=============================================== Osprey Technologies, Inc. ViewCast Corporation Osprey-2000 MPEG/Capture Driver For Windows NT4.0 Version 2.2.0, build 814 9/20/2002 Sections in this file: - Introduction - Troubleshooting - Testing the Driver - Manuals and Help - Latest Drivers - Revision History - Known Issues in version 2.2.0 - Information - Osprey-2000 Windows 2000 Installation - Important Notice - Contact Information Introduction: ========================================================== ========================================================== This version of the driver is for Windows NT 4.0 only. It is a MPEG Codec and Video for Windows Video capture driver. This driver works only with cards from the Osprey Video Division of ViewCast Corporation. A new feature available in this release of the Osprey-2000 driver is the ability to test drive the Osprey SimulStream(TM) feature. Included in this release is a 10-day evaluation license for SimulStream. The 10-day period begins once the driver has been installed. There is a user option to toggle this capability on and off. While in evaluation mode a watermark will appear on the active video region which denotes usage of an evaluation version of Osprey SimulStream (TM). After the 10-day trial period has expired, one may renew the Osprey SimulStream (TM) evaluation by visiting our website at http://www.viewcast.com/simulstream/eval.html. Troubleshooting ========================================================== ========================================================== If the installation program for this driver appears to hang, press Alt-Tab to ensure that the installation screen is not hidden. When uninstalling the Osprey-2000 software, you must uninstall the optional Runtime and SDK packages FIRST, and uninstall the 'Osprey-2000 Master' driver package LAST. This is necessitated by a known problem in InstallShield 6.0. Testing the Driver: ========================================================== ========================================================== Click on "VidCap32" in the Osprey 2000 program group to test the driver. Manuals and Help: ========================================================== ========================================================== The document SimulStreaming_Users_Guide.pdf contains general information about the SimulStreaming capabilities which are available at added cost in this driver version. Refer to the Osprey-2000 User's Guide for detailed information about the Osprey-2000 board, driver, and optional components. You can access this User's Guide, which is in PDF format, by opening the Osprey-2000UsersGuide.pdf file located at the root directory on the CD. After the driver has been installed, a shortcut to this User's Guide is placed in the Osprey-2000 program group. These manuals require the Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available on your CD, or by download from www.adobe.com. The Help inside the Osprey driver is in HTML. This Help requires a frames-capable browser with JavaScript enabled, such as Microsoft IE 4.0 or later, or Netscape 4.5 or later. Latest Drivers: ========================================================== ========================================================== Before installing, check the ViewCast.com ftp site or the www.ospreyvideo.com website for the latest drivers: For the ftp site, go to: ftp://ftp.viewcast.com/pub/OSP-2000/winnt/latest/ For the website, navigate: www.ospreyvideo.com --> click on Downloads --> click on Software & Drivers --> select your board and operating system from the table If there isn't a newer driver at the time of your installation, please check the website or ftpsite frequently thereafter. Revision History ========================================================== ========================================================== Changes from 2.1.0 build 371 to 2.2.0 build 814: - A new feature available in this release of the Osprey-2000 driver is a free 10-day test drive of the Osprey SimulStream(TM) feature. Included in this release is a 10-day evaluation license for SimulStream. There is a user option to toggle this capability on and off. While in evaluation mode a watermark will appear on the active video region which denotes usage of an evaluation version of Osprey SimulStream (TM). After the 10-day trial period has expired, one may renew the Osprey SimulStream (TM) evaluation by visiting our website at http://www.viewcast.com/simulstream/eval.html. - Added a new feature to control Video Output Configuration. This registry-configurable option controls what signal is presented on video out when the decoder is not in use. Immediately after reboot, the selected video input source will be looped to video out. If the MPEG decoder is never used, video out will always display video-in. However, if the MPEG decoder is used, video out will forever after be subject to the registry setting: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Osprey\Osprey2000\Device0\OMC\Decoder\VideoOutputConfig (Substitute Device1, Device2, etc. if you have multiple boards.) If this key does not exist, video out will switch to a black burst signal when the decoder is closed. Note that there is brief flicker because the video clock is switched. If this key is set to 1, a colorbar signal will be output instead of black burst; if set to 2, a blue field signal will be output; and if set to 3, the default behavior (black burst) will occur. If this key is set to 0, video output will switch to loopback of video-in immediately when the decoder is closed. This is probably undesirable when decoding, but this mode needs to be here for uses who don't use the decoder much, and want to retain the video loop-through capability. The driver installation does not create this registry key. - Added warning message to warn that no SimulStream license is present if user tries to open 1 board in multiple capture/encoding sessions without SimulStream feature enabled. - Added transport stream decoding. - The Closed Caption checkbox is now disabled when the Video Standard in use is PAL format, since PAL does not support closed captions. - Fixed potential audio capture failure to