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Help Identify ISA MPEG decoder board

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First post, by RaVeNsClaw

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Hello everyone,

I got this ISA MPEG1 decoder and would like to run it in my 486 system.
Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to find out the name of this card to look for a driver.

The chip beneath the cooler on it is the Winbond W9920A-1.
I found a driver for a "True Magic" card that uses the same chip, but it was obviously the wrong driver. The IO addresses did not match to the avalible dip switch settings.

By the way, the burst tantalum capacitor in the picture has already been changed 😉

I would be very happy if someone recognises the card.

Greez
Markus

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Reply 1 of 37, by RaVeNsClaw

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Sadly, I still had no luck finding out anything about this MPEG decoder card.
It's not PnP and there is no ROM to read.

There are two logos on the board I don't recognize:

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The first logo looks like the runic character "ehwaz", meaning "horse". 😉

There are also two part numbers:
VER: C2 PN: 3502401000
MM941031P

The second one is probably just the manufacturing date, as the PCB date is 9437.

With at least a company name I could do some investigations in the wayback machine...

Greetz
Markus

Reply 2 of 37, by weedeewee

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No help on the name but from the listed vga pinout on the back I get the impression that you'll need a sort of splitter cable that attached to the card with one end going to a vga monitor and the other end going to the vga card.

also, did you buy this card on ebay recently, since that seems to be the only fast google reference to anything about this card I can quickly find.

also, which Truemagic card were the drivers you found for ? complete name(s)

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Reply 3 of 37, by RaVeNsClaw

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Thank you for the reply! 😀

Yes, It's the card from ebay. The seller accepted my price proposal.
The card also came with a Y-cable with 2 plugs, "VGA" and "MPEG" and a VGA socket for the screen.

I found the driver by searching for the WinBond W9920A-1 chip. It is from one of the rather dodgy driver sites:
https://www.solvusoft.com/en/update/drivers/g … a-1/sub-models/

This is the content of the driver package:

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I've opened all the files with a text editor. In most of them I've found "(C)Copyright WINBOND ELECTRONICS CORP. 199X "
When installing under Windows 3.1, it just says "TRUE MAGIC", "TRUE MAGIC Installation" and "TRUE MAGIC MPEG Player". It even installs to "c:\true".
I would assume that the driver was made by Winbond itself and that card possibly corresponded to a reference design.

One big difference to my card is that the "True Magic" card includes both the W9920A1 video decoder and the W9910IF audio decoder.
My card, however, only has the video decoder chip. That is why the driver refuses to work. The driver asks for the resources for both chips during installation.

Reply 4 of 37, by deltashadow

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Hi, here is some ideas:

1) What i a chip under a heatsink?
2) It looks like it is made in Taiwan (according to my info)
3) I know this video card - with the same CY-02

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and

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4) So maybe this "A" logo is a brand of this card. And the same to your board.

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So maybe somebody know what company is this "A"?
Because CY-02 sign is quite rare on boards.

Reply 5 of 37, by RaVeNsClaw

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Hello deltashadow,
about your first question: Under the heatsink there is a Winbond W9920A-1.

But you are right, the logo on this card really is the very same as on mine! 😀

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The card you posted is also just listed as "CY-02A" on m.vgamuseum.info:
http://m.vgamuseum.info/index.php/cpu/item/359-s3-trio64v

I did a little upscale of the logo in question:

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EDIT:
There is also this card with the same logo and "Made in Taiwan"
https://www.eska-welt.de/ersatzteile/sonstige … ersion-a1/69803

It could also be, that this is just the logo of the PCB manufacturer.

Reply 6 of 37, by RaVeNsClaw

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LogoComparison.png
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I think this logo and the "CY-02" might just be from a Taiwanese PCB manufacturer.
I've just found the very same logo on a network card from "CORETEK Opto"...

Reply 7 of 37, by rasz_pl

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https://websrv.cecs.uci.edu/~papers/mpr/MPR/MSB/0804msb.pdf

"Winbond Samples Low-Cost MPEG Decoder
Taiwanese chip vendor Winbond announced that it is
sampling its first MPEG decoder chip, the W9920, which
decodes an MPEG-1 video stream with a single chip. The
company will sell samples at $40 and volume shipments,
expected in 2Q94, for just $25 in 1,000-unit orders. This
price sets a new low for a chip of this type."

