Haig - DVD help?

[Rags]

Well, a LOT of us put in a BUNCH of time in order to help others out, and there are people willing to help if they can, all you have to do is ask in an appropriate manner. Rude people are either ignored or flamed, in which case their questions go unanswered. Sometimes you have a problem most of us have no clue on, and it will take some time for someone who does have a clue to actually read your post. In this case, it is best to keep your question at the top of the list every couple of days to keep it visible.

Fun threads and BS'ing is a way for us to relieve stress. Most of us are friends here and enjoy each other's company, and it makes a good way to pass time.

Rags

[Haig]

Hi Cods,

what Saad told you is correct. Right now, we have no definte yes, no, nor even a maybe.

Unfortunately, this is what we have to tell our clients until somebody tells us what our official stance is.

I'll goto Customer Service tomorrow and see what the hold up is with your case.

Haig

[Bixler]

If you have a similar setup to mine, I may have a workaround to the ZORAN DVD interface running Matrox's DVD Hardware Daughter Card for the G 200's

It is a 15 step process, so to save space here, just e-mail me, and I'll cover with you what it took to get my setup running.

This isn't a fix--just a workaround, but I'm playin' movies!

K6II 333, SOYO/VIA mb/chipset, win98, Creative DVD Rom, Marvel G200 TV with DVD module--Running original drivers (!!)

[This message has been edited by Bixler (edited 22 October 1999).]

[Bixler]

Up

Check message above, and go HERE if you want to try this workaround.

http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum5/HTML/005515.html

------------------
AMD K6II 333
on SOYO SY5EMA
128 K 8ns PC100 SDRAM
Marvel G-200 TV
w/DVD HW Card
Promise Ultra 66 PCI/IDE
Win 98--running 98 Lite
(A GREAT program)

[cods]

No reply from 'Customer Support' as you stated Haig....

[cods]

Still have not heard from customer support at all. Haig? Did you say they would contact me???

Oh well, at least someone has cracked the BIOS region for the G200 DVD module... http://www.dvdutils.com/cracks_matroxaddon.htm

[Dave Butters]

Haig,
I too am having horrendous trouble with CCAD errors - any news on this update yet?
ZORAN103.ZIP on Matrox's site can't be tested by me as it won't upgrade my version of Soft DVD (I'm V2.5 - it wants 2.523)!
I only had my addon on christmas!

[Haig]

Hi Dave,

You are still within the refund period from our on line store if that's where you bought the dvd module.

At this point, I don't know what will come of the dvd module support. As it stands, we only support it with the 4.33 display drivers.

Haig

[Dave Butters]

No reply to a request for a refund from Customer Support, likewise I still haven't had a reply from Technical Support (this I sent on 26/12/99) - in fact, they've NEVER replied to any of my emails hence me using this forum - very poor form.

[Haig]

Hmmm,

If you did not send your email to tech supp Canada, I can't do much for you. If you did send it here, you might want to send it again because our email server has no record of your email.

Although, there's a slight chance that we might be able to support it with our next set of display drivers.

Haig

[This message has been edited by Haig (edited 10 January 2000).]

[Wombat]

So now the question is, will those drivers come out before his refund period is up?

[Haig]

Good question but don't have a good answer for Dave. What he can do is wait upto the 30th day and then phone our on line store (assuming that's where he bought it from). Other than that, I don't know what else to say.

Haig

[Dave Butters]

Chaps,
Thanks for the interest, for info, I bought the hardware from the online european store on 18/11/99. These were in fact a Christmas present and as such the first I saw of the was in fact Christmas Day!
My partner advised me that when they arrived and she opened the box ther wasn't even an invoice - nothing - just three clear plastic packs containing all bits as it were - still no posted invoice to date either.
As for the support address I emailed to it is as follows....

graphic.tech@matrox.com - plucked via a link on the Matrox Web Site - who knows where it goes.

