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What hardware and software is unsupported by Scala and can not be recommended?
Hardware FAQ Solution #7, Unsupported (last modified 12/02/2002):
It's unfortunate that we have to have such a list, but we've done quite a lot of testing with various configurations and can save you a lot of time if you were thinking of choosing one of these.
Please note that many manufacturers release new drivers regularly, so this information may change. We recommend that before any system is deployed that it is tested to operate without error for at least one week between system reboots.
Motherboards:
Intel AL440LX
Very bad "Plug & Play" behavior, picky about SDRAM.
Video Cards:
Video cards based on the 3DLabs Permedia 2 chip
Device driver instability.
Matrox G100, G200 or G400 video card
Device driver instability.
Intel Express 3D i740 AGP 4 MB Display Adapter.
Device driver instability.
Hercules Thriller 3D Verite Rendition V2200 AGP 8 MP Display Adapter
Device driver instability.
STB Velocity 128 nVida Riva 128 PCI 4 MB Display Adapter.
Device driver instability.
Many video cards EXCEPT those based on ATI or Tseng ET6000 series chips may be unstable. Trident, Cirrus Logic and S3 have been known to have unstable DirectX drivers in a 7x24 environment.
Sound Cards:
Creative/ENSONIQ ES 1370 and ES 1371 parts
These are used in the Creative Ensoniq PCI 64 and Creative Ensoniq SoundBlaster PCI 64 products. We have found these parts and their device drivers to be unstable in all Win9x and NT4 configurations we have tested.
The Creative SB Live!
Wonderful product--immature. We will be looking at this one in the future. Right now it is NOT viable in any playback environment.
The Cirrus Logic/CRYSTAL CS4334/5/6/7/8/9 parts that are found embedded on many motherboards made by Intergraph, IBM, DEC, and NEC
We have found these parts and their device drivers to be unstable in all Win9x and NT4 configurations we have tested.
The Yamaha OPL3-SA (YMF701) Single Chip PC Audio Solution
We have found these parts and their device drivers to be unstable in all Win9x and NT4 configurations we have tested.
NOTE: Some of these parts may be O.K. for 1-4 hour runs. Our test criterion requires that the part show itself to be stable for playback for at least a 10 days continuous run. We do not test for audio recording capability--there are too many variables provide meaningful information as to a given audio solution's suitability for "quality" analogue recording.
MPEG Cards:
The following cards were not able to play a looping MPEG file for more than a day or two without problems, and therefore cannot be recommended for use with Scala InfoChannel:
Matrox Marvel II with Media XL MPEG decoder
Matrox Mystique with Rainbow Runner MPEG decoder
Sigma Design Hollywood II MPEG decoder
Sigma Designs NetStream II MPEG decoder
Sigma Designs Real Magic Ultra MPEG decoder
Quadrant International Cinemaster version 2.2 or 2.3 MPEG decoder
Creative Labs Video Blaster MPEG decoder
Creative Labs PC-DVD card and drive
TeleVideo TeleMPEG Pro
The half hardware/half software MPEG decoders that some video card manufacturers provide today generally do not work with Scala. We recommend either using ActiveMovie or a dedicated MPEG hardware decoder card.
