Virtual OS/2 International Consumer Education

November 1998

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November 6, 1998

BETA: SciTech Display Doctor for OS/2!!

Dear OS/2 Aficionado,

SciTech is readying the first release of SciTech Display Doctor for OS/2 Warp!!

SciTech Display Doctor is the universal display driver utility that supports over 250 different graphics chips -- just about every one ever made. SciTech Display Doctor for OS/2 will bring SciTech's proven device driver technology to the OS/2 Warp platform. SciTech Display Doctor requires OS/2 Warp 3 (Fixpack 35+) or OS/2 Warp 4 (Fixpack 4+) and is built using the new IBM GRADD display driver technology. Included in the product is support for resolutions from 320x200 up to 2048x1536 (including 16:9 aspect ratio HDTV modes!) in color depths from 4bpp up to 32bpp with full refresh rate control. SciTech Display Doctor for OS/2 drivers are fully accelerated and will support DIVE/EnDIVE for enhanced video playback and games.

SciTech is looking for all types of OS/2 users to help us stress test the utility before its final release. If you would like to participate in a beta, please fill out the form below and reply to this email (KendallB@scitechsoft.com).

For more information about SciTech or current versions of SciTech Display Doctor, please see http://www.scitechsoft.com.

Regards,

The SciTech Display Doctor Beta Team

===========================================
SciTech Display Doctor for OS/2 Beta Application

Name: ____________________________________________________________

Company: _________________________________________________________

Phone: ___________________________________________________________

Email: ___________________________________________________________

OS/2 Version: ____________________________________________________

CPU TYPE: ________________________________________________________

Graphics controller type(s);

Board vendor/model Chip vendor chip type

Applications used:

Why are you interested in testing this utility?

Other useful information:

[ ] I am not affiliated with a company that develops display drivers

I hereby certify that the information I provided above is true and correct and I agree to be bound by the terms of SciTech's beta license agreement.

Signed,

____________________________

Please return this form to KendallB@scitechsoft.com. Thank you for your interest in SciTech products!

--

+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| SciTech Software - Building Truly Plug'n'Play Software! |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Kendall Bennett | To reply via email, remove nospam from |
| Director of Engineering | the reply to email address. Do NOT send |
| SciTech Software, Inc. | unsolicited commercial email! |
| 505 Wall Street | ftp : ftp.scitechsoft.com |
| Chico, CA 95928, USA | www : http://www.scitechsoft.com |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+


October 31, 1998
Hi All

IBM's Tutorial on the JFC is constructed using ShockWave and not Bamba like their previous ones. Because of this, most OS/2 users will not be able to take the tutorial. Most OS/2 users will find that ShockWave Director files will cause a PBROWSER.EXE fault. Some users have been able to get ShockWave to run but most cant, including myself.

Please go to http://www.ibm.com/java/education/jfc/instructions.html and select "FEEDBACK" and let them know we want Bamba.

Likewise the turotial from MindQ which is included with IBM's VAJ v2 runs only in 95/NT. the previous one ran under 3.1 and was usable by OS/2 users. Thier contact address is http://www.mindq.com/corporate/contact.html

Please let them know of our concerns in this area.

Bill

Bill Esposito
bespo@cereal.mv.com
http/ftp/telnet cereal.mv.com


October 25, 1998 - Net Labs

Again, we are looking for developers:

First we need someone which is able to fix the OS/2 port of SSH (Secure Telnet) for OS/2, the current port does not run with the TCP/IP 4.1 Stack (SSH itself is working, the deamon is not working). We need a developer with know how in TCP/IP, Linux-ports and for sure, you should have TCP/IP 4.1. We need SSH for our own webserver at OS/2 Netlabs => please help if you can ;-)

more about SSH is available at http://www.ssh.fi

Some german programmers started working on an OS/2 port of VNC for OS/2. VNC stands for Virtual Network Computing. It is, in essence, a remote display system which allows you to view a computing 'desktop' environment not only on the machine where it is running, but from anywhere on the Internet and from a wide variety of machine architectures. Because Achim Hasenmueller is working on the Warpzilla-Team, he has not enough time to finish the port. Let me know if you are intersted in continuing with this project!

find more about VNC at http://www.orl.co.uk/vnc/

Many of you know Freetype, the freeware font rendering engine. Many of you would also like to see an OS/2 port with AntiAliasing, unfortunately this is not easy to do on OS/2. We need some very skilled programmers to get this feature on OS/2. If you would like to join the team you should be able to hack deep inside of the WPS :-))

freetype is available at http://www.freetype.org

Please contact me (Adrian Gschwend, ktk@netlabs.org) and let me know how you can support us. We will set up new pages about the projects as soon as we have new teams.

