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Cinematograph ReadmeCinematograph
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DVD MPEG AVI QuickTime movieviewer
for Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0,
Windows ME, Windows 98, Windows 95
Copyright © 2000 by Carl Verner Skou, All rights reserved
What is Cinematograph.
----------------------
Cinematograph is a high performance and high quality movie viewer based on
DirectShow/COM for Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98 and Windows 95.
Cinematograph displays DVD, MPEG, Video Compact Disc, Super Video Compact
Disc, AVI, Windows Media Video and QuickTime movies on a black background
meaning no other pictures, windows will disturb the movies shown. You have
the option for resizing the movies on the fly - if you love movies the
widescreen format 16:9 is just for you - enter your own movie theater.
You can collect your movies in a collection and set different options for
each movie: Size, rating, alias name. Further you have an option for
parental control, where you can specify from where your children can view
movies ( folders, CD-ROM and DVDdiscs ).
An autosearch option gives your the possibility to search harddisks, CD-discs
for movies supported by Cinematograph, the search result can be inserted
directly into a movie collection.
Cinematograph is designed around a VCR-control with the well known play, pause,
stop etc. for easy handling of movies. The design of the program makes it very
user-friendly - and under the hood the advanced features of the Cinematograph
engine and the DirectShow engine is running silently, ensuring you can enjoy
your movies.
Cinematograph is a very popular program, and it entered the top ten download
list on Rocket Download in just two weeks in the summer of 1999. You can find
Cinematograph on all major download sites as i.e. Rocket Download, 32 Bit
Resource Center, Download 32, CNet Download and Microsoft NT Resources.
For further information, please visit Cinematograph Homepage.
How to install Cinematograph.
-----------------------------
Run SETUP.EXE and follow the instructions.
Some distributors are repacking Cinematograph, this can mean, Cinematograph's
setup-program cannot find it files, when you are trying to run SETUP.EXE from
inside the unpacking program. Solution: Unpack all the files to a temporary
folder or to a floppy disk and run SETUP.EXE from either the folder or the
floppy disk.
The distributed shareware version of Cinematograph cannot make a silient Setup.
The following files are in the distributed shareware version:
Cinematograph.afx
Cinematograph.exe
Cinematograph.hlp
Cinematograph.htm
Cinematograph.www
CinemaDVDLang.dll
License.htm
Order.htm
Readme.txt
FILE_ID.DIZ
Setup.cvs
Setup.exe
Setup.usx
cvsuinst.exe
If a file is missing, this is not the original distributed shareware version and
you should inform either the distributor or the programauthor Carl Verner Skou (
e-mail: cvs@mail.dk ) about it. All distributors repacking the archive must
ensure all the above files are available in the archive and that all files are
the newest version.
It is not allowed to distribute any registered version of Cinematograph.
How to uninstall Cinematograph.
-------------------------------
Open Control Panel, click on Add/Remove programs, click on Cinematograph, and
follow the instructions.
If you have saved any movie collections in the folder containing Cinematograph,
the folder and the movie collections are not removed. Remove the folder
containing the movie collections with Explorer.
Conditions.
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You are hereby granted a license to use Cinematograph on an evaluation basis for
a period of 30 days from the date of acquisition. If you like Cinematograph and
wish to use Cinematograph after this period has expired, you must register it.
Cinematograph may not be sold or distributed for compensation without the
express written consent of Carl Verner Skou.
Distributors must contact Carl Verner Skou
What is an evaluation version?
------------------------------
An evaluation version provides a way to obtain and evaluate software, and hereby
gives the users the opportunity to try a program before buying it. You are
allowed to use Cinematograph for 30 days, after using Cinematograph after 30
days, you must purchase a licensed copy or remove the program from your system.
Requires.
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Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0 SR 3.0, Windows 98, Windows 95
DirectShow/DirectX 5.x ( DirectX 3.x if NT 4.0 SR 3.0 )
DVD drive and DVD drivers supporting DirectShow for DVD movies
Pentium/Pentium MMX/Pentium II/Pentium Pro/Pentium III or compatible processor
Best performance with a AGPx2, SVGA PCI graphiccard in high (16 bit ) or true
colors ( 24-32 bit )
Soundcard 16 bit, 4-44 KHz, stereo
Speakers
32 MB RAM memory
One MB free diskspace for the programfiles
What kinds of movies are supported?
