Version: 6.0.0026
Registration Number: 6060-00000061

Contents

1. Minimum System Requirements
2. Supported Hardware
3. New Features
4. Performance Issues
5. Technical Support


1. Minimum System Requirements

Operating system:
Windows 98/ME or Windows 2000

Minimum CPU:
- Intel PII 300 MHz if video card has Hardware Motion Compensation (HWMC)
- Intel PII 400 MHz if video card does not have HWMC
- Intel Celeron 366 MHz if video card has HWMC
- Intel Celeron 400 MHz if video card does not have HWMC
- AMD Athlon K7 500 MHz
- AMD K6-2 400 MHz with 3D Now

Minimum CPU For use with Dolby Headphone:
NOTE - Dolby Headphone is a processor intensive feature, which increases CPU utilization by approximately 30 percent.
- Intel PII 400 MHz or higher
- Intel Celeron 400 MHz if video card has HWMC
- AMD Athlon K7 500 MHz

Video card:
- Video Graphics card with AGP 2x and a minimum of 4MB video RAM

Sound card:
- Sound card that supports 48 KHz Sample rates

DVD ROM drives:
- RPC 1
- RPC 2 (Region Enforced DVD drives)

Memory:
- 32 MB RAM for Windows 98/ME
- 64 MB RAM for Windows 2000


2. Supported Hardware:

Hardware Motion Compensation (HWMC) supported video cards:

- ATI 128, 128 Pro, and Furry MAXX Series (www.atitech.com)
- ATI Mobility series (Check with manufacture of the Laptop)
- nVidia Geforce and Geforce2 Series (www.nvidia.com)
- S3 Savage 4/ Extreme and Savage 2000 (www.s3.com)
- S3 Mobility (Check with manufacture of the Laptop)
- Intel 8xx series (www.intel.com)

Non-Hardware Motion Compensation supported video cards:

- Any ATI card other than the ATI 128, 128 Pro and Furry MAXX
- nVidia Riva series and TNT series
- SIS 6326, 630
- 3DFX Voodoo series
- Intel i740
- 3D Labs Permedia2
- NeoMagic NMG6

Note: Even if your video card is not listed, it should work with SoftDVD MAX if it supports DirectDraw Overlay.

S/PDIF sound cards supported:

- Aureal Vortex2 (VXD drivers only; WDM driver may not have support for S/PDIF)
- ESS Canyon3D, Allegro and Mestro2
- Yamaha 724, 744 and 754

Note: Some sound cards with the Yamaha 724, 744 or 754 chip do not have the S/PDIF output. Consult your sound card manual if you are not sure.


3. New Features for Version 6.0

Note: Windows Media Player must be installed to support all file formats.

- Time Slider Support for AC3, DVD, VCD, MP3, WAV, MID, RMI, WMA, WMV, AVI and all the currently supported Mpeg file formats
- Screen Capture: to the Windows clipboard or save as a file
- Smooth Fast Forward
- The ability to zoom in and pan on DVD, VCD and certain file types
- CD Audio and slider
- Bookmark support for DVDs
- Change the look of the interface (Skins)
- Slow motion video
- Step video frame forward
- Repeat and random playback for Audio CDs
- Slider mode select for disc or title for Audio CDs
- Enable/disable Hard Ware Motion Compensation (HWMC) in the config dialog
- Select/deselect audio dynamic rage reduction in the Config dialog
- Enable center channel or left-right mixing in the config dialog box for multi-channel audio cards
- Support for wide screen (16:9) or letterbox (4:3) for screen display (default is 16:9)
- Added Keypad
- Playlist to play multiple files


4. Performance issues:

Because MGI SoftDVD MAX is a software DVD player, playback performance depends upon the speed and overhead of your system's hardware.

Playback with the use of Dolby Headphone will increase CPU utilization by 30%

System Requirements for running MGI DirectDVD:

· Intel 440LX/BX class or better chipset based motherboard.
· Intel Pentium II Processor, 300MHz or better
· Minimum 32MB SDRAM (64Mb recommended)
· DVD-ROM drive
· 20Mb free hard disk space
· Audio card
· Windows98

Supported video solutions:

· Intel740 AGP with 8MB video memory 
· ATI Rage Pro AGP with 8MB video memory
· NVidia128 AGP Solutions with 8MB video memory
· Only AGP versions of the above video solutions are supported.  There is no PCI bus support in the current version of MGI DirectDVD.

