New DVDMax user /w problems - needs tweaking help

[Bond]

Hi


I've moved my G400Max to a computer only used mainly for playing music and watching DVD. And I've a few problems/issues with DVD playback that I hope to resolve with help from experienced forum users.

First, my config:

HW:
===
Mobo: MSI BX Master, Intel 440BX-based with onboard Promise UDMA66 controller
(flashed with the latest MSI BIOS, v5.6, wich contains the latest Promise BIOS, v2.0. I'm also using the latest Promise Driver, v1.60 build 36.)
CPU: Intel CuMine 850 MHz
Graphics: Matrox G400Max, BIOS is as when I bought it in september 2000, think it's 1.6-25 or something like that
DVD: Toshiba SD-M1212, BIOS=1R14, primary master on 440BX IDE controller
SoundCard: Guillemot Fortissimo XL, based on Yamaha 744 chipset
RAM: 320 MB PC133
HD: IBM GXP75, 15,3 GB, on Promise controller
TV: Panasonic 28", PAL, 4:3 aspect ratio, bought in late 1997, capable of receiving Composite,S-video and interlaced RGB through scart.
A few USB devices: HP 930C printer, ISDN modem, Logitech Wingman Force (driver doesn't load on startup at the moment)

SW:
===
OS: Win98SE
DirectX: 8.1
Matrox driver: PowerDesk 5.55
DVD software: The one that came bundeled on CD. If I open "Start"->"Controll Panel"->"Matrox DVD Player", the version is read out as follow:
* Control Panel: 2.0.0.1019
* Software DVD: 2.0.36.6145
DVD software setup:
* Under "Properties"->"Settings"->"Advanced"->"DualHead" the following is ticked: "DualHead Clone,DVDMax, or Zoom", "Use DualHead DVDMax", "PAL"
* Under "DVDMax settings" the following is ticked: "SCART-RGB", "Reduce edge flickering"
* Under "DVDMax options" the following is ticked: "Preserve Aspect Ratio" (4:3), "Detect based on window size", "Preserve Source Cropping"

Other:
======
I'm only playing region2, PAL DVD's.
Resolution on main monitor: 1024x768x16
Nothing is overclocked.
Nothing running in background, (when the problems below is observed).
No conflicts at all. G400Max is on IRQ 11.
Serial ports and parallell port are disabled.
The computer is directly connected to the TV through a SCART-RGB cable that is ~5-6 ft long.
Sound is played in stereo through regular, analog line out of soundcard to a Pioneer amplifier.
Usually, the picture is stable and smooth on BOTH monitor and TV. Due to the well known PAL issue, I've never used a newer driver then the 5.55.


On to the PROBLEMS (in order of importance):
============================================

1. The sound is a little bit out of sync with the picture, (sound is behind picture). What to do?

2. When the DVD player has started playing, I have very slow keyboard response. Usually 15-30 seconds, sometimes more. ???

3. The picture is as previosly said quite smooth, but edges are somewhat "pixelized". In scenes with movement the "pixelized" edges "scrolls". Hope you can understand what I mean ... :-) How can this be fixed?

4. When though the DVD is playing (fine and smooth) on TV, I can't for some reason switch the TV to regular broadcasts. TV broadcast sound is OK, but I still only see the DVD picture from the computer, although now the picture is scrolling from one side to the other on the TV. If I stop the DVD player, all is fine and I can see the TV broadcast. Any ideas? (Picture on monitor remains stable.) Any ideas?

5. The picture on TV is not fully centered. It's positioned slightly to the right. Is this possible to adjust within the drivers?

6. If I minimize the DVD Player window on the monitor, the picture on TV starts to stutter quite bad, 2-3 times/second continously.

7. What has changed and/or what bugs are corrected with newer BIOS? Does any of the newer BIOS do something to TV-out/DVDMax? If so, what version and what is done?

Other observations:
* CPU is usually loaded to 35-45%, but will periodicly (every 2-3 minutes) gradually (it takes about 25 sec) raise up to almost 100% and then suddenly drop back to 35-45% for another 2-3 minutes. What is causing this?
* Could I do something with help of "DVD Genie" to improve playback quality?
* Could "DivXG400" help in any way?



Thank you very much far anything that might help!

[Sasq]

Hmm don't know if this will help with any of your problems but check dma is turned on for the drive in hardware config - or is that off?? 12:15 am tired....

Dan

[Bond]

Sasq

DMA is active.

