G200: Anybody tried the ZORAN103.ZIP patch?

[Flying dutchman]

I just noticed the presence of a patch file "zoran103.zip" on Matrox' utilities page. This patch alledgedly allows the use of display driver v. 5.25.
Has anybody tried this patch? So far I have refrained from installing Zoran altogether (I don't own a DVD player anyway) but I'd be interested in playing MPEG files over the TV-out jack of the Marvel. Is this possible anyway?

[DrMordrid]

I don't know about others but with my Marvel G400's anything MediaPlayer plays goes to the vidout. Cinepak, Indeo...whatever.

Accident or not it's very handy.

Dr. Mordrid

[This_Idiot]

Hi,

If I were you, I'd carry on refraining from loading the Zoran DVD player (and I'm pretty sure that most people would agree). I never did get it working properly. I found that PowerDVD worked well, and the Compcore based DVD player that Matrox supply with the G400TV is also good.

I don't have a G200 installed at the moment, and the display properties dialogue looks completely different for G400 and G200 (even using the same drivers), so I can't help much with enabling your TV out. If you use PC-VCR to enable the TVO, does it remain open when you close PC-VCR down ? If so, then Mediaplayer will play the MPEGs for you. BTW, this is an automatic "side effect" on the G400TV, I don't know whether it is the hardware or the drivers that caused it.

[This message has been edited by This_Idiot (edited 02 January 2000).]

[Rick6612]

Hi Flying dutchman,

I am using the patch for the Zoran SoftDVD player. So far it seems to be working fine. If you don't have a DVD drive, I'm not sure why you'd want to install it though.

To playback MPEG files over the TV-Out on your G-200 card, first open the Matrox Display Properties. Then go to the Settings tab. There you should see a check box for enabling TV-Out. Check this box and click Apply. Now TV-Out mode will be enabled, and whatever you see on your computer monitor should also be visible on your TV.

Now use Windows Media Player to play your MPEG file. While the MPEG is playing, click View -> Full Screen.

Rick

[Flying dutchman]

Hi Rick,
I know that particular setting. It's TV output in windowing mode (such as mjpeg) I would be interested in. This seems to work on the G400 if I heard correctly.

[hippie91]

if you enable tv out in the settings for g200, anything on your screen goes to the tv... windowed mode or full screen

[Rick6612]

Hi Flying dutchman,

I guess I'm a little confused as to what you are trying to do. I still don't understand why you'd want to install Zoran DVD player if you don't have a DVD drive...

I don't have a G-400 myself, but as I understand it, the G-400 has what is called a "dual head" feature. This is what allows it to play, for example, MPEG videos via Windows Media Player, where the video will be output to the TV/VCR in full screen mode, but you still have your Windows Desktop visible on your computer monitor. You can't do this with a G-200, if that is what you are asking.

The only way to play videos (other than Matrox MJPEG videos) full screen on your TV using a G-200 is to enable TV-Out mode, and then play the video using Windows Media Player (or equivalent) and set the View to Full Screen.

Matrox MJPEG videos are special because they use the Matrox hardware to decode (decompress) the data from the .avi file and create a video stream. When the hardware is decoding the MJPEG data, it is able to output the video signal to the TV-Out jacks "full screen," while at the same time, presenting the video image in a window on the computer monitor.

The dual head feature of the G-400 makes it like having two separate video cards in one.

Rick