Dirigo Multimedia Products

In the course of many years of consulting work since 1995, Dirigo Multimedia, Inc. has also developed many commercial products, some of which are sold directly by Dirigo, but sold at a discount without any support included-- because there just isn't enough time in the day for me now to offer quality support, given my other programming projects. I'm currently considering options for selling these products through other Xtra vendors who can support them fully.

Some Dirigo plug-in and utility products were formerly sold by updateStage, inc. in Arlington, Massachusetts, which in January 2007 stopped selling new product. However, support is still available through updateStage for customers who bought products through updatestage.

Dirigo also has developed plug-in and utility products that are owned by other outfits.

You can see pricing and ordering information for most of these products here. Please contact Dirigo by e-mail to arrange purchase of a licensed version and a serial number.

Products sold directly by Dirigo (e-mail for a demo version if a demo is not mentioned below):

• MasterApp Xtra for Windows and Mac gives you comprehensive control over the way other applications such as browsers or Adobe Reader work with Director. (In its original incarnation as an XObject, this product was once known as ZapApp.) Demo versions, sample movie and documentation are available here.
  
  
• BinaryIO Xtra for Mac and Windows allow you to read and write binary data to disk files (even using the resource fork, on Mac files). Demo versions, a sample movie and documentation are available here.
  
  
• ProgressCopy Xtra for Mac and Windows allows fast file copying, optionally with a configurable progress bar and cancel button.
  
  
• WDMInput Xtra for Windows allows for display of video from WDM/DirectShow capture drivers on more than one screen, and allows capture to still image files or to AVI files. The Xtra can also select video inputs or tune television channels, and can play back AVI files on more than one monitor. Interface listing is here, and a demo version with sample Director movie or Authorware calculation icon scripting is available by e-mail.
  
  
• DisplayRes Xtra for Windows allows you to change the display monitor size and color depth 'on the fly' (or after a restart, if necessary).
  
  
• DV (digital video) image capture Xtra for the Mac, to display and capture images from Firewire cameras and camcorders (or any other video or imaging devices with QuickTime capture drivers).
  
  
• DV (digital video) output Xtra for the Mac, allowing images and QuickTime DV streams to be displayed on external FireWire devices such as camcorders.
  
  
• AutoRun for Windows and AutoStart for the Mac-- small, fast utility applications that can be automatically run when a CD is inserted to decide whether to install the CD-ROM's software or to run an already-installed copy of the software from the hard drive. AutoStart, now showing its age, is a Classic application on the Mac which has not been updated for Intel-based Macs that can't run Classic.
  
  
• DropStart, a Macintosh drag-and-drop application to make using QuickTime's AutoStart feature a no-brainer. This is included with the AutoStart download at updateStage. This product too is showing its age, as QuickTime AutoStart is a Classic feature not available on MacOS X machines.
  
  
• Relaunch for Mac and Windows allow you to switch-launch from Director to other programs, restarting Director when the launched program finsihes. This is a Mac Classic application; MacOS X doesn't require switch launching.
  
  
• ConvertData Xtra for Mac and Windows, which allows you to convert between integer, hexadecimal and signature notation, perform all the usual bitwise logic and bitshift operations in Lingo, and (on the Mac) check Gestalt configuration values such as virtual memory, physical memory, 68k vs. PPC processor, QuickTime version, etc.
  
  
• Versions XObject, a Windows plug-in for Director 4, 5 and 6 that lets you check DOS, Windows, QuickTime and file version numbers.The QuickTime version checking methods are freeware.
  
  
• Image capture Xtra for Windows 95, 98 and ME, for ATI, Inc.'s All-In-Wonder128 Pro, All-In-Wonder 128, All-In-Wonder Pro, and original All-InWonder video capture cards . You can grab video, s-video or tuner frames, with cropping, and can even preview video mirrored left to right or through an irregularly shaped cutout mask. (The Xtra unfortunately does not work with ATI's newer Radeon versions of the All-In-Wonder card, and does not work on Windows NT, 2000 or XP.)
  
  
• Image capture Xtra for some of Kodak's older DC series of digital cameras: the DC25, the DC40, the DC50 and the DC120. Available for both Mac and Windows. The Xtra uses a serial port connection to control the camera and download images.
  
  
• Image capture Xtra for Play, Inc.'s parallel port Snappy video capture device, for Windows only.
  
  
• EPSRender Xtra to support Encapsulated PostScript images in Director (and a related free plug in for Electronic Ink's PrintOMatic Xtra, to support EPS rendering to non-PostScript printers). This is currently for Windows only; a Mac version has been partially developed but is currently in a state of suspended animation until someone lets me know they need this functionality on the Mac.
  
• A copy protection and registration Xtra and InstallShield installer DLL plug-in, to prevent your Director product from being pirated and installed on multiple machines.
  
  
• Preferences Plug-In for Stuffit InstallerMaker for the Mac, from Aladdin Systems. Writes a preferences file with the user's choice of installation folder. Useful in combination with AutoStart for the Mac, or when your software runs from the CD-ROM but needs to access items the user has installed on the hard drive.
  
  
• Components XObject for Macintosh, which allows you to detect the presence of software components such as particular Quicktime codecs, the Internet Config extension, and the like. (XObjects only work with Director 6.5 and earlier.)

Products developed for other companies:

• The Creativity Xtras for shockwave.com, a matched set of three Xtras for Shockwave (Import, Export and Transport) allowing local files to be imported into Director, bitmaps and text to be exported to local files, and local files to be uploaded to HTTP servers.
  
  
• PickFolder Xtra and XObject allows users to choose a folder. Now in the public domain due to g/matter's bankruptcy.
  
  
• ScriptOMatic Xtra provides automatic, fast Lingo script syntax coloring and formatting, which helps streamline code and identify logic problems. Developed for g/matter.
  
  
• Significant contributions to the Lingo Timesaver CD-ROM, a cut-and-paste collection of Lingo scripts for Director.
  
  
• Significant contributions to the Lingo scripting library of Lee Allis' Inside Director 6 with Lingo, from Macmillan Computer Publishing's New Riders imprint.
  
  
• FieldStyles Xtra for Mac and Windows speeds up text style and text color changes to field castmembers by a factor of a hundred. Now in the public domain due to g/matter's bankruptcy.
  
  
• ReserveLaunch for the Mac, a small stub application which dynamically changes the memory size allocated to an application installed on the hard drive, for optimum performance. Developed for g/matter. Only useful for Mac Classic applications.

Freeware products:

(Note that these are all XObjects, only supported by Director 6.5 and earlier.)

• PrefsFolder XObject for the Mac, which allows you to detect the standard location for Mac preferences files.
  
  
• WinDirs XObject for Windows, which allows you to detect the standard location for Windows initialization and system files.
  
  
• GetDate XObject for the Mac. This allows you to check the date in a consistent way on any Mac, regardless of a user's date and time settings, which can vary from country to country.
  
  
• The Versions XObject's QuickTime version number methods are freeware, as noted above.

Contact Consulting Products Other Ordering

Last update: January 7th, 2007.