start problem. - When matching audio and video devices, changed to use only the lower 4 bits of PCI bus. This fixes problem for Magma expansion chassis. - Fixed a bug which could result in a race condition when using SimulStream feature. - Fixed bug which could possibly crop incorrect vertical region if the user had enabled SimulStream capability but not CC decoding. - Fixed NetMeeting audio tuning wizard error message "Your soundcard does not support a microphone volume control". - Fixed microphone check problem in Powerpoint 2000. When setting up an online broadcast presentation in Powerpoint, the error message "Powerpoint is not receiving sound from the microphone" has been resolved. - To make audio and video device driver names more consistent, a hyphen was added to the name of the Osprey audio device. For example, previous names were of the form "Osprey 2000 Audio", and are now "Osprey-2000 Audio". This may cause a problem with saved encoding profiles that have stored the old audio driver name. Applications such as the Windows Media Encoder, when loading a saved profile with this old name format, will issue an error and indicate that a device has not been found. The solution is edit the profile and change the audio device name. - Fixed memory access violation in driver. - Fixed a bug in resuming from power-down state. - A bug which caused audio failure on some machines where Device Properties address of PCI device was 0, has been fixed. - Fixed a bug which caused some Osprey-2000 cards not to initialize when more than 5 cards in a system. - Fixed a bug which made Closed Caption decoding produce blue screen crash on some systems when enabled while capturing with SimulStream feature under certain conditions. - Fixed a bug which caused RealSystem Producer 8.51 to crash on certain systems when software de-interlacing was enabled. - Fixed a bug which had required the user to select PAL/NTSC signal format before selecting DV port. - Improved MPEG audio decode sample rate detection. - Fixed a bug which produced 'pop' sound on audio-out port when selecting SDI or AES audio, or when closing MPEG decoder. - Changed MMX detection method to support older CPUs. - Fixed a bug where Automatic Chrominance Gain Control was not always enabled by driver, producing dark analog video input. - Corrected Saturation and Contrast settings for Video-out. - Fixed OPI timestamp drift problem by resetting counters every 24 hours. - Fixed several OPI bugs. MPEGvcr now selects correct audio source and sampling rate for PAL/NTSC DV. OPI example programs now set transport stream bitrate correctly. MPEGvcr now correctly sets PAL/NTSC video standard after calling OPIPipeline::mapToDevices(). Changed OPIPipeline routines to not require deleting OPISystem every time OPIPipeline is destroyed and recreated. Removed 4GB filesize limit from MPEGvcr. - Fixed a problem where CBR bitrate dropped during long MPEG encoding session, and fixed CBR conflict with MPEG1 encoding. - Fixed bug which could cause corrupt audio PTS bits in MPEG stream after 26.5 hours of encoding. ========================================================== Changes from 2.1.0 build 228 to 2.1.0 build 371: - It is necessary to uninstall a previous driver release before installing a new driver release. The installation program now detects whether a previous release is present and prompts the user to uninstall it. - MpegVCR delays for 5-12 seconds before recording/loopback from a DV source. - There are known issues with OPI/MpegVCR and PAL DV that may make it work only intermittently. (#180) - In the installation program, the Back button now handles choosing between Typical and Custom installations correctly. - MpegVCR now supports the 'top field first' MPEG parameter. - The OPI programs MpegVCR and MPEGEncode now set the bitrate properly when encoding MPEG2 Transport streams with a bitrate below 5Mbps. (#206) - If the audio sample rate selected in MpegVCR does not match the actual sample rate of the digital source, MpegVCR will override the user's choice and encode a file using the source's sample. (#157) - When using MpegVCR, or writing an OPI program to encode MPEG-1, the user must choose VBR, not CBR, for release 2.1.0. (#205) - Only VBR is supported for encoding MPEG VES streams (Video Elementary Stream). (#185) Changes from 1.0.5 to 2.1.0 build 228: ========================================================== - Versions 2.1.0 build 228 and later are capable of SimulStreaming. - A new feature, software de-interlace, has been added to the 'Advanced Features' page of the Osprey's video control dialog. De-interlacing is optimized for Windows 2000 and later; it will consume fractionally more CPU cycles when enabled under Windows NT. Please see Chapter 8 of the Osprey-2000 User's Guide for a description of de-interlacing. - Added 'top field first' MPEG parameter. - Improved quality of MPEG audio encode. - Added level meter and mute control to the audio Playback Control mixer. - The level meter in the audio Record Control mixer now works at all times, including during MPEG encoding. - Added CBR (constant bitrate) support for MPEG2 program and transport streams. - Added MPEG decode performance optimizations. - The parameter 'Access to Multiple Boards' on the Video Configuration page has been changed to 'Multiple Opens'. The meaning of this checkbox has also been changed. This checkbox should be selected when using the SimulStreaming feature of the driver. - When SimulStreaming, only 1 session can enable the Closed Caption 'Save to File' option. - Fixed a bug that caused Osprey-2000 to be set as the default audio playback device. - The Osprey-2000 User's Guide has been changed from HTML format to Adobe PDF format. - A new radio button which controls Field Order has been added to the Video Source Page of the control dialog. Refer to Osprey-2000 User's Guide for a description. - Fixed a bug in mixer driver that caused CPU utilization to hit 100% if card was installed in the same machine as a SoundBlaster Live card and an optional utility from Creative. - The parameter 'Access to Multiple Boards' on the Video Configuration page has been changed to 'Multiple Opens'. The meaning of