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December 12, 1996
These Release Notes include important information about your new video hardware, software (Software Essentials and Video Development Environment), and documentation from Parallax Graphics. This information supercedes the README file on your CD. The Release Notes include:
NOTE: If you use Netscape, read Bug/Anomaly/Restriction# 7.If you have any questions, please contact Parallax Graphics technical support at 408-727-2220 (California, USA), 703-715-3017 (Virginia, USA), or e-mail tsupport@parallax.com.
Bugs, Anomalies, or Restrictions
We have identified the following bugs, anomalies, or restrictions:
Pre-Installation
1. SPARC 20 with SX Framebuffer If you have a SPARC 20 with an SX framebuffer, contact Parallax Graphics technical support for special instructions on how to install your video card. 2. Multiheaded with Parallax Compression Cards If you have more than one Parallax video card with hardware compression (XVideo with compression or PowerVideo) in a single workstation, you can use compression on only one video card at a time. Do not try to use compression (to capture/playback movies or JPEG/JFIF still images) on both cards at once because this will cause the system to fail. 3. Video Cards without Compression, Solaris 1.x Upgrade If you have a Parallax video card without compression (XVideo -24SV-xxx or MultiVideo) running on Solaris 1.x (SunOS 4.1.x) you will need to update the contents of the non-volatile RAM (NVRAM) on that card before installing the Parallax Solaris 2.x software. You need to execute the script multivideo_fix, which is in the directory ./parallax/diag/nvram_patches. To update the NVRAM, in console mode on Solaris 2.x, change directories to /opt/parallax/diag/nvram_patches and type: ./multivideo_fix 4. Weitek's POWERuP Chip Not Supported Weitek's POWERuP CPU chip is not currently supported by Parallax Graphics video products on Sun SPARCstation 2 and IPX workstations.Return to Top General 5. Starting Openwin Without Options Starting OpenWindows by typing just "openwin" without any options may cause mmap errors and a server crash. This can be avoided by using the "-dev" option and specifying a device when launching OpenWindows. If you have already crashed your system and can't reboot, see bug #6. 6. System Crashes and Will Not Reboot If your system has crashed and will not boot and you receive an error message similar to "bad trap error," your /etc/driver_classes file probably got corrupted and you will need to do one of the following: 1) Boot from a CD-ROM. Then copy the /etc/driver_classes file from a source outside your hard drive onto your hard drive. 2) Boot from another machine. Then copy the /etc/driver_classes file from a source outside your hard drive onto your hard drive. 3) Re-install your operating system. NOTE: At the time we are printing these Release Notes, we have not yet determined the cause of this crash, but it appears to happen after installing or re-installing a video card and then launching Open Windows without using any options (see bug #5). 7. Netscape: Resizing Netscape Window Server: When using Netscape, if any corner other than the bottom right one is dragged to resize the Netscape window, a server crash occurs. This can be avoided by using only the bottom right corner for resizing. This problem is caused by a bug in the Solaris 2.5 operating system code and is fixed by Sun in the Solaris 2.5.1 release. 8. Sun Snapshot Utility and SPARCstation 5 If you are using a SPARCstation 5 and you use the Sun Snapshot utility, the server may crash followed by a system crash.This problem may occur more often with the CDE (Common Desktop Environment) in 24-bit mode. If you have this problem, contact Parallax technical support for a patch. 9. 15 or More Simultaneous Video Windows If you launch more than 14 video windows (live and/or compressed) at once, the server will crash. 10. Upgrading OS from Solaris 2.5 to 2.5.1: Server Will Not Start If you upgrade from Solaris 2.5 to 2.5.1, the "/usr/openwin/server/etc/ OWconfig" file is overwritten, and the Parallax entries in OWconfig are not made. The result is that the server will not start and will give error messages. The solution is to add this code to the OWconfig file after upgrading: # TV2 display adapter class="XSCREEN" name="PGItv2" ddxHandler="ddxPLXtv2.so.1" ddxInitFunc="PlxTv2Init"; 11. Black Video Window in DirectColor or PseudoColor If you have not launched your server in PseudoColor/DirectColor mode then when you first open a PseudoColor/DirectColor video window it will appear black - unless the mouse focus happens to be over the window. To start color display, move the mouse over the window. To avoid this problem, you can launch your server in PseudoColor/DirectColor mode (see your Software Installation Guide, Setting User Environment). 