Winbond was barely sampling first batch of chips in 1994 and your card is full of 1994 datecodes. This could be a low production/prototype run.
There is https://www.video-drivers.com/drivers/25/25094.htm, but who has ever seen a Boser MPEG Player BS-250 ? 😀
this https://www.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php?driverid=27454 looks like same thing you found?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJHoqUXBTC4 at least has a link to a picture of LifeView PCinema II MPEG playback card
http://retronn.de/ftp/pictures/hardware/pcine … _2/IMG_0129.JPG
and its nothing like yours, doesnt have audio DSP

Open Source AT&T Globalyst/NCR/FIC 486-GAC-2 proprietary Cache Module reproduction

Reply 8 of 37, by PC Hoarder Patrol

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Similar '94(?) card with what looks like a DSP from the Ti TMS320AVxxx series https://computer-retro.de/Bilder/Grafikkarten … I-Chip-1994.jpg

Link from this page https://computer-retro.de/Grafikkarten.html

Reply 9 of 37, by RaVeNsClaw

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Thank you all for the replies! 😀
I'm happy to see that you came to similar conclusions as me. I've counted 5 reworks on this card and the number of chips and tantalum caps is quite extreme.
So it's a rather early card from when the W9910 was not avalible yet.

Here is the front of the card without the heat sink:

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@rasz_pl:
I owned such a Ulead MPEG decoder 14+ years ago, but as you noted, it uses a different DSP.
That "Boser BS-250" card and the LifeView PCinema II both use the Winbond W9910 audio decoder, so sadly those won't work.
All of the drivers I've found require the W9910 and are basically the same driver with a different branding.

Reply 10 of 37, by RaVeNsClaw

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I've searched around for the ADSP-2105 audio dsp chip. It's the same DSP as on the "Reelmagic" MPEG decoder cards.
In this russian forum in 2015 a card isa - "magic v1" fullmotion video accelerator - winbond w9920a-1, ad adsp-2105 was sold. So it had the same chip configuration:
https://www.phantom.sannata.org/viewtopic.php?t=18274

Reply 11 of 37, by GunKneeNeon

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RaVeNsClaw wrote on 2023-04-30, 20:28:

I've searched around for the ADSP-2105 audio dsp chip. It's the same DSP as on the "Reelmagic" MPEG decoder cards.
In this russian forum in 2015 a card isa - "magic v1" fullmotion video accelerator - winbond w9920a-1, ad adsp-2105 was sold. So it had the same chip configuration:
https://www.phantom.sannata.org/viewtopic.php?t=18274

I own exactly the same card as you mentioned, magic v1 seems to be the product model, the manufacturer is still unknown. By the way, the card was bought from China mainland back in 1995 or so. Do you know how to find its driver? Maybe your card and mine could share the same driver.

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Constantly looking for the driver for Acer Magic v1 MPEG decoding card.

Reply 12 of 37, by RaVeNsClaw

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Your card was to be sold in Germany, as there is a "Funkentstört" label on it. That's curious, as I am also in Germany. 😉

Sadly, I was not able to find a driver that does not also require the W9910 audio DSP.

Reply 13 of 37, by RaVeNsClaw

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GunKneeNeon wrote on 2023-05-12, 02:40:

I own exactly the same card as you mentioned, magic v1 seems to be the product model, the manufacturer is still unknown.

I've found the Manufacturer of your card via the FCC ID: https://fccid.io/IPL
AESL Technology Inc

It seems that AESL is directly connected to Acer. At least they are listed as secondary contact to AESL on FCC sites.
Acer had Soundcards, like the "Magic S23", so the V in "Magic V1" probably stands for "Video".

