vetz wrote on 2021-04-05, 16:26:

I haven't yet, my X-card is still at my brother's. I will when I get hold of it (corona restrictions make it hard for me to visit him).

It has been a while I tested my XCard too so I'll probably as soon I'll build a config for it. The EM8470 anyway being an older chip it might be interesting to know how much it differs from both the EM8300 and the EM8475 in terms of logic (vga in-out overlayed or switched fullscreen) and video quality anyway. Unfortunately I still didn't find the original W9X v2.1 application setup file that would be interesting to have but I remember having used the v2.0b app with the v2.1 drivers and it worked. With the latest drivers it was also possible to setup our own resolution parameters into regedit register cause I remember it wasn't easy to have a fullscreen perfect stretched image with nice scaling when instead the analog EM83700 didn't have these problems cause it followed the video card output overlaying the player output.
The old EM8300 at the end got quite good drivers and application and the results were imho better than the equal Dxr3 installation in most cases. The XCard I think lost a bit on this side.. probably the interest in it was already low at first.

Some news about an early test I'm doing on a EM8475 X-Card with the Rev-S3 card AT2 chip, I suppose one of the latest cause the digital bracket connector was removed by the factory and using a Pentium III-500, ECS 440BX board, Windows ME and the best vga output card possible I choosed the Matrox G550; also I finally used the latest v2.1 Xcard drivers.
Interestingly enough as suggested in the past (thanks) the v2.1 application for Win XP -is working on Win ME- too so I suppose there was no differences from the missing "_W2" w9x app file that seems to be lost from their homepage for W9X o.s.
With the latest drivers and latest app I needed the configure in the register by regedit in the Sigma folder "Progressive" a string with my monitor config cause the default ones seems to be only oriented to 16:9 TVs not really 4:3 VGA pc monitor imho.
It's a bit boring to find the perfect match between the desktop mode and the isolated Xcard mode cause it's not overlayed.

But at the end I've to say the quality is just impressive. Smooth and stable, upscaling (even if on a 15" XGA lcd is not much needed) seems great. Certainly sharper video quality than the Hollywood+ boards but it also come with the usual already expected problems. The removal of overlaying logic for the vga and the decoder make the whole experience a continuous going out to the desktop and entering again to full screen, you can't do both. Windowed mode was not implemented and the full screen mode is an hardware switch not just a "sw mode".

Another problem is that seems like the brightness and color app control doesn't work, I don't know if it's cause the vga or the XP oriented application, it might be; I don't remember this problem when I tested the v2.0b w9x version.
I suppose the original package came with a remote control but I don't have it and also I don't have the original better thick cable while I'm using the H+ card one. Also I noticed that the EM8475 decoder becomes quite hot on the surface maybe normal for its specs but an heatsink might have been better to install like the EM8470 ones. Audio output connected to the original Audigy card is powerful and volume enough high.

An interesting find.. in the register strings there's an "overlay mode" that don't seems to be anywhere on the app. I still need to test it but it would be interesting if that in some way would enable the windowed overlayed mode and discovering that was still existing inside the chip maybe.. 😁.. I don't think so but it'll update on this soon.
I'll do more tests but in my opinion this card was more oriented for a second dedicated 16:9 tv/monitor and not the default one at first even if the quality is impressive. In this case the G550 should not be that important like it sure is with the H+ cards, considering the different logic, but I wanted to try this as the best possible config.

The NEC PC98 card is likely C-BUS format (PC98 ISA equivalent). Using "PC98" as the expansion slot name is confusing, because there are multiple types of PC98 expansion slots (C-BUS, PC98 local bus, PCI, the laptop expansion slots...).

Hi

Where can I find the download for the EM8400 driver? I only see the read me file attached. Sorry if i missed something out.
Thanks in advance!

noobium wrote on 2021-05-04, 02:05:

Hi

Where can I find the download for the EM8400 driver? I only see the read me file attached. Sorry if i missed something out.
Thanks in advance!

It'll come up here. It was just abit more work than anticipated to sort out all the versions

Hello.
Anybody still looking for drivers for these cards?
I found a French website which seems to have all the drivers; https://www.touslesdrivers.com/index.php?v_pa … e=12&v_code=757
Have fun.

afgncaap wrote on 2021-05-06, 12:34:

Hello. Anybody still looking for drivers for these cards? I found a French website which seems to have all the drivers; https:// […]
Show full quote

Hello.
Anybody still looking for drivers for these cards?
I found a French website which seems to have all the drivers; https://www.touslesdrivers.com/index.php?v_pa … e=12&v_code=757
Have fun.

I've used that site as source, but unfortunately it is missing alot of drivers for many of the cards.

noobium wrote on 2021-05-04, 02:05:

Where can I find the download for the EM8400 driver?

EM8400 must be Netstream 2000 / Netstream 2000 TV?
There is a CD with drivers available on Archive.org!

Does games listed can be run on any reel (or real ) mgepg decoder card listed here?
if i brought any can i easy find drivers, or you can share?

No, unfortunately not. All games should work fine on original cards (like 1 to 12), some would also work on 13-15, even on 19. But none of those hames would work on Hollywood etc.

Cool thread, I turned up a ReelMagic the other week, forgot I still had it, but mentally filed it as "nearly useless". It's an ISA with a C Cube chip on is all I can remember at the moment. Be great to try some of this stuff when I have a system going it would suit. ( P54 Pentium?) I tried it back in the day and my Cyrix 5x86 was jusssst fast enough to play a VCD with it.

Also got a competitor of some variety download/file.php?id=114315&mode=view if there's an equally awesome thread about that somewhere.