Mastery Technologies Interactive CD-ROM Training

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Hardware Requirements

Any current Multimedia PC
( 133MHz Pentium )
will play Mastery courses

Older machines
(Including 486 Computers)
Can Play Low Bitrate Courses

Best Recommendation: MMX
About upgrading an older computer
About sofware playback with Windows95 & WindowsNT
About sofware playback with Windows 3x
About hardware playback
Minimum for MMX computers (cd-rom and low bitrate)
Minimum for Software MPEG playback (cd-rom & low bitrate)
Minimum for Software MPEG playback (low bitrate only)
Minimum for Hardware MPEG playback (cd-rom & low bitrate)

With MMX It’s Easy
The easiest way to run one of our interactive MPEG courses is to simply use a PC that features MMX technology. You will experience full-screen, full-motion, full-color video that is equal to VHS quality. You will not have to install a “helper” decoder program or an MPEG decoder card. If you don’t have an MMX computer (they’ve only been available since February ’97), you will need to give your current system the ability to decode MPEG audio and video files.

Upgrading an older computer
You have two choices for upgrading your existing systems to run MPEG video—software playback and hardware playback. Selecting the right decoder can take a long time. Just to determine the best playback quality can consume dozens of hours of your time. To assess a decoder’s compatibility with other hardware and software would take much longer. At the risk of offending many suppliers of fine MPEG decoding devices, hardware and software based, we’d like to shorten the process for you and just name the products we would recommend to our mothers.

Software playback is the least cost of the two options. If you are running Windows95 or WindowsNT, software MPEG playback is free! If you are running Windows 3x, a good software decoder is only $39(US). If your computer is fast enough (Pentium 120MHz) and you have a fast video card (Windows accelerator card with DirectX drivers works great), you can get near VHS quality video playback with a software MPEG player. You may already have a software MPEG player that came with your PC’s video card. All the high performance video cards today include a free MPEG software player. If you don’t have a software player, or it’s not capable of interfacing with interactive applications (a few can't) here’s what you can do:

Software Playback with Windows95 and WindowsNT. ActiveMovie is part of Windows95/NT and provides excellent MPEG playback. If ActiveMovie is not already on your computer, you can download it for free here, or install it from any Mastery course CD-ROM that has a release level of 6.110 or higher. Find the ActiveMovie driver in the \DRIVERS\AMOVIE.W95 directory of the course CD-ROM. For best results, install the DirectDraw drivers for your video card.

Software Playback with Windows 3x. For $39 (US) you can install Compcore SoftPEG. There are other MPEG decoders that work fine, however our experience with SoftPEG has shown it to be the best quality, the most reliable, and the easiest installation of all programs we tried. (We have tried lots of them.) Your Mastery Group member can supply SoftPEG to you.

Hardware playback costs a little more but you will get exceptional video quality on any computer (386 or better). There are several cards that play MPEG quite well for a variety of prices. However the best MPEG cards are from Sigma Designs (RealMagic) and cost from $200 to $300 (US). The installation of a RealMagic card can be a tricky undertaking. It should be done by an experienced technician. However the extra cost and effort can be well worth it. MPEG decoder cards make almost any older computer play MPEG in its finest glory. Full-screen, full-motion, full-color. You won’t be disappointed. RealMagic is the only brand we recommend for hardware playback. We have tried all the others, don’t waste your time looking around, just get a RealMagic card and get started. It’ll play our courses and everyone else’s great. Your Mastery Group member can supply one to you.

Recommended Minimum Specifications:

For MMX Computers with any course version
(CD-ROM bitrates and low bitrates):

Pentium 150MHz or better (with MMX technology)
16MB RAM
Average of 10MB of free hard drive space free per course (STHZC requires 50MB)
Sound Card
2X CD-ROM Drive or better (not required if computer is a network workstation)
Mouse or touchscreen

For Software MPEG Playback
(CD-ROM bitrates and low bitrates):

Pentium 120MHz or better
8MB RAM
Average of 10MB of free hard drive space free per course (STHZC requires 50MB)
MPEG Playback Software (ActiveMovie for Windows95/NT or SoftPEG for Windows 3x)
Sound Card
2X CD-ROM Drive or better (not required if computer is a network workstation)
S-VGA Card (Recommended that DirectDraw Drivers be loaded)
Mouse or touchscreen

For Software MPEG Playback
(Low bitrates only):

486 25MHz or better
4MB RAM
Sound Card
Mouse or touchscreen
S-VGA (Best performance when DirectDraw Drivers are loaded)
MPEG Playback Software (ActiveMovie for Windows95 and WindowsNT, or SoftPEG for Windows 3x)
Average of 30MB of free server hard drive space free per course

For Hardware MPEG Playback
(CD-ROM bitrates and low bitrates):

486/25 IBM PC or better
4MB RAM
Average of 10MB of free hard drive space per course (STHZC requires 50MB)
MPEG Playback Card (Any RealMagic card from Sigma Designs is recommended)
Sound Card (if not included on RealMagic card)
2X CD-ROM Drive or better (not required if computer is a network workstation)
Mouse or touchscreen