2xAV™ Plug-In For Windows Media Player

Buying And Registering Your Plug-In

To buy the 2xAV Plug-In, go to the Enounce Store.

If you are using the free trial version of the 2xAV Plug-In, you can purchase the unrestricted version of the 2xAV Plug-In by clicking the "Buy Now" button when the reminder dialog comes up, or you can launch the 2xAV Registration Utility from the Start Menu on the machine on which you will be using the 2xAV Plug-In.

The 2xAV Registration Utility can normally be found from the Start menu at:

Programs -> Enounce ->
2xAV Plug-In for WMP ->
2xAV Unlock and Registration

This program will remind you that it needs to connect to a registration server over the Internet in order to register your Plug-In. With your approval it will attempt to make the connection, and then lead you through a simple three step purchase and registration process.

• In Step One, you will be asked to enter your name and a valid email address;

• In Step Two, you will be shown a URL to the 2xAV Plug-In purchase page of the web site from which you downloaded the 2xAV Plug-In. When you click on this URL, your web browser will take you to the web site from which you will purchase the 2xAV Plug-In.

  When you have purchased the 2xAV Plug-In, you will be given a serial number. Please copy the serial number into the box labeled "Enter Serial Number", and press "OK". You do not have to browse to the purchase web site shown in step two, unless you want to purchase additional serial numbers in order to use the 2xAV Plug-In on additional machines.

• In Step Three, you should press the "Register and Unlock" button to complete the registration of your 2xAV Plug-In.

When registration is complete, the 2xAV Plug-In will be unlocked on the machine that you used to register. We will also send an email message confirming your registration to the address you provided during the registration process. Please keep that email message for reference.

Software Activation via email: If you do not wish to register electronically using the Registration Utility described above, Click Here to get information on how to activate your Plug-in via email.

Technical Information

Requirements

• Windows XP, Windows 98 second edition, Windows Me, 2000, Windows 95 with upgraded Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player 6.4.
• Windows Media Player version 10, 9, 7 or 6.4
• Pentium II 400 or better (will run on lesser machines, but will consume most of CPU at faster than normal rates)
• 64 MB RAM, 2 MB free disk space for install.

Known Issues

1. The Fast Forward control built into the Media Player does not currently work when the 2xAV Plug-in is installed. We intend for this to use our variable speed playback in the future.
2. If you get an update to Windows Media Player after installing the 2xAV Plug-in, the "2xAV Controls" window may no longer popup over Windows Media Player. The issue here is the 2xAV AudioRenderer registration has been overwritten by the update. If you run the Verify2xAV.exe program enclosed with this release, it will re-register the 2xAV AudioRenderer automatically and should solve this problem.
3. Uninstalling will restore the state of your Windows Media Player to what it was before installation.

File Listing

1. \Enounce\2xAVEngine.ax
2. \Enounce\2xAVAudioRenderer.ax
3. \Enounce\tsmeng.dll
4. \Enounce\tsmbreg.exe
5. \2xAVSettings.exe
6. \tsmui2.dll --> copied over the existing
   \program files\real\realplayer\tsmui2.dll
7. \tsmadev.dll --> copied over the existing
   \program files\common files\real\plugins\tsmadev.dll
8. \Verify2xAV.exe

Plug-In User's Guide

Table of Contents

• The 2xAV SpeedBar
• Windows Media Player Embedded in a Web Page
• SpeedLimit™
• The 2xAV™ Property Dialog
  • 2xAV™ Engine Setting
  • Playback Quality Setting
  • Advanced Properties

The 2xAV™ SpeedBar

The floating 2xAV SpeedBar will automatically pop-up and float over Windows Media Player after you start playing a media clip as long as there is a valid license installed on your system.

The slider on the SpeedBar controls the playback speed of the Windows Media Player. A setting of 1.5 (as shown in the figure) results in playback that is one and half times as fast as normal. If the slider is set to "1.0", playback occurs at normal speed. A setting of "0.5" results in playback at half normal speed.

Feel free to move the slider at any time, even (or especially!) while media is being played: 2xAV gives you immediate control over your playback speed! Once the slider is selected you can use the left and right arrow keys on you keyboard to change the speed as well.

Windows Media Player Embedded in a Web Page

When Windows Media Player content is embedded in a web page a floating 2xAV Controls window will float over the web page (not activated for the free 7-day trial). This floating SpeedBar has the same behavior and control over the playback speed as the SpeedBar described above. If the floating SpeedBar is not visible it may be behind the web page you are viewing or minimized to the title bar of the web page you viewing. For more information on the options associated with the floating 2xAV Controls window, see the Advanced Properties section below.

SpeedLimit™

The SpeedLimit function for the Windows Media Player Plug-In is currently disabled but coming soon.

The 2xAV™ Plug-In's automatic SpeedLimit™ mechanism will attempt to play media as fast as you request, so long as that speed doesn't cause gaps. Gaps can occur if your Internet connection isn't fast enough to deliver media as fast as you are trying to play it, or if your computer isn't powerful enough to process media fast enough to keep up with your requested speed.

In the SpeedLimit™ mode, if the 2xAV Plug-In detects gaps it will slow down the playback speed. The "thumb" of the speed slider will remain where you set it, but the blue "thermometer" in the center of the slider may move to a lower speed, indicating that SpeedLimit has momentarily lowered the playback speed in an attempt to avoid gaps.

