September 29, 1994


Dear Video for Windows Developer:

Enclosed you will find the Video for Windows 1.1d Runtime.  This release includes some important
enhancements requested by you, including improved palette support, Display Control Interface 
(DCI) support and overall improvements in performance. 

The files that have changed are the following:
File Name               Change Description
AVICAP.DLL              Added application pre-roll and post-roll support.
DCISVGA.DRV             DCI provider for S3 and Cirrus Logic display cards.
DVA.386                 Added DCI support.
ICCVID.DRV              Cinepak Codec: Added palette support.
IMAADPCM.ACM            IMA ADPCM Codec: Change in the compression algorithm used in order to                           fully meet the official format specifications.
IR32.DLL                Indeo Codec: Updated to version 3.2, added palette support.
MSVIDEO.DLL             Added palette and DCI support.
MSVIDEO.NT              Updated the Windows NT 3.5 to support 16 bit capture.
OLE2DISP.DLL            Updated to current release of OLE.
OLE2NLS.DLL             Updated to current release of OLE.
SETUP.INF               Updated to new file sizes, versions and dates.
STDOLE.TLB              OLE file missing from original VfW runtime.
TYPELIB.DLL             Updated to current release of OLE.

Palette Support
Video for Windows has always allowed the application to select a specific 
palette for playback on 8 bit displays.  Unfortunately, the codecs 
(compressor\decompressors) were never aware of this palette request.  
Instead the codecs would dither to their own standard palette.  Video for 
Windows would then further dither the video to the requested color palette.  
The net result was 24 bit videos, when played back with a requested palette, 
were dithered twice.  This would compromise the quality of the video.  

This problem has been solved with this new drop of MSVIDEO.DLL, and the 
Cinepak and Indeo codecs.  The codecs will now decompress directly to a 
requested palette.  You can request the codecs to use a palette with either 
the SETVIDEO <alias> PALETTE HANDLE TO <hpal>, or REALIZE <alias> BACKGROUND 
MCI commands.  You can find these commands in the Video for Windows 1.1 
documentation.

DCI Support
DCI allows Video for Windows to take advantage of the enhanced capabilities 
of your display cards.  You will now see faster and smoother playback of 
video on display cards that use the S3, Cirrus Logic, and many other chip 
sets. Video for Windows will also support all DCI-enabled display adapters.  
Furthermore, the performance of stretched and clipped videos will be 
drastically improved for all displays.

For further information on API changes, please see the "New Performance 
APIs" listed in the DEV_KIT.TXT of the Video for Windows SDK.  This SDK is 
available from the Fall '94 addition of the MSDN Level II. 


Sincerely,


The Video for Windows Team