DVD MPEG AVI QuickTime DIVX movie viewer
for
Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows 98
Copyright © 2002 by Carl Verner Skou, All rights reserved
Cinematograph
Description.
Cinematograph is a high performance and high quality digital video and digital video viewer with support for still pictures and music based on DirectX/COM for the modern Windows family ( Windows XP, 2000, ME, 98, 95 , NT 4.0). Cinematograph screens DVD, MPEG, Video Compact Disc, Super Video Compact Disc, AVI, Windows Media Video and QuickTime videos and movies on a black background meaning no other pictures, windows will disturb the movies shown. You have the option for resizing the videos and movies on the fly - if you love movies the wide screen format 16:9 is just for you - enter your own movie theater. You can collect your videos and 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 videos and movies ( folders, CD-ROM and DVD discs ).
An auto search option gives your the possibility to search hard disks, CD-discs for videos and movies supported by Cinematograph, the search result can be inserted directly into Cinematographs digital video collection.
Cinematograph is designed around a VCR-control with the well known play, pause, stop etc. for easy handling of videos and movies. The design of the program makes it very user-friendly - and under the hood the advanced features of the Cinematograph engine with its intelligent-disc and intelligent-media technology and the engine based on the DirectX are running silently, ensuring you can enjoy your videos and movies. With a heap of features and support of different media formats, Cinematograph is much more than just a media player.
Remember, your support will help Cinematograph to get better, and the best support you can give, is to register Cinematograph, check out the order form.
For further information, please visit Cinematograph Homepage.
Cinematograph user interface
Use the VCR control interface for normal commands. To access advanced functions, right click with mouse or press Shift+F10. Notice, short cuts to all most common used functions. Media controlling can also be done from the media keys on extended keyboards.
VCR control bar,
time display, ruler.
You do all the basic operation with the VCR control bar, which you
can hide and restore with F3.
The time display can be called with Ctrl+T, alternative Shift+F3.
You can toggle the time display between current, remaining and
total time by clicking on the caption bar of the time display.
Remove the time display 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 control bar, time display 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.
How to install Cinematograph.
Run SETUP.EXE and follow the
instructions.
Some distributors are repacking Cinematograph, this can mean, Cinematographs 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 evaluation version of Cinematograph cannot make
a silent Setup.
The following files are in the distributed evaluation version:
If a file is missing, this is not
the original distributed evaluation version and you should inform
either the distributor or the program author 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.
Index
Conditions.
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 ( see the order form ) or remove the
program from your system.
What kinds of movies are supported?
Cinematograph supports all the major movie formats
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 133 MHz should god enough
for hardware based DVD viewing, a Pentium II 350 MHz 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 graphic card ( 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 1.0-6.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.
Quick introduction to DVD playback with Cinematograph: Start
Cinematograph, press eject on Cinematographs VCR control, insert
the DVD movie, press eject again on Cinematographs VCR control.
Wait for a moment, press play or enter - enjoy your DVD movie in wide screen format.
DVD is supported by Cinematograph, if your system has a DVD-drive and DirectShow supported DVD-drivers, where the drivers can be to the graphic adapter ( typical software based ) or to hardware based MPEG-2 decoding. You might need to get updated drivers to DirectShow form the vendor. The drivers from the vendor are required, because DirectShow is dependent on mimicries for DVD, MPEG-2 and Dolby Digital AC-3 decoding ), further the vendor provides a licensed descrambling of the content scramble system ( CSS ), which descrambles the DVD movie, and the drives take care of regionalization and analog video protection ( if TV output ).Without the drivers you are not able to view DVD movies.
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 control bar, insert a
DVD disc and press eject once again on the VCR control bar 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, do
not use the eject button on your DVD drive to change DVD movies,
if a DVD movie is loaded or running, always use the eject button
on Cinematographs VCR control.
You can call the DVD menu by pressing stop on the VCR control bar,
when a DVD movie is playing. You can also right
click the
mouse to call the Cinematographs main popup-menu,
the first menu item - when playing DVD movies - is access to the main
DVD functions. If the menu items under the DVD functions are grayed 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 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 properties ( press F4, select
DVD - if a DVD movie is loaded, you are send 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.
Most new DVD movies are in wide screen format, older movies are typical in normal TV output format. To
view the older DVD movies, select Full Screen View in
Cinematograph.
To use parental level, you must enable parental control in Cinematograph and specify a password.
Cool features of Cinematographs DVD support are further:
For more information on DVD and Cinematograph, please visit Cinematograph Support Page.
Video/Super Video Compact Disc
Cinematograph can auto play 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 start menu 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 autopen and auto play 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 auto play your own movies! Also movies placed in the root of the CD disc will be auto played. Cool feature.
Be patient before auto play starts, Cinematograph is first looking for DVD, then VCD and SVCD and then home-made movies, and this check can take some seconds.
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. If you are using a battery-driven laptop, Cinematograph will stop and exit, if the laptop reports low battery conditions.
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.
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.
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 play list, Cinematograph is using.
In the properties of each movie in a Cinematograph collection you
can specify a movie rating. If the movie rating 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 user accounts, 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 mouse bottom on the yellow text area
in Parental control and you are asked, if
you want to remove password and parental control.
Only JPEG and BMP pictures can be used as still pictures in a slideshow. Due to license-costs no support of GIF still pictures is provided.
Slideshow is made by creating a new collection only with pictures and then inserting background music or videos with Slideshow Setting (in Collection, Media->Slideshow Settings).
For best performance of a slideshow with videos a Pentium III 450 MHz or better is recommended. For high quality display of still pictures use only still pictures with sizes within the screen size.
If a new DVD, CD disc is not recognized when using the eject from within the disc collection, use File->Open and manually select any file from the DVD/CD disc.
The maximum number of entries are 32000 under Windows ME/98/95 - under Windows 2000, NT, XP only the memory are limiting the number of entries.
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 program crash.
You can diagnose your system with DXDIAG.EXE, if you have DirectX 5.x or newer installed. Type DXDIAG.EXE from a command prompt.
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
/S = Repeat, no title, all controls hidden
drive:\Foldername\Filename
Notice: /S option only with registered versions
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.
Least, but not last...
Many hours of pleasant enjoy with your digital videos, digital pictures and Cinematograph
Y2K
- year 2000.
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, evaluation version.
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 Cinematograph.
Please, visit Cinematograph Homepage and Cinematograph Support Page for the latest version and further
information about Cinematograph.
Best whishes for many pleasant hours with your movies and Cinematograph.
Yours
Carl Verner Skou
July 2002
Internet: cvs@mail.dk "The Dolphin"
Updated 1st of July 2002. Copyright © 2002 by Carl Verner Skou cvs@mail.dk
No part of this document may be changed without the written permission of Carl Verner Skou