ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» º QuickView Ver. 1.03 º º º º DOS based Multimedia viewer º º No Windows is required! º ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ For the German documentation please read QV.DOK. QuickView is Shareware. This means that you can test it for at most three weeks. After that period you must register, i.e. pay a small registration fee or discontinue using it. See REGISTER.DOC for details. Features of QuickView: ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Some call it QuickView others call it the possibly fastest viewer of the world. QuickView views the following file formats at present: - .AVI: Codecs: DIB (8 bit and 24 bit), RLE (8 bit), MS Video 1 [msvc] (8 bit), MS Video 1 [msvc] (16 bit), Cinepak [cvid] (24 bit), Ultimotion (OS/2 AVIs) [ULTI] (16 bit) With sound through a Sound Blaster or the PC speaker. Sound can be either uncompressed or Microsoft ADPCM compressed. You have the option to adapt the quality to your system's speed. - .BMP: uncompressed: 1, 4, 8 and 24 color bits RLE compressed: 4 and 8 color bits including OS/2 bitmaps furthermore all kindred formats: .RLE, .DIB, .BGA, .VGA, .RLE, .RL4, .RL8 - .CEL (Original Animator CEL Files) .FLC, .FLI, - .GIF: 1-8 color bits Gif 87a and most Gif 89a extensions - .ICO: Windows Icons OS/2 Icons (partly) - .PCX: 1-4, 8 and 24 color bits - .PIC: Videodat .PIC files - .TGA: uncompressed: 8 and 24 color bits, 1-bit black & white RLE compressed: 8 and 24 color bits - .VOC: through a Sound Blaster or the PC speaker - .WAV: through a Sound Blaster or the PC speaker PCM and Microsoft ADPCM compression supported System Requirements: ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ QuickView will run on any IBM PC compatible computer under DOS 3.0 or better with at least a 80286 processor. For viewing AVI files at least a 80386 processor is required. You must have a VGA card in your system. CGA, EGA and Hercules cards are not supported. For Sound Blaster support you must have the Environment variable BLASTER set that contains port address, interrupt and DMA channel. QuickView will run under Windows 3.1 and 95 in a DOS shell. PC Speaker sound will not work in a DOS shell. You have to disable sound with AVIs or run QuickView under plain DOS. QuickView can view images larger than the available video hardware would allow. This is accomplished by storing only those pixels in the main memory that are outside the visible part of the image. This leads to low memory requirements. Scrolling is not yet possible for pictures with more than 8 color bits. Installation: ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Simply place all files of the package in a directory. That's it! QuickView will automatically detect your machine, memory and graphics card. Command Line Format: ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ The command line format to run QuickView is: QV [/M] [/V] [/Rx] [/S] [/Lx] [/I] [/A] [/2] [/4] [/Qx] [/Fx] [filename] Options: /M Select 50 lines menu mode. QuickView uses 25 line menu mode by default. For 50 lines you can use the /M option /V Don't use VESA. QuickView autodetects many graphics cards and uses VESA by default. The /V option tells QuickView to not use the VESA interface if installed, but if you want to use HiColor or TrueColor modes the VESA interface must be used. If your graphics card does not support VESA you can use a VESA TSR like UNIVESA or UNIVBE (see below). /Rx Select screen resolution: x=1: 320*200 x=2: 640*480 x=3: 800*600 x=4: 1024*768 If a mode is not possible the nearest available will be used. default: auto select /S Disable vertical hardware scrolling as this may cause problems on some graphics cards. /Lx Loop FLI/FLC x times, 0 => until key pressed, default: 0 /I Don't use Auto Init SB /A No sound with AVIs /2 AVI Zoom 2x /4 Don't use 320*240, 256 colors mode with AVIs. QuickView will use 320*240*256 mode by default if it allows to play the AVI full screen. /Qx AVI quality: x=0: TrueColor x=1: HiColor x=2: 256 colors x=3: Grey Scale Please note that these options are not available for all codecs. For details see the AVI options below. The default TrueColor will give best quality with all AVIs however it requires the most CPU power. /Fx Start AVI at frame x, e.g. /F137 (only in registered version) All parameters are not case-sensitive. filename can be a file that QuickView views or a name that contains the wildcards * and ?. Example: QV /A /Q2 VIDEO.AVI The Menu: ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ QuickView always shows you all the files in the current directory, along with all the visible subdirectory names. The arrow keys will move the file selector bar around. By pressing a character the file selector bar jumps to the first file starting with that character. Use lower case for files, upper case for directories. A mouse is not supported. To view a file or change a directory just hit Enter. If you try to view a file QuickView does not handle nothing will happen. If you have tagged some files (256 at most) QuickView will view these files without going to the menu in between. Hit Enter or Tab if you want to view the next file and Backspace for the previous one. Esc breaks and returns to the menu. More keys during file selection: ALT-D: Change drive. A drive selection box will appear, prompting you for the drive letter you want to log onto. QuickView will attempt to change to the desired drive. If an error occurs, QuickView will remain logged onto the current drive. F1 : Help F2 : Display information about the processor, detected graphics card, sound