"Haig" Can you help please DvD probs!!

[Meek]

Just a thought... Some of the stutter may actually be REAL. Films only contain 24 fps of information, and if you are in a movie, you can actually see this very clearly, especially in large pans where the shutter speed is high enough to disable motion blur.

Acttually, you CAN see this also on DVD, as the picture is very crisp. Interlaced video source does not show this problem as clearly,as the native (though interlaced) frame rate is (almost) 60 for NTSC and 50 for PAL.

BTW, I heve not played any videos of films I know the music of previously on my PC DVD setup, yet. Do we still have the 4 % (25/24) speed increase on playback problem on PAL video, which ruins the rhythm and tone of music? We should not have this on Computer monitors, but how is it with TV out?

M.

[cjolley]

Mathew,
Putting quotes around Haig's name implies that you do not believe "Haig" is his real name.
I know it's off topic, but i'm in a school-teacher mood.
chuck

[Kristian]

Mane errors in one post there Meek. I previously owned a ATI Rage Fury 128 with DVD decoding. Watching DVD on TV wasnt all that pretty due to bad color interpretation, HOWEVER it didnt stutter on me, ran X-Files "Fight the future" on both systems so I have the answers on that one.

NTSC I belive has a framerate at something around 29.67 if im not mistaken and PAL around 25 fps.

Its not due to the cinemaster engine either. I tried PowerDVD 2.5 but it behaved same as cinemaster so sadly the problem is still there. A read another tread about a user who solved the stutter by disabling LPT1. Sorrily that didnt work for me.

I have started bashing Matrox techsupport about it to see if I get some other answers....

oh well.

Kristian

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[Kristian]

Got an answer from Daniel Lawrence about Region1 DVDs stutter on PAL systems. I won't quote since the e-mail is at work but I will give you an approximate meaning.

Matrox doesn't endorse playing region 1 DVD's (USA) in PAL countries (Europe) therefore we are not going to aknowledge th problem and we won't help you either. So up yours!

No the exact words, but that was the general idea. What a convenient way to ignore a driver flaw.

*Sigh*

Kristian

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[SteveC]

It isn't a driver "flaw" - it's just functionality that they haven't included.

BTW: Haig is trying, but it's beyond his control.

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Cheers,
Steve

"The chances of anything coming from Mars, are a million-to-one", he said.

[Insomnis]

Well, I would also consider calling it a driver flaw. IMHO it should be able to convert NTSC->PAL. Remember that almost all region free discs are NTSC - it's not only about playing region1 on PAL tv's. So the e-mail from Daniel Lawrence is IMO not valid, he just sais what we are doing is illegial and Matrox will not support that. Well it's NOT illegial! Sigma Design came up with PAL60 pretty fast - Matrox has had about 6 months now - within a year Sigma gave in and added real conversion. But I guess it all comes down to the fact that Matrox is Canadian based and they don't give a shit about us Europeans as long as they have the US market. I'm pretty pissed of right now, and the message may reflect that.... But I think it's the million time i read a lame excuse for a tech support rep. - and that is pissing me off more than the problem itself. "everything is working fine here - must be something with your rig, bye! click.

[Insomnis]

If you need help....

E-Mail is pointless, I don't think they even read it.
http://www.matrox.com/mga/tech_supp/...quest_form.htm



[This message has been edited by Insomnis (edited 20 January 2000).]

[Haig]

Sorry folks but Technical Support is only for problem/solutions. It is not for petitions or mass mailing of complaints in order to get a feature enabled or implimented. I know that there is no way of stopping this bombardment but we will answer our emails based on a priority basis.

However, these types of concerns can be sent via email to webmaster@matrox.com. They will do their best to answer you.

"Matrox is Canadian based and they don't give a shit about us Europeans as long as they have the US market."

Perhaps posting with less emotion and with more thought can be more constructive .

Haig

[This message has been edited by Haig (edited 20 January 2000).]

[Insomnis]

Haig,

I'm sorry for my last post you are right, as I said I was pissed off - I still am, and I let my emotions run wild.

I really don't see why you say "all this talk about this being a driver flaw or a bug in our driver is nonsense" it's not a bug, but it is definitivly a lack of feature that SHOULD be supported. A feature "every" other DVD decoder has - and I think I remember Matrox talking about Hardware DVD decoding...?

I take back the suggestion that we e-mail support/use the form every week. This may
result in Tech support not beeing able to help so many people.

I know you have forwarded the request, but tech support (Daniel) is not willing to do this - and I really don't understand why?

I would really like to see a response to the request we are making, like are the driver crew gonna do something about it - how high is it on the priority list.

With the latest beta release I see that there is a fix for 3DMark2K - it's a minor error in a benchmark utility. Is this top priority??

If so it only proves that marketing is more important than a good product/support.


MY STATEMENT : "Matrox is Canadian based and they don't give a shit about us Europeans as long as they have the US market."

I'm not taking this back as of now - you have the chance to prove me wrong!

Also the fact that you answer your support e-mail based on priority - I really think first in -> first out is a much more fair way of doing it.

btw, it's not you I'm attacking Haig (I think)

[Insomnis]

Are you saying we should e-mail the NTSC->PAL issue to webmaster@matrox.com ??

Another thing... Will there be a patch that makes the Matrox DVD player work with Win2K ?

[Haig]

A bug/flaw is a feature that is supposed to work but it doesn't. Since PAL 60 is not supported, it isn't a bug nor a flaw. It's just unsupported.

- "I know you have forwarded the request, but tech support (Daniel) is not willing to do this - and I really don't understand why?"

