Direct Draw*

Question: What is the recommended system for playing video files compressed with Indeo® video Release 3.2?

The recommended system for Indeo® video Release 3.2 is a Pentium® processor-based PC, 75 MHz or faster, running Windows* 95 with Direct Draw* graphics support or Windows* 3.x with DCI* graphics support, 16 MB of RAM, and a VGA monitor capable of displaying at least 65,536 simultaneous colors (16­bit color mode).

Question: What is the recommended system for playing video files compressed with Indeo® video interactive?

The recommended system for Indeo video interactive is a Pentium® processor-based PC, 120 MHz or faster, running Windows* 95 with DirectDraw graphics support, 16 MB of RAM, and a VGA monitor capable of displaying at least 65,536 simultaneous colors (16­bit color mode).

Question: What are DCI* and Direct Draw?

The graphics routines included in the Windows* Graphics Device Interface (GDI) do not directly support video playback. The Display Control Interface (DCI) was added to Microsoft*'s Video for Windows* to boost video performance as video became popular on PCs. DCI allows Windows* 3.x applications to access the video memory directly, as well as enabling image scaling and color conversion hardware on some graphics cards. DCI requires Video for Windows* 1.1e or higher, a DCI-supporting codec such as Indeo® video, and DCI-enabled graphics card drivers. Direct Draw can be thought of as the Windows* 95 equivalent of DCI. It provides direct access to the video memory on the graphics card, so that applications can access special features of the graphics card. For more information on DirectDraw, contact Microsoft at (206) 635­7040 or your graphics card manufacturer.

Question: What kind of playback quality can I expect to see with Indeo video interactive?

When run on a 120 MHz or faster Pentium® processor-based PC equipped with a Direct Draw-enabled graphics card in Windows* 95, Indeo video interactive can play at full-screen with near-VHS quality. When run on a 75 MHz Pentium processor-based PC without DCI* or hardware acceleration, Indeo video interactive can play video of 320 by 240 resolution at 15 frames per second.

Question: What about Indeo® video interactive and DCI or Direct Draw?

Indeo video interactive supports DCI for Windows* 3.1 and Direct Draw for Windows* 95. In Windows* 3.1 with a DCI-enabled graphics system supporting hardware color space conversion and interpolation (resizing), Indeo video interactive can deliver full screen (640 by 480) video at near-VHS quality. As Direct Draw drivers become available for graphics cards, Indeo video interactive will be able to take advantage of the additional acceleration capability provided in more capable, general-purpose graphics subsystems to provide even better full-screen video performance and quality.

* Legal Information © 1998 Intel Corporation