Documentation of the AdvanceCAB videow utility.
1 Synopsis
videow [/s XxYxBITS] [/a] [/o] [/e] [/d] [/c FILE] [/p] [/n SIZE] [/m]
2 Description
The `videow` utility can be used to control the video output of the PC in Windows 2000/XP.
It requires the `svgawin` driver installed and running.
The modelines are read from the file `videow.rc`. The format of this configuration file is specified in the document `advv.txt`.
These are some example rc files:
| ntsc.rc | NTSC TV. | |
| pal.rc | PAL TV. | |
| standard.rc | Arcade Standard Resolution (15 kHz). | |
| medium.rc | Arcade Medium Resolution (25 kHz). | |
| extended.rc | Arcade Extended Resolution (16.5 kHz). | |
| pcvga.rc | VGA PC Monitor. | |
| pcsvga60.rc | SVGA PC Multisync Monitor. |
3 Options
| /s XxYxBITS |
| Set an arbitrary video mode using the first modeline with the correct size found in the config file. You can specify only resolutions already supported by Windows. You cannot create new resolutions. |
| /a |
| Adjust the current video mode using the first modeline with the correct size found in the config file. |
| /o |
| Set the original Windows mode. Use this option if the screen becomes unreadable. |
| /d |
| Disable the hardware video signal. |
| /e |
| Enable the hardware video signal. |
| /c CONFIG |
| Use an arbitrary configuration file instead of the standard `videow.rc` file. |
| /p |
| Print some info about the video board. |
| /n SIZE |
| Set the length of the scanline in bytes. The program automatically selects the smallest scanline size. |
| /m |
| Enable the use of the hardware mouse pointer. |
4 Cards
The program supports all the `svgawin` drivers listed in the `cardwin.txt` file.
You can force the use of a specific driver using the `device_video` option in the configuration file.
The available drivers are :
| svgawin/auto | Auto detection. | |
| svgawin/nv3 | nVidia Riva/GeForce. | |
| svgawin/trident | Trident. | |
| svgawin/rendition | Rendition. | |
| svgawin/g400 | Matrox Mystique/G100/G200/G400/G450. | |
| svgawin/pm2 | Permedia 2. | |
| svgawin/savage | S3 Savage. | |
| svgawin/millenium | Matrox Millennium/Millennium II. | |
| svgawin/r128 | ATI Rage 128/Radeon. | |
| svgawin/banshee | 3dfx Voodoo Banshee/3/4/5. | |
| svgawin/sis | SIS. | |
| svgawin/i740 | Intel i740. | |
| svgawin/laguna | Cirrus Logic Laguna 5462/5464/5465. | |
| svgawin/rage | ATI Rage. | |
| svgawin/mx | MX. | |
| svgawin/et6000 | ET6000. | |
| svgawin/s3 | S3. | |
| svgawin/ark | ARK. | |
| svgawin/apm | APM. |
5 Limitations
- The program can only set resolutions originally supported by Windows. It cannot create new resolutions.
- If the video board or the video driver doesn't support interlaced modes, these modes are simulated by skipping every odd row. It doesn't look very good.
- The program doesn't stay resident; any successive mode change will reset the original video mode.
6 Troubleshooting
- If the mouse pointer disappears, try to re-enable it with the /m option.
- If the screen image is stable but garbled, it's probably because the Windows video driver uses a non-standard scanline size. Try to guess it with the /n option. You should start with the resolution width multiplied by the bytes per pixel. Then increase this value until the screen becomes readable. Generally the correct value is a multiple of 2^n where n may vary from 1 to 8.
- Try decreasing the video hardware acceleration.
7 Tests
Windows 2000 with a GeForce 2 board
8 Examples
Set a 640x480 mode with 16 bits per pixel:
videow /s 640x480x16 |
Adjust the current mode:
videow /a |
9 Bugs
The configuration file is checked only for the `device_video_modeline` and `device_video` options. All the other options are ignored.