-----------------------------------
Cinematograph supports all the major movie formats
DVD ( Video_ts.ifo )
VCD, SVCD (*.dat, *.mpg )
MPEG-1 ( *.mpg, *.mpeg, *.dat; *.ifo; *.env )
MPEG-2 (*.mp2, *.m2v)
AVI ( *.avi )
Windows Media files ( *.asf, *.wmv )
Apple QuickTime 1.0-4.x ( *.mov, *.qt )
Depending on the configuration of your system the quality and playback of the
movies will be different. DVD movies requires either hardware based decoding or
a very fast system, minimum a Pentium II 266 MHz should god enough for hardware
based DVD viewing, a Pentium III is recommended for software based DVD decoding.
If you want to view MPEG movies in full screen without dropping of frames, a
minimum system based on a Pentium II and a fast graphiccard ( AGPx2 ) is
required. A smaller system Pentium I will properly drop frames or have delays
showing MPEG movies in larger size than typical 320x240. Other movie formats
will also vary, but as a rule of thumb AVI and QuickTime movies should be shown
without problems.
Please see below for further instructions about MPEG and QuickTime.
DirectShow, MPEG and QuickTime.
-------------------------------
Microsoft DirectShow is required to view AVI, MPEG and QuickTime 1.0-2.0 movies.
DirectShow is installed by the component Direct Media either by Microsoft
Internet Explorer or Microsoft DirectX Foundation. DirectShow is the descendent
to Video for Windows and ActiveMovie, and it improves speed, quality of
supported movie formats in significant ways.
If you have installed MS Internet Explorer version 4.0 and newer or DirectX
version 5.x and newer, you should have DirectShow installed on your system. If
not, either:
Install Internet Explorer and remember to select Multimedia as one of the
components.
or
Install MS DirectX Foundation
Microsoft DirectShow/DirectX Foundation can be downloaded from Microsoft, please
go the web-site:
http://www.microsoft.com/directx/
To view Microsoft Media Video movies/recordings ( *.asf, *.wmv ) you must have
updated your system with latest Windows Media Player. You can download the
latest version from Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/
Apple QuickTime Movies.
-----------------------
In order to view all QuickTime Movies 1.0-4.x, Apple QuickTime version 4.x must
installed on your system. Apple QuickTime can be downloaded from Apple:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/
You can only view the QuickTime movies in normal and double size.
DVD.
----
DVD is supported by Cinematograph, if your system has a DVD-drive and DirectShow
supported DVD-drivers, where the drivers can be to either the graphicadapter (
typical software based ) or to the hardware based MPEG-2 decoding. You might
need to get updated drivers to DirectShow form the vendor.
Windows 98 or Windows 2000 recommended for DVD viewing. Notice, you must have
the latest drivers installed for your graphicadapter ( and MPEG-2 hardware
decodercard ).
Windows NT 4.0 user will not be able to view DVD movies, as NT 4.0 only supports
DirectX 3.0.
Creative Drx2 owners must have the updated drivers installed and Windows 98SE.
Cinematograph coexists with your existing DVD software and does not change
anything, so you can use your existing DVD software, when not using
Cinematograph - but why should you! To use Cinematograph as your DVD player,
start Cinematograph, press eject on the VCR controlbar, insert a DVD disc and
press eject once again on the VCR controlbar to load the DVD movie. After a
moment Cinematograph will have prepared the DVD movie for playback. When
Cinematograph is running, you can change DVD movies as described above or use
the eject button on your DVD drive to change DVD movies.
You can call the DVD menu by pressing the stop on the VCR controlbar, when a DVD
movie is playing. You can also click with the right mouse button to call the
Cinematograph main popup-menu, the first menu item - when playing DVD movies -
access are to the main DVD functions. If the menu items under the DVD functions
are greyed out, this means, either you are in a DVD menu and should select one
of the items, or the DVD menu are not available at this point of the DVD
playback (i.e. when starting a new DVD movie, where the copyright information of
the movie/company is displayed ).
