Microsoft KB Archive/147141

= Macintosh Music Central 1996: ReadMe File Contents =

Article ID: 147141

Article Last Modified on 12/17/1999

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Music Central 96 for Macintosh

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This article was previously published under Q147141



SUMMARY
The following article contains a complete copy of the Music Central 1996 ReadMe file included on the Music Central 1996 for the Macintosh compact disc.



MORE INFORMATION
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Microsoft Music Central 96 Read Me
-- This file contains information on the following topics:

1. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FOR RUNNING MUSIC CENTRAL 96 - What you need to run Music Central 96

2. MEMORY USE - Music Central memory usage - How to make it run on low-memory machines

3. PERFORMANCE - Tips on how to increase Music Central's speed

4. SCREEN SIZES AND COLOR CONFIGURATION - What makes Music Central look best

5. SOUND PROBLEMS - Common problems playing sounds and how to fix them

6. PRINTING AND COPYING - How to print and copy information from Music Central 96

--- 1. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FOR RUNNING MUSIC CENTRAL 96 ---

To install and run Music Central 96 you need:

- Any Macintosh computer that supports a 256-color, 640x480 (13-inch) or higher resolution monitor - System 7.0 or later - 8 MB of random-access memory (RAM) - CD-ROM drive (double-speed recommended)

You can run Music Central directly from the CD. However, to play the movies and hear the sounds, QuickTime 2.0 or later must be installed in your System Folder. If Music Central can't find these files, it will prompt you to run the Installer. You can also install QuickTime manually by dragging the files from the System Files folder on the Music Central 96 CD onto your System Folder icon.

The Music Central Installer will add all necessary files to your System Folder. It will also copy the Music Central program to a folder on your hard disk titled "Music Central 96". Although installing the application to your hard drive occupies about 6 MB of free space, it makes the program launch and run noticeably faster. The text, sounds and images remain on the CD, so you will still need to insert the CD to run Music Central.

- 2. MEMORY USE -

Music Central 96 should run on any Macintosh with 8 MB of RAM. However, if 4 MB of memory are not free when you launch the application, a warning message may be displayed indicating there is insufficient memory available.

Most users with 8 MB of RAM will not experience problems, but if your system software takes up more than about 4 MB you may need to adjust memory usage to make Music Central run properly. Some general suggestions follow:

- Run only one application at a time. If other applications are running, close them and then re-launch Music Central.

- Reduce the amount of memory being used by your system software. To  do this, return to the Finder and select About This Macintosh...   from the Apple menu at the top left corner of the screen. The Largest Unused Block needs to be greater than 4,096K to run Music Central. If the only item listed in the About This Macintosh dialog is System Software and the Largest Unused Block is less than 4,096K, you need to reduce the amount of memory consumed by your system software. Refer to your Macintosh documentation for details on how to do this, but some general suggestions follow:

a. Open the Memory Control Panel and check the Disk Cache setting. To maximize the memory available to Music Central, set the cache to 32K.

b. Fonts and sounds consume system memory. Removing those you aren't using will make more memory available.

c. Third party system extensions such as screen savers, fax software, desktop pictures, menu-modifying utilities and other system enhancements increase the amount of memory consumed by     your system software. Removing some or all of these extensions will increase the amount of memory available to applications. Be     sure that you save anything you remove from your System Folder and place it in a separate folder on your disk so that you can replace it later.

- Remove Music Central monthly update files. Integrating new movie reviews and artist information from the monthly updates you download from the Internet consumes application memory. Moving these files to a temporary location outside the Music Central Folder will increase the amount of memory available for other features and improve overall performance.

- Turn on Virtual Memory. Virtual Memory allows you to increase the amount of available memory by using space on your hard disk to  simulate RAM. Although using virtual memory will slow down performance, the extra available memory may cause applications like Music Central to be allocated more memory on launch or allow more applications to be run simultaneously. To turn on Virtual Memory, open the Memory control panel, switch the Virtual Memory radio button to On, and then restart your computer. You may also wish to  investigate third-party virtual memory utilities, such as RAM Doubler from Connectix Corporation.

Note: Be warned that reducing the minimum size for Music Central's memory requirements may cause the program to perform poorly. For example, Music Central may not be able to play video clips or enlarge stills if it runs out of memory. If you allocate less than 4,096K, these problems are likely to result.

-- 3. PERFORMANCE --

If Music Central seems to be running slowly or its audio and video are choppy or interrupted, there are a number of things which may help:

- If you have over 6 MB of available hard drive space, you can install the Music Central application to your hard drive rather than run it directly off of the CD-ROM. To install the application to your hard drive, double-click the Installer icon on the Music Central 96 CD and select Easy Install.

- If less than 5 MB of memory are free when you launch Music Central, you may also have performance problems. Check the previous section, MEMORY USE.

