Frequently Asked Questions about: BOCA RESEARCH VOYAGER MOVIE PLAYER ======================================================= Product Code SVMP64 ======================================================= This document is arranged in the following sections: (A) - General Information about the Voyager Movie Player (B) - Specifications (C) - Configuration Questions (D) - Windows 95 Questions (E) - Common Video Problems Section A - General Information about the Voyager Movie Player ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. What is the Voyager Movie Player? The Voyager Movie Player is a lightning-fast PCI video graphics accelerator with true 64-bit graphics engine, video scaling and hardware MPEG video/audio decoding. Provides true MPEG video playback at 30 frames per second with SRS Labs' 3-D Surround Sound. Comes with 1 MB DRAM standard, upgradable to 2MB. 2. What comes bundled with the Voyager Movie Player? • Installation and software driver diskettes • MPEG Demo CD • 6" audio cable with 1/8" stereo mini phone plugs 3. Where can the Voyager Movie Player be purchased? Boca Research enhancement products are available worldwide through authorized Boca Research retail stores, distributors, or many end-user catalogs. To purchase Boca Research products or for more information, call your local distributor or Boca Research sales staff at (407)997-6227. 4. What kind of warranty does the Voyager Movie Player have? All Boca Research products carry a limited five-year warranty. 5. How can I contact Boca Research? Listed below are the phone numbers and access points for contacting Boca Research. • Boca Research Corporate: (407) 997-6227 • Technical Support and Customer Service: (407) 241-8088 • Priority Technical Support ($2 per minute): (900) 555-4900 • Boca Research Fax-Back Service: (407) 995-9456 • Technical Support Fax: (407) 997-2163 • Boca Research BBS: (407) 241-1601 • Boca Research Web Page: http://www.boca.org • Boca Research FTP Site: ftp://ftp.boca.org • Boca Research Compuserve Forum: "GO BOCA" at any CIS prompt • Boca Research E-Mail Address: support@boca.org Section B - Specifications ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. What are the system requirements? • 486DX2/66 or higher-based PC with PCI 2.0 slot • DOS 5.0 or later • 8MB minimum RAM • Video monitor capable of the supported resolutions • Double speed CD-ROM drive minimum, MPC level 2 CD-XA (mode 2, form 2) 2. What resolutions and colors does this video board support? • Supports resolutions up to 1600 x 1200 • Each resolution supports the following Max. colors: 640 x 480 with 16.7 Million colors* 800 x 600 with 16.7 Million colors* 1024 x 768 with 65,536 colors* 1280 x 1024 with 256 colors* (*2MB video RAM required) 3. What refresh rates does the Voyager Movie Player support? • 640 x 400 - 70Hz • 640 x 480 - 60Hz, 72Hz, 75Hz • 800 x 600 - 56Hz, 60Hz, 72Hz, 75Hz • 1024 x 768 - 43Hz(i), 60Hz, 70Hz, 75Hz • 1600 x 1200 - 48.5Hz(i) Note: (i)=interlaced 4. What other features does the Voyager Movie Player support? • True 64-bit GUI Engine and Memory Interface • 1MB DRAM (upgradable to 2MB) • MPEG-1 (Motion Picture Expert Group) compliant; play back movies from a CD-ROM or hard drive • CSC (Color Space Conversion) and XY scaling; playback can occur at full screen, or in a small window. Scales the image continuously without loss of frames. • DCI (Display Control Interface) for Windows improves display performance of video playback and graphics. • 16-bit digital sound provides CD-quality stereo audio. • SRS 3-D Surround Sound creates a 3-D sound field using only two speakers • VESA DPMS Supports display power management signaling (DPMS) for "Green PC" power savings. • VESA BIOS- Supported in ROM No TSR needs to be loaded in the system for VESA applications. • VESA Feature Connector Allows the use of Multimedia products. • VESA Display Data Channel (DDC) Compliant Allows the video card to automatically sense display modes of a DDC-compliant monitor. 5. What chipset does the Voyager Movie Player use? The Voyager Movie Player uses an S3 Trio64V+ chipset. 6. What is MPEG? Motion Picture Expert Group - An international standards group which has defined the standards for the digital compression and decompression of full motion video/audio in computer systems. MPEG-1 is the standard that provides compression ratios from 50:1 up to 200:1. One second of uncompressed digital video data can take up to 30MB of storage space, but by compressing this data the storage space needed becomes greatly decreased. 7. What is the difference between Software decoded MPEG and Hardware decoded MPEG? Software based MPEG decoders rely on the CPU to decode the video data, a software application has to be run to decode the movie's data and translate it into the actual movie that you see. Software MPEG cannot guarantee 30 frames per second even on a Pentium 90. With software decoding, Multi- tasking strains the CPU causing choppy video quality. Hardware based MPEG decoders, like the Voyager Movie Player, provide the full benefits of MPEG with minimal CPU loading, no special software application needs to be run and you can play a movie right from Media Player. The card does all of the decoding - data is translated into a viewable movie right on the card. 30 frames per second guaranteed. 8. What is Video for Windows? Video for Windows is a standard that Microsoft came up with to allow most computers to view movies in a limitied format. The format is .AVI, which stands for Audio Video Interleaved. The compression is nowhere near as great as MPEG-1 and movies are best viewed in a small window. Section C - Configuration Questions ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. How do I get the latest drivers for my video adapter? The latest drivers are available several ways: 1. Boca BBS: File area 26 on our BBS at (407)241-1601. 2. Compuserve: Library 2 of the Modem Vendor Forum (GO BOCA). 3. Internet: Access the Boca Internet Web Site at http://www.boca.org/. 2. Does the Voyager Movie Player require an IRQ? Yes. The Voyager Movie Player must be configured to use an IRQ. This should be done automatically, but if there are no IRQs available to the PCI bus then an IRQ may not be set. You will need to edit your CMOS settings and assign an IRQ to INT A for the PCI slot in which the Movie Player is installed. 3. Do you have a VESA driver for the Voyager Movie Player? VESA compatibility is built into the video BIOS and supports the current VESA 1.2 standard. A VESA driver is not required. If you are having problems with applications that require VESA compatibility, you may have a memory conflict. Try excluding memory locations A000-C7FF from your memory manager. 