=============================================== Osprey Video Division ViewCast Corporation Osprey-500 Capture Driver For Windows(R) NT Version 2.2.1 Update 4/2/2003 Sections in this file: - Introduction - Troubleshooting - Revision History - Known Issues in version 2.2.1 Update - DXMedia - Latest Drivers - Important Notice - Contact information Introduction: ================================================== ================================================== This version of the driver is for Windows NT only. It is a Video for Windows Video and Audio capture driver. This driver works only with cards sold by the Osprey Technologies Division of ViewCast.com. A new feature available in this release of the Osprey-500 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. 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-500 User's Guide, for detailed information about the board and driver. You can access the User's Guide, which is in PDF format, by opening the Osprey-500UsersGuide.pdf file located at the top-level directory on your CD. The User's Guide can also be accessed from the Osprey-500's program group menu after the installation. The User's Guide requires 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. Troubleshooting =============================================== =============================================== If you see an entirely blue video field for any digital (SDI or DV) input, check to make sure the Osprey-100 Analog mode is not selected in the Advanced Features tab of the driver's video control dialog. This option could have been previously manually selected, or automatically selected in previous releases (1.0.5 and earlier) of the Osprey-500 software if the user last ran a non-certified application. Revision History =============================================== =============================================== Changes from 2.2.1 Build 6 to 2.2.1 Update: =============================================== - Provided registry-enabled workaround for data loss/repeated video lines which occurs with some motherboard bridges and chipsets. To enable, set HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\o500drv\Config to 0x00100002 and reboot. - Provided registry-enabled workaround to turn off SimulStream warning message that displays when SimulStream is not enabled. To enable workaround, set HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Osprey\Osprey500\Device0\VcDll\ExtFlags to 0x100. - Fixed problem where video driver crashed or behaved incorrectly when application requested HD video size (larger than 720x480 for NTSC). Changes from 2.2.0 Build 915 to 2.2.1 Build 6: =============================================== - 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. - Changed timeout-period in driver startup for checking whether a SimulStream evaluation key is enabled. - Removed files msxml3.dll, msxml3a.dll, msxml3r.dll from InstallShield script. - Fixed potential audio capture failure to start problem which sometimes occurred after repeated starts/stops. - Updated inside-driver help files. Changes from 2.1.0 Build 422 to 2.2.0 Build 915: =============================================== - A new feature available in this release of the Osprey-500 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. - Fixed NetMeeting audio tuning wizard error message "Your soundcard does not support a microphone volume control". - Fixed microphone check problem in Powerpoint. When setting up an online broadcast presentation in Powerpoint, the error message "Powerpoint is not receiving sound from the microphone" has been resolved. - Applet o500audstat has been removed from the release, but is available from Customer Support. - The Closed Caption checkbox is now disabled when the Video Standard in use is PAL format, or when SDI or DV is selected for video source; these video standards and/or sources do not support CC. - Audio upsampling quality has been improved. - Fixed problem of analog video being too dark. - Fixed a bug which could potentially cause a Blue Screen crash when an application using the Osprey card terminated abnormally. - Fixed a bug which could result in a race condition when using SimulStream feature. - Fixed: problem that required user to wait 10 seconds before clicking the 'Yes' button in response to 'Digital Signature Not Found' query when multiple boards are present in a machine while installing the driver. - Fixed a bug where starting a digital audio source could potentially change the sample rate for an analog audio source which was already capturing audio and using SimulStream feature. - The Force odd-even frame order checkbox has been moved from the Video Source page to the Advanced Features page. Force even-odd frame order checkbox has been added. - Support for the redesigned Osprey-500 DV and Osprey-500 DV Pro cards has been added. These redesigned models contain a model number ending in -03. - Fixed a bug where driver was unable to lock onto DV signal if DV source was selected before Video Standard was selected. - Fixed a bug which caused audio failure on some machines where Device