12. Multithreading Not Supported Multithreading (the distribution of tasks to multiple processors on a single workstation) is not supported in this Parallax release or in previous releases. 13. Using SECAM To use SECAM video format you must set an environment variable before starting the server. You also can't switch between PAL and SECAM in one windowing session. As a workaround, the server assumes 625 lines video signals are in PAL format unless the server is started with the TV2_SECAM environment variable set to TRUE. If you wish to use SECAM input signals, set the environment variable TV2_SECAM to TRUE before starting the server. 14. XView Alerts Create Color Blotches XView Alerts sometimes create "technicolor" blotches when they appear on top of TrueColor windows such as video windows. To fix, refresh the screen. 15. Shared Memory Runs Slowly with Some Programs Shared memory is not working correctly with some programs. jpegContinuousTest runs slower with shared memory than without shared memory. The same result occurs when using jpegTimingTest with jpegPlaybackTest. These programs use the jpeg widget. 16. Xor Problems with 24-bit Drawings on 8-bit Server If you do 24-bit drawings on an 8-bit server, there are Xor drawing problems.
Return to Top RTMovieTool 17. XVideo-24SVC and XVideo-24SVC-RGB: Not Supported RTMovieTool: XVideo-24SVC and XVideo-24SVC-RGB Users: In this release, these video cards are not working with RTMovieTool. If you have an XVideo-24SVC or XVideo-24SVC-RGB card, you can contact your Parallax Graphics sales representative for information about upgrading your video card to XVideo-24SVC-VIO. 18. 2 Gigabyte Movie Size Limit RTMovieTool: RTMovieTool has a movie size limited to 2 Gigabytes (approximately 30 minutes depending on the compression Q factor you choose). If you try to record a longer movie, RTMovieTool will stop recording at about 30 minutes. The movie is usable but probably shorter than you wanted. 19. Exhausting Disk Space RTMovieTool: When recording a movie, if the available disk space gets exhausted, RTMovieTool goes down and a message on the console says "NOTICE: alloc:/xxx: filesystem full". 20. RTMovieTool: Requires 16-Bit Audio RTMovieTool: RTMovieTool supports only 16-bit (48 KHz) DAT-quality audio, not 8-bit (8 KHz) audio. 21. Trying to Play MovieTool or RTV Toolkit Movies RTMovieTool: RTMovieTool uses a different file structure from MovieTool and RTV Toolkit (version 2.x), so if you want to play MovieTool or RTV Toolkit movies under RTMovieTool you need to convert the format. To convert RTV Toolkit movies, use rtvConvert. To access rtvConvert look on the CD for the files /Solaris1/rtvConvert/rtvConvert (program) and /Solaris1/rtvConvert/README (documentation). If you want to convert MovieTool movies, please contact technical support. 22. PAL/SECAM Video Size for XVideo Users RTMovieTool: In order to support XVideo on all SPARC 5, 10 and 20 configurations, we limited the PAL/SECAM image size for XVideo users to 760x568 pixels instead of the standard 768x576 pixels. 23. Playing Back PAL/SECAM Video with XVideo: Freezes and Squares RTMovieTool: With some configurations of SPARC 5, 10 and 20 with XVideo, sometimes during playback of RTMovieTool movies, video will freeze momentarily and/or have light colored squares in the frames. This only happens when you try to play a full size 768x576 pixel movie from another source (i.e. recorded with PowerVideo or converted from RTV Toolkit by rtvConvert) with XVideo. If you have this problem, please contact Parallax Graphics technical support. 24. XVideo-24SVC-VIO: Do Not Use Input_1 RTMovieTool: XVideo-24SVC-VIO Users: Always use Video/Input_2 with RTMovieTool. If you are using XVideo-24SVC-VIO, Input_2 will be automatically selected. Input_1 is not working with RTMovieTool. 25. Resizing the Video Window: Full_Size or Quarter_Size Only RTMovieTool: When the video window is resized using the mouse, it doesn't respond correctly. RTMovieTool doesn't support arbitrary window sizes so when the mouse is used to select something other than full size or quarter size, the window size should default to the closest of the 2 sizes. However, selecting an unavailable size with the mouse currently resizes the window to an unsupported size, which results in video not completely filling out the window and parts of the window appearing gray. This can be avoided by resizing the video window by using the JPEG Compression Preferences selection from the Options menu and choosing Full_Size or Quarter_Size. 26. PAL/SECAM Movies and Stills Have JPEG Errors Digital video movies and still images captured from PAL or SECAM have JPEG errors (a line of bad data at the bottom of the image). For more information, contact technical support.