Thanx / Bond

[dZeus]

Re: New DVDMax user /w problems - needs tweaking help

Originally posted by Bond
2. When the DVD player has started playing, I have very slow keyboard response. Usually 15-30 seconds, sometimes more. ???

that's with cinemasster, right? Try WinDVD 3.x or PowerDVD 3/4

4. When though the DVD is playing (fine and smooth) on TV, I can't for some reason switch the TV to regular broadcasts. TV broadcast sound is OK, but I still only see the DVD picture from the computer, although now the picture is scrolling from one side to the other on the TV. If I stop the DVD player, all is fine and I can see the TV broadcast. Any ideas? (Picture on monitor remains stable.) Any ideas?

sounds like some problem on your tv detecting a signal on the scart input (maybe it uses pin 16 on the SCART for AV switching instead of pin 8?)

5. The picture on TV is not fully centered. It's positioned slightly to the right. Is this possible to adjust within the drivers?

are you sure this isn't just overscan effect on the TV or offset picture on the tv itself and not due to the vidcard's output?

* Could I do something with help of "DVD Genie" to improve playback quality?

afaik most players have picture quality set to (almost) max already by default.

* Could "DivXG400" help in any way?

not really for playing back DVDs. It's meant for directshow filter files (.avi etc) and can convert fps from 24 to 25, as well as put non-hardcoded subtitles on overlay.

BTW. Try the latest drivers as well, as well as disabling 32-bit z-buffer in the PD Options tab, as that helped on my config quite well (though not tested thoroughly)

[Maggi]

Besides the points mentioned above, you should update your G400 BIOS and use DVD Genie to enable Matrox G400 specific features when using Cinemaster.

Also it is possible that a chipset driver update could help you out.

[Bond]

Thanks for the responses!

dZeus:
======
- I will try disabeling 32-bit Z-buffer tonight. I guess I won't benefit from it anyway since I'm running main monitor at 1024x768x16.

- Yes, I'm using the bundeled Cinemaster. Will WinDVD and/or PowerDVD make use of DVDMax?

- Regarding SCART and the problem my TV has to switch to broadcasts when a DVD is still playing:
I'm currently using pin 16 of SCART as RGB Enable per instructions from Matrox Pin-out FAQ. That pin is named "status RGB" in TV manual, and pin 8 is named "status CVBS". Should I connect RGB Enable to pin 8 instead of pin 16?
Note: "sync on composite" is connected to SCART pin 20 and corresponding ground to pin 17 (from Matrox Pin-out FAQ). Those are named "CVBS in (video)" and "CVBS ground" respectively in TV manual, leading me to believe that pin 20 and pin 8 of SCART connector shares the same ground (=pin 17).
Over at http://www.proav.cc/data/cables/scart-pinout.html , one can read that pin 8 of SCART connector toggles the TV between AV-mode (9.5-12V) and TV-mode (0-2V). Is there a corresponding pin avaliable from the Matrox card when in SCART-RGB mode? What about pin 11 of VGA plug? That pin is not used in regular VGA-mode according to Matrox Pin-out FAQ. (The same is true for pin 4 of VGA plug, but Matrox uses that one for sync-on-composite/ composite.)

- Drivers:
I thought that drivers newer then 5.55 (Win98SE) are still suffering from the (in-)famous PAL TV-out bug. What drivers are you people using? Picture on my TV is usually smooth and stable apart from problems described above. (The only stuttering on TV I see is when I minimize the window on main monitor to task bar.)


Maggi:
======
- I've downloaded the latest DVD Genie. What options are G400 Specific? What settings are recommende/known to improve?

- BIOS: It seems hard to get info from Matrox about what each new BIOS release actually do to the G400. Have you seen anything fixed by a new BIOS release?

- Chipset driver: Are you reffering to the .inf-file supplied by Intel?



/
Thank you!

[Maggi]

Originally posted by Bond

Maggi:
======
- I've downloaded the latest DVD Genie. What options are G400 Specific? What settings are recommende/known to improve?

the ones that are labeled with G400 and/or Matrox ...
Seriously, I don't have DVD Genie here, but I remember settings like "Matrox sub-picture" for decoding the video, "Bottom of overlay" for surface flip position and at least "DVD Max" in the lower part of "more options" in the Cinemaster tab.

- BIOS: It seems hard to get info from Matrox about what each new BIOS release actually do to the G400. Have you seen anything fixed by a new BIOS release?

well, usually Matrox is pretty tight lipped about details what they changed in each BIOS revision, but each new BIOS comes with either bugfixes and/or optimizations for several tasks

- Chipset driver: Are you reffering to the .inf-file supplied by Intel?

yes ... the latest drivers for BX chipsets are dated to 14th of April 2000 if I remember right.