· A screen resolution of 800x600, 16 bit color or better is required
 
 

Troubleshooting:

To maximize the performance and the video quality of MGI DirectDVD it is important that your system has been configured for optimal performance. 

Make sure that the DMA Transfer is enabled for the DVD-ROM drive:

1. Open "Device Manager".  Device Manager can be accessed  by going to the "Start" task bar, selecting Settings, then selecting "control panel", then selecting "system",  then selecting "device manager"
2. Expand the "CDROM" branch by double clicking on it.
3. Select the DVD-ROM drive and click on the Properties button.
4. Select the 'Settings' property page.
5. Enable the 'DMA' checkbox under Options and click OK.
6. Click OK on the Device Manager dialog.
7. When asked to restart, click "Yes". The PC will reboot.
(Note: Some systems will not have the DMA option available. Please check your system manual to make sure that the system has support for DMA transfers.)
 

Make sure that your graphic card has at least 8Mb of video RAM:

Only 8Mb AGP graphic cards are supported (no PCI versions). Please make sure that you have at least 8Mb of video ram installed on your graphic cards. Attempting to play back content on systems with less video memory can result in frame dropping and choppy image quality.

Known issues:

Changing screen resolution while playing a title:

When changing the screen resolution while playing a title, the title will be forced to start at the beginning of the title.

Changing the resolution to anything lower than the minimum requirement (800x600) will cause MGI DirectDVD to malfunction.
 

Fast forward and rewind:

Occasionally fast forwarding or rewinding a DVD title can cause playback to lag extensively. To clear the problem, close the MGI DirectDVD and restart it.
 

Ejecting the DVD-ROM while playing a title:

It is highly recommended to avoid ejecting the DVD-ROM while playing. This is because in certain cases Windows cannot handle the eject command while playing a DVD title.
 

Parental control:

Note that many DVD titles do not actually enforce parental controls as designated on the title.  In such cases, the rating set in MGI DirectDVD's Parental Control dialog will have no effect, regardless of what the title's advertised rating is.
 

Chapter numbers:

Certain titles are not authored to generate chapter number information. For these titles, no forward or backward chapter navigation is possible, and the on-screen display will not be able to show a chapter number.
 

Current DVD time:

A few titles do not report current time or total length of the title. The seek slider and repeat section features will remain disabled for these titles.
 

Audio track selection:

It is not always possible to select the audio track directly from the menu presented when right-clicking on the playback screen.  Correct audio track selection can be accessed from the DVD Navigation menu.  This menu can be accessed by clicking the DVD Menu button in the control panel.
 

Navigation using the mouse:

Some titles do not allow the user to navigate DVD menus with a mouse. The user will need to use the arrow keys on the keyboard.

Customer support:

For customer support for MGI DirectDVD please contact MGI Software Corp.:

North America:

MGI Software Corp.
50 West Pearce Street
Richmond Hill
Ontario, Canada
L4B 1E3
Attn. Customer Service
 

Hours:    9AM to 6PM EST. Monday to Friday.

Customer Service:
Phone:   1-888-MGI-SOFT (644-7638)
Local dial:   +1 (905) 764-7358
Fax:   +1 (905) 707-3694

Technical support:
Phone:     +1 (905) 707-3573
Technical support, fax:  +1 (905) 707-3694
Technical support, e-mail: support@mgisoft.com
 

Europe:

MGI Customer Service
C/O  Hoogoorddreef 68
1101 BE, Amsterdam Z.O.
The Netherlands

Hours:    9AM to 6PM Central European Time Monday to Friday.

Customer Service:
UK:   01 71 365 0034
Germany:   069 9 509 6012
France:   01 41 91 38 07
Fax:   (+31) 20 430 3024

Technical Support:
Phone:   (+31) 20 430 3026
Fax:   (+31) 20 430 3024
E-mail:   eurosupport@mgisoft.com
 

Australia:

Support Group Services
Ground Floor
14 Spink Street
Gardenvale, Victoria
3186   Australia
Attn: MGI Technical Support Australia

Hours:   9AM to 5PM GMT +10Hr. Monday to Friday.
Phone:   03 9929 9735
Fax:   03 9929 9787
Email   techsup@supportgroup.com.au
 

For all other countries please contact MGI Software Corp. North American customer support.
 
 

Trademarks:

MGI DirectDVD is a registered trademark of MGI Software Corp.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
 

Copyright  1998 MGI Software Corp.   [851D.1]