RRNT40.TXT MATROX GRAPHICS INC. Matrox Rainbow Runner Driver for Windows NT 4.0 Revision 2.0 for Win NT 4.0 The following limitations apply to this first release of the Rainbow Runner driver for NT 4.0. For further information, please refer to the readme file included with the driver. Limitations ----------- - Multiple CPU systems are not supported. The Rainbow Runner software will not install or run on multiple CPU systems. - There are maximum video window sizes for live video ("TV" or "LINE" input). These maximum video window sizes depend on your display settings and graphics card. For more information, see the "Display information" section of your Rainbow Runner Studio manual. - Problems may occur if you change display settings (resolution or color palette) or switch to full-screen DOS while running video programs (programs that capture, play back or edit video). - Changing display settings while PC-VCR Remote is open is only supported using MGA Display Properties or MGA QuickDesk, while viewing live video or TV; however, the video window may stop updating. To restore it, click on the window. Problems may occur if applications switch resolutions while Rainbow Runner drivers are in use. - There is no support for MJPEG recording or playback under NT, only RGB recording is supported. - Multiple Rainbow Runner boards in one system are not supported. Systems with one Rainbow Runner board and multiple Mystique or Millennium II boards are supported. The Rainbow Runner board has to be on the primary display card. Live video, TV or hardware MPEG video will only be shown on the primary display; problems will occur if the video window is dragged onto another display monitor. - Suspend mode is not supported when using the Rainbow Runner software or when using any of the TV Out modes. - When you drag-and-drop video files onto the PC-VCR Remote icon, long file names are converted to the old 8.3 DOS-naming style in the PC-VCR Remote menu window and on video window title bar. - If Microsoft Media Player does not respond, try clicking on the Windows desktop background, then clicking on Media Player - this may restore control. - Only one program at a time can use Rainbow Runner hardware. Before starting a video program, close any other video program that may be running. - Because of a limitation in Microsoft Video for Windows, video files you capture are limited to a 2 GB size. - With a Matrox Millennium II graphics card, TV out mode is supported only with a 16-bit color palette. (Note that many games support only an 8-bit color palette. If you're using a Millennium II graphics card, these games can't be viewed on a TV.) - With a Matrox Millennium II graphics card, TV output in full-screen VGA/DOS display modes are not supported. - With a Matrox Millennium II graphics card, placing a window over a video window may cause the video window to go to black. (The video continues to play, but it's not displayed in the video window.) This happens at the following display settings: Color palette Display area ------------- ------------ 16 bits 1152 x 864 and higher 24 bits 1024 x 768 and higher 32 bits all The video plays normally when you remove all windows overlapping the video window, or move the video window in front of all other windows. - When the "Use dual-fields in full-screen mode" feature is active in PC-VCR Remote (see its context-sensitive Help), placing any window over the full-screen video window causes the video window to go black. (The video continues to play, but it's not displayed in the video window.) The video plays normally when you remove all windows overlapping the video window. - For PC-VCR Remote video snapshots, only the portion of the video window that is inside your Windows desktop area is saved. - Ensoniq Sound Cards (certain models): Some Ensoniq sound card, for example the SoundScape Vivo 90, will lose audio when seeking or stopping and restarting any video file. This happens when double clicking on a file or using Active Movie through MediaPlayer. To avoid this problem, use the PC-VCR Remote to view your video files. - ESS Sound chips (certain models): Some sound card equipped with the ESS audio chip, for example the ESS 1878 found on laptops, may experience a loss of audio-video synchronization when playing back video files. Video will be late compared to audio whenever pausing and restarting the playback. To correct this problem, click on the PC-VCR Remote's Playback Status Bar to jump to a particular area in the file. - With the Microsoft NetMeeting program, use "preview" mode. Netmeeting doesn't support "overlay" mode for Rainbow Runner. For more information on preview mode, see the Rainbow Runner Studio manual. - DOS windows may conflict with the video window. The video may stop or be captured by the DOS window. To restart the video, click on any window other than the DOS window. To avoid the video being captured by the DOS window, do not overlap the windows. To remove the captured video from the DOS window, temporarily move the portion of the window with captured video off the screen. - Due to a limitation in Microsoft Video for Windows on NT, there are a maximum number of frames (accumulative) one can capture when using RGB recording. The maximum number of video frames you can record depends on your workstation's amount of RAM and CPU speed. When you reach the limit, you will receive the message -- "Error: cannot write to capture file. Data rate too high or disk full." even if the disk is not full. When this happens, please exit the application and restart it. For applications supporting the preallocation of the capture file, you can overcome this limitation by preallocating the file before recording. - For RGB recording, the number of video buffers accepted by the driver is limited to 35. If you are over this limit, you will get the message "Error: Out of memory for video buffers." This happens only in applications that allow you to adjust the number of video buffers. If this happens, exit the application, restart it, and adjust the video buffer parameter. - Must close video capture programs prior to logging off of your NT session.