Properties address of PCI device was 0. - A new feature, software de-interlacing, has been added to the Advanced Features page. This is in addition to the hardware de-interlacing that already existed in this product. Software de-interlacing is optimized for Windows 2000 and later; it will consume fractionally more CPU cycles when enabled under Windows NT. Changes from 1.0.6 Build 2.4 to 2.1 Build 422: ================================================ - Versions 2.1 and later are capable of SimulStreaming. - 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. - New applet o500audstat has been added to the release. o500audstat reports the currently selected audio input port and sampling rate for each Osprey-500 board. The applet reports the hardware sample rate on the Osprey-500. If the hardware sample rate differs from the sample rate requested by an application, the Osprey drivers will resample the audio data to the application's requested rate. For analog sources, the hardware sample rate is the rate at which the analog signal is digitized. For digital sources, the hardware sample rate is the sample rate of the audio source. - New Control Panel applet has been added to the release. This applet allows the user to control Video Input port, Video Standard, Brightness, Contrast, and Saturation of Osprey-500 boards while another application is using the board. - The Osprey driver includes a new Force odd-even frame order checkbox on the Video Source page of the driver control dialog. It does not give the user full control over the scan order. Specifically, the user cannot force even-odd field order. If the box is checked, field order is forced to odd-even. If the box is unchecked, the driver chooses the field order that will give fastest performance. - The layout of the Video Source and Video Format dialog boxes in the driver control dialog have been changed. Please refer to the User's Guide for details. - When SimulStreaming, only 1 session can enable the Closed Caption 'Save to File' option. - The audio source may not be changed while audio is being captured from a card. - Updated user manual. Changes from 1.0.6 Build 2.2 to 1.0.6 Build 2.4: ================================================ - 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! and an optional utility from Creative. - Fixed install program so that VFmtDlgCfg is set correctly in registry. - Updated user manual. - If you have a mixture of Osprey-500 board(s) and other Osprey cards (200, 2000, 220, 100, etc) installed in a machine, install the Osprey-500 driver last. If you are not able to capture from any card, please contact Support. A patch is available which repairs this problem. Changes from 1.0.5 Patch 1 to 1.0.6: ==================================== - Removed the Microsoft Application exclusivity requirement from the audio and video drivers. The Osprey-500 can now work and be fully utilized with any VFW or DirectShow based audio/video application. Changes from 1.0.5 to 1.0.5 Patch 1: ==================================== - Fixed "no audio present" bug that occurred when multiple Osprey cards were installed in some types of machines. - Fixed audio source selection bug caused by installing both Osprey-100 and Osprey-2x0 devices in same machine with the Osprey-500. - Fixed audio echo that would occasionally occur during long encoding sessions. - Fixed audio initialization bug on Osprey-500s that would require a hardware reboot. The bug symptom was that analog audio capture would produce silent data. - Prevents blue screen when a kernel driver synchronization fault is detected. Changes from 1.0.4 to 1.0.5: ============================ - Fixed bug that caused Osprey-500 DV and Osprey-500 Pro cards to display incorrect audio ports. - The Osprey driver includes a new Bypass Color Correction checkbox on the Video Source page of the driver control dialogs. This checkbox applies ONLY to digital video sources. Check Bypass color correction to turn off all saturation, contrast, and brightness conversion in hardware and pass digital video data directly to the host. This is most useful for the SDI and DV input sources. - The Audio Settings applet has been removed from the release. See Appendix I for instructions about setting software gain and rate conversion method parameters. Changes from 1.0.3 to 1.0.4: ============================ - The Osprey driver includes the new capability to crop the incoming video signal in hardware before it is encoded or captured. Please see the CropApp Manual (in PDF format) which is installed in the Osprey-500 program group for details on using this feature. It is HIGHLY recommended that users read this entire document before enabling hardware cropping. - A method for improving video quality under conditions of PCI bus contention has been added. Changes from 1.0.2 to 1.0.3: =========================== - Title bar of driver control dialogs correctly identify Osprey cards when configuring Osprey-500 DV and Osprey-500 PRO cards. - The otiyuv.dll has been fixed for the problem that existed on Windows 2000 that indirectly caused the Windows Media Encoder 7 error/failure: "An unexpected error has occurred with the audio codec. 