Return to Top RTMovieTool, MovieTool, and VideoTool 27. Using MovieTool or VideoTool after RTMovieTool RTMovieTool and MovieTool: If you launch MovieTool or VideoTool after using RTMovieTool to record and/or play back a movie, the first movie recorded by MovieTool or JPEG or JFIF still captured by VideoTool will contain bad video images. Subsequent MovieTool recordings and VideoTool images are recorded correctly, so when launching MovieTool or VideoTool following an RTMovieTool session, record a "throw away" movie or JPEG/JFIF image before recording any important movies or images.
Return to Top MovieTool 28. Do Not Use Show_Movies_on_Output MovieTool: XVideo24SVC-VIO/RGB Users: Please do not use the Show_Movies_on_Output option because it is not working correctly and it may crash the windows server. Instead of using MovieTool's Show_Movies_on_Output option, use MovieTool to play the movie, and use VideoTool to to send video out. NOTE: If you have started Show_Movies_ on_Output, you can turn it off by either displaying live video or recording to file. 29. Offset Wrong on Playback of Compressed Movie MovieTool: When playing back a previously compressed movie, the offset looks wrong. With each successive decompression, the decompression is placed to the left. For example, one decompression created a 1/2-pixel wide line on right of the video. 30. SPARCstation 2: Movies Without Audio MovieTool: On a Sparc 2, the first PAL/NTSC movie records/plays fine, but next attempts to record get "Recording stopped due to a problem recording audio for frame 0" error. With this limitation, movies can only be recorded on a Sparc 2 if audio is turned off. 31. Video Window Not Resizing for New Format (NTSC, PAL, SECAM) MovieTool: The Video window does not resize when changing input source from NTSC to PAL and vice-versa. Once a new video source is selected, the Video window should resize to dimensions appropriate for that format. However, this can be corrected by selecting JPEG Compression Preferences from the Options menu and specifying Full_Size, Quarter_Size, or Small_Size once the new video source is selected. 32. Using Input_2: Control Panel Typo MovieTool: When the only video source is connected to Input_2, selecting First Available correctly displays Input_2, but the label on the MovieTool control panel incorrectly indicates that Input_1 is selected. 33. MovieTool -help Command Line Option MovieTool: Typing "MovieTool -help" from the command line to get a list of the MovieTool command line options incorrectly shows that "NoAudioDevice" is an audio device option. However, the command line option is really "None".
Return to Top MovieTool and VideoTool 34. MovieTool Movies and VideoTool JPEG Still Images Look Bad If you open a Parallax JPEG format still image or MovieTool movie that was captured under Solaris 2.4, 2.3, or SunOS 4.1.x and it looks bad (too high contrast: edges too sharp, color too pronounced), then you need to get the images converted with fixMovieQ. Solaris 2.4 and earlier releases of our Sun software use an incorrect JPEG compression Q table, which is fixed in Solaris 2.5, HP-UX, and IBM AIX. To display the images at high quality, you need to convert old-Q-table-movies/images into new-Q-table-movies/images with fixMovieQ. (fixMovieQ also converts new-Q-table-movies/images to old-Q-table-movies/images for display under Solaris 2.4, 2.3, or SunOS 4.1.x.) For information on how to use fixMovieQ, see your Multimedia User's Guide (Solaris 2.x) Appendix C.