The contents of the email are as follows...
*********************************************
Hello,
What a Christmas! ! ! ! !
My system info......
Intel PII 400MMX, Chaintech 6BTM, 9GB IBM Deskstar H/D, Pioneer 103s DVD ROM, 128mb PC100 Ram, Creative AWE64 Value
Creative Voodoo II, Matrox Millennium G200 SG (16MB)AGP, Matrox Rainbow Runner, Matrox TV OUT, Matrox DVD. Win 95B (Y2K updated), DX7.0a. (all latest bios updates for G200 and system board)

I had the TV Out, DVD and an 8mb Upgrade for the G200 for Christmas, donned my anti-static wrist strap and installed this new hardware.
After the Zoran install I had a "Fatal Exception OD has occurred at 0028:CA9B25D0 in VXD CCAD (01) + 000004B0" - the figure after the "+" does vary.
Machine rebooted and my DOS display mode was compressed, this I later discovered is fixable by re-flashing the G200 bios back to the latest release which it was on prior to the TV OUT installation.
When I wish to run ANY DVD I get the above error most of the time (90%+), I get the same error if I try to run MPG files in Media Player II.
I've disabled all power management of all system devices (including the monitor).
All other Matrox functionality is fine except DVD and and form of MPG playback.
Even if after several reboots I do manage to get to play DVD's or MPG's they crash after a few minutes and reduce my system resources to near zero.
Bus mastering is enabled via drivers from Intel on the system board and DMA is selected on ALL drives.
I even downloaded ALL the latest drivers from the Matrox site (after reading all the notes first) and still no joy.
After many hours of crashes and virtually no decent on-line support from either Matrox, MGI and especially ZORAN I decided to removed the flaky Zoran Soft DVD player and use PowerDVD instead which I downloaded as a trial from the Net.
Now all is ok, I can play DVD's and MPG's fine except that I can't output them to TV very well and I don't believe the Zoran hardware is supported.
To say I am disappointed is an understatement, I have used Matrox products for years and have stood by them vigorously, the last problem (advice really) I had was a few months ago - I mailed you and had no reply where Anthony Pitt from Matrox users replied the following day.
I shall be mailing him a copy of this as well as I believe him to be a very helpful and knowledgable chap.
I even tried rebuilding the machine with Win98 SR2 but failed to get the Matrox display driver to function with hardware acceleration enabled (the screen display was totally corrupt) - this I discovered was tied in with USB support which I failed to disable properly in 98 hence me rebuilding back to 95B.

If you know of a fix for this please advise as whilst the PowerDVD software is good, I have paid a hell of a lot of money for your hardware and I expect it to work - I wouldn't mind if I had crap equipment but I haven't.

For info I am a PC Support Engineer covering hardware and software for over 2000 users within a large buisness here in the UK, I am quite proficient at resolving issues and diagnosing faults - please be direct.


For Anthony,
Thanks for the advice on the Rainbow Runner again - hope you're keeping well.

*********************************************
I have since phoned Matrox Support here in the UK. Their unsympathetic chap advised me to rebuild my system with Win '98 SE and to use the Microsoft DVD driver as it supports Zoran hardware and is a known fix. I said that the advert clearly states that it works with '95 as well - what else can I do?
"Nothing I know of, we only supported it with old drivers" was the reply.
I have emailed customer support for a refund for the DVD addon and TV out module - the latter because it is redundant however the three day wait for the reply is expected around Wednesday.
I no longer wish to have this hardware anywhere near my system - I have made a grave mistake with the DVD addon.
As for the G200 and Rainbow Runner - they're brilliant - no-one could ask for more - I'm really pleased.
Sorry to sound off, I've had lots of time to read lots of bad press about this hardware and suffer the same - really spoilt my Christmas.

[cods]

I'm in a similar boat as well, Dave.
I have requested many(!) times either a common sense fix to the DVD problem with the drivers, or some type of refund.
Matrox do have all of my tech support mail, and still refuse to reply to customer support requests....see above for my previous correspondence.

The only reason I hang around this 'place' is to keep up to date with hacks and also post them to help others who are also putting up with this VERY BELOW AVERAGE customer and driver support for the G200 DVD module.

Dunno about you, but I'm not buying any more Matrox stuff. And I havn't even started bitching yet.

[Dave Butters]

Thanks to all who replied with information, I spoke to Ireland's Tech Supp manager who has authorised a refund so this is the end for me - I just feel sorry for all you who have suffered for so long.