Documentation for AVI4PV.EXE version 1.15  22.03.2001 Wolfgang Hesseler
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

AVI4PV.EXE is an external AVI, MOV, MPG, WAV, VOC, MP3 and Animated GIF
player for PV. It is a light version of the shareware program QuickView,
the current version is 2.43.


Supported file formats of AVI4PV
================================

- .AVI: Sound can be either PCM, Microsoft ADPCM, IMA ADPCM, A-law, u-law
        or GSM 6.10.

- .MOV: Sound can be "raw", "twos", A-law, u-law, IMA ADPCM or GSM 6.10.

  Supported video codecs for AVI and MOV:
    Cinepak [cvid] (8 and 24 bit),
    CLJR [cljr] (24 bit),
    Creative Video Blaster [cyuv] (16 bit),
    DIB (4, 8, 16, 24 and 32 bit),
    Indeo(tm) 3.1, 3.2 and 5 [IV31, IV32 and IV50] (24 bits),
    I420 (24 bit),
    IYUV (24 bit),
    Motion JPEG [MJPG] (24 bit),
    MS Video 1 [msvc] (8 and 16 bit),
    QPEG [QPEG] (V1.0 and 1.1, 8 bit),
    Rainbow Runner [dmb1] (24 bit),
    RLE (8 bit),
    Ultimotion (OS/2 AVIs) [ULTI] (16 bit),
    VYUY (24 bit),
    Y41P (24 bit),
    V422 (24 bit),
    YUY2 (24 bit),
    YV12 (24 bit),
    YVU9 (24 bit),
    Apple codecs:
    Animation [rle] (1, 4, 8, 16 and 24 bit),
    BMP [WRLE] (4, 8 and 24 bit),
    Component [YUV2] (24 bit),
    Graphics [smc] (8 bit),
    JPEG [jpeg] (24 bit),
    Motion JPEG A [MJPA] (24 bit),
    None [raw] (4, 8 and 24 bit),
    Planar RGB [8BPS] (grayscale, 8, 24 and 32 bit),
    Video [rpza] (16 bit, only HiColor Playback)

- .MPG, MPEG 1 video files with or without audio
  .M1V
  .DAT: Files from VideoCDs (usually AVSEQxx.DAT). Most CD drivers don't
        support this under DOS, only under Windows

- .VOC

- .WAV: Supported audio codecs are:
        PCM
        Microsoft ADPCM
        IMA ADPCM
        Creative Labs ADPCM
        A-law
        u-law
        GSM 6.10
        MPEG Audio

- .MP1, Audio MPEG 1.0/2.0/2.5, Layer 1,2 and 3
  .MP2,
  .MP3:

- .GIF: full support of animated GIFs



System Requirements
===================

AVI4PV is a 32 bit protected mode program and therefore needs at least a
80386 processor. It will run under DOS 3.0 or better, or in a DOS shell
under Windows 95/98 and OS/2. You must have a VGA card in your system. For
sound support you must have a Sound Blaster compatible sound card (or ESS
card), a Gravis UltraSound Classic or MAX, or a Windows Sound System. For
playback of MPEGs with higher resolutions, a Pentium 166 system is
recommended. Also, you should take care that you have a VESA 2.0 compliant
graphics card or driver as it has a high influence on the MPEG performance.



Installation
============

Simply place AVI4PV.EXE in the same directory as PV. That's it!
AVI4PV is called from PV if an AVI, MOV, MPG, VOC, WAV, MP3 or GIF is
chosen with PV. AVI4PV will automatically detect your machine, memory and
graphics card. For sound support you must have the Environment variable
BLASTER set containing port address, IRQ and DMA channel or the appropriate
ULTRASND variable for the Gravis UltraSound. A Windows Sound System card is
autodetected.



Command Line Format
===================

Since AVI4PV can only be called from PV you have to modify PVBAT.LST to
change the defaults of AVI4PV. The lines must be as follows (all parameter
in brackets are optional):
AVI4PV.EXE [options] file name

Options
-------

 /V  Don't use VESA. AVI4PV autodetects many graphics cards and uses
     VESA by default. The /V option tells AVI4PV to not use the VESA
     interface if installed, but if you want to use HiColor or TrueColor
     modes the VESA interface must be used. If your graphics card does not
     support VESA you can use a VESA TSR like Scitech Display Doctor.

 /B  Don't autodetect chipset. This also disables the detection of video
     chips that are supported with hardware acceleration.