0xc00d0bc3" - Fixed bug in otiyuv.dll for YUV->RGB32/24 color conversion. Previously two of the component values were swapped yielding a color shift in the resultant decoded image. - Added otiyuv.dll as the decoder for the 422packed (YUY2) color format. This creates a drivers32 registry setting of vidc.yuy2 == otiyuv.dll - Driver supports situation in which digital audio source (AES/EBU or S/P-DIF) is selected but source is not connected to card, or is not providing data. In this situation, the Osprey-500 will internally generate a 48kHz audio stream containing silence. When data is available from the source, the Osprey-500 will automatically switch from the internally- generated 48kHz stream to the input 48kHz source. Changes from 1.0.1 to 1.0.2: =========================== - Added support for PAL - Grayed out unavailable inputs in Video Source tab and audio mixer for Osprey-500/DV and Osprey-500/PRO boards. - Made special characters in closed-captioning work. Improved closed-captioning decoding. - Removed green flash at start of encoding when filter is enabled. - Grayed out digital video sources when Osprey-100 Analog Mode is enabled. - Fixed bug that caused Osprey-500/DV and Osprey-500/PRO to not have Osprey-500 tab in Video for Windows configuration dialog box. - Fixed coexistence problem with Osprey-200 or other Conexant 878 based cards. Please note that the Osprey-200 also requires a driver update. - Improved audio sample rate detection for digital audio sources - The Audio Settings applet places registry values in this twig of the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Osprey\Osprey500\DeviceX\Audio\RateConversion HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Osprey\Osprey500\DeviceX\Audio\Gain RateConversion chooses the method that the Osprey-500 uses to convert audio from one sampling rate to another. For instance, your DV camcorder may provide only 48kHz, but you use a RateConversion method to convert the data rate to 32kHz. For most purposes the default setting of Filter Converter works well When RateConversion is: 1 - use filter converter (default) 2 - use skip converter (skips samples) 3 - use Microsoft PCM method The default value of Gain is 2. Set it higher for increased software audio gain, and set it below 2 to decrease gain. - Use dB scale for audio peak detection - Fixed reporting of audio peak values - Fixed volume setting on digital inputs Known issues in version 2.2.1 Update: ========================================================== ========================================================== - When multiple sessions are SimulStreaming and software de-interlacing is turned on, the de-interlacing may only work in 1 session. A workaround is to use hardware de-interlacing. - 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. - RealSystem Producer 8.5 / Heavy Load Problem: There is a known problem with RealSystem Producer 8.51 in which it adds video buffers to the capture device before RealSystem Producer has finished processing the buffers. Typically under non-loaded CPU utilizations this is not a problem because the buffer can be processed by RealSystem Producer before being prepared for capture. However, under heavy CPU load, the capture driver can prepare the buffer for capture before RealSystem Producer 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 RealSystem Producer 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. DXMedia: =============================================== =============================================== DXMedia version 6.0 works with DirectX version 3.0 for Windows NT. The DXMedia package must be installed in order for Microsoft Windows Media Encoder versions 7.0 and later, and AmCap, to function properly. It is provided on the CD. See the Installation chapter of the Users' Guide for instructions on where to download it. Latest Drivers =============================================== =============================================== Before installing, check the Osprey Video website or the ftp site for the latest drivers: For the Osprey Video support website, navigate: www.ospreyvideo.com --> click on Downloads --> click on Software & Drivers --> select your board and operating system from the table For the ftp site, go to ftp://ftp.ospreyvideo.com/pub/OSP-500/winnt/latest/ If there isn't a newer driver at the time of your installation, please check the website or ftpsite frequently thereafter. Important Notice =============================================== =============================================== If you are using an Osprey-100 or Osprey-200 card in the same machine as your Osprey-500 card, we strongly recommend that you upgrade the 100/200-family card to the version 2.0.0 or later driver. Contact information: =============================================== =============================================== voice: 888-684-6622 fax: 919-319-9814 email: support@ospreyvideo.com website: www.ospreyvideo.com ftp: ftp://ftp.ospreyvideo.com/pub/OSP-500/winnt/latest/