HAUPPAUGE WinCast TV BOARD ========================== Driver Information ------------------ Filename : wcast.sys Name : WCAST Version : 1.042A - 24 May 2000 (24/05/2000) Authors : Tim Snape, John Rodriguez Copyright (c) Abbotsbury Software Ltd, 1996-2000 UK All Rights Reserved Introduction ------------ This text file has been written in support of the WinCast TV board (produced by Hauppauge) driver for OS/2. The driver is currently still in a pre-beta release stage and was originally released on 11th January 1997. All questions about the driver should be directed to the addresses given at the bottom of this message. It is suggested that any interested parties should subscribe to the mailing list on the OS/2 TV support pages http://www.os2tv.com We will try to respond to all correspondence but due to pressures of work this will be on a "Best Effort Basis" only. Quick Re-Installation --------------------- In most cases to re-install simply copy the new version of wcast.sys over the top of the old version. To make sure you are not using old out of date settings delete the file : del "c:\mmos2\wcast 1.ini" The file name has a space in it, so the double quotes are required. If it is a major release it is better to do a full install. Re-Installation --------------- If you are installing this package over an existing installation, follow the installation instructions as though it was a new installation. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO UNINSTALL USING THE MINSTALL PACKAGE. Minstall has the side effect of trashing the config.sys file. Installation ------------ Once you have unzipped the file into a directory, type 'minstall' to install the driver and the required programs. This will prompt you through the various options. Select only the default values are these are left over from previous versions of the driver. Once installation is complete you will need to reboot your system. To start viewing your TV, you will have to run a special TV applet. You can start this program from the command line or from a program icon you create. The applet is called divetv.exe and it is placed (by the minstall) in the MMOS/2 directory (i.e. 'c:\mmos2\divetv.exe'). The parameters to the program are the board type, the board number, and an optional connector. For example: 1) To connect to the default (previously connected) connector divetv wcast 1 2) To connect to external 1 connector divetv wcast 1 0 3) To connect to external 2 connector divetv wcast 1 1 4) To connect to tuner connector divetv wcast 1 2 5) To connect to SVHS connector divetv wcast 1 3 Current Status -------------- This is an interim release and requires the use of an application to capture the images and then play them onto the screen using Dive. An application (WTV.EXE) is supplied that does this and there is example code in the video toolkit that demonstrates how to program it up. The OS/2 drivers have been modified to perform overlay directly into the display adapters hardware Video Ram map. The code is working but there is still quite a lot of fiddly little things to do. The minimum requirement to perform this Direct Draw like video function with the new version of this driver will be : Warp Version 4 or higher FixPak 6 or higher A display adapter with a single Video Ram aperture. GRADD support enabled The OS/2 driver is currently still in development and as such some of the functions of the other drivers (the Celebrity, Prism, High-Q, etc) are not yet present in the WinCast version. However, here are a list of functions available that are known to function on the machines I have tried: - Video image on screen It is now possible to scale the video image appearing in the WTV window to the correct dimensions. Previous versions of the driver caused the image to either be too small or too large depending on the display adapter. There is still a problem in the WTV application that causes the image to be distorted when it is below a certain width. This is due to Direct Interface Video Extensions (DIVE) code that has been used in WTV. We know that this bug is there (along with some other DIVE problems) and these will be solved at some point in the near future. There is also partial support for clipping (caused by windows being dragged over the top of the WTV window) in that functions are available for this except they are not being used at this moment in time. - Capture functions Improvements in the capture have been made and these can be seen by performing single-frame captures in the Multimedia Setup notebook. You'll find that the captures are better if you close WTV when doing a single frame capture. - Scaling and positioning Is much simpler than with earlier drivers. The scaling setting in the align notebook page does nothing. - Image controls The WinCast driver supports hue, saturation, brightness and contrast adjustments. Previous versions of the driver did not work quite right with the saturation and contrast but the current version is much improved in this respect. - Tuner capabilities We've successfully added support for the tuner and now the driver supports RF input as well as the two externals and the SVHS signal. The automatic tuning available through WarpTV should also work well with this version. We have added all the tuner code for the different Hauppauge tuners - that we are aware of ! - Audio capabilities Audio "should" work but the same applies as for Tuner Capabilities There are obviously a lot of controls missing from the driver. Below is a list of the functions to come but some are waiting on hardware to be delivered. - WarpTV support At the moment the WinCast driver uses a specialised application to put the TV image on the screen using DIVE. WarpTV WILL work with the final version of this driver, but not with this release. If you would like to install the WarpTV support read the document gradd.doc which is included in this distribution. - Teletext and Intercast The functions to provide these capabilities won't be present for a long time due to priorities. There may also be a delay in producing the Intercast functions due to no British TV channels supporting this new technology. Sorry about this but I figure you'll want to see pictures and hear words before you want to read anything :). Release Information ------------------- The latest release of the driver (see version number at the top of this file) The package you have downloaded should include: wcast.sys - This is the OS/2 Warp device driver for the WinCast board divetv.exe - This is a TV application specifically designed for the WinCast board. It includes basic functions like a remote control (click left mouse button in window) and connector adjustments. All other functions should work through the multimedia setup. Conclusion ---------- It is very important that you support the WinCast driver development by sending bugs and reports to us. In particular these are questions we need answered: - Which systems support the driver? And which don't? Particularly we would like to know which display controllers are supported. In theory this should be all those supported by DIVE but there may be some that don't like the card. - Are there any timing problems with the TV image? If you see an image that contains noise or junk, or just doesn't look right tell us. I know for a fact that the image will show blurred images for fast moving objects but there should be no 'Venetian blind' effect. If you are going to email fault details please append output from the two supplied utilities : vxpenum wcast 1 > debug.doc diag wcast 1 >> debug.doc Anything else you think we should know should also be sent to us. The best thing to do is to fill out a standard form that we'll provide on the OS/2 TV support web-site (http://www.os2tv.com). Alternatively you can mail your reports to us at the addresses below and all mail will receive a response. Contact Information ------------------- If you have any questions or problems with the driver please email the 'os2tv-support@os2tv.com' with an appropriate subject heading. Alternatively you can contact me, Tim Snape (tim@wdi.co.uk), directly and I'll try to answer any questions. IF YOU WANT REGULAR INFORMATION ABOUT THE DRIVER, SUBSCRIBE TO THE MAILING LIST. Good Luck Tim Snape