Main Settings Extra Settings

CineMaster Extra Settings Introduction:

The More Options window allows you to set even more CineMaster features, most of which are undocumented. Most of the features have a default setting. If in trouble, always try going back to the *default* setting.

Surface Flip Mode:

When the decoder decodes the Video frames, it always decodes the next frame in memory, and then it waits for exactly the right time to switch the image to the foreground for the smoothest possible frame flip. This setting is card specific and requires a bit of experimenting. With most cards the default setting works well. Also, a word of warning, the Soft-DeInterlace setting may in fact lower image quality with certain cards (Voodoo 3 was mentioned by one of the users), so in such cases try the default setting.

Surface Flip Position:

Akin to the Surface Flip Mode, this setting is card specific and experimenting may be required for the best quality setting.

Sound Compression Mode:

This setting determines how the sound is modified for best quality. In my opinion the default setting sounds best, but feel free to experiment.

DownMix Audio to:

This settings allow you to select the Audio DownMix used to play Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks. Some sound cards will support 4-Speaker output, while others won't.

AC3 DownSample Mode:

Most DVD Movies have more than 2 channels of audio. This audio needs to be downsampled to 2 channels so all the audio channels may be heard on your sound card. This setting determines the downsampling quality. Lower quality may mean a slightly faster decode time, however, I strongly recommend keeping the best quality enabled.

AC3 SP/DIF Audio Type:

This setting controls the visibility of the SP/DIF setting in the CineMaster 2000 user interface.

AC3 SP/DIF Out Mode:

Certain audio cards support digital audio-out through either a coax or optical SP/DIF port. With this setting you can tell the CineMaster engine which sound card you wish to use for the digital output. Please note that different versions of the CineMaster engine have switched the order of this settings, so you may need to play around with this setting to find the correct one.

Dynamic Audio Range Compensation:

Adjust the Audio Range frequency. I believe this option is ignored if the Dialog Normalization check box is enabled.

Dialog Normalization:

Normalize the dialog (voices) volume.

Enforce Flip Sync:

Certain Display Adaptors drivers lie to the software layer about their readiness to accept new images. This is useful in 3D games where you want the fastest possible image. However for DVD video where you want the smoothest video, this is problematic. So try enabling this option if you get screen pixelization or a lot of screen tearing.

Intel 740 page flipping:

This is a feature required when using an i740 based Display Adaptor.

Triple Buffering:

I was told that this feature is being ignored by the recent CineMaster versions. Originally, it used to take more video memory in order to generate another video image for smoother page flipping. Enabling this feature can't hurt.

Require Color Key:

Certain Display Adaptors require this feature to be enabled, the Preset button attempts to enable it for these cards. In most cards it should be disabled.

Ignore Downscale caps:

Certain Display Adaptors require this feature to be enabled, the Preset button attempts to enable it for these cards. On some NVIDIA cards, enabling this feature may cause image blurring. So if you have a card based on an NVIDIA chipset, and the image appears blurred, try disabling this feature.

Use DirectBOB:

This feature is required by the Intel i810/i815 chipsets.

Sync Field Flips:

This feature is currently only required by cards based on the ATI chipsets.

Sync Screen Refresh:

When enabled, CineMaster will try to synchronize the image updates with the screen refresh. This will enable smoother camera pans. Make sure to set your display adaptor to it's highest refresh rate allowed by the Monitor for the smoothest panning effects.

DVD Max:

This feature is used only by the Matrox G400 display adaptor. I believe it has something to do with the unique way in which the G400 card uses it's second CRT (display) unit to output the DVD image to a secondary external device.

3D Audio:

I am not entirely sure of it's usage, it may be part of the 4-Speaker support under the CineMaster engine, but it may not do anything right now.

Use LFE decoding:

This feature enables the decoding of the Low Frequency Effect channel, highly recommended if you have a sub-woofer connected.

Enable SP/DIF:

Enable the Digital SP/DIF output. Required by the newer versions of the CineMaster engine when outputting to the SP/DIF port.

Use Display Thread:

This feature is required by several display adaptors. The CineMaster engine uses a separate DirectShow thread to display the DVD image. This may also have some benefits for usage-load under multi-processor systems running an NT based operating system.

Erase DevDB (Button):

Newer versions of the CineMaster engine store some of their setting in the DevDB sub-section. This means that some of the settings you select will be ignored while the DevDB sub keys exist!

To combat this, you can use this button to remove these keys and force CineMaster to use the supplied settings. You make want to export this key using a registry editor (for backup). And if all else fails, reinstalling CineMaster should return functionability.