Thanks

Adrian Gschwend
@ OS/2 Netlabs


October 21, 1998 - WarpTV

Hello,

When I set up this list I promised that traffic would be light, but maybe I've been a little too quiet. I apologize for not making regular progress reports, but I can assure we are making headway with our OS/2 TV card drivers.

We have successfully extended IBM's GRADD architecture to allow our TV cards to DMA video directly into VGA memory. This was probably the most technically challenging part of the project. What this means is that video can be blitted directly into the VGA memory space without any processor intervention. This allows us to display a 640 X 480 video image at 30 frames per second with very little CPU utilization.

The drivers also work quite well with VGA's that don't support GRADD. In this case the CPU is responsible for moving the video across the PCI bus. If you have any class of Pentium Processor on your motherboard you should be able to view video, but at a reduced frame rate on slower machines.

While the "technically challenging" part of the job is basically done, some of the more mundane yet important parts of the driver are still being worked on. Hauppauge's latest TV cards use three different (but closely related) video decoder chips, numerous sound processors and about twelve different tuners to support a worldwide market. The task of detecting the hardware on a particular TV card, then programming that hardware to operate in a particular country is not simple. Video formats, crystal frequencies and tuning standards all need to be programmed. Sometimes I wish we were in the audio business, after all, sound is sound:-) We are working closely with Abbotsbury Software to ensure this gets done in a timely manner. Our goal is to support as many Hauppauge cards as possible with minimal user setup required.

In my previous posting I mentioned that many OS/2 drivers lack the "polish" and support of Windows drivers. Our driver is in that state now. It is time for us to take the next step if we want to. The driver currently supports only a limited subset of the Hauppauge cards capabilities. We have a driver that is useful for OEM applications that don't require a tuner, sound support or easy setup. This is a dangerous situation for those of us who use OS/2 at home and want to use the Hauppauge card for TV and video capture. We could stop development at this point and fund the work that has already been done through OEM sales to customers who have badging, medical imaging or security applications. Of course the drivers would be freely available to non commercial, individual users (that's probably everyone on this list).

I didn't start this project for commercial users. My intent from the start was to bring something to the OS/2 home user, and partially fund it through commercial licenses. In order to fund the final stage of this project, Hauppauge is prepared to produce a CD that will sell for $30. I've started work on this:

WarpTV - IBM's TV application - I have permission to distribute IBM's WarpTV on our CD. IBM was very generous and requires we pay only a small royalty. While I have not tested the application with the current driver set, IBM and Abbotsbury are prepared to work together to ensure compatibility. This is very good news. I would hate to have to fund the development of a TV application. Thank you IBM UK!!!

GRADD Drivers - I have no commitment from IBM Austin yet, but we should be able to put the driver set on our CD.

Latest Fix Packs - Again, no commitment form IBM yet, but I'm talking with them about it.

CUSeeMe/2 - I've been in contact with the author and pending the resolution of a few technical issues we should be able to put this shareware on the CD. As with all shareware, we will only distribute it, it's up to you to register it.

StWTV - Stefan Milcke's TV Application - I've been in contact with Stefan. The WinCast driver doesn't support many of the features he needs at this time (tuner support is not fully implemented), but we hope to add all the functionality his TV application requires. I think we will be able to put his shareware on our CD.

MainActor/2 - This video editing package is a great way to have fun with the Hauppauge WinCast cards. I've contacted them and they are happy to have us distribute their latest version. Again, it will be up to you to register it.

With the exception of IBM's WarpTV application, everything on the CD is being given to Hauppauge for free. This means that all proceeds from the CD will go directly towards TV card driver development for OS/2. Once I have a final list of what we can put on the CD I'll take an informal poll of the folks on this list to determine if we should proceed.

Before I go, I'd like to thank Mr. Tim Snape of Abbotsbury software. He has taken every opportunity to add functionality to the Hauppauge TV card drivers on his own time. I would also like to thank the Network Computing (formerly PSP) people at IBM's Austin facility for hosting Tim and I in August and allowing us access to their technical staff. IBM UK for allowing us to distribute their WarpTV application. And finally, once again to Paul Hethmon for hosting this list. (Inet.Mail Internet Mail Server http://www.hethmon.com )

That's all folks,

John Rodriguez
Hauppauge Computer Works, Inc.
email: warptv@erols.com

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