You can set your DVD preferences in Cinematographs properties ( press F4, select
DVD - if a DVD movie is loaded, you are sned directly to the DVD options ). DVD
Playback gives the option to select, how a DVD movie should be rendered, select
hardware only, if your system has MPEG2 hardware. TV output signal should only
be checked, if you have a TV connected to your MPEG2 hardware. Forward and
rewind speed can be between 2x and 10x, but the actual speed for high values
will depend on your DVD drive.
To use parental level, you must enable parental control in Cinematograph and
specify a password.
Cinematograph follows the guidelines of DVD; this means, region codes and
copyright functions are used and respected.
Video/Super Video Compact Disc.
-------------------------------
Cinematograph can autoplay Video Compact Discs and Super Video Compact Disc,
when a VCD or SVCD disc is inserted. Cinematograph does not support menus or
karaoke. To step through the typical startmenu of VCD/SVCD use the forward
button in Cinematographs VCR control.
The layout of the VCD disc must be \mpegav containing the video sequences.
For SVCD the layout must be \mpeg2. If your VCD/SVCD for some reason does
not have this layout, Cinematograph is not able to autoopen and autoplay the
disc, use a manual opening and selecting to the movie.
If you record your own AVI, MPEG, QuickTime, Windows Media Video movies, and
do not create VCD or SVCD, save your videos in a folder named \Video, and
create a CD disc with this structure ( \VIDEO, where the folder \VIDEO
contains your videos). When your insert the disc with your own movies,
Cinematograph will autoplay your own movies! Also movies placed in the root
of the CD disc will be autoplayed. Cool feature.
Be patient before autoplay starts, Cinematograph is first looking for DVD,
then VCD and SVCD and then home-made movies, and this check can take some
seconds.
Powermanagement.
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Cinematograph disables your screensaver, when it starts and enables it again on
exit. This is done, because you should be able to watch your movies without any
interruptions - surely when watching a DVD movie, you would not like the
screensaver to be activated. But if you are using i.e. a battery-driven laptop,
Cinematograph will stop and exit, if the laptop reports low battery conditions.
VCR controlbar, timedisplay, ruler.
-----------------------------------
You do all the basic operation with the VCR controlbar, which you can hide and
restore with F3.
The timedisplay can be called with Ctrl+T, alternative Shift+F3. You can toggle
the timedisplay between current, remaining and total time by clicking on the
captionbar of the timedisplay. Remove the timedisplay again with Ctrl+T or
Shift+F3.
The ruler is called by Alt+F3 and removed again by pressing Alt+F3 once again.
You can hide all controls ( VCR controlbar, timedisplay and ruler ) by pressing
Ctr+H.
To get a popup menu with access to all functions, right click with the mouse
anywhere on the screen. Alternative you can press Shift+F10 to call the popup
menu.
Full view mode.
---------------
You have the option for hiding all controls when in full view mode. Just press
any key, i.e. spacebar/ESC to get the VCR control back again.
Ruler view.
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A ruler can be shown and is used to drag to a new position with the mouse, when
a movies is shown or playing. The ruler will not be available in full screen
view. If you are in full screen view and checks »Show ruler« in Properties, the
view will be reset to the double size. If »Show ruler« is on and you change the
size of the movie to full screen, the »Show ruler« check is removed.
Fast forward, slow motion.
--------------------------
When playing single movies in the format DVD, MPEG-1 and AVI you are able to do
fast forward or slow motion playback. If you are playing a collection of movies
fast forward will step to next movie in the collection. To use fast forward in
collection, open a collection, select the movie you want to playback and either
double click on the movie or select Play ( not Play All ).
Parental Control.
-----------------
Parental Control is aimed at families with small children in the age 0-8.
Parental Control is a based on a password control, which enables you to control
from which folders and CD discs, your children are allowed to watch movies with
Cinematograph. Further it limits the functions: Internet access from inside
Cinematograph, rename, delete, remove movies.
All non-allowed folders and CD discs are filtered out from the playlist,
Cinematograph is using.
In the properties of each movie in a Cinematograph collection you can specify a
movierating. If the movierating isn't General all ages [G], the movie can only
be shown after having entered the password, if Parent Control is enabled.