4. My monitor flickers at higher resolutions. If you get flicker when running at higher resolutions, then you may need to select a higher refresh rate using the VREFRESH.EXE utility. You should select the highest refresh rate supported by your monitor. Refer to your monitor's guide for the vertical refresh rates that are supported by your monitor. 5. How should my CD-ROM drive be configured? You should configure the CD-ROM drive as a Master device. On some systems, if the CD-ROM drive is configured as a slave device the MPEG files may play slow and jittery. The reason for this is because configuring a CD-ROM drive as a slave of your hard drive may actually slow the performance of the CD-ROM drive, therefore the movies may not play smoothly. 6. Will the Voyager Movie Player replace a sound card since it has built in SRS Surround sound? No. The Movie Player is not designed to replace a sound card. The sound that this card produces is only from MPEG movie files. It does not have the ability to play wave, MIDI or other types of sound files. 7. I already have a sound card. Will I need an extra set of speakers to get sound from MPEG movies? No. You can connect the speaker port on the Voyager Movie Player to the Line-in jack on a sound card (using the cable provided with the Movie Player) so that you only need one set of speakers. Section D - Windows 95 Questions ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. What driver should I select in Windows 95? Windows 95 should detect the Voyager Movie Player as an S3 or S3 Trio 32/64 PCI and configure the drivers automatically. Although the Movie Player will still operate this way, the MPEG movies will not play and you will not get the full performance from the video board. To change the video driver, go to Windows Control Panel and select the Display icon, Settings tab, then Change Display Type. Select "Have Disk" and insert the Voyager Movie Player driver diskette in your floppy drive. Select Boca Voyager Movie Player SVMP64 V.xx. 2. Will the VREFRESH.EXE utility still work in Windows 95? Yes. This utility can still be used to set the vertical refresh rate under Windows 95. The Movie Player driver installation for Windows 95 copies the VREFRESH.EXE file to the Windows directory. 3. What resolutions and colors are available in Windows 95 with 1MB of video memory? • 640 x 400 with 16.7M • 640 x 480 with 16 colors, 256 colors, 32,768 colors or 65,536 colors • 800 x 600 with 16 colors, 256 colors or 32,768 colors • 1024 x 768 with 256 colors 4. Does Windows 95 have DPMS support? The Voyager Movie Player does support DPMS (Display Power Management Signaling). To enable DPMS support in Windows 95, go to the Settings page of Display Properties and select "Change Display Type". Then select the "Monitor is Energy Star Compliant" box in the "Monitor Type" area on that page. Note: This requires a monitor that is DPMS compatible also. 5. I get the following error when trying to play MPEG files: "MMSYSTEM281 This file could not be played. Check the filename or install a driver that supports this type of file." You are running at a resolution or color depth that is not supported. MPEG movies must be played at the following resolutions and color depths: With 1MB of video RAM: • 640 x 480 with 256 colors With 2MB of video RAM: • 640 x 480 with 256 colors • 800 x 600 with 256 colors • 800 x 600 with 32K colors Section E - Common Problems ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here are a list of common video problems: 1. There may be a software conflict with the version or type of video that you have on your system. 2. The video drivers may be corrupt. 3. The video card may be poorly seated. 4. A newly added hardware device may be conflicting with the video. 5. The monitor may be incorrectly configured with the video on your system. 6. The wrong type of video may be selected in Windows 7. Environmental factors within the area may be causing distortion. 8. The old video drivers are still loading at startup. Monitor operation - Before troubleshooting video problems, make sure that your monitor is turned on and is operating properly. Monitor configuration - If your monitor's refresh rates are not set correctly with the video that you have, the display in Windows and other graphical environments may appear scrambled. Use the VREFRESH.EXE utility to select the refresh rate that is used by the Voyager Movie Player. Environmental distortion - Electrical interference from other devices such as televisions, radios, microwave ovens, etc. can cause your monitor screen to "jump" or "shake". Interference can also make the display appear blurry or fuzzy. If the system is close to a fluorescent light, turn the light off or move the light away from the monitor. If the system is plugged into a surge protector, unplug the system and reconnect it to the wall outlet to see if the video improves. Try degausing the monitor or adjusting the pincushioning of your monitor. Try moving the system to another location to see if the distortion clears up. Booting the system clean - If you are having trouble with the video display on the system, try booting the system clean. This will help determine if there is a software or device conflict with the system's video. By booting clean, you bypass the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files so any new software settings are not 1oaded. Software conflict - It is important to determine if the video problems you are having are isolated to one application or throughout the system. If the video problems are with a single application, contact the manufacturer or vendor of the software for further assistance. If the application you are having problems with is a Windows application, try setting the video driver to VGA. This will help determine if the video drivers on your system are corrupted or conflicting with the application. Newly added hardware - If you started to experience video problems after you added a new hardware device to the system, power down the system and remove the latest device. Once you have the device removed, power up the system to see if the video returns. If it does, power down the system and re-seat the video card as it may not have been properly seated. If a cable or device is poorly seated, it may intermittently fail or give you poor reception in the case of a video card. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright (c), 1995, Boca Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Boca Research, BRI and the various Boca Research products contained herein are trademarks of Boca Research, Inc. Other references to computer products use trademarks owned by their respective manufacturers. The technical information contained herein is subject to change without notice. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------