Please see the section When All You Can Have Is Not Enough for more information.

The 2xAV™ Property Dialog

To verify or modify the 2xAV™ Plug-In properties, click on the Properties button on the SpeedBar. The following dialog box will appear:

In addition to "About" information, and a hyperlink to the Enounce™ web site, the 2xAV tab of the properties dialog contains settings to control the operation of the 2xAV™ Plug-In. These settings are discussed below.

2xAV™ Engine Setting

The 2xAV™ engine can be set to any of three states:

• On Normal: This is the normal setting. The engine uses our patented digital signal processing algorithms to play back media at the rate you specify;

• On Chipmunk: This setting is just for fun. It lets you change playback speed the way you used to be able to do with an audio tape: put your finger on the record and make it go around faster or slower. Faster makes people sound like "chipmunks"; slower makes them sound like Darth Vader.

• Off: This setting turns off the 2xAV engine. All playback is at normal speed.

Note that you can change engine settings while audio is playing back, but the engine settings only take effect after you stop playback. That is, the new settings will be in effect the next time you start playback.

Playback Quality Setting

The 2xAV™ Plug-In software engine can trade off processing efficiency and audio output quality. The Playback Quality slider on the property page controls this tradeoff. For best quality, set the slider to the leftmost position. For most efficient processing, set the slider to the rightmost position. The setting selected determines the amount of CPU used for processing, so increasing the quality may cause "gaps" in playback if the CPU cannot process data fast enough.

Windows Media Server can't deliver content faster than real time

At this time the Windows Media Server will not deliver streaming content at a rate faster then normal speed even though the Windows Media Player equipped with the 2xAV Plug-In is capable of playing these streams at a faster rate. Therefore, the 2xAV Plug-In will only be able to change the playback speed with Windows Media Player when playing local files or files streamed from a standard web server using the HTTP protocol.

Advanced Properties

The Advanced Settings tab of the Properties dialog box controls the interaction of the 2xAV™ Plug-In with a browser:

• If the "Floating 2xAV Controls Window over Browser" checkbox is checked, a floating window containing the 2xAV Speedbar will appear whenever a web page contains the Windows Media Player ActiveX control or a Windows Media Player Netscape plug-in (as long as the same web page doesn't contain a 2xAV ActiveX control). In other words, a floating SpeedBar will appear if the designer of the web page has not provided a SpeedBar on their page.
  
  If you check this box, you will be able to control the playback speed of all web content that uses an embedded Windows Media Player object..

• If the "Floating Window" checkbox is checked, you can control what happens when you close the 2xAV SpeedBar.

  • If you set "Close to Title bar", when you close the SpeedBar, a "2X" icon appears on the title bar of the browser. You can reopen the SpeedBar either by clicking on the icon, or by refreshing the web page.

  • If you set "Close normally", when you close the SpeedBar no "2X" icon appears on the title bar of the browser. You must refresh the web page in order to reopen the SpeedBar.

• If the "Make Floating Controls Stay on Top" checkbox is checked, the 2xAV SpeedBar will always float on top of all windows making it easier to find the 2xAV Controls windows when you need it.

When All You Can Have Is Not Enough

The 2xAV™ Plug-In software engine is capable of slowing down or speeding up almost any form of media, either from local files stored on your computer or "streaming media" being delivered to your computer over the Internet. (Note: At this time, the Windows Media Server will not stream files at a rate faster then 1.0, however files streamed from a standard web server using HTTP streaming protocol will stream as fast as your connection will allow).

But sometimes we can't have everything we want. Even with media playback.

Sometimes you might want to play faster than your computer, or your Internet connection, or your media server, can handle.

When that happens--and we'll explain why it may--you can get rebuffering pauses or gaps in your playback.

Rebuffering pauses occur when the Windows Media Player are playing back streaming media, and it's run out of media to play.

When your player is playing back streaming media, it can't play material any faster than it gets it. If your Internet connection, or the server from which the media is coming, can't deliver media as fast as you want to play it, the player may pause from time to time as it "rebuffers" media. When the player has finished rebuffering sufficient media, it will continue playing.

Many forms of media are stored and delivered to your player in an encoded format. Your player decodes this media into a form that can be played. The process of decoding media requires varying amounts of computing power. If you are trying to play an encoded media stream twice as fast as normal, your computer was to process twice as much data in the same amount of time, using twice as many computations. If your computer is not fast enough to decode the media as quickly as you want to play it, there may be gaps, or short silences, in the playback.

The simplest solution to both of these problems is to slow down. If you have turned on the 2xAV Plug-In's SpeedLimit™ feature, the 2xAV Plug-In will try to prevent pauses and gaps from occurring, but will also repeatedly try to play at the speed you have requested. For best results, don't request a speed that is significantly faster than your player can manage.

Release Notes

Release notes for version 3.0 of the Enounce™ 2xAV™ Plug-In.

Windows Media Player and Windows MediaServer

At this time the Windows Media Server will not deliver streaming content at a rate faster then normal speed even though the Windows Media Player equipped with the 2xAV Plug-In is capable of playing these streams at a faster rate. Therefore, the 2xAV Plug-In will only be able to change the playback speed with Windows Media Player when playing local files or files streamed from a standard web server using the HTTP protocol.