Ravisent2000 and G200 DVD addon - It works!

[cods]

Not a bad player this, and it works as well with the G200 DVD hardware addon, as the MGIDVDMax does with TVOUT!

Just thought I'd mention that I still have not seen a TVOUT DVD (non component) player produce better than this G200 module....yet Matrox ignore it like a refugee....

Get it at Digital-Digest.

Using W98SE PD5.55 VT1.54e

[This message has been edited by cods (edited 16 June 2000).]

[flee]

What do you mean it works with G200 Add on?
Are you saying that it uses the DVD on hardware decoding features? If so how did you set it up to work........

Another question to everyone about dvd playback. Do you guys get hissing or slurring on DVD audio playback?

I have tried virtually all the available software players and they all do this on I my machine. I have tried everything I know to rectify this but it is still the same.

Any suggestions?

[cods]

Ok.....

Using W98SE, PD5.55, VT1.54e on a clean system.
Installed Zoran SoftDVD 2.5 (From OEM CD)
Installed MGISoftDVDMax 3.63 (It works too!)
Installed Ravisent2000.....

I have a MillG200-16MSGRAM, RRG200, TVOUT Addon, DVD HW-Addon, and a SBLIVE, FYI.

It IS using the hardware decoding and auto-triggers the TVOUT!!

Easy....no tweaks....no MTS BS.....and primarily, no grief.

'Apparently' Rav2000 can be found at http://www.digital-digest.com/

[cods]

More extra cool stuff for the Rav2000 player and the G200 DVD-HW........

Found the Ravisent2000 player plays your DVD from HD perfectly, by opening the 'VIDEO_TS.IFO' file.

Good Points......
Triggers the TVOUT!!!!
You can navigate like a normal DVD!!!
DeCSS+DeMacro=Best VHS backup possible!!!
Couldn't open VIDEO_TS.IFo with MGISoftDVDMax or SoftDVD.
Bad Points......
None!!!

[This message has been edited by cods (edited 19 June 2000).]

[fds]

You should know that this way the CineMaster 2000 player will simply use the DirectShow filters you've already installed (ie. Zoran\MGI SoftDVD's) so other than the playing ripped movies from HD feature you mentioned there are no advantages over if you used SoftDVD directly.

[cods]

Sorry fds, but you obviously havn't done your homework.....

The Rav2000 and MGISoft interfaces are much better than ZoranSoftDVD, more responsive navigation, does not crash as much, and enables DolbySurround from SPDIF.

The Matrox/Zoran interface is some of the most buggy, crap software I have ever used.

In addition to the other good points I listed above, if that is not an advantage over SoftDVD, someone's missing something.....

Have you tried it yet, fds????? I didn't think so. Suck it and see.

[Bixler]

For what it's worth, we seem to have another option--quite a nice player Scott, and thanks for the headsup. I've not had a chance to REALLY run it around the track, but it does indeed seem to be fully functional with the module...smooth, quick, and responsive. On my rig CPU utilization was less than 20%, and I couldn't MAKE it lock up.

So now we have a couple of MGI versions, and now this Ravisent that actually WORK!--Curiously enough, the Matrox Ravisent Player that comes bundled with the G400 doesn't work nearly as well as this newer "full software" version.

BTW fds, if you haven't experienced the problems everyone else has with the Zoran (OEM) Navigator, you've either never used it, or you are the luckiest dude on the planet.

Thanks again Scott, and happy DVD'ing!

[fds]

What I was talking about is that the CineMaster 2000 package consists of two seperate things: the player front-end and a software DVD decoder engine.

The player front-end can use any DirectShow-compliant filter installed on your system.
For people who had WinDVD and PowerDVD installed, the CineMaster player actually used the WinDVD/PowerDVD filters instead of Ravisent's software decoder.

They probably designed it this way so that if a hardware decoder is installed with its DirectShow filter, it will automatically use that one.

(You can either uninstall the nonwanted filters or unregister it with regsvr32 /u filtername.ax)

Check this: open a movie in CineMaster2000, start playing, then right-click on the player and in Settings - Advanced you can see which decoder it is using.

It could be using SoftDVD's decoder already installed on your system.

[GinoCyber]

fds is on the money cods. We all know that the zoran mod uses direct show. Once you install its filters, then any other dvd app that also uses Dshow filters will be using the mod.

What I wanna know is, is there any dvd app out there that will use this mod without having to install it's interface (zoran's)?

Ciao

[cods]

Filters Schmilters!

We all know the problem was always with the interface.

We always knew the original filters provided an amazing TV-OUT, but the Zoran/Mtx interface sucked with the HW module.

If you noticed the countless threads over the last year+ on this very subject, the quest has been to find another interface which behaved, and used the filters 'features' correctly (eg. Dolby, Navigation, No Crash etc.), and we now have it.

Remember, filters can't do bugger-all without an interface to control them.......