- Increase the preferred size for Music Central's memory allocation. Music Central is pre-set to a suggested memory size of 5,120K. If  you have plenty of additional memory available to run Music Central, you can increase the amount of memory Music Central requests by clicking the Music Central 96 application icon, choosing Get Info from the File menu, and then changing the preferred size in the section titled "Memory Requirements".

- If you are using Virtual Memory to expand available memory to more than double your physical RAM capacity, you may find that Music Central runs slowly. For best performance, turn off Virtual Memory or reduce its allocated size in the Memory control panel.

- Music Central is designed to work properly on a CD-ROM drive with a  150K/sec transfer rate or faster. A double-speed CD-ROM drive or  one with a faster transfer rate will provide even better performance in some areas. If your CD-ROM drive has a sustained transfer rate of less than 150K/sec, it may not be able to supply audio and video information to the Macintosh at the speed required. This problem cannot be fixed short of upgrading to a faster CD-ROM drive. If you suspect a problem with your drive, ensure that it is  properly terminated and that its software is properly installed. For details on SCSI termination, see your Macintosh or CD-ROM drive documentation or contact your Apple dealer.

- A dirty or scratched CD-ROM disc can cause your drive to perform poorly. Make sure the bottom surface of the Music Central 96 disc is clean and undamaged.

- If you are using QuickTime 2.0, the video clips in Music Central will run more smoothly if you upgrade to QuickTime 2.1. Power Macintoshes will also see significant performance improvements with installation of the QuickTime PowerPlug extension. To install QuickTime 2.1, double-click the Installer icon on the Music Central 96 CD, select Customize, and install the QuickTime package that is  appropriate for your Macintosh.

--- 4. SCREEN SIZES AND COLOR CONFIGURATION ---

On startup, Music Central checks your monitor and displays the images as best it can on your Macintosh. If your monitor settings can be adjusted to make Music Central look better, you will be prompted to change them.

Music Central will run on any 256-color, 640x480 (13-inch) or higher resolution Macintosh compatible monitor, although Music Central's video clips and still images look best in 16-bit color (thousands of colors) or 24-bit color (millions of colors).

NOTE: Running in 24-bit color (millions of colors) will slow performance and cause Music Central to consume memory more quickly. If you normally run in this color mode and experience out-of-memory conditions, you can increase the amount of memory Music Central requests by clicking on the Music Central 96 icon, choosing Get Info from the File menu, and then changing the preferred size in the section titled "Memory Requirements".

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

- 5. SOUND PROBLEMS -

If the audio in Music Central 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 and experiment with the speaker volume setting until you find a comfortable sound level. If you set the sound level to maximum, you may get some sound distortion just as you might on a stereo system. 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, Virtual Memory should be turned off. To disable Virtual Memory, open the Memory control panel, click the Virtual Memory Off button, and then restart your computer.

- 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 you are receiving error messages when attempting to play sounds, you may need to allocate more memory for Music Central. Please refer to the MEMORY USE section for suggestions on how to solve memory problems.

- Some sounds used in Music Central are stored on the CD-ROM in a compressed format. In order to be played, the sound must be read from the disc and decompressed. Older or slower Macintoshes (such as the Macintosh II and Macintosh LC) may experience interruptions in audio playback.

- In some situations, QuickTime 2.0 and Sound Manager 3.0 may have insufficient system memory available to play sounds. Upgrading to QuickTime 2.1, included on the Music Central 96 CD, should improve the system's ability to play sounds under these conditions.

- 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.

--- 6. PRINTING AND COPYING ---

You can copy or print any article or List Maker list within Music Central by choosing the appropriate command from the File or Edit menu. These commands are also available from the flydown menu directly above the text. If you select a range of text with the mouse, only the page header and your selection will be copied or printed. Due to licensing restrictions, you cannot copy or print images or videos from the product.

If you find that printed text is improperly formatted or that special characters are not printed correctly, check the following:

- Turn off Background Printing. In order to support launching directly from the CD-ROM, Music Central stores the Arial, Times New Roman and MS Reference TrueType fonts within the application. This provides Music Central access to these custom fonts without taking up space on your hard drive. However, because many printer drivers launch a separate application to manage the printer queue and handle print jobs in the background, printing errors will result when Background Printing is enabled. To disable Background Printing, open the Chooser, select the active printer and switch the Background Printing radio button to Off.

NOTE: If you install the Arial, Times New Roman and MS Reference TrueType fonts into your System, Background Printing is fully supported. You can install these fonts manually by dragging the suitcases from the Fonts folder on the Music Central 96 CD onto your System Folder icon.

Additional query words: 1996 multi media multimedia multi-media mmtitles kbmm read me cd cd-rom cd-disc

Keywords: KB147141

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