Mac Encarta 97: Readme.txt: Video and Sound Issues (158598)

MORE INFORMATION

SCREEN SIZES AND COLOR CONFIGURATION

On startup, Encarta checks your monitor to ensure you are running in at least 256 colors. If your monitor is set to black and white or 16 colors, you will be reminded to switch to a higher color depth.

Encarta will run on any 256-color, 640x480 (13-inch) or higher resolution Macintosh-compatible monitor, although Encarta's video clips, panoramas and still images look best in Thousands or Millions of colors.

NOTE: Running in Millions of colors requires more memory to display images in Encarta. If you normally run in this color mode and experience out-of-memory conditions, you can increase the amount of memory Encarta requests by quitting the application, clicking on the Encarta 97 Encyclopedia icon, choosing Get Info from the File menu, and then increasing the preferred size in the section labeled "Memory Requirements".

Encarta is not designed to run in black and white, in 16 colors, or on monitors displaying less than 640x480 pixels (e.g. Color Classics, older PowerBooks, and all 12" Apple monitors).

SOUND PROBLEMS

If the audio is missing or interrupted, check the following:

Sounds may be inaudible if the sound level is turned down. To set the sound level, open the Sound control panel (incorporated into the Monitors & Sound control panel on some machines) and experiment with the speaker volume setting. If you set the sound level to maximum, you may get some distortion. With external speakers, be sure they are connected properly and turned on. You will generally be able to adjust sound level with the external speaker volume knob as well as with the Sound control panel.

If Virtual Memory is enabled on your Macintosh, you may find that sounds are choppy. When Virtual Memory is turned on, sounds are sometimes placed on the hard disk rather than in physical RAM. For optimal performance, reduce Virtual Memory to its lowest possible level. For more details on Virtual Memory, check the MEMORY USE section.

In low memory situations, you may find that sounds will not load or play. If you cannot get a sound to play and are sure that your Sound control panel is set correctly, or if you are receiving error messages when attempting to play sounds, you may need to allocate more memory to Encarta. Refer to the MEMORY USE section for suggestions on how to solve memory problems.

Audio is available in Collages only when running the encyclopedia on a Power Macintosh.

Version 1.5.1 of Connectix RAM Doubler has a known bug that prevents audio and video clips from playing properly on Power Macintosh models. To obtain upgrade information, contact Connectix Corporation.