From: vivek@vnet.ibm.com (Vivek Nirkhe)
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 92 09:07:31 EDT
Newsgroups: comp.multimedia
Subject:  rather late reply to questions regarding MMPM/2
Reply-To: vivek@vnet.ibm.com
Organization: IBM Corp.
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not those of IBM
News-Software: Usenet 3.0

In article <1992Aug6.135956.9902@waikato.ac.nz>, ldo@waikato.ac.nz
(Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University) writes:
> In article <1992Aug5.205542.1@cc.newcastle.edu.au>,
> c9036137@cc.newcastle.edu.au writes:
> > I am interested in writing a multimedia application but have little (read
> > no) experience in this sort of area and was wondering if someone could point
> > me in the right direction as far as the following:-
> >
> > 	1. Would Windows be the easiest way to start?
> > 	2. Would C++ be the best language to use?
> > 	3. What are some good references?
> >
> > I am specifically going to have digital-video clips running on some part of
> > the screen as well as information in text form and also doing some I/O at the
> > same time.
>
> The Windows Multimedia Extensions don't actually provide any hardware-
> independent support for digital video--whether displaying live
> video-in-a-window, capturing it to disk, or playing captured video back from
> disk. The only PC-level platform I know that does is a Macintosh with
> QuickTime.
>
> There was some discussion in this newsgroup a few days ago about similar
> capabilities in the OS/2 multimedia extensions. Perhaps the person who
> described these might be willing to respond as well...

Sorry that I am jumping into this thread rather late. I was just
catching up when I found these references to MMPM/2.

MMPM/2 for OS/2 does provide hardware independent support for digital video
- including video-in-a-window, capturing it to a disk, or playback.
MMPM/2 1.0 primarily supports audio but its architecture certainly allows
addition of video. Keep tuned in for the addition of digital video with
Actionmedia II (DVI). It will support all the above functions. For more
information, look at the upcoming fall issue of OS/2 developer. It will contain
several articles on MMPM/2 and digital video support.

Also coming is software-only digital video under MMPM/2 by the first
half of 93.

In article <1992Aug3.170846.9823@waikato.ac.nz>, ldo@waikato.ac.nz
(Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University) writes:

>  Will your digital video support be tied to DVI compression, or will you
> allow alternative hardware/software compression algorithms to be plugged in,
> a la QuickTime? Also, will there be a standard API for video capture that
> other card vendors can support?

Yes, under software-only solution, you will have a codec manager. You will also
be able to use video capture and digitizer card from other vendors. Read on:

MMPM/2 consists of primarily three subsystems, namely, Media Control Interface
(MCI), Synch-stream subsystem, and Multimedia IO (MMIO). Each of these layers
provides the required hardware independence. With these, MMPM/2 becomes
a very powerful platform.

Device-independent control of mm devices is provided through Media
Control Interface. MCI provides both command (procedural) and string
interface to these logical devices. The string interface allows
interactive control of devices. This can be great for prototyping,
for testing and debugging.
With this, multimedia devices can be controlled from programs with their
own script languages or from 16-bit programs. MCI architecture allows
installation of new media drivers for required hardware which applications
can transparently use. The application is shielded from having to know the
specifics of the hardware.

MMPM/2 allows use of both streaming and non-streaming devices. Streaming
devices are just the sources or sinks of data, whereas the later ones
process their own data, such as CDDA. Synch-stream manager provides a way
to create a stream of data from source to sink and ensure a steady
stream between the two. It also provides synchronization between different
streams.

Lastly, the MMIO subsystem isolates the above layers from data format
specific processing. This data independence is provided through installable
IOProcs. In a nutshell, you can handle different file formats or  data
conversions.

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Vivek Nirkhe
IBM Corp.                                             vivek@vnet.ibm.com
Multimedia Software Dev.                              ph: (407)-982-0433
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