 /Wa,b,c,d,e Set sound card parameters
     a: card type:
        a=0: no sound card
        a=1: Sound Blaster or compatible and ESS
        a=2: Gravis UltraSound Classic or Max
        a=3: Windows Sound System
        a=4: enforce Sound Blaster Pro use (you can just use /W4 in this
             case, the other parameters will be taken from the BLASTER
             environment variable)
     b: port address, hexadecimal
     c: IRQ
     d: DMA (for the Sound Blaster 16 or higher: Low DMA channel)
     e: high DMA channel (only for the Sound Blaster 16 or higher)
     Example: "/W1,220,5,1" for Sound Blaster, Port 220h, IRQ 5, DMA 1
     For no sound card, use /W0
     Use the /W parameter only if really necessary, for example if the
     program crashes when it tries to autodetect a sound card. Please note
     that your system might crash if you use wrong parameters.

 /Ox Set audio volume (x between 0 and 15).

 /A  No sound with videos.

 /P  Preload AVI/MOV sound. The sound of an AVI will be loaded in advance.
     This will give better performance with slower systems, especially if
     the sound is compressed. However you have to wait some time until the
     video begins to play. Please also try this option if you hear sound
     pops.

 /D  Don't drop frames if behind with AVIs and MPEGs. The sound will
     automatically be disabled with this option.

 /4  Don't use 320x240 mode. AVI4PV will use the 320x240 mode with 256
     colors, HiColor or TrueColor mode by default if it allows it to play
     the video full screen.

 /Qx AVI/MOV/MPG quality:
     x=0: TrueColor. Will give the best quality for all codecs.
     x=1: 32768 or 65536 colors depending on the graphics card's features
     x=2: 256 colors
     x=3: Grayscale. Usually the fastest playback mode.
     Default is HiColor.
     Note: AVI4PV will use at most the amount of colors that the codec
           uses.

 -Kx Type of video scaling:
     x=0: No scaling
     x=1: 2x zoom: The video will be played twice as big. Note that 2x
          Zoom might require a higher screen resolution so that the video
          doesn't appear bigger.
     x=2: 2x scaling with every second line black. This helps to speed up
          the display. It is only supported with HiColor. Otherwise, 2x
          scaling without black lines will be used.
     x=3: Full screen software scaling. The video will be played full
          screen using software scaling. This is CPU very CPU intensive. On
          slower systems use one of the previous options.
     x=4: Full screen hardware scaling. The graphics chip's hardware
          scaling and color space conversion facilities will be use to play
          the video full screen. This is currently supported for the
          follwing graphics chips: S3 Vision 868 and 968, S3 Virge,
          S3 Virge DX, GX and GX/2, S3 Trio64V+, S3 Trio64V2, Blade 3D
          and MVP4, more to follow.
          If hardware scaling is not supported with your hardware, then
          software scaling will be used.
     Default is Full screen hardware scaling or if not available full
     screen scaling.

 -UR Keep aspect ratio when showing pictures and videos full screen.

 -UB Use banked video memory access instead of linear frame buffer. Use
     this option if QuickView crashes while video playback or when showing
     pictures. Some VESA BIOSes (for example certain SiS chips) are buggy.

 -UF Don't show pictures full screen.

 -US Don't synchronize video playback with the vertical retrace of the
     monitor. If you use this option you might get tearing artefacts.
     However, synchronizing takes some time. If you're getting framedrops
     you should try to use this option.



All parameters are case-insensitive.

You don't have to use any of the mentioned options. The default settings
will work for most systems. You have to use an option only if you encounter
a problem. Please modify PVBAT.LST in this case. Example: change the line
"AVI AVI4PV.EXE" to "AVI AVI4PV /A" to disable AVI sound.



Commands While Viewing
======================

For all file types
------------------
  Esc: Stop viewing
  + -: increase and decrease the sound volume respectively

For AVI, MOV and MPG files
--------------------------
  Space: Pause Viewing, space again: next frame, any other key: continue

For AVI and MP3 files
---------------------
  Arrow-key left, right: forward, rewind respectively
  CTRL-Arrow-key left, right: fast forward, rewind respectively



Questions & Answers
===================

-Q: The sound doesn't work at all,
    The sound card isn't detected,
    Videos stop after the first frame,
    sound parts are repeated over and over again,
    the sound quality is poor
 A: Most of the time the reason for these problems are incorrect sound card
    settings in the BLASTER environment variable.
    There must be a command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT like this:
      SET BLASTER=Axxx Ix Dx Hx Pxxx Tx
    with
    A: Sound Blaster base I/O-port,
    I: IRQ,
    D: DMA low channel,
    H: DMA high channel (only required for SB16 or higher),
    P: MIDI port (not evaluated),
    T: Sound Blaster Type (not evaluated)

    Usual values are: A220, I5 or I7, D1, H5.
    If I5 does not work for you, try I7 and vice versa.

    For the original Sound Blaster there is a program called "DIAGNOSE.EXE"
    which programs the sound card configuration according to the values in
    the BLASTER variable. Use "DIAGNOSE /S" in your "AUTOEXEC.BAT".