card and free memory. F3 or ALT-I: Get information on the currently selected file. ALT-O: Change options of QuickView. For details see below. + - : Increase or decrease resolution respectively. The currently selected resolution is highlighted. "Automatic" automatically selects the lowest resolution which will display the whole picture if possible. Space: Tag/untag the current file ALT-T: Tag all files in the current directory ALT-U: Untag all files. ALT-A: Show all 32*32 pixel Windows icons in the current directory. You can use a higher resolution to see more icons on the screen. ALT-X: Exit QuickView and return to DOS. Options: ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Press the red characters to toggle the state of the option. You can also use the up/down arrow keys and the Space bar. If you press "C" a configu- ration file is created or updated. Command line options override the config file. Note that changing the use of VESA is only effective if you leave QuickView and start it again. AVI options: Sound support: Sound through a Sound Blaster does not cost much time but sound through PC speaker might slow the system down noticably. If you have problems during AVI playback try turning off the sound. AVI loop: Use this if you want an AVI to start again after viewing. 2x Zoom: QuickView will display AVIs twice as big and so allow full screen playback for appropriate AVI resolutions. Note that 2x Zoom might require a higher screen resolution and therefore the AVI will not appear bigger if this is the case. 2x Zoom is very CPU intensive and might slow down your system, so QuickView will therefore use at most HiColor output if 2x Zoom is selected. 320*240 mode: Many AVIs have the size 320*240. QuickView will display these AVIs full screen if you switch on this option. 160*120 AVIs will also be displayed full screen if you also switch on 2x Zoom. Note that 320*240 mode is only available with 256 color modes. 320*240 is a non-standard VGA mode and may cause problems with some graphics cards or if you use QuickView with other operating systems. AVI quality: These options depend on the codec used in the AVIs: Grey scale: This is only available for Cinepak and Ultimotion compressed AVIs as only these can be speeded up. If you use this option with AVIs using another codec QuickView will use 8 color bits output. 8 color bits: This option is available for all codecs. HiColor: QuickView will use HiColor output with Cinepak compressed AVIs and will give the best quality for all other codecs. TrueColor: Will give the best quality for all codecs. Commands While Viewing: ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ For all file types: Esc: Stop viewing. For pictures: Arrow keys: Scroll picture if it is larger than the screen. Ctrl-Arrow keys: Scroll fast. Home, End: Scroll to left or right border respectively. Enter or Tab: View next file. Backspace: View previous file. For AVI: Space: Pause Viewing, space again: next frame, any other key: continue. Arrow-key left, right: forward, rewind respectively. CTRL-Arrow-key left, right: fast forward, rewind respectively. Questions & Answers: ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ -Q: QuickView doesn't detect my sound card. A: Make sure that your BLASTER environment variable is set correctly. There must be a command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT like this: SET BLASTER=Axxx Ix Dx Hx Pxxx Tx with A: Sound Blaster base I/O-port, I: interrupt, D: DMA low channel, H: DMA high channel (only required for SB16), P: MIDI port, T: Sound Blaster Type (not necessary for QuickView) -Q: I don't hear sound with some AVIs. A: Some AVIs don't have the audio separated into pieces, so QuickView must load the audio beforehand to XMS. If there is not enough memory available then the audio is omitted. I some cases it helps to reduce the number of colors. -Q: The AVI stops after first frame. A: Try command line option /I to turn off Auto Init DMA. -Q: Sound is interrupted with some AVIs. A: At least one component of your system is too slow. Try copying the AVI to your hard disk if you play it back from CD. Switch off 2x Zoom. Choose a lower number of colors. -Q: I use PC speaker output because I don't have a sound card. I always hear clicks with AVIs when the program reads from the hard disc or from CD ROM. A: To allow good PC speaker sound 100% CPU time is required. This works with VOCs and WAVs but of course not with AVIs. Each time the program accesses the hard drive or a CD-ROM the sound must be interrupted. Windows does not support PC speaker sound with AVIs! -Q: Why is the video quality bad with some AVIs? A: This is because you don't have a TrueColor or HiColor card or you don't have a VESA driver in your system. In the latter case you should use the VESA TSR for your graphics card, UNIVESA or UNIVBE, available on many FTP-servers, BBSs, from Shareware distributors or on my WWW page. The VESA driver must conform at least to version 1.2 of the VESA standard. Versions prior to 1.2 of the VESA standard did not define TrueColor and HiColor modes. -Q: I get the message "Your system doesn't have enough main memory to show the file" with some AVIs. What can I do? A: Select a lower number of colors, e.g. HiColor instead of TrueColor. Turn off sound. -Q: I can't forward and rewind AVIs. A: Either the AVI has no index or a bad index. Or there is not enough memory. -Q: I like 50 lines menus more. How can I select this mode permanently? A: Press ALT-O in the menu. Then you can select 50 lines with "5" and write a config file with "C". Known problems: ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ - The Indeo codecs used in some AVIs are not supported yet. You will get the message "Unsupported codec" with these AVIs. Indeo support is in progress. - 16 bit MS Video 1 compressed AVIs in 8 color bit mode can't be displayed 2x zoomed or using 320*240 mode. - Compressed VOC files are supported but sound quality is not yet as good as it should be. A .MOV to .AVI converter ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ is available at ftp.intel.com /pub/IAL/multimedia/smartv.exe How to get an up-to-date version of QuickView: ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ The file name of the package is always qvxxx.zip where xxx means the version number. Note that some BBSs use a different archiver than ZIP. - Internet WWW: My Homepage: http://www.rhrz.uni-bonn.de/~uzs272 You will get the latest version including minor revisions there. - Internet FTP: Official FTP distribution site (you will find the most recent version here including minor revisions): ftp.rhrz.uni-bonn.de /pub/institute/hesseler Major releases are also available from: SimTel: primary mirror site is ftp.coast.net /SimTel/msdos/graphics Garbo: garbo.uwasa.fi /pc/graphics - Usenet News: It will be posted to the newsgroup alt.binaries.pictures.utilities. - BBS: "Airbase" (Bad Neuenahr, Germany), 24h online, Sysop: Michael Krischok Line 1: +49-2641-29108 [ZyXEL] Fido: 2:2453/300 Line 2: +49-2641-202607 [ISDN] Fido: 2:2453/301 login as user: Quickview and Password: Quickview. Fido users can frequest QuickView using the magic "QUICK". - Send me an email (hesseler@athene.informatik.uni-bonn.de) with "Request QuickView" as subject. - Via snail mail. Send me a floppy disk with a self-addressed and stamped envelope. This works only if you have German stamps. Otherwise send me money to cover my expenses. Please fill out the registration form so that I get your address and check "QuickView current shareware version". - You'll get the latest version when registering. Further Developments of QuickView: ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Depending on the wishes and the number of registrations I plan to add more file formats: PNG, JPEG, QuickTime .MOV, .DL, .GL, MPEG, ... You see: You should support QuickView and register! How to contact the author: ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Please report all bugs and suggestions for improvements or enhancements. I'm also very interested in files that QuickView claims to show but doesn't play or display correctly. Feel free to contact me. You may use one of the following ways: My Internet address (this is the preferred way): hesseler@athene.informatik.uni-bonn.de If you're in the Bitnet you may also use the following address: uzs272@dbnrhrz1 If you don't get a reply within a week please send it again. Emails can get lost. If you don't have email access here is my snail mail address: Wolfgang Hesseler Neustadter Str. 6 D-53547 Rossbach Germany Please include return postage, using International Postal Coupons if you are outside Germany. This program is Shareware. You may test this unregistered version for at most three weeks but after that you must register. You are encouraged to share it with others and to upload it to a BBS. If you do so, please pass along the complete unmodified archive. All files must be included. ATTENTION: A registration is required for any commercial use. QuickView is (c) 1994,95 by Wolfgang Hesseler, all rights reserved I make no warranty of any kind either expressed or implied. In particular I make no warranty as to merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose or a particular hardware configuration. Furthermore I am not responsible for any damages of any kind, including profit losses and data loss or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of your use or inability to use the program. The person using the software bears all risk as to the quality and performance of the software. All files belonging to QuickView contain proprietary information which are protected by copyright. This includes reverse engineering, decompiling and disassembling. No part may be altered or translated without the prior written consent of the author. Any violation of the copyright will be prosecuted. License agreement for Shareware distributors: Shareware distributors may distribute this program as long as the charge does not exceed $5US and the shareware distributor will not change or leave out any file. Please notify me if you distribute QuickView as you should always distribute the latest version. This applies especially if you include QuickView on a CD-ROM. Furthermore, I'd appreciate it if you'd send me a free copy of the CD. Many thanks to my beta testers: Kov cs Bal zs Martin van Es Nico Geppert Stefan Hartmann Andreas Portele Mark Stehr Thanks to Tom Record for support. Thanks to Andr‚ Baresel, Ethan Brodsky and Craig Jackson for Sound Blaster programming info. The information about the MS Video 1 and the Cinepak Codecs are from XAnim. Thanks to Marc Podlipec. The Graphics Interchange Format(c) is the Copyright property of CompuServe Incorporated. GIF(sm) is a Service Mark property of CompuServe Incorporated. PCX files are PC Paintbrush format images. PC Paintbrush is published by Z-Soft. TARGA is a registered trademark of Truevision, Inc. Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. This product uses Ultimotion(tm) IBM video technology. Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 1994, All rights reserved. All other product names mentioned in this software are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.