HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: km2a+@andrew.cmu.edu (Kenneth E. Mohnkern)
Newsgroups: comp.multimedia
Subject: Re: Computer controlled VCRs
Date: 17 Nov 92 05:26:32 GMT
Article-I.D.: andrew.Uf2EwcS00WALI1Pkd4
Organization: Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Excerpts from netnews.comp.multimedia: 16-Nov-92 Computer controlled
VCRs by I. Systems@tigger.jvnc.n 

> Controlling a VCR from a PC.
> Can anyone help with how to do this? What are my options? Can I use any VCR?
> Or do I need a special machine? If so where do I get it? I'm looking to be
> able to perform very simple functions (play, pause, fast forward, rewind...)
> on a standard home VHS machine, to the extent possible. I'm also hoping for
> a fairly simple solution, to the extent possible. Can a computer read the 
> VHS sync track, or do i need a seperate time code on one of the audio tracks?
> And as for controlling it, is there a way to do this through the infra red
> remote technology already built into the VCR? 
> All help in this matter is greatly appreciated.
> Thanks, 
> Jay

A year ago when we were looking into this, our only option was NEC's
PC-VCR. It takes commands through the serial port on our Mac, but also
will work with a PC. It understands a whole mess of commands from simple
play/stop to commands I could never imagine giving it. And it worked
just like it should have. You have to add another synch stripe to the
tape, which is put somewhere on the tape where it doesn't interfere with
a current synch track or either audio track (or, obviously, the video
track). 

The bad news is that it works like a vcr. Your program sends the Play
command out to it. It plays the tape a couple seconds to read the
control track, scans forward or backward to the right neighborhood
(several more seconds), then plays a couple more seconds till it gets to
the correct spot, pauses, then starts giving you the video. A very
tedious process to sit through, especially if you're in a training
session. When a user hits the "Show me the clip" button, they want to
see it soon. Not 5-7 secoonds later. So it wasn't a good solution for
us. We've gone to using digital video.

Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with NEC in any way, nor have I looked at
the newer versions of the PC-VCR. It's likely that they've sped up the
machine. You probably want to get more recent opinions.
From: edgar@limu.prz.tu-berlin.de (Edgar Ostrowski)
Newsgroups: comp.multimedia
Subject: Re: frame grabber for Sparc
Date: 16 Nov 92 19:13:14 GMT
Organization: TU-Berlin TUBKOM, Germany

In article <1992Nov12.150556.25771@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> duda@brokaw.lcs.mit.edu (Andrzej Duda) writes:
>We are looking for a frame grabber card for live TV input. We want to
>digitize it in real-time without compression with the resolution from
>320x240x16 to 160x120x16 at 10fps and store to disk. The card should
>be for Sparc (or for PC eventually). According to my information neither
>VideoPix, RasterOps nor Parallax can do it. Any suggestions?
>

For my experience both the Parallax XVideo and the RasterOps SparcCard TC
can be used for your tasks. I've run a small program on our Sparc2 equipped
with a Parallax XVideo board to see what's possible (to get good performance
values the framebuffer was mapped into memory which allows direct read access).

An image of 240x180 pixels (24 bit/pixel) can be read from the card, converted
to 16 bit (5/5/5 RGB) and written to disk in 65-71 msec. This was measured with
the tmp filesystem in the swap partition. With the normal filesystem one can't
get similiar values, there's too much overhead from the flesystem (from six
successive frames three were grabbed, converted, and written in 67-70 msec each;
one needed 150-170 msec and the other two needed 200-240 msec). This results
in a mean value of about 130 msec /frame. I'd call this worst case.

We experienced similiar access rates for reading from the framebuffer of
the RasterOps card. Therefore I think that the performance of both cards
will not be significantly different. The greatest performance bottleneck for
storing uncompressed video is be the filesystem - if you use it; you might
try using a raw partition instead. The UNIX filesystem probably has it's
advantages, but there is anything else but support for continuous media. 


