run "REALmagic Configuration" and select "Auto Calibration." Or, 
    make sure that the output of the Display Adapter is routed to the
    NS 2000 input and the Display Adapter's output is routed to
    the monitor.

2.  The picture is waving.

    Run "REALmagic Configuration," select "Border Adjust" and adjust 
    the STABILITY: smoothness of the two vertical sides.

3.  MPEG 1 files run normally, but DVD movies are shaky.

    Make certain that the DVD-ROM drive is connected as a Master on the
    IDE controller. Also make sure of using Bus Mastering IDE drivers.

4.  For DVD-ROMs that require high data transfer rates, it is better to
    have the DVD-ROM drive connected to an IDE controller with the 
    "Bus Master" mode activated.   
    
5.  Capturing of an MPEG frame from an encrypted DVD movie is not 
    supported because of Copyright issues. In other cases the capture
    feature gives its best results at a color depth of 64K (16 bits) 
    or higher.

6.  Playing VOB files using the Media Player might not show the best 
    performance because of different navigation schemes. Use the 
    DVD Station for this.

7.  Video is fine on VGA but is Black and White on TV.
 
    Please see section for TV-Out.

8.  When watching the movie on TV, the picture gets dimmer and brighter
    at short intervals and with some movies some yellow horizontal
    lines appear on the TV screen.

    The TV set is connected to the PC system via a VCR or an alike 
    device.  This device initiates the Macrovision protection of the
    movie.  Connect the TV directly to the PC system.

9.  The S-Video connector on NetStream 2000 is a 7-hole jack and
    my S-Video cable has a 4-pin socket only.

    The 4-pin cable is compatible with the 7-pin socket.  There are
    more pins on the 7-pin socket to provide for the composite TV
    output.

10. I lost the S-Video/Composite Adapter cable and have no access to
    another one.

    Order another one from your supplier.  In the USA, you can check
    the phone number or the email address of the fulfillment center on
    the web site . The  pinout of this adapter is as follows :

          _________
	 /         \
	|  7  6  5  |
	| 4 3   2 1 |
	|           |
	 \  OOOOO  /
	  ---------

	1:GND
	2:Composite
	3:GND
	4:GND
	5:Luma
	6:not connected
	7:Chroma
            

11.  You want DVD Station to check your DVD-ROM first and it has a 
     drive letter after the CD-ROM.  

     DVD Station allows you to set your preferred drive (Options -
     Tab : Play List).

12.  You see the video but no audio.

     - Try first the speakers plugged in NS 2000 and be sure the
       output from DVD Station is Stereo.
     - Then check the audio jumper cable from the output of NS 2000
       to the input of the sound card. If no sound, check the
       volume mixer to have Line-in NOT muted or at low level.
     - If you are using a Dolby Digital Receiver, make sure that it 
       accepts AC-3 streams and your setting in DVD Station is AC-3.
    

13. The maximum refresh rates allowed with the NS 2000 MPEG
    playback depends on a combination of the display adapter, and
    the monitor and some of these combinations may show
    a little degradation in the desktop display because of the 
    overlay. The MPEG playback is not affected.  However, the 
    following can be used as a guideline:

		 640 x  480	100 Hz
		 800 x  600	100 Hz
		1024 x  768	 85 Hz
		1152 x  864	 75 Hz
		1280 x 1024	 60 Hz 
		1600 x 1200	 60 Hz

14. The NS 2000 does NOT support the MP3 files playback.

15. You have a third generation DVD-ROM drive (RPC2 specs that require
    a region code on the drive) and you cannot playback movies.

    Run the manufacturer utility for this drive to set the region code
    to your country code.

16. You can add the option "/f=filename" on the command line of
    DVD Station to allow the direct playback of a file.


17. What is the pinout of the VGA signals on the pass-thru cable ?

       View of the 9 pin socket of the pass-through cable,
       seen from the bracket:
                         
                         _________
                        /_________\
                       |           |
                       | 9    8  7 |
                       |  6 5 4 3  |
                        \   2 1   /
                         ---------

                       1:Blue  IN
                       2:GND
                       3:Green IN
                       4:GND
                       5:Vsync IN
                       6:Hsync IN
                       7:Red   IN
                       8:SDA (from pin12 of DB15) - for PnP monitors
                       9:SCL (from pin15 of DB15) - for PnP monitors

 

VII - SYSTEM MONITOR
      ==============

    There are a variety of statistics that are displayed in the 
    Windows System Monitor utility under the heading RM 8400.

    This can be a very useful tool for developers.

    These are described below:

1)  # interrupts/sec 
2)  Audio int/sec -	"Audio interrupts per second"
3)  Video events pending  
4)  Audio events pending
5)  Video bytes queued -  "Video bytes queued not sent yet to HW"
6)  Audio bytes queued -  "Audio bytes queued not sent yet to HW"
7)  Video bytes/second -  "Video bytes sent per second"
8)  Audio bytes/second -  "Audio bytes sent per second"
9)  VideoFullness  -      "Bytes in VideoHardware Fifo"
10) AudioFullness  -      "Bytes in AudioHardware Fifo"
11) MemoryCheck
12) LockedMemorySize
13) LockedPages
14) AllocMemory
15) NewMemory
16) NodesAllocated



VIII- RELEASE INFO 
      ============

Transport Streams containing multiple Programs (PID's) are supported 
under DirectShow. You can select the PID you desire by using the Property
Page of the REALmagic Splitter Filter. This can also be programmably 
controlled through C++ programming in DirectShow.

The MCI driver will open the MPEG file window by default with the same
size of the MPEG file frame size.  DirectShow will open by aspect
ratio.

DirectShow support is implemented for MPEG-1 and -2, including System,
Program and Transport Streams. 
	The standard I_Async_Reader interface (Pull) is supported.
	The new I_Mem_Input interface (Push) is supported.
	MPEG-1 Payload data is supported.
	You can play back video using the standard Windows Media Player 
         DirectShow -  which is installed with Internet Explorer.
	
Playing a high bit rate file from a slow device as
a CD-ROM drive, multiple quick SEEKs might cause the player to stop
responding.  

Playback from some 24x CD-ROM drives does not work well because some of
these high-speed drives repeatedly speed up and slow down, which causes
the MPEG data to stream very poorly. This causes frequent "drops." Use
the System control panel to set the buffer value for your CD-ROM drive
as high as possible. 

We have experienced AV out-of-synch of up to 2 sec. at the play start.
With a combined slow CPU and a high bit rate of the MPEG streams, it 
may take longer to synchronize.

HDTV support : at this time HDTV can be selected in DVD station only. 
In order to activate HDTV, select HDTV in the Options Dialog\settings 
window and double click anywhere in the MPEG window.  To go back to 
the window mode, double click on the mpeg again or press F5 once to 
go to Full Screen, twice to output to analog TV or three times to go
back to restored window mode.  There are 8 different resolutions to
choose from for HDTV.   The DirectShow decoder filter supports 
outputting on HDTV.  Please note that the HDTV support is for the 
output to TV and not decoding the HDTV frame size as an MPEG input.

You cannot choose the type of TV output (Composite/S-Video, RGB, YUV)
from the REALMagic Configuration program, but it can be done from 
DVD Station and DirectShow.  This should be fixed in the next build.



======================================================================

	END   OF    FILE

