From: browning@willard.nas.nasa.gov (David S. Browning)
Subject: Computer Controlled LDPs (Was: ISA card, software compatible with MMotion?)
Followup-To: comp.multimedia
Organization: NAS Program, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 93 00:13:38 GMT
Reply-To: browning@willard.nas.nasa.gov

In article <C0x1rB.4z2@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>, tmp@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Tom Putnam) writes:
|> In <C0tBLJ.IFH@news.cso.uiuc.edu> amead@s.psych.uiuc.edu (Alan Mead) writes:
|> |> We have an application that manipulates video from a videodisc player
|> |> by issueing commands through INT 0x7f to the MMotion Control Program on
|> |> PS/2s.  I've heard that there is a ISA architecture card that is 100%
|> |> compatible.  (Ie, would allow my application to run without
|> |> alteration).
|> |> 
|> |> If anyone has heard of such a beast -- or, better yet, used it -- 

|> There is a card which is mostly M-Motion compatible from a small
|> Florida company called 21Tech Corporation (an offshoot of
|> DynaByte).  It is called the School Board.  We have recently
|> started using it in a chemistry lab with the videodisk-based
|> "Comprehensive Chemistry Curriculum" developed by Stan Smith at the
|> University of Illinois.  So far, it seems to be working fine.

|> It is an ISA bus card and works with anything from a low-end 286 on
|> up.  I think they designed it to work in IBM PS/2 model 25 as a
|> low-cost alternative to the higher PS/2 models.  The education
|> price is $876 including software, compared to $1,350 last time I
|> looked at educ. prices for IBM's M-Motion card.

Excuse my ignorance.  I'm about to assemble a multimedia presentation
system, in which a PC controls a LaserDisc Player and various displays
and devices, such as lights and motors.  The "action" is coordinated
with the video presentation, hence the computer must control the LDP.
Is this what the M-Motion and 21Tech cards do?  I know of another
card, the Bravado from TrueVision (an AT&T spinoff?) which does this
(supposedly -- I've only seen sales literature), and has many features
similar to the 21Tech card Tom describes.

Does anyone out there have experience doing this type of thing?  The
video output from the LDP would go directly to a big dedicated
monitor, so I don't need any video capturing or editing capabilities.
In particular, I'm looking at the Sony MDP-1100.  This seems to be
Sony's entry-level LDP with an RS232C interface.  I don't know
anything about the command interface (yet).  I read another post where
someone said Pioneer had ftp-able driver software for their
computer-controlled LDPs.  This may be a good reason to get a Pioneer!
(If the LDP control is easy enough to do "by hand", maybe I don't need
the Bravado-or-equivalent card.  On the other hand, it would be
convenient during development to capture the output of the LDP in a
window, and wait until the last minute to get the LDP display monitor.)

Again, if anyone has experience with computer-controlled LDPs, with or
without the cards we've talked about, I'd like to hear from you.
Thanks!

-- David

|============================================================================|
| Internet:  browning@willard.nas.nasa.gov          Phone:  (415) 604-4321   |
| UUCP:      uunet!ames!nas.nasa.gov!browning                                |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|"the nice thing about true hopelessness is that you don't have to try again"|
| -- jules shear                                                             |
|============================================================================|