-edgar-

________________________________________________________________

Edgar Ostrowski

phone:  +49 30 314-25985
e-mail: ostrowski@prz.tu-berlin.dbp.de
X.400:  s=ostrowski; ou=tubkom; ou=prz; p=tu-berlin; a=dbp; c=de
________________________________________________________________

Newsgroups: comp.multimedia
From: dcasson@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov (Dan Casson)
Subject: Editing Movies
Followup-To: dcasson@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA)
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 23:08:31 GMT

Hi,

	Is there any public/private software available to edit VHS/8mm Movies?
That is you read your movie into the computer, edit, add sound, and then
write back out to a VHS/8mm format.


-- 
===========================================================================
Dan Casson			Phone: (818) 393-1284
Jet Propulsion Laboratory	Internet: dcasson@jpl-devvax.Jpl.Nasa.Gov	
4800 Oak Grove Drive
From: mlake@irscscm.UUCP (Marshall Lake)
Newsgroups: comp.multimedia
Subject: Re: TV resolution?
Date: 17 Nov 92 14:50:13 GMT
Reply-To: mlake@irscscm.UUCP (Marshall Lake)
Organization: Internal Revenue Service, Washington, DC

In article <D559TB2w165w@tsoft.sf-bay.org> bbs.peter@tsoft.sf-bay.org (Peter Blum) writes:
>NTSC was the first Television 
>format and it is the worst in comparason to PAL and SECAM, but HDTV is on 
>the way.

Can you tell us a little bit about HDTV and when it is expected to
arrive?

-- 
Marshall Lake
...!uunet!{media,mimsy!bogart}!irscscm!mlake
mlake@irscscm.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.multimedia
From: gcm@world.std.com (Gretchen C Macdowall)
Subject: Re: Need Macintosh Quadra RGB to NTSC conversion
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 18:01:28 GMT

>I need to convert RGB (red-green-blue) video signals from a Quadra to
>NTSC TV
   
If you are going to use it for training just to show activity on the
screen I have a box that will do  this from MacWarehouse (#GRA 0351) for
$299. It does 256 colors but only outputs the top left 512 by 384 pixels
of a 13" screen. The quality isn't wonderful but it's usable, especially
if you have something that can record S-Video because it can output that
and the quality is better than NTSC. The price is certainly right.
From: barham@qut.edu.au
Newsgroups: comp.multimedia
Subject: New Media magazine?
Date: 19 Nov 92 14:46:28 GMT
Organization: Queensland University of Technology

More queries for you multimedia moguls...

I would be very interested in finding out any info people have on the
magazine "New Media" - I believe this magazine is free to people working
in the "multimedia" industry?  Any info on where I go to order it would
be really useful.

Thanks,

Tim.

-- 

----------------------------------------------------------------------
| t.barham@qut.edu.au (Tim Barham) - SUPER PLEB!                     |
| Applications Programmer for the Computer Based Education Section,  |
| Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Qld, Australia      |
----------------------------------------------------------------------
| "You're so open-minded that your brain leaked out..."              |
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: x90sanson@gw.wmich.edu
Newsgroups: comp.multimedia
Subject: Re: Virtual Reality
Date: 23 Nov 92 15:38:49 EST
Organization: Western Michigan University

In article <nobody.1.722492207@fox.nstn.ns.ca>, nobody@fox.nstn.ns.ca writes:
> In article <1992Nov22.142557.11212@debbie.cc.nctu.edu.tw> cplai@csie.nctu.edu.tw () writes:
>>From: cplai@csie.nctu.edu.tw ()
>>Subject: Virtual Reality
>>Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 14:25:57 GMT
>>
>>Hi:
>>   We would like to start doing research on Virtual Reality. We need any kind
>>of info, especially in Software, Hardware, Paper, Codes, ......
>>   Any info will be appreciated.
>>
>> Please reply to :cplai@ccsun5.csie.nctu.edu.tw
>>
>> Thanks in advance.
>>
>>Scott
>>.
>>
>  Hi,
>   I also would be interested in any and all info concerning Virtual Reality,
> especially software or where to obtain such programs.
>   Please email me at  gparks@fox.nstn.ns.ca
>  Thanks...