    Under http://www.multimediaware.com/qv/sbdetect.zip there is a program
    that low level detects the Sound Blaster settings.

    For the Gravis UltraSound there must be the environment variable
    "ULTRASND".

    If your sound card is not detected properly, you can set the sound
    card parameter directly using the /W parameter.

-Q: The AVI/MPEG stops after first frame, WAV/VOC playback stops.
 A: This usually indicates you set the wrong IRQ in the BLASTER environment
    variable.

-Q: I don't hear sound with some AVIs/MOVs.
 A: Some AVIs/MOVs don't have the audio separated into pieces, so AVI4PV
    must load the audio beforehand. If there is not enough memory available
    then the audio is omitted. In some cases it helps to reduce the number
    of colors. Another possible reason is that the AVI/MOV is truncated.

-Q: The video is played jerky.
 A: This is because not all frames of the video are displayed. At least one
    component of your system is too slow. Try copying the file to your hard
    disk if you play it back from CD. Use no scaling. Choose a lower number
    of colors. Jerky video playback is also the case if the video was
    captured with a low frame rate.

-Q: Why is the video quality bad with some videos?
 A: This might be because you don't have a TrueColor or HiColor card or you
    don't have a VESA driver in your system. In the latter case you should
    use the VESA TSR for your graphics card or Scitech Display Doctor,
    available on many FTP-servers, BBSs, from Shareware distributors or on
    my WWW page. The VESA driver must conform at least to version 1.2 of
    the VESA standard. Versions prior to 1.2 of the VESA standard did not
    define TrueColor and HiColor modes.

-Q: I get memory error messages with some files. What can I do?
 A: Select a lower number of colors, e.g. HiColor instead of TrueColor.
    Turn off sound.

-Q: I can't forward and rewind AVIs.
 A: Either the AVI has no index or a bad index, or it does not have
    keyframes, or there is not enough memory.

-Q: The text screen is messed up after hardware scaling was used.
 A: Scaling doesn't work properly with your graphics card. Choose a
    different scaling type than hardware full screen.

-Q: I get some lines on the graphics screen with my ATI Mach graphics card
    under Windows 95/98.
 A: Try M64VBE with parameter S

-Q: I get a black or garbled screen when I start the program.
 A: Try starting the program with the parameter /B.

-Q: What do I have to do to make AVI4PV run under OS/2?
 A: You have to set the following definitions for the DOS session:
    INT_DURING_IO: ON
    IDLE_SENSIVITY: 100
    HW_TIMER: ON
    VIDEO_RETRACE_EMULATION: OFF
    Make sure the BLASTER or ULTRASND environment variable is set properly.
    The OS/2 Sound Blaster drivers seem to have a DMA handling problem in
    a DOS session which sometimes causes a lockup with sound output. Try to
    get an updated sound card driver. If that doesn't help, please either
    turn off sound or run the program under plain DOS.

-Q: What is a codec?
 A: Video and audio sequences are compressed and decompressed by routines
    called codecs (short for compressor/decompressor). A codec is
    responsible for compressing raw video or audio data into a format
    suitable for distribution. When you play the compressed video or audio
    sequence, the codecs integrated in AVI4PV perform a reverse role,
    converting the compressed data into images or sound that can be played
    on your system.

-Q: Is AVI4PV year 2000 compliant?
 A: Yes.


Differences between AVI4PV and QuickView
========================================

AVI4PV is an external AVI/MOV/MPG/WAV/VOC/MP3/GIF viewer for PV. It may
only be used together with PV.

QuickView is a stand-alone viewer with a menu. It can view more video
formats and some picture formats. There are more AVI, MOV and MPG options
with QuickView.



How to get an up-to-date version of AVI4PV or QuickView
=======================================================

AVI4PV is distributed with PV. You can download the latest version on the
PV homepage www.multimediaware.com/pv/. For further possibilities on how
to get an up-to-date version please look in the PV documentation.

The file name of the QuickView package is always qvproxxx.zip where xxx is
the version number. Note that some BBSs use a different archiver than ZIP.

- Internet WWW:
  The QuickView Homepage: http://www.multimediaware.com/qv/
  You will get the latest version including minor revisions and beta test
  versions there.

- Internet FTP:
  Official FTP distribution sites (you will find the most recent version
  here including minor revisions):
    ftp://ftp.multimediaware.com/qv
  Major releases are also available from SimTel:
    ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/mmedia

- Via email:
  Send an email to requestqv@multimediaware.com, subject and body don't
  matter. There is an autoresponder that will send you the latest version
  automatically within a few minutes.

- Via snail mail. Send me a floppy disk with a self-addressed, stamped
  envelope only if you have German stamps. Otherwise please send a
  self-addressed envelope with enough cash or International Postal Coupons
  if you are outside Germany.

- You'll get the latest version when registering.



