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Compaq Multimedia Services
for OpenVMS Alpha
Release Notes
April 2000
Revision/Update Information:
Operating System: OpenVMS Alpha, Version
7.1-2
Software Version: Compaq Multimedia Services
for OpenVMS Alpha,
Version 2.2
Compaq Computer Corporation
__________________________________________________________
April 2000
Copyright 2000 Compaq Computer Corporation.
COMPAQ Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Microsoft, Windows, and Windows NT are registered trademarks
and Visual C++ is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States and/or other countries.
Motif, OSF/1, UNIX and the "X" device are registered trademarks
and IT DialTone and The Open Group are trademarks of The Open
Group in the United States and/or other countries.
Confidential computer software. Valid license from Compaq or
authorized sublicensor required for possession, use or copying.
Consistent with FAR 12.211 and 12.212, Commercial Computer
Software, Computer Software Documentation, and Technical Data
for Commercial Items are licensed to the U.S. Government under
vendor's standard commercial license.
Compaq shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or
omissions contained herein. The information in this document is
subject to change without notice.
The information in this document is subject to change without
notice and is provided "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. THE
ENTIRE RISK ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS INFORMATION REMAINS
WITH RECIPIENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL COMPAQ BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT,
CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE OR OTHER DAMAGES
WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF
BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION OR LOSS OF BUSINESS
INFORMATION), EVEN IF COMPAQ HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY
OF SUCH DAMAGES.
The limited warranties for Compaq products are exclusively set
forth in the documentation accompanying such products. Nothing
herein should be construed as constituting a further or additional
warranty.
Preface
=======
This document contains the release notes for Compaq Multimedia Services V2.2
for OpenVMS.
This document is supplied in text form. You can find the release notes in the
following locations:
SYS$HELP:MMOV-V2_2.RELEASE_NOTES
Associated Documents:
o Compaq Multimedia Services for OpenVMS Alpha Installation Guide
o Compaq Multimedia Services for OpenVMS Alpha Run-Time Environment
Guide
o Compaq Multimedia Services for OpenVMS Alpha Programmer's Guide
o Software Product Description (SPD 64.24.02)
Table of Contents
=================
Product Summary
About This Document
About This Release
Information not Documented
ATAPI CD-ROM Audio Support
CD-ROM Audio Output Connection
Unofficial Support for Personal Workstation Audio
Known Problems
Compatibility Issues
General Problems and Restrictions
Waveform Audio Problems and Restrictions
Microsoft Sound Board Audio Problems and Restrictions
Sample Code Problems and Restrictions
Performance
Product Summary
===============
Compaq Multimedia Services V2.2 for OpenVMS Alpha contains support for the
following operating systems:
o OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.1-2
o OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.2-1 and higher
About This Document
===================
This document contains information which is included in the official product
documentation. Please read these release notes thoroughly before attempting
to install or use Compaq Multimedia Services V2.2 for OpenVMS Alpha.
About This Release
==================
The main focus of this release is audio support for currently shipping
OpenVMS workstation platforms.
Support is provided for these options:
o Compaq Creative Labs AudioPCI Card (also referred to as the
Compaq Ensoniq AudioPCI Card) on the AlphaStation XP900 (DS10)
and the AlphaStation XP1000.
o AlphaStation Sound Card (also known as the Microsoft Sound Board,
and referred to as the MSB device) on the DIGITAL Personal
Workstation 600au, and on previously shipped AlphaStation
systems.
Previously provided video components continue to be provided, but no new
features have been added.
Runtime Kit
-----------
The runtime kit is available
o On the OpenVMS Software Product Library (Layered Product CD)
o As a Factory Installed (FIS) option
The runtime kit provides:
o Runtime support for:
o Audio Record and Playback services
o Audio Codec services
o Utility client applications (in executable form only)
o DECsound - an audio record, playback, and edit utility
o Audio Control - a utility to control volume and port selection
for all audio devices
o audioplay - a command line only audio playback utility
o audiorecord - a command line only audio record utility
o Sample audio data
o Installation Verification Procedure
o Help for runtime components
Development Kit
---------------
The development kit is available
o On the OpenVMS Software Product Library (Layered Product CD)
o As a Factory Installed (FIS) option
The development kit includes the runtime kit and also provides:
o Header files needed to develop applications and products
o Sample application programs (in source form)
o Object libraries needed to develope applications and products
Information not Documented in the Runtime Guide or Programmer's Guide
=========================================================================
ATAPI CD-ROM Audio Support
--------------------------
o The exiting tools for CD-ROM audio, such as DECW$CDPLAYER, function
only with SCSI CD-ROM devices. A future version of OpenVMS and
DECwindows are expected to include support for ATAPI CD-ROM audio.
In the interim, ATAPI CD-ROM audio support may be made available
on the OpenVMS Freeware disk. For more detail, see the following URL:
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/freeware/index.html
CD-ROM Audio Output Connection
------------------------------
o Some CD-ROM drives are equipped with an 1/8" headphone jack and volume
control on the front of the drive for CD-ROM audio output. However,
the feature may not exist on all drives. CD-ROM audio
output is still possible provided the CD-ROM audio output port
(located at the back of the CD-ROM) is cabled to a CD AUDIO IN port on
a sound card. Select the Audio Control "Mix CD" port to
enable CD-ROM audio to pass into the Compaq Creative Labs AudioPCI
sound card.