Well, does it really matter who forwards the request? Whether it's me or anyone else, who cares as long as it gets forwarded.

Also, what email are you referring to? If you are basing this assumption on Kristian's post, this is the response that Kristian has received:

"Dear Sir,
I am sorry, your email is a little confusing. Are you trying to play NTSC DVDs in a PAL country? If so we do not support this as our DVD Player has a DVD region setting and will only play DVDs from that region. You are given the option of changing the Region however you only have 3 chance after that it locks on the last Region selected."

He is currently being looked after for a subtitling problem he is having with "Storm of the Century"

- "I would really like to see a response to the request we are making, like are the driver crew gonna do something about it - how high is it on the priority list."

With the latest beta release I see that there is a fix for 3DMark2K - it's a minor error in a benchmark utility. Is this top priority??

If so it only proves that marketing is more important than a good product/support."

I know that some of you use me to get your point across because I guess I'm your only link here into the other dept's. The best way to voice any concerns for anyone other than problem/solutions is to send an email to webmaster@matrox.com.

"Also the fact that you answer your support e-mail based on priority - I really think first in -> first out is a much more fair way of doing it."

We do answer our emails in FIFO format. When reading the email, we can clearly see what the client is asking. If he's asking about beta drivers, beta OS, is this bug fixed, when will have PAL 60 support, etc is not considered as high priority for technical support and therefore be put on hold until we bring down the email count.

If you have no display and you send us an email, would you like it if your response gets delayed because there are 500 emails in front of you asking these types of questions?

"Are you saying we should e-mail the NTSC->PAL issue to webmaster@matrox.com ??"

Yes that is what I am saying. Same applies for any other non technical support issues.

Haig

[Kristian]

Just sent this one of to "webmaster@matrox.com"


Dear Sirs at Matrox

Me and quite a few others are having problems while watching DVD region1 discs
on PAL systems. There are frequent "hickups" or "stuttery" playback when
outputting to a television set. This motiondegrading is not visual on the monitor.
After bouncing the issue around somewhat in a popular forum on the net, there
seems to be a common conclusion.
Most DVD's are recorded in NTSC format, currently the native mode of
American/Canadian televisions. However quite a few other countries over the world
are runing the mode PAL. This is of course known to you but I will state my opinion
anyway, just in case I have misunderstood things.
Anyway, If I am not mistaken the actual conversion from NTSC to PAL is done by
dropping one frame in every six frames to get the final result of 25 fps wich is the
framerate of PAL (compared to the 30 fps in NTSC).
This may not seem like a big problem, but it is, since almost ALL DVD's sold in
Scandinava are coded region1 (this is not illegal despite what some people believe).
It causes some eyestrain to watch DVDs when they "stutter". I have been told to buy
an NTSC Television by another user, that doesn't seem like the proper way to solve
this problem.
I am asking you two humble questions.

1. Is Matrox aware of this problem?
2. Does Matrox intend to "fix" it, or more correctly "support this feature"?

I assure you that my system is not in anyway misconfigured, or that I have forgotten
to enable DMA for my DVD player. I will post my system specs anyway.

Thanks in Advance

Kristian Karlsson
Sweden

P.S - A lot of people are depending on this answer, please respond with as much
detail as you can.

Pentium III 450 MHz
128 Mb PC100 RAM
MATROX G400 MAX DH 32MB 360 MHz Ramdac
Powerdesk 5.41.008, BIOS 1.5 - 22
ASUS P3C-2000 bios 1007
6,4 Gb HDD Quantum Fireball Cx
Soundblaster Live! 1024
Windows 98 SE
DirectX 7.0
MatroxDVD


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[Kristian]

Ok, the response to that came swiftly:

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Hi,

Thank you for visiting our website. I just wanted to let you know that I forwarded your message to our Technical Support department, they will be able to answer you questions.

If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact me again, or you may wish to contact our Technical Support department directly at: <u>graph_ts@matrox.com</u>

Have a good day!

Regards,

Jennifer

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Im not sure if you all noticed what e-mail adress Jennifer forwards to, but its the same, yes you heard right, THE SAME e-mailadress that all tech support goes to. Thats right, and who is our friend there? Daniel Lawrence!!!!! who stumped me short the first time when I sent in the "jerky" DVD incident.

So Haig, why did you make me waste time mailing to someone who wont adress my problem? Right know I feel like im being led around a circle like a damn circusmonkey. I had the EXACT same problems with ATI, no real responses, smoke screens, no refunding etc. etc.

I thought MATROX was different, I guess that there is no glory in supporting customers any longer. The whole concept seems to be about selling, and the move quickly along to the next product. Leave the disillusionized customers behind and finding new ones.

Comments please!

Kristian

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[Haig]

Calm down.

I believe the reason why you got that response was becuase you bombarded the web master with information of problems combined with a 1 liner for a request to "support this feature".

What feature? Remember that webmasters are not technical people so yes, you do have to stress the fact that you and many others would like to know when or if we have any plans in supporting PAL60.

Sending an email which states a bunch of technical problems will get forwarded to tech supp, that's obvious.

Haig

[This message has been edited by Haig (edited 21 January 2000).]

[Kristian]

Yeah I know, I got upset - it happends when one feels left out. Ok I thought mailing the "webmaster" was a bit weird but you said it. If the webmaster cant do anything and techsupport won't even talk to us about it what should we then do?

Im really interested in that, because I believe in solving problems. Now this was an expensive card, almost as expensive like a new TV. I would like to hear that these problems are not meant to be solved. I have tried the techsupport noe - who should I (we) turn to now?

Regards

Kristian

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