                 AVS to AVI File Converter Release Notes
                           Beta Release 1.01
                                5/4/93

            Copyright 1993, Intel Corp. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Topics in these Release Notes
-----------------------------

        Overview
        Using AVSTOAVI
        Known Problems


Overview
--------

AVSTOAVI is a Windows application program that converts
AVS files to AVI files.  It is provided by Intel Corporation
as a convenience to our customers.

AVS is the multimedia file format used by DVI(R) technology.
AVS files were created by a number of software products from 
Intel Corporation, but are never created under Microsoft Video
for Windows.  You can tell AVS files by their ".AVS" file
suffix.  If you don't have any AVS files or if you don't use
Microsoft Video for Windows, you don't need to use AVSTOAVI.

AVI is the multimedia file format used by Microsoft Video
for Windows and adopted by Intel Corporation.  You will need
to convert any AVS files you have to AVI files before you can
edit or play the files under Microsoft Video for Windows.  If
you use Microsoft Video for Windows to capture, compress, and
edit digital video you are already working with AVI files.

AVSTOAVI does its conversion automatically.  AVSTOAVI determines
the type of audio and video encoded in the AVS file and passes
the audio and video through to the AVI file, possibly modifying
the data as described in the "Conversion Rules" section below.
Please refer to the "Known Problems" section for descriptions of 
proposed changes in future releases.


Conversion Rules
----------------

AVS Input:            AVI Output:                          See Notes
----------            -----------                          ---------
RTV 2.0 video chunks  Indeo(TM)-compatible video chunks    1,2
RTV 2.1 video chunks  Indeo-compatible video chunks        1,2
PLV 2.0 video chunks  PLV 2.0 video chunks                 3,4
PCM8 audio chunks     PCM8 audio chunks                    5
ADPCM4 audio chunks   PCM8 audio chunks                    6
Unrecognized chunks   Unrecognized chunks                  7

Notes for Conversion Rules
------------------
(1) Rectangular pixels (5:4 aspect ratio) converted to square pixels
    (1:1 aspect ratio).  This includes decompression and compression
    steps, with resulting loss of image quality.
(2) If set, doubling bits are reset and the video is compressed
    double size.  See the "Known Bugs and Deficiencies" section.
(3) No video chunk conversion performed; no loss of image quality.
(4) Requires PLV 2.0 driver for playback.
(5) No audio chunk conversion required; no loss of audio quality.
    Supported sampling frequencies for input are:  11.025, 22.05
    or 44.1 kHz.  Stereo and mono inputs are supported.
(6) Requires decompression and transcoding, with resulting loss of
    sound quality.  Supported sampling frequency for ADPCM4 is
    33.075 kHz.  Output sampling frequency is fixed at 22.05 kHz.
    Stereo and mono inputs are supported.
(7) Unrecognized data is passed through without modification.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once the .AVS file has been converted to a .AVI file, you can use
the WaveEdit utility in Microsoft Video for Windows to edit the
audio in the file, and you can use VidEdit to edit the video and
audio in the file.  Please refer to the "Microsoft Video for Windows
User's Guide" for additional information about editing .AVI files.
         

Using AVSTOAVI
--------------

Start AVSTOAVI by using the "File...Run" menu item from the Windows
Program manager, or double click on the AVSTOAVI icon that you
created in the Windows Program Manager.  The user interface is
a dialog-like window that has edit fields for an input AVS file
name and an output AVI file name.  A "Browse" button is available
for each edit field which allows you to search for file names.

After filling in the file name edit fields (wild-card characters
are not supported), click on the "Run" button to perform the
conversion. Click on the "Cancel" button to cancel a conversion.
Click on the "Exit" button to quit AVSTOAVI.  Click on the
"AVS Info" button to display information about the AVS input file.

The status line indicates how far AVSTOAVI is in the conversion
process.  Note that the conversion process is lengthy.  It takes
approximately 1 second per video frame to do the conversion. 

A message box appears when conversion completes.  This message
box tells you either that the conversion succeeded or that the
conversion failed.  If the conversion failed, the message box
reminds you to delete the incomplete AVI output file.  There is
no recourse if conversion fails.

A message box appears if an input file is in a format that is
not supported, and conversion terminates.


Known Problems
--------------

The following problems and warnings have been noted.

Beta Release 1.01:
1.  There is no way to convert batches of files automatically.
2.  File conversion will take approximately 1 second per video
    frame.
3.  AVS allows many video and audio channels within a file, but
    the conversion utility works only on files with one video
    channel and up to two audio channels.  Most AVS files meet
    this restriction.  If this situation arises, conversion will
    stop and a dialog box will be displayed to indicate that an
    error occurred.
4.  Compressed audio is not supported in Microsoft Video for Windows
    version 1.0, so compressed audio in AVS files is automatically
    uncompressed.
5.  AVSTOAVI does not work with audio-only files.
6.  AVSTOAVI never outputs 16-bit uncompressed audio (PCM16).  Instead,
    it always generates 8-bit uncompressed audio (PCM8).  This should
    be a user-settable option.
7.  The only supported ADPCM4 input sampling rate is 33.075 kHz.
    This is converted to PCM8 at 22.05 kHz only.
8.  Some .AVS files contain bitstreams in which half of the data to
    reproduce an image in X, Y, or both is included in the bitstream.
    These .AVS files expect the decompressor to recognize this
    condition and to expand the bitstream when the bitstream is
    decoded.  The reason for this is to reduce the bandwidth required
    to decompress and display the video, or to reduce the amount of
    disk required to store the compressed video.  This version of
    AVSTOAVI expands these .AVS files, so that some .AVI files may
    be up to four times bigger than the unconverted .AVS file.  A
    future version of AVSTOAVI will correct this problem.
9.  It may be possible to successfully convert files which are playable
    through the software driver, but are not playable through the
    ActionMedia II or RTVideo board.  This is because it is possible
    to convert files that result in unsupported playback resolutions
    on these boards.  AVSTOAVI should warn the user before converting
    the file that the output will only be playable using the software
    drivers.