I've created a thread in the Acer forum:
https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/6852 … ecoder/p1?new=1

Reply 14 of 37, by Babasha

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One more WINBOND MPEG ISA cards maker Vigour Taiwan
And their drivers in Archive.org

https://web.archive.org/web/20000304040919/ht … ice/serve-e.htm

Need help? Begin with photo and model of your hardware 😉

Reply 15 of 37, by RaVeNsClaw

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Babasha wrote on 2023-05-16, 20:33:

One more WINBOND MPEG ISA cards maker Vigour Taiwan
And their drivers in Archive.org

https://web.archive.org/web/20000304040919/ht … ice/serve-e.htm

Thank you for the links! 😀

The drivers don't seem to be for a Winbond chip. The dll files copyright Dritek and the included MPEG player is Mediamatics.
Probably a special version, as Mediamatics MPEG Arcade is just a software decoder for Pentium systems:
https://archive.org/details/mpeg_arcade_player

Reply 16 of 37, by Babasha

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RaVeNsClaw wrote on 2023-05-17, 19:41:
Thank you for the links! :-) […]
Show full quote
Babasha wrote on 2023-05-16, 20:33:

One more WINBOND MPEG ISA cards maker Vigour Taiwan
And their drivers in Archive.org

https://web.archive.org/web/20000304040919/ht … ice/serve-e.htm

Thank you for the links! 😀

The drivers don't seem to be for a Winbond chip. The dll files copyright Dritek and the included MPEG player is Mediamatics.
Probably a special version, as Mediamatics MPEG Arcade is just a software decoder for Pentium systems:
https://archive.org/details/mpeg_arcade_player

Here the article and links from ixbt past with pictures. Sorry in russian.
https://www.ixbt.com/multimedia/mp2000.html

Need help? Begin with photo and model of your hardware 😉

Reply 17 of 37, by PC Hoarder Patrol

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RaVeNsClaw wrote on 2023-05-16, 19:42:
I've found the Manufacturer of your card via the FCC ID: https://fccid.io/IPL AESL Technology Inc […]
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GunKneeNeon wrote on 2023-05-12, 02:40:

I own exactly the same card as you mentioned, magic v1 seems to be the product model, the manufacturer is still unknown.

I've found the Manufacturer of your card via the FCC ID: https://fccid.io/IPL
AESL Technology Inc

It seems that AESL is directly connected to Acer. At least they are listed as secondary contact to AESL on FCC sites.
Acer had Soundcards, like the "Magic S23", so the V in "Magic V1" probably stands for "Video".

I've created a thread in the Acer forum:
https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/6852 … ecoder/p1?new=1

Not entirely sure if relevant, but either of you care to give the attached files a closer look...

Possible Acer MV1 Drivers.jpg
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Reply 18 of 37, by GunKneeNeon

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RaVeNsClaw wrote on 2023-05-17, 19:41:
I've found the Manufacturer of your card via the FCC ID: https://fccid.io/IPL AESL Technology Inc […]
Show full quote

I've found the Manufacturer of your card via the FCC ID: https://fccid.io/IPL
AESL Technology Inc

It seems that AESL is directly connected to Acer. At least they are listed as secondary contact to AESL on FCC sites.
Acer had Soundcards, like the "Magic S23", so the V in "Magic V1" probably stands for "Video".

I've created a thread in the Acer forum:
https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/6852 … ecoder/p1?new=1

Sorry for the late replay, I was busy dealing with other problems with this pc.
You replay is very informative, after searching for Acer Magic V1, I found another MPEG card manufactured by Acer that is more popular than this one, the Magic V18. I think this is the most relevant one comparing to other cards posted in this topic. They should be belong to the same series. There is an old article about the usage tips of v18 card in Chinese.
I've tried all the drivers posted here include this v18, none worked. The problem is that it never shows in Windows Device Manager. So there is no way to drive it successfully. All the drivers have their own player installed, but I cannot play video through them. They also installed some Devices in Windows Media Player, again none worked.
Here I upload this driver, you could also give it a try.

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Last edited by GunKneeNeon on 2023-05-23, 08:28. Edited 2 times in total.

Constantly looking for the driver for Acer Magic v1 MPEG decoding card.

Reply 19 of 37, by GunKneeNeon

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PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2023-05-20, 07:29:

Not entirely sure if relevant, but either of you care to give the attached files a closer look...

It doesn't work. When I hit play button in Media Player using this Device, it either doesn't respond or freeze. The big problem is that the card cannot be seen in Device Manager, Windows cannot find it. I have connected it to the VGA card using its own cable successfully. The graphic just shows through it like it's totally clear of the whole system. The other proof of its presence is that it renders my PCI NIC and/or Soundcard unusable.

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Constantly looking for the driver for Acer Magic v1 MPEG decoding card.