Return to Top VideoTool 35. PowerVideo and MultiVideo: First_Available Not Working VideoTool: When using a PowerVideo or MultiVideo board, clicking on First Available on the Input Settings panel does not work correctly. Instead of selecting an available input source, it turns input off. To avoid this, select Input 1 or Input 2 rather than First Available.
Return to Top Video Development Environment 36. RTMovieTool API: Playing Back Movies in Field Mode RTMovieTool API: We do not recommend using Field Mode in this release, because playback functions in Field Mode can cause severe errors and/or a crash of the windows server. 37. XPlxScaleCopyArea Not Working XPlxScaleCopyArea does not work. 38. Displaying Motif Images Under Xview movietool and videotool: The Xview-based movietool and videotool programs have problems displaying movies created by makemovie and the Motif-based MovieTool.
Return to Top Tested Hardware This hardware and software has been tested on the following systems from the Sun SPARCstation line of workstations: * SPARC 5 (Model 70, 85) * SPARC 10 (Model 40) * SPARC 20 (Model 51, 61) * UltraSPARC 1 (Model 170) NOTE: We have not tested our Solaris 2.5 release on SPARCstation 2 or earlier machines. We recommend using a SPARCstation 5 or above. NOTE: RTMovieTool supports only SPARC 5, SPARC 10 and SPARC 20 workstations. RTMovieTool does not support SPARC 2 or earlier systems, or UltraSPARC. NOTE: The UltraSPARC requires a single-slot video card: PowerVideo or MultiVideo (or XVideo Xtra video overlay card). The current release of Real-Time MovieTool is not available for the UltraSPARC. If you have questions about using your Parallax Graphics video card with another kind of Sun SPARCstation, please contact our technical support engineers.
Return to Top Fixes or Enhancements We have incorporated the following improvements over the Solaris 2.4 release: 1. New Real-Time MovieTool Application Real-Time MovieTool (RTMovieTool) records and plays back full size, full motion digital movies in real time for users of XVideo-24SVC-VIO and PowerVideo on SPARCstation 5, 10, and 20. For complete information on RTMovieTool, see your Multimedia User's Guide Chapter 5, and for developers, please see Chapter 6 and Appendix D in your Video Development Environment Reference Guide. 2. 44 Software Bug Fixes Our software engineers have fixed and verified fixed 44 bugs from the Solaris 2.4 release. For a complete listing of these bug fixes, please look in the directory that you defined as PARALLAX_HOME during installation, in the file /install/README. 3. Easier De-installation of Previous Version of Parallax Software During installation or de-installation, when you remove the old version of Parallax Graphics software, you used to have to edit an OpenWindows server configuration file to remove the Parallax-specific information. Now, pkgrm automatically removes this information for you. 4. Before Removing/Replacing Parallax Video Card If you are going to remove or replace your Parallax Graphics video card in a Solaris 2.5 system without removing all the Parallax (Solaris 2.5) software, you should use the rtv_uninstall script. Using this script prevents problems with detecting invalid tvtwo device nodes left in the system from previous installations. To replace the parallax board in systems with RTV installed: As super user enter: 1. /opt/parallax/bin/rtv_uninstall 2. halt system 5. DirectColor Visual Support We have added support for the DirectColor visual type to our Solaris 2.5 release, in addition to our existing support for 24-bit TrueColor and 8-bit PseudoColor. 6. Shared Libraries We now distribute shared object versions of all of our developers libraries, and all of our applications (VideoTool, MovieTool, etc.) now use these shared libraries. This makes executable files smaller and keeps only one copy of the Parallax libraries in memory at a time for improved efficiency. Since VideoTool and MovieTool refer to the shared libraries, these shared libraries are included in the Software Essentials. 7. Libraries: New Library, New Functionality, Changed