this checkbox has also been changed. This checkbox should be selected when using the SimulStreaming feature of the driver. Changes from 1.0.3 to 1.0.5: ============================ - Support for MPEG encoding bitrates of 8-10 Mbps has been added. - Editing of MPEG-2, MPEG-1, and AVI files is supported by the following software: - Adobe Premiere - Sonic Foundry's Vegas Video - Ulead Media Studio Pro Please contact the software vendor if you have questions about these software packages. - Support for Revision 4 of Osprey-2000 hardware has been added. - This release introduces beta-level support for control of additional MPEG encoding attributes in OPI and DirectShow. The MpegVCR application does not currently provide access to these attributes. - There is a known problem in MPEGvcr. When you change the video source (composite, SDI, etc.) and/or the Video Signal (NTSC/PAL) using the Options dialog in MPEGvcr, the change will not take effect in loopback video until after you have played live video. Therefore: (1) make the desired change; (2) select Live Video briefly; (3) select Loopback. Changes from 1.0.2 to 1.0.3: ============================ - The volume of audio in encoded MPEG files has been increased. - Encoded MPEG streams are properly terminated with an end code. - Decoding of PAL MPEG streams is supported for MPEG-2 height=576 and MPEG-1 height=144 and 288. - MPEG encode buffer size is no longer required to be a multiple of 32768 bytes. - Use of encoding applications on decode-only boards now fail gracefully. Known issues in version 2.2.0: ========================================================== ========================================================== - The uninstall program does not prompt the user to reboot after uninstalling the driver. The machine must be rebooted to complete the uninstall. - With the existing SimulStream architecture, you MUST pair your fastest desired framerate with your session with the largest pixel size resolution when creating multiple capturing/ encoding sessions using the optional SimulStream feature. This is explained in the SimulStreaming_Users_Guide.pdf as "...all frames must be scaled copy or none of the frames must be scaled copy." If you do not follow this guideline, some streams may fail to start encoding/capturing, or a blue screen crash could possibly occur. The driver will display a warning message if the Nth stream which you attempt to start violates this guideline. - MPEG-2 encoding at audio sample rate 48kHz with audio bitrate set to 384Kbps may generate bad MEPG streams. - RealProducer 8.51 / Heavy Load Problem: There is a known problem with RealProducer 8.5/8.51 in which it adds video buffers to the capture device before RealProducer has finished processing the buffers. Typically under non-loaded CPU utilizations this is not a problem because the buffer can be processed by RealProducer before being prepared for capture. However, under heavy CPU load, the capture driver can prepare the buffer for capture before RealProducer finishes or even starts processing the buffer. The result is typically a processed image that has a multicolored pattern in the image. The size / height of this pattern depends on how far RealProducer has processed the buffer before it is prepared for capture. If you find this situation occurs first try to reduce your CPU load before contacting Osprey support. - When transcoding using RealProducer, sometimes a thread deadlock occurs in RealProducer if the user has turned on "View Input Source". Workaround is to turn that off, and view the output only. This workaround doesn't always fix it, so use of the "Application Capture" method of transcoding is recommended to avoid this Real bug. - You MUST uninstall the optional Runtime and SDK Osprey-2000 packages FIRST, and uninstall the 'Osprey-2000 Master' LAST. If you have accidentally uninstalled the Master package first, you can work around the problem by re-installing the Master package and rebooting. Sometimes the problem is not resolved until you have re-installed a second time. Information: ========================================================== ========================================================== - The Osprey-2000 does not support simultaneous capturing of audio to the host while encoding MPEG. To listen to audio while encoding MPEG, connect your speakers to the audio out connector attached to the card. If you attempt to capture audio to the host while encoding MPEG, you will receive an error message that the device is in use. - MPEG2 transport stream decode is not supported in this release. - Audio capture driver does not support independent control of left and right channels. - Microsoft's DXMedia Runtime is provided on the Osprey-2000 release CD. The DirectShow Runtime is also provided on your CD. However, DirectShow features do no work under Windows NT, because they require DirectX 8 support. Osprey-2000 Windows NT4.0 Installation: ========================================================== ========================================================== The Osprey-2000 installation consists of a base driver (required) and 3 optional components. During the course of this installation, you will be prompted choose whether to install the 3 optional components: - OPI Runtime - OPI Software Developer's Kit - VFW Software Developer's Kit The text in the prompt windows explains the contents of each optional component. To run the installation, run \WinNT\setup.exe on the Osprey-2000 release CD. Important Notice =============================================== =============================================== If you are using an Osprey-100 or Osprey-200 card in the same machine as your Osprey-2000 card, we strongly recommend that you upgrade the 100/200-family card to the version 2.0.0 or later driver. If you are using an Osprey-500 card in the same machine as your Osprey-2000 card, we strongly recommend that you upgrade the Osprey-500 card to the version 2.1 or later driver. Contact information: =============================================== =============================================== voice: 888-684-6622 fax: 919-319-9814 email: support@viewcast.com website: www.viewcast.com