Registration
============

Please register AVI4PV together with PV (see PVE.DOC).

Or register a full QuickView version. This one is independend of PV. A
registration is only valid for one system. If you want to use the program
on several systems you must get several licenses. Please fill out the
registration form attached at the end of this documentation and send it to:

Wolfgang Hesseler
Neustadter Str. 6
53547 Rossbach
Germany



How to contact the author
=========================

Please report all bugs and suggestions for improvements or enhancements.
I'm also very interested in files that AVI4PV claims to show but
doesn't play correctly. Feel free to contact me.
You may use one of the following ways:

My Internet address (this is the preferred way):
  hesseler@multimediaware.com

If you don't get a reply within a week please send it again. Emails can
get lost.

If you don't have email access here is my snail mail address:

Wolfgang Hesseler
Neustadter Str. 6
53547 Rossbach
Germany

Please include return postage, using International Postal Coupons if you
are outside Germany.

Contact me if you are interested in video playback with your application.
There are external AVI/MOV/MPG players and libraries for various
programming languages.


This program is copyrighted 1994-2001 by Wolfgang Hesseler, all rights
reserved.

This Software is provided "AS IS". The author makes no warranty of any kind
either expressed or implied. In particular the author makes no warranty as
to merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose or a particular
hardware configuration. Furthermore the author is not responsible for any
damages of any kind, including profit losses and data loss or other
incidental or consequential damages arising out of your use or inability
to use the program. The person using the software bears all risk as to the
quality and performance of the software.

All files belonging to AVI4PV contain proprietary information which are
protected by copyright. This includes reverse engineering, decompiling and
disassembling. No part may be altered or translated without the prior
written consent of the author. Any violation of the copyright will be
prosecuted by the author and by Intel.

EXPORT LAWS: You agree that this Software is not intended to be shipped
either directly or indirectly to country groups Q,S,W,Y,Z,Afghanistan
or the People's Republic of China, unless a validated export license
is obtained from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

APPLICABLE LAW: This Agreement is governed by the laws of Germany, the
State of California and the United States, including patent and copyright
laws.

The invalidity or unenforceability of any provision of this agreement will
not affect the validity or enforceability of any other provision of this
agreement.

The information about some codecs is from XAnim. Thanks to Mark Podlipec.
Cinepak is a trademark of Radius.
Indeo and the Indeo Logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the USA and
other countries.
QPEG is a registered trademark of Q-Team Dr. Knabe GmbH, www.q-team.de
This product uses Ultimotion(tm) IBM video technology. Copyright
International Business Machines Corporation 1994, All rights reserved.
The GSM 6.10 support is based on code from the Communications and Operating
Systems Research Group at the Technische Universitaet Berlin; Copyright
1992, 1993, 1994 by Jutta Degener and Carsten Bormann.
The MPEG Video Code is based in part on mpeg_play; Copyright (c) 1995 The
Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
The MPEG Audio Code is based in part on MPG123; Copyright (c) 1995-98 by
Michael Hipp, all rights reserved.
The Graphics Interchange Format(c) is the Copyright property of CompuServe
Incorporated. GIF(sm) is a Service Mark property of CompuServe Incorporated.
TARGA is a registered trademark of Truevision, Inc.
This software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group.
QuickTime is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.
Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
All other product names mentioned in this software are trademarks or
registered trademarks of their respective owners.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

                    QuickView Registration Form              Ver. 2.43


    Name: ____________________________________________________________

    Company: (if applicable) _________________________________________

    Address: _________________________________________________________

             _________________________________________________________

             _________________________________________________________

    Country: _________________________________________________________

    Email address: (optional) ________________________________________

    Please also answer the following questions concerning your
    system. It helps me if problems occur.

    CPU Type: _____________________________  memory: _________________

    Graphics card: ___________________________________________________

    Sound card: ______________________________________________________


    [ ] QuickView current shareware version           ( only S. & H. )
    [ ] QuickView registration for private users      (35 DM or $25US)
    [ ] QuickView registration for students           (20 DM or $15US)
    [ ] QuickView registration for commercial users   (70 DM or $50US)
    [ ] Shipping & Handling inside Europe             ( 5 DM or  $4US)
    [ ] Shipping & Handling outside Europe            ( 7 DM or  $5US)
        (none for email delivery)
                                                       ---------------

                                               Total:  _______________

    Please mark with an X:
    Payment:  [ ] cash, $US or DM
              [ ] Eurocheque or cheque drawn to a German bank, DM only
              [ ] other cheque in US$
              [ ] postal money order, DM only
              [ ] Bank transfer, please contact the author first

    Delivery: [ ] on disk (3.5", 1.44 Mb)
              [ ] via email, don't forget your email-address!

    Comments, bug reports, wishes:

    __________________________________________________________________

    __________________________________________________________________

    __________________________________________________________________