Ledo & Bixler (hey!) understand......and a separate filter install is coming apparently.....

[GinoCyber]

Now what does your reposnse have to do with my post?

Ciao

[Bixler]

Gino:

The module will theoretically use ANY direct show based player/navigator, but the necessary filters for this hardware are unique. For any other software package to work correctly, the OEM filters must be registered.

C:\Program Files\Matrox DVD\SoftDVD.exe can be deleted at this point to prevent conflicts. Proggy won't work, of course, but then it never did.

Don't uninstall the OEM SoftDVD program, just delete the OEM programs' .exe

At this point, as FDS has pointed out, several other software packages will function as Navigators and decode DVD's in hardware, apparently ignoring their own decoding engines since the Matrox Module filters are registered.

FDS: Cods isn't promoting this as a ripping package...just a functional navigator for the module, which the OEM package is definitely NOT!
I'd appreciate some more detail on just which registry entries are involved, it would be a blessing for many owners of this hardware not to have to go through a full install of the OEM package just to get the filters registered, which is apparently all that we need.

Scott & Gino: Ledo Simon had a minimum "filter only" install engineered (at least on paper), but babies, computer viruses, and work have apparently sidetracked him. I'll check in with him on this and ask him to post in here with a progress report.

------------------
AMD K6III 400 @ 426 On a SOYO SY5EMA M/B. Marvel G200 TV with HW/DVD Daughtercard,
CDBurner, Creative DVD, Promise Ultra 66 Controller
two big WD Hdds, Outboard 56K modem
Parallel Port Scanner,
All stuffed into a Mid-tower ATX case with no device slots left!


[This message has been edited by Bixler (edited 25 June 2000).]

[fds]

the quest has been to find another interface which behaved, and used the filters 'features' correctly (eg. Dolby, Navigation, No Crash etc.), and we now have it.

Now I can understand what the fuss is all about, although I'm still surprised that they had the decoding filters perfect and the only thing which sucked was their front-end.

I never had the g200 hw dvd decoder but I do have some experience with the software DVD players. The reason I chirped in is because I thought you got excited thinking you got some better decoder with CineMaster2000 while in fact you were still using the same old filters so the only difference was the new interface. Which, I assumed, wouldn't have any significant advantage over what you already had, other than some good to have features like the ability to play movies from a hard drive. Guess I was wrong.

Bixler:

DirectShow filters usually come in the form of .AX files, which are basically just like any other DLL. They should have the DllRegisterServer and DllUnregisterServer functions exported just like OCX's.

So theoretically all you need to install the G200 HW DVD add-ons filters is to extract the *.AX files. (If it's an InstallShield package you'll need an ishield decompressor to extract the files from data1.cab, or you can just save the files it extracted when you installed it last time.) You should be able to use any folder of your choice. The Matrox installer probably put it inside your windows\system folder.

Then you run:

\windows\system\regsvr32.exe FileNameHere.AX

for each of the files you extracted. To uninstall, you simply change it to

\windows\system\regsvr32.exe /U FileNameHere.AX

Note that the AX files might reference other DLLs or even VXD drivers (like I see in the case of the RR addon's software) so they still have to be installed as well... I tried to be of more help here but couldn't find the G200 hw dvd addon's drivers on Matrox' site. What's there seems just a PowerDesk release compatible with the dvd addon's drivers.

[GinoCyber]

Bix, I know all about filters and direct show and what you have to do to get the mod working with any other dvd app. What I want to know is that are there any soft dvd players out there that install the same filters as the mod interface so that I don't have to keep the zoran mod cd anymore.

Ciao

[Angel2167882]

Have any of you try it using 5.55 drivers on SS7 mobo without any crash for 3D apps???

Sure, it will work for the DVD, but are you guys don't play game?

For myself, I stuck with the 5.41 drivers (the best for the 3D) but propably the worst to use with the DVD add-on.

Thanks!

------------------
Laurent Martin
angel2167882@hotmail.com

---
System Configuration:

HARDWARE:
- AMD K6-III 450MHz CPU (not o/c)
- AOpen AX59Pro SS7 m/b w/lastest BIOS (VIA MVP3 chipset)
- 192MB RAM PC100 (3x64)
- Matrox Marvel G200-TV (lastest BIOS) w/16MB & hardware DVD decoder (still don't know why I bought the DVD decoder crap)
- SBLive! value with digital out
- Quantum Fireball KX 13.6 Gb (PM)
- Matschita DVD-ROM SR-8583 (PS) ("s h i t" will place **** instead)
- Samsung 6.4 Gb (SM)
- Yamaha CR-4416E burner (SS)
- LinkSys 100Mbit/s Ethernet card
- SupraExpress 56i ISA modem
- And all the rest...

SOFTWARE:
- Windows 98 SE French
- All the lastest VIA drivers
- DirectX 7.0a
- IE 5.01