CHRONTEL CH7001/CH7001A UTILITY SOFTWARE USER INFORMATION The following notes provide usage information on the software components contained in the Version 4.2 of the Chrontel VGA-to-TV utilities. Version 4.2 supercedes the previous Version 4.1, and greatly expands the number of VGA controllers and graphics adapters which can be supported by the CHRONTEL CH7001 and CH7001A VGA-to-NTSC/PAL encoders. The DOS utilities (DOSNTSC, DOSPAL) are evolved from previous versions of the same basic programs. These notes are organized as follows: Section 1: Overview of New Features Section 2: Operation of DOS Utilities Section 3: Operation of Windows Utilities Section 4: Bug Report *************************************************************************************** Section 1: OVERVIEW OF NEW FEATURES The 4.2 release offers significantly expanded support for the most popular and successful families of VGA controllers. Key features include: * Hardware-specific support for the following important VGA controller families: > Cirrus Logic CL-5424 > Cirrus Logic CL-5426/8/9 > Cirrus Logic CL-5430/4/6 > Cirrus Logic CL-5440/6 > Cirrus Logic 5464/5,5480 > Cirrus Logic 7543,7548 > Trident 9680 > Trident 9440 > Trident 8900C, 9000A, 9000B, 9000i > S3 Trio 32 > S3 Trio64, Trio64V+, Trio64V2/DX > S3 Virge, Virge DX, Virge VX, Virge GX > Alliance ProMotion 6410, 6424(AT24) > ATI Mach64CX > ATI Mach64GX > ATI Mach64CT > Tseng Labs ET4000, ET4000/W32P > Tseng Labs ET6000 > Chips and Technologies 65554. > Acer Labs (ALI) M3147 * "Generic" support for all VGA-compatible controllers in 640x480, 16-color mode * Automatic conversion to TV-compatible scan rates * Improved controller-type autodetection algorithm *************************************************************************************** Section 2: OPERATION OF DOS UTILITIES DOSNTSC.EXE and DOSPAL.EXE are both MS-DOS programs. They are executed directly from where they are (such as in \ENCODER after setup) or being called by MS-DOS during system boot after they are specified in CONFIG.SYS by a line such as the following, DEVICE=C:\DOSNTSC.EXE These two programs are TSRs, or 'Terminate and Stay Resident' programs. They run in the background while other programs or DOS itself is running in the foreground. They are enabled to operate through hotkeys, otherwise they remain resident. In a sense, they don't get 'run', they just get 'installed' and then 'invoked' from time to time. 2.1 Associated .INI Files and Screen Positioning NTSCxx.INI and PALxx.INI are data files which contain the default initial position of the TV and monitor screens (xx refers to a 2-digit hexadecimal value for a specific VGA mode. As necessary, many separate .INI files may be created by the DOS utilities. These files should always be located under the root directory. In order to adjust screen position, the user may use the hotkeys to move the screen around to a desired position whenever either DOSNTSC.EXE or DOSPAL.EXE is running in the background as a TSR. At any time, the current position may be saved to a mode-dependent file by using the hotkey save/load functions ALT-CTL-S and ALT-CTL-L. 2.2 MS-DOS HELP MENU Invoking the DOS programs with the command line switch "/?" pops up a help menu, showing you how to use command line switches and the hotkeys. Command line switches are used along with program invocation, and hotkeys are used after the TSR is installed. *************************************************************************************** Section 3: OPERATION OF WINDOWS UTILITIES The Windows utility program consists of two components: an executable named CH7001.EXE and an associated DLL named CHTV.DLL. They are installed by running SETUP.EXE in the Windows FILES-RUN pull-down menu. SETUP.EXE for the Windows programs will also copy DOSNTSC.EXE and DOSPAL.EXE to ENCODER, the default subdirectory automatically created if the user does not specify one. In addition, a small program named SETTVSYS.EXE is also provided to facilitate the changing of TV system type (i.e., NTSC or PAL). After installation, the utility program is run by double-clicking on the CH7001 icon. The program will check the installed VGA hardware and the current display mode (resolution and color depth). If the VGA type detected is not supported in this version of the software, the user will be advised to set the generic 640x480 16-color mode first. If the hardware is supported but the currently set mode is not (i.e., an 800x600 mode is set when the user wants to display on an NTSC TV), the user will be instructed to change to a supported display mode first. When invoked, the utility will display a control box containing 4 directional arrow "buttons" (for panning), a central button located between the arrows (autopan enable/disable), a small TV icon (for restoring default settings), and a command bar showing three command groups. The command groups are: FILE, OPTIONS, and HELP. 3.1 Panning the Screen In order to allow the entire screen contents to be viewable, the CH7001 utility software supports panning. This means that the screen can be moved up, down, left and right within a certain range under control of the user. Note that both the TV screen as well as the VGA monitor (if used) will move when panning is used. When the software control box is displayed, clicking on any of the arrows will cause the screen to be panned in the corresponding direction. If the center button is clicked, the mode will shift to "autopanning"; in this mode the screen is panned automatically as the cursor gets close to any screen edge. When autopanning is enabled, the direction buttons are inactivated. 3.2 FILE Menu The FILE menu includes only one command - Exit. When Exit is clicked the utility program is terminated. 3.3 OPTIONS Menu The OPTIONS pull-down includes 4 settings. They are: Underscan, Save Settings on Exit, Restore Factory Settings, and Restore User Settings. Underscan is a setting which controls whether the CH7001 hardware is operating in horizontal overscan mode (normal) or horizontal underscan mode (horizontal screen on TV shrunk by 12.5%). The underscan mode eliminates the need for horizontal panning, but disturbs the screen aspect ratio somewhat. Save Settings on Exit: when enabled, the current settings (i.e., screen positioning) is automatically saved to a file whenever the software is terminated. If this function is not set, the file contents are not modified. Restore Factory Settings: when activated, causes default screen position settings to be restored. Restore User Settings: when activated, causes the last saved screen position parameters to be reestablished. 3.4 HELP Menu The HELP menu pull-down includes 3 functions. They are: List Supported Cards, Show Current Card, and About. List Supported Cards: when invoked, provides a list of the various VGA controllers which are supported by this version of the utility software. Show Current Card: when invoked, reports the VGA controller hardware which has been autodetected by the utility software. About: provides revision level information for the CH7001.EXE and CHTV.DLL files which are installed on the system. 3.5 SETTVSYS utility SETTVSYS is a simple utility which allows the user to change the TV system type which was initially specified during setup. Changes made with this utility will take effect the next time the CH7001 utility is invoked. ***************************************************************************** Section 4: BUG LIST 4.1 OVERSCAN And UNDERSCAN SWAP The selection of the OVERSCAN and UNDERSCAN functions may be observed to be swapped when the VGA controller is either a Cirrus Logic 5464 or 5480, both in 640x480 and 800x600 modes. The user may see that "Underscan" is marked in the display menu, but the CH7001 is operating in the overscan mode, and vice versa. This condition may be unpredictable in it's occurrence. 4.2 RESTORE SETTING When using the Cirrus Logic 5464 VGA controller, the "Restore Factory Setting" function may not work correctly (i.e., default settings will not be reestablished). 4.3 INCORRECT FREQUENCY The user may encounter difficulties with proper sychronization of the TV with the Tseng ET6000 VGA controller in 800x600 resolution. The VGA monitor may appear normal, but the TV may be out of sync.