  Power Ripper, Programming History.
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


 v1.65

 + Modified the memory allocation routines,
   this may speed up encoding by a bit.
 + Power Ripper now frame advances right
   after grabbing the image rather than
   after encoding the image, this improved
   speed by about 2-5%.
 + Clipboard capturing now work with cards
   in 32bit modes, please note however that
   clipboard capturing may be unstable.
 + Replaced the Sub-Pixel scaling algorithm
   with a 3xFactor scaling routine.  It's about
   3 times faster, but takes approx. 10mb of RAM
   to do.  It's also more accurate than Sub-Pixel.
   Don't try using it for large projects or if
   you have less than 64mb of RAM.
   To see a worse case scenario, set the custom
   resolution to 540x360 (0.75 of original NTSC size)
   then try encoding several frames with and without factor
   scaling.  You can see the difference quite clearly.
   Factor scaling is only useful if the image is bigger
   than half the original image size, if the image is
   at half size or smaller, normal scaling should look
   almost as good.
 + When paused you can add more frames to the capture
   using the frame controls, this is useful if you somehow
   underestimated the capture length.
 + A new information box, the "Encoding Proc" info box
   shows you how many MS each "B" (bitmap load) and
   "E" (Scaling and Encoding) takes on average, you
   can use this to see how the different scaling
   routines behave for CPU consumption.
 + When pressing the begin button without selecting a codec,
   Power Ripper will pop the codec selection dialog.
 + Tested to be working with PowerDVD v2.0


 v1.60

 + A new "Encode another frame" button is
   enabled when paused.  It allows you to
   encode single frames when power ripper is
   paused for accurate end-time encoding.
 + A new "Skip frame" button to skip one
   frame forward when paused without encoding
   it into the AVI stream.
 + The capture directory is now selectable
   and the directory ignores the PowerDVD
   capture directory for AVI FILES!,
   this is useful if you intend to use a
   RAM drive for the PowerDVD screen capture
   directory to attempt speeding up file encoding.
   The default capture directory is "C:\".
   This only works for AVI file generation,
   BMP capturing will only work at the PowerDVD
   capture directory.
 + Changed the frame rates to support all the
   adobe premiere frame rates and a few additional rates.
 + New ratio mode: "Third".  At a third resolution,
   an NTSC DVD Stream is 240x160.
 + Approximate encoded file size is now shown while
   encoding.  It shows the encoded data size, but
   i can't know the size of the frame headers, so
   the encoded size is a bit smaller than the
   actual file size.
 + New FAQ file.
 + Few bug fixes.


 v1.55

 + Ratio scaling now works with widescreen
   cropping, but not with vertical adjustment
   (since the image height and width must be
   a multiple of 2 or 4 and this can't be
   guaranteed with ratio scaling).
 + Auto minimize the PowerDVD display window
   to increase conversion speed.
 + Modified the frame rate structure to
   support sub-frame speeds, so NTSC 29.97
   is now supported.
 + Pressing the Stop button will now
   ask for confirmation before stopping.
 + Pressing the stop button while paused
   will now stop the process.


 v1.50

 + Redesigned the entire layout.
 + Included support for sub-pixel scaling, this
   is a more accurate scaling routine, but it is
   about 100 times slower, only useful for very
   short clips.
 + The codec selection is now done before starting
   the conversion process.
 + You can now split an AVI stream into several files
   by enabling the "AVI Frames->Split" checkbox
   and specifying a number of frames.
 + The created AVI file name is now displayed in the
   "AVI File" field.
 + When using the analyze widescreen button, the area
   detected as being cropped will be highlighted
   within the preview window.
 + You can now disable the preview window from updating,
   this may speed things a bit.  This can be done while
   converting without any danger.
 + A new "Launch PowerDVD" button.
 + A new "Pause" button.
 + Speed display now shows two more digits.
 + An alternative capture file finding routine
   can now be enabled, use this only if Power Ripper
   seems to freeze on the first frame.
 + Tons of things tweaked.
 + Tip: Minimize the PowerDVD display window to gain speed.
                             

 v1.17

 + A new analyze widescreen button to automatically
   get the widescreen boundaries (doesn't work for
   clipboard).
 + Confirm overwriting of existing AVI files.
 + Fixed minutes display in frame selection.
 + New time controls.
 + More selectable frame rates.
 + More bug fixes.


 v1.16

 + Settings are not automatically saved
   to the registry.


 v1.15

 + Support for cropping widescreen images.
 + Color burning bug fixed (distorted colors).
 + Better display of capture timing.
 + Capture to BMP should work again.
 + More bug fixes.


 v1.10:

 + PowerDVD v1.50 and possibly 1.30 should now work.
 + When making the fix for older PowerDVD versions,
   i have adjusted the routine that searches for
   the screen capture BMP file.  Problems with
   the program being unable to open the screen capture
   file under certain circumstances may have been fixed
   due to this.
 + Automatically brings the PowerDVD interface
   window to the front in order to improve the
   conversion speed.
 + You can now optionally use PowerDVD's screen
   capture to clipboard.  If this setting is
   selected within PowerDVD, Power Ripper will
   automatically detect this and switch to
   clipboard capturing.  This method involves
   direct memory access and skips usage of the
   hard disk.  This method is around 10-30% faster
   than the file method, but it tends to crash,
   as transferring huge amount of data through the
   clipboard was never meant to be done.  Make sure
   your computer is not doing anything else when
   trying to do this.
 + Included support for non 720x480
   content (PAL, non-standard MPEG).   
 + Improved stability when stopping in
   mid-conversion.
 + Several error conditions should now show
   messages explaining how they occurred.
 + Updated the powerip.txt file, and included
   a small Troubleshooting section.


 v1.00:

 + More compact GUI.
 + Custom resolution setting selection through
   a right-click menu.
 + Remaining time display for conversion is now available.
 + Fixed frame rate conversion when the input time
   was not set to frames.
 + Canceling at the AVI encoding prompt will now not
   force you to restart the program.
 + Various stability bugs fixed.
 * No longer alpha.

 v0.03:

 + Support for time selection (frames/seconds/minutes).
 + Support for custom image sizes.
 + Support for Film, PAL and NTSC frame rates.
 + Support for keeping as BMP.
 + Faster 1:1 ratio using no scaling.
 + Faster scaling routines.
 + Speed counter (fpm = Frames Per Minute, only works for AVI).


 v0.02:

 + Support for AVI interface output.


 v0.01:

 * Initial alpha release.