   Please, I'd also be interested e-mail me w/all info you can get.

   Thnaks a lot

   Enrique
Newsgroups: comp.multimedia
From: jonathan@rahul.net (Jonathan Heiliger)
Subject: Re: TV resolution?
Organization: a2i network
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 00:00:29 GMT

In article <1992Nov17.113157.12225@waikato.ac.nz> ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence 
D'Oliveiro, Waikato University) writes:

>I heard that the original black-and-white NTSC was 60Hz, and that the frame
>rate was lowered slightly to accommodate the colour signal--probably a 
question
>of avoiding interference between integer multiples of different frequencies.

  I couldn't tell you exactly.  I was told and I have seen in print that NTSC 
cycles at 59.94Hz.  A 60Hz reading could just be a 'round-up'
 
-- 
Jonathan Heiliger ........ Electric Power Research Institute
Internet: -/- jonathan@rahul.net -/- flix@mecca.epri.com -/-
Telephone <*> (415) 855-2888

Newsgroups: comp.multimedia
From: zilla@ccrl.nj.nec.com (John Lewis)
Subject: Re: Computer controlled VCRs
Organization: C&C Research Labs, NEC USA, Princeton, N.J.
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 00:23:05 GMT

Sony makes two HI-8 vtrs intended for computer-controlled 
multimedia applications.

The cheaper model is the CVD-1000- about $2000?, connects directly to
the mac serial port, and has frame-accurate search; 
this is Sony's answer to the discontinued PC-VCR.
I imagine it has Xobject control; there is also software from 
HSC (213) 392 6015.

The other model is the EVO-9650 ($6000) has frame-accurate recording
and is suitable for animation.  Supposedly Quicktime will sometime support
the VISCA control protocol for this deck.

To my knowledge, these decks and the NEC PC-VCR are the only VCRs
that are directly computer controllable.  In general, consumer
VCRs are usually not computer controllable.  In the past, industrial
VCRs were usually interfaced to a computer through a peripheral called
an animation controller.  The animation controller is in concept
obsolete - there is no reason why the host cannot directly control
the VTR - but until everything understands standard protocols they
will still be used.  They usually cost $2000 up and will control
a various formats of VTRs starting at about $6000.
From: cctr112@csc.canterbury.ac.nz
Newsgroups: comp.multimedia
Subject: QuickTime 1.5
Date: 19 Nov 92 02:37:26 GMT
Article-I.D.: csc.1992Nov19.153726.1
Organization: University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

Please would someone explain what QuickTime 1.5 is supposed to be compatible
with? I am running System 7.01 on a Mac IIci with 24-bit colour and an
accelerator card. I was using QuickTime 1.0 with a VideoSpigot to capture video
clips using the ScreenPlay 1.02 application and then Premiere 1.0 to manipulate
them. When I installed QuickTime 1.5 the same movies played more smoothly. But
when I spigotted some more clips under QuickTime 1.5 they were slightly bigger
but much jerkier than the original movies under QT 1.0.

Do I need to upgrade Premiere and ScreenPlay in order to use QT1.5 or do I need
System 7.1 or do I need both?
Newsgroups: comp.multimedia
From: phil@philip.b30.ingr.com (0000-Admin(0000))
Subject: Need info on LD-ROM
Organization: Intergraph
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 16:47:35 GMT

I recently read an article on Multimedia Productions that briefly discussed LD-ROM(Laserdisc ROM). I am looking for some detailed information on the subject.


1. What types of information can be stored on these discs.

2. What are the storage capacities for each type of data.

3. What is the development process for creating LD-ROM programs?

4. Can the user interact with the system?(similar to CD-I)

any information on the subject would help.


