1.55 Video Tools with Win98

[minsight]

Would anyone like to provide some information about running the 1.55 Video Tools with Windows 98? I realize that this combination is unsupported by Matrox, but then again not much is supported by Matrox these days.

I have heard that switching to VT 1.55 can sometimes help on systems that can't bring any channels in using the tuner. Switching to VT 2.00 worked for me, but is a bit too buggy.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[mikiem]

Hi

You can install 555 or 610 drivers, for a marvel at least, & then manually copy over the 5 driver files from any versions -- with 651 you'll loose the dual head tab in Pdesk. VT155 will work with any of these, but I haven't tested how well. You'll also have to modify the vcap dll on your own.

BTW, how did you get the 2.0 tools to install, or even uncompress for that matter?

mikie

[minsight]

I upgraded to win2k! I can use Win98 or Win2K, but I need to find the most stable combination of OS, drivers and Video Tools. Given that the 1.54 Video tools could find exactly one channel on my Win98 setup, I'm hoping that whatever bug is in 1.54 has been fixed in 1.55. I think I've seen some posts confirming this.

[DAR]

I have been having channel tuning problems with my G400?RRG combo since day 1 with VT152 and VT154. I posted a description of the problems to matrox forums but it was not resolved. Matrox did not mention drivers as a possible cause of the problem. I would appreciate if someone could read my problem description at

http://forum.matrox.com/mgaforum/For...ML/002745.html

and let me know if my description fits with a known driver issue. I don't want to paste the description in here because it is quite long.

I used to have a Mill2/RRS installed in the very same sytem and there were no TV tuning problems. So far very disappointed with RRG TV tuning problem.

[DAR]

I would like to try VT1.55 to see if it cures my RRG channel tuning problems. I looked on the Matrox drivers grid and the only VT1.55 I can see is under Windows 98 for the "Matrox G200 MMS with TV Tuner". Is this the one people are using?

Any G400/RRG users running VT1.55 successfully under windows 98? If yes, which display driver are you using and what steps did you follow to install VT1.55? I presently have display driver 5.55.022 and Video Tools 1.54.040 installed.

I'm at my wits' end with this TV channel tuning problem and I would be extremely grateful for any help or advice anyone can provide.

[morane]

Hi,
I've exactly the same problem. At first I ran the display driver 5.55 with video tools 1.54 but in order to use the YUV capture, I replace the 1.54 version by the 1.52 version (I've a Marvel G400-TV). I apply the Flying dutchman patch and I discovered a funny thing : with PowerDVD 3.0 there is no macrovision problem.

As you, I'd like to know if the video tool 1.55 or the 2.02 (which seem to work with Win98) give us something new or not.
I look around and for the moment it seems that the 5.55 display driver is the only one people use. The problem is that no one seems to know what is the best combination

[DAR]

Hello mikiem,

In your earlier post to this thread you briefly described how to install VT1.55 on Win98. Would you mind providing a few more "how to" details? For example, what are the 5 driver files you copy over, and where do you copy them from and to? You also mention a modification to vcap.dll - is this modification required to maek VT1.55 work on Win98? If so, what is the modification? Your reply would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[Fred H]

Newly I installed PD 5.55 with VT1.55, to Win98SE + Marvel G400 +AMD 400 MHz + VIA MVP3 etc.
Of course, first I uninstalled 5.41/1.52, rebooted etc.
Maybe 1.55 is not supported by Matrox but it IS recommended ( http://forum.matrox.com/mgaforum/For...ML/002508.html )
5.55 with 1.55 works fine here.
YUY2: enabled, AVI_IO: works, PIC-Video: works, PowerDVD: works, M$MP:works, PCVCR: works, MSP6: ok...
What else? Am I lucky?

[This message has been edited by Fred H (edited 16 June 2001).]

[Andreas]

Great news, Fred!
Just to get this straight, did YUY2 work right out of the box, or did you apply any patch to make the YUY2-option visible?

What about Macrovision? Have you tried to output something to VCR?

Thanks,
Andreas

[Fred H]

Andreas,
you must apply the FD YUY2 patch.

The dualhead DVDMax works too, but I have some problem because my little 14" TV hasn't any SCART or video input and I run it via a VCR (which is not the best one)so you can also record to VCR.
It works exactly the same as with VT 1.52, so I wonder what's the difference between 1.52 vs 1.55
Didn't try the Macrovision protection remover but I will (but the only ver. is for VT 1.52 or 1.54).

Fred H



[This message has been edited by Fred H (edited 16 June 2001).]

[Andreas]

Thanks for the info, Fred!

I will try the VT 1.55 with the announced final PD drivers for the MarvelG400, if they are coming next week, as promised.

I'll report the results in this thread.

Andreas

[minsight]

I tried VT1.55 with my RRG on Windows 98 and it solved my problem. Now I get all channels, rather than one. It was a straight install on top of the 5.55 drivers. Actually, I installed 1.51, uninstalled, installed 1.52, uninstalled, etc. all the way up to 1.55, which worked.

I still have a burning rage with the intensity of a thousand suns towards Matrox for leaving us high and dry about a week and a half after I bought my card. However they did come up with a rebate plan, which makes them slightly cooler. I'd consider buying more of their stuff, if they hadn't shattered all of my faith in their company.

[mikiem]

HI

Apologies for not responding when I should've, but been going nuts myself with my g400tv & haven't been online much -- wierd hardware problem on the card that's now pulled as I await RMA stuff.

Anyway, regarding the drivers, keeping in mind my card was/is broken, I found the best capture results installing the 610 drivers & PDesk, then copying over the driver files from 651 - BUT - this lost the dualhead tab in PDesk so I backed the driver files down to 624 which seemed to work fine.

The files in question are :
G400.drv
G400.vxd
G400DD.vxd
G400DD32.dll
g400icd.dll

The last may be optional (I didn't do anything opengl while testing), but the other files have to go as a set. I also found it best to use the PDesk files from 610.

To extract the files, 1st unzip them using Expander or winzip or whatever, then either use winzip as I did to uncompress the individual files you need, or the MS command line utility extract.exe.

As far as the *alterations* to the capture drivers, I couldn't get the std ones to work because if nothing else the files are different sizes then previously. I did use exescope on vcap16.dll to turn on any controls that weren't set to visible, but that's the extent of my capabilities I'm afraid -- that did get me YUV capture.

If anyone were to try it using exescope, simply drop down in the left window to dialogs, then go thru the individual controls in the rite hand pane paying attention to the checkbox besides visible.

Apologies again
mike

[DAR]

Mike, no apology required - we all have other lives. Thanks for taking the time to post the details.

For the record, I did the same as minsight - unistalled VT1.54 and then installed VT1.55. Seems to work fine with PD5.55 on my Abit BH6/G400DH/RRG/Win98SE setup.

And wonder of wonders, it seems to have cured my TV channel tuning problems! The operative word is "seems" - from past experience I know this problem comes and goes randomly, so it may be in one of its random "good" states at present. I will post again in a week or 2 and let people know if the TV channel tuning problem is still "fixed".

Dario R.

[morane]

Hi
Very interesting this discussion around the Video Tool 1.55, but did someone already compare this version with the 2.02 version ?
it says in the 2.02 readme file :
"Matrox Video Tools for Windows 98/Me/2000
Version 02.02.17"
Does this version work with Power Desk 5.55 ?
Thanks