[dZeus]

sorry for the mess I made of the post earlier (I've edited it back to previous if I didn't mess up again that is). Here's the stuff I intended to post:

- Yes, I'm using the bundeled Cinemaster. Will WinDVD and/or PowerDVD make use of DVDMax?

everything that uses overlay will make use of DVD-MAX. The term 'DVD' in DVD-MAX is more a sort of marketing thing than a description/limitation of it's use.

- Regarding SCART and the problem my TV has to switch to broadcasts when a DVD is still playing:
I'm currently using pin 16 of SCART as RGB Enable per instructions from Matrox Pin-out FAQ. RGB Enable toggles between RGB(1-3V) and Composite(0-0.4V). Pin 16 is named "status RGB" in TV manual, and pin 8 is named "status CVBS". Should I connect RGB Enable to pin 8 instead of pin 16?

No, no, what I'm saying is that your tv might somehow also use pin 16 for the same kind of functionality that pin 8 normally offers (i.e. autoswitching to AV channel when signal is detected). You shouldn't change anything in your cable, cause you need to tell the TV that the signal is RGB and not svideo or composite. Maybe you can turn autoswitching off in your tv menu (I know I can).

Note: "sync on composite" is connected to SCART pin 20 and corresponding ground to pin 17 (from Matrox Pin-out FAQ). Those are named "CVBS in (video)" and "CVBS ground" respectively in TV manual, leading me to believe that pin 20 and pin 8 of SCART connector shares the same ground (=pin 17).

I've seen various explanations of the Peritel SCART connector, but most of the times the ground for the sync signal on pin 20 was pin 18 (and pin 17 was used for composite output ground). You might want to swap these 2 to check wether it might have influence on your tv-autoswitching to AV (though I doubt that, and it probably won't make a difference at all).

Over at http://www.proav.cc/data/cables/scart-pinout.html , one can read that pin 8 of SCART connector toggles the TV between AV-mode (9.5-12V) and TV-mode (0-2V). Is there a corresponding pin avaliable from the Matrox card when in SCART-RGB mode? What about pin 11 of VGA plug? That pin is not used in regular VGA-mode according to Matrox Pin-out FAQ. (The same is true for pin 4 of VGA plug, but Matrox uses that one for sync-on-composite/composite.)

Nope, this functionality isn't offered by the G400 (or G450/G550) (afaik). Pin 9 will provide you +5v but it's active all the time, not just when there's video output. You could make your own circuit that will trigger the +5v to pin 8 on the scart when video is being outputted I guess, but then you'll be in 16:9 mode regardless of the signal being outputted (and you'll need to change the setting of your tv if you're outputting 4:3 signal, if that's possible in the first place on your tv set).

- Drivers:
I thought that drivers newer then 5.55 (Win98SE) are still suffering from the (in-)famous PAL TV-out bug. What drivers are you people using? Picture on my TV is usually smooth and stable apart from problems described above. (The only stuttering on TV I see is when I minimize the window on main monitor to task bar.)

I don't know exactly when what has been fixed, but I do know that there have been made a lot of fixes for PAL output in the last few driver releases. Please try the latest one and disabling 32-bit zbuffer. (as well as flashing your mobo and vidcard bios to the latest revision as Maggi suggested).

I'm using PD 5.52 for Win2k myself, but I rarely output PAL to my tv since I've got a standalone DVD player as well. (And most of the stuff I watch is NTSC). In this driver I'm using the PAL to PAL bug is still there.

[Bond]

Maggi

Regarding Intel chipset drivers. My system has already recognized the 440BX chipset, but you said an update is avaliable, so I thought I'd try.

I went to http://developer.intel.com/design/so...atform/inf.htm and downloaded the latest version 3.20.1008. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to support 440BX with Win98SE. Do you remember what version you are using?
Also, did you remove ALL entrys under Controll panel->System icon->Device manager tab->View Devices by Connection button->Plug and Play BIOS, or ACPI BIOS->PCI bus before installing the new drivers?

/
Thank you!

[Maggi]

that's the right update, just run the included setup.exe and after reboot it'll detect all devices and will install the proper drivers ...

those also support W98SE, at least they say so in that readme.

[Bond]

Hi again.

Well, I unzipped the downloaded file and per instructions in the readme I went to the directory named after my OS (=Win98SE). There were several files, one for each chipset such as 810,815,850 etc. but none for 440BX.
Anyway, I´ll try what you suggested.


Regarding problems described above.
I read that "Passive release of PCI-bus" somehow could effect playback of MPEG2 streams. U know why?
Anything else that could be done in BIOS to increase quality?

/
Thanx!