Thanks,

Phil Headrick
phil@philip.b30.ingr.com
From: Sundar_Prasad@mtsg.ubc.ca
Newsgroups: comp.multimedia
Subject: Courseware development tools on the Mac?
Date: 21 Nov 1992 03:25:34 GMT
Organization: Civil Engineering, Univ of BC
Distribution: na
NNTP-Posting-Host: tsunami.civil.ubc.ca

I am looking for recommendations on courseware development software on the
Mac. Hypercard is a possibility, but I want colour (Supercard I guess). I
also want to include video segments in the package (with sound also). If
anyone has ideas about where I should look, and what I should look at, I
would really appreciate hearing from them.

Sundar_Prasad@mtsg.ubc.ca
Ocean Engineering, UBC
Vancouver, Canada
From: Sundar_Prasad@mtsg.ubc.ca
Newsgroups: comp.multimedia
Subject: Looking for courseware examples and sources
Date: 23 Nov 1992 01:10:29 GMT
Organization: Civil Engineering, Univ of BC
Distribution: na
NNTP-Posting-Host: tsunami.civil.ubc.ca

Hi all,
I had recently posted a query on courseware development tools and quite
a few people indicated Authorware as the way to go. I am putting together
a proposal to develop courseware in Civil Engineering and am looking for
already existing packages in the fields of Science or Engineering as
examples of available work in this area.

If anybody has worked with or knows about such courseware packages (can be
Mac or PC based), I look forward to hearing from them re. the subject that
the package is for, additional hardware (CDROM or VideoDisc), who wrote
the package, where its available from and any other info. that they may
consider pertinent.

Sundar_Prasad@mtsg.ubc.ca
Ocean Engineering, UBC
Vancouver, Canada
 
Xref: sparky comp.multimedia:3472 alt.cd-rom:4612
From: splee@pd.org (Seng-Poh Lee, Speedy)
Newsgroups: comp.multimedia,alt.cd-rom
Subject: Anyone have the FAQ please?
Keywords: FAQ, CD-ROM
Date: 22 Nov 92 02:48:26 GMT
Followup-To: comp.multimedia
Organization: Public Domain Inc., Atlanta, GA
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

I'm getting ready to buy a CD-ROM and am beginning my research. If a
FAQ exists for this group, I'd appreciate a copy. Please let me know
before sending it. I don't wish to receive hundreds of copies!

Thanks!

--
Seng-Poh Lee    <splee@pd.org>
From: barham@qut.edu.au
Newsgroups: comp.multimedia
Subject: Re: Other Toasters
Date: 19 Nov 92 13:49:02 EST
Organization: Queensland University of Technology

feinstei@vax.sonoma.edu writes:

> Howdy do, multimedia-heads:

And to you.

> I wonder if someone can point me toward some information about some sort 
> of video editor like the Amiga's Video Toaster but on an 80486-type
> platform.

The video-toaster is available as an external add-on for a PC or Mac.
This box actually contains Amiga internals and a video-toaster board,
but with connections and software to run it from the PC or Mac.  (Don't
tell your friends you have an Amiga though... %^)

> Thanks a heap

You're entirely welcome.

> Josh Feinstein <feinstei@sonoma.edu>          I disclaim nothing.
> PGP key available via .plan or email

Tim.

-- 

----------------------------------------------------------------------
| t.barham@qut.edu.au (Tim Barham) - SUPER PLEB!                     |
| Applications Programmer for the Computer Based Education Section,  |
| Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Qld, Australia      |
----------------------------------------------------------------------
| "You're so open-minded that your brain leaked out..."              |
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: icrosby@sloth.Reed.Edu (Ian Bradford Crosby)
Newsgroups: comp.multimedia
Subject: Re: MediaVision's Fusion CD Rom package
Keywords: mediavision  specs
Date: 22 Nov 92 21:24:50 GMT
Article-I.D.: reed.1992Nov22.212450.5530
Reply-To: Robert Simonov
Organization: Reed College, Portland, OR

In article