To enable Parental Control, you must specify a password, which later it used to
change Parental Control and to set folders, CD discs allowed for the children.
Notice, Parental Control only works with movies shown by Cinematograph. You must
use Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 to secure your system based on useraccounts, if
you want to make a general protections of which movies can be shown by the
system.
Hint: If you lose your parental password, just double-click with the right
mousebottom on the yellow textarea in Parental control and you are asked, if you
want to remove password and parental control.
NT 4.0 and Menu Command sounds.
-------------------------------
If you have Menu Command sounds enabled in NT 4.0, then if you use the popup
menu to open and play a movie in Cinematograph, the sound of the movie could be
disabled. If this is the case, disable Menu Command sounds in NT 4.0, or press
Play in the VCR control.
DirectShow/DirectX and drivers.
-------------------------------
Be sure to have the latest drivers to your graphic adapter and soundcard, when
using DirectShow/DirectX. If you have an older version of the drivers and they
do not support the features in DirectShow/DirectX, you can experience lower
performance and even programcrash.
You can diagnose your system with DXDIAG.EXE, if you have DirectX 5.x or newer
installed.
DXDIAG.EXE is on Windows 95, Windows 98 found in the folder:
\Program Files\DirectX\Setup
on Windows 2000 in the systemfolder
\WinNT\System32
Command options.
----------------
You can select a movie or collection to be played and if the movie or the
collection should be repeated at startup of Cinematograph.
Command options:
/R = Repeat
drive:\Foldername\Filename
Example:
Cinematograph /R D:\Videos\Music.mpg
Further instructions.
---------------------
Read the help Cinematograph.hlp for further instructions. Examine the Trouble
Shooter in the help, if you have problems.
Special features.
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Video Compact Disc ( VCD ) and Super Video Compact Disc ( SVCD ) autoplay
Fast forward and slow motion
Ensuring monitor does not enter sleepmode, when watching long time movies
( Windows 2000, Windows ME/98 only )
DVD and Apple QuickTime support
Powermanagement support
Pure DirectShow/COM programmed - faster and better
Option for keeping aspect ratio of original movie when shown in full screen
view
Option for autohidding the VCR control etc. when playing movies in fullview
mode. Also possible to hide all controls on the fly
Option for nuking parental password - if you forgot it!
Parental Control. Protects your children by only allowing them to see movies
from folders and CD discs you have specified. Access to Internet requires
password if Parental Control is enabled
Mousewheel support. Use the mousewheel to zoom in and out.
Playlist, show all movies currently selected to be viewed
Autosearch movies on your harddisk, CD disc, network drive
Set size of movie in the collection, in this way you can show the movies in
different sizes. Internet WEB site access to selected WEB sites
Movie collection, insert any movie from any source into a movie collection.
You combine any source media and from different folders. Cinematograph Movie
Collection can autosearch harddisks, CD-discs for any movie supported by
Cinematograph
Auto-search movie if not found. Example: A movie is on CD-ROM 'E', you have
inserted the CD disc in drive 'F', Cinematograph will find the right drive.
Useful if you i.e. have made a movie collection based on a CD disc, and is
using the collection on another system, configured different than your own
system
Y2K - year 2000.
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Cinematograph is year 2000 compliant. You should update your Windows system with
all Y2K fixes to ensure your system is full year 2000 compliant.
This year 2000 statement about Cinematograph version 2.1.0.0 and newer is given
as it is without warrant either expressed or implied.
Support, shareware.
-------------------
Read the online help for further instructions. All registered users will have
free update to the later release version and all future versions of
Cinematograph. Please read the license agreement. Use Order to order and pay
your own personal copy of Cinematoraph.
Please, visit Cinematograph Homepage and Cinematograph Supportpage for the
latest version avaible and further information about Cinematograph.
Best whishes for many pleasant hours with your movies and Cinematograph.
Yours
Carl Verner Skou
August 2000
Internet: cvs@mail.dk »The Dolphin«
Updated 7th of August 2000. Copyright © 2000 by Carl Verner Skou cvs@mail.dk
No part of this document may be changed without the written permission of
Carl Verner Skou
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