Unofficial Support for the Personal Workstation Audio Device
------------------------------------------------------------
o The file MMOV$ESSDRIVER.EXE has been placed in the Runtime Kit. This
kernel driver has not been qualified and is not officially supported
at this time. This driver will not be loaded and "enabled" by the
operating system unless the following entry is placed in the
sys$common:[sysexe]sys$user_config.dat file:
device = "ES1888 Sound Card"
name = AU
driver = MMOV$ESSDRIVER
adapter = XBUS
id = ES1888
end_device
The mmov$essdriver provides "msb emulation" mode operation. This means
that Compaq Multimedia Services applications operate as if the
Personal Workstation built-in device were a Microsoft Sound Card.
Note that Compaq Multimedia Services will not work properly if both
the mmov$msbdriver and the mmov$essdriver are enabled.
Known Problems
==============
This section lists the known problems with this release of Compaq Multimedia
Services for OpenVMS.
Use of Multiple Sound Drivers Simultaneously Not Currently Supported
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Attempting to use more than one sound device may cause an application to
operate incorrectly. If more than one sound device is present on your system,
you can prevent the Multimedia Services MMOV$SERVER program from using a
device by removing an entry from the sys$system:system.ini file.
wave=mmov$ensaudio Enables the Compaq Creative Labs (Ensoniq) Audio Device
wave=mmov$msbaudio Enables a Microsoft Sound Board or compatible or an
MSB emulation device.
Continuous Playback Longer than Three Hours Fails
-------------------------------------------------
After playing sound for about three hours, the output goes silent. The kernel
driver is still operating the dma, but no new data is loaded to be played. To
resume playback, it is necessary to shutdown the server and restart the
server. (Run @sys$startup:mmov$shutdown and @sys$startup:mmov$startup).
XToolkit Warning Messages
-------------------------
The X-windows applications sometimes issue XToolkit warning messages. The
applications operate properly however, so these messages may be ignored.
Compatibility Issues
--------------------
Note that any non-Multimedia application using one of the multimedia
kernel drivers cannot be run at the same time the Multimedia Server is
running. Since driver interfaces compatible with SYS$MSBDRIVER will not
be maintained for future devices, Digital recommends that any sound
applications using SYS$MSBDRIVER be re-written to use the Compaq Multimedia
Services API.
General Problems and Restrictions
---------------------------------
o The Multimedia Services library has debugging messages enabled which
may be printed to SYS$OUTPUT. These messages are intended to help the
user diagnose a problem that might have occurred in the library.
Please submit a problem report if these messages appear.
Waveform Audio Problems and Restrictions
----------------------------------------
This section describes problems and restrictions in the waveform audio
services along with work-arounds for the problems where known.
o The volume reported through the waveIn/OutGetVolume is slightly less
than the volume set through the waveIn/OutSetVolume.
o When recording audio, ensure that the recording volume is set at an
optimal level because if the input volume is high (either due to a
setting or due to the input source), the recording might be
distorted.
Use the VU Meter in Audio Control to check if input volumes exceed
the amplitude levels that the device is capable of handling without
distortion.
o When recording data, if applications do not queue buffers to the
mmeserver before the data is available for recording, the audio
devices must handle the data in some manner. The different audio
devices do not handle this condition in the same way.
o All audio devices will discard data if there are no application
buffers available for recording, always keeping the data returned
current.
o Sometimes a user may experience a problem with noise on MSB and
other systems using Microsoft window sound systems, with a microphone
plugged in.
An MSB card using an Analog devices 1848K that has a microphone
plugged in, passes audio from the microphone through to the audio
output but the audio is very distorted. This can happen with the
machine in any state as long as it is powered up. On the AlphaStation
200 and AlphaStation 250 systems with the internal speaker hooked up,
the distorted sound will come out the speaker.
Sample Code Problems and Restrictions
-------------------------------------
o All sample code needs to be run in an account with SYSNAM privilege,
or the sample code executable needs to be installed with SYSNAM
privilege.
o AVIRECORD does not always produce a valid AVI file. There seems to be
a timing problem in the code which causes the program not to recognize
the fact that data was captured. Therefore the program believes that
no valid data was captured and does not produces a valid AVI file.
Performance
===========
Disk I/O on OpenVMS seems to be the number one culprit that hinders
performance. You will see a noticeable gap in writing audio buffers
to disk every time OpenVMS needs to preallocate more space. There are a few
disk values that can affect performance that a user may set themselves.
$ SET RMS_DEFAULT/BLOCK_COUNT=127
This value affects the number of blocks that are allocated for each
I/O buffer. Someone with privileges may set this value system wide so all I/O
operations utilize the new value. This value is hard coded into the sample
code AVIRECORD.C and within the MMIO routine mmioOpen(). The line of code for
this open statement is coded as follows:
file = open(Filename,openflags,0600,"ctx=stm","mbc=127");
The ctx value specifies stream mode and the mbc value specifies
the RMS_DEFAULT BLOCK_COUNT for this file.
You will also see in the sample code AVIRECORD.C the pre-extending of
a file before recording. This achieves much better performance with the
exception of a few drawbacks. The line of code is in there, but is commented
out. If you search for the open function call you can see the other open
statement.
This line is currently being used.
rawFile = open(Filename,openflags,0600,"ctx=stm","mbc=127");
This is the open function that's commented out.
rawFile = open(Filename,openflags,0600,"ctx=stm","mbc=127",
"alq=100000","deq=100000","fop=tef");
The "alq" parameter says to pre-extend the file to this many blocks.
The "deq" param says to extend by this many blocks when the initial
size has run out and the "fop=tef" says to truncate the file on close.
This gives good performance just as long as you pre-extend the file by
the amount you plan to record. If you do need more than you initially
set up for you will take a huge hit of many seconds if the system
needs to pre-extend the file more.
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