Subj:      MOVPLAY: Dr. John's Movie Player v1.0
Date:      January 31, 1997
File:      MOVPLAY.ZIP (599,994 bytes)

Author:    John R. Magnell, D.C
Needs:     An UnZIPing Program and Windows 3.1 or "95"

Keywords:  Magnell, Graphics, Image, Picture, Photography, Digital Camera, Scanning, Painting,  Bitmap, Movie, Video Player, Animation, BMP, GIF, JPG, PCX, AVI, MPEG, MOV, VB, Win

Type:      Freeware

This file requires the VBRUN300.DLL (Visual Basic Runtime).

Dr. John's Movie Player allows anyone to play back bitmap movie files created following the simple methods described in the included help file by simply pasting a series of individual small bitmaps representing frames into a long bitmap image representing the film strip. No expensive special hardware or software is necessary and the quality of the completed videos rival or are superior to AVI's, MPEG's, MOV's, animated GIF's and Quick Time Movies. Any software application or device such as a scanner, digital camera or capture board capable of capable of producing a bitmap image may be used. Your movies can be created and saved in BMP, GIF, JPG or PCX format allowing you to work with a format supported by your favorite image editing applications while at the same time provided support for up to 16.8 million colors and small file sizes through compressed JPG format making them perfect for attaching to email or making available for download from a web site.

Best of all is that both Dr. John's Movie Player and the movies you create don't cost anything to produce or distribute because the player is freeware and can be distributed right along with your movie. For those in a real hurry to create their own movies in an even easier way using a simple to use point and click interface to automatically generate film strips from a series of bitmap animation frames Dr. John's Movie Maker which comes with the registered version of Image Magician will soon be released..

Dr. John's Movie Player comes complete with everything you need to produce your first animated video in less than half an hour. This download file contains the player application, context sensitive help with complete instructions, A blank bitmap frame to draw or paste images to for properly sizing and positioning, a 16 frame bitmap film strip to transfere completed frames to and even a sample film strip of Barbie you can play right after you install the software. Producing a computer animated video just couldn't get any easier, great for all ages.

Features:
* Simple command button user interface
* VCR style video controls
* Forward or reverse play
* Single step forward or back
* Freeze action
* Increase or decrease playback speed
* Web site technical support

Installation:
Unzip MOVPLAY.ZIP to a temporary directory then run SETUP.EXE

NOTE Windows 3.1/95 users: When installing if you get a message similar to, "Can not copy file C:\ATEMP\DDEML.DL_ since the destination file is already in use". Simply click OK and continue to proceed with the installation. The file DDEML.DL_ will not be copied to your hard disk nor does it need to be since this file is already installed on your system anyway. The error message appears because Windows is using the DDEML.DDL so is unable to copy over it. Those using Norton DeskTop may have to exit the Norton shell and restart Windows without Norton DeskTop prior to installation. To date there have been no significant bugs reported by Windows 3x users. If you have any difficulty please email me for further instructions describing the problem you're having.

Documentation: Online Help is provided 

Support:       Contact Dr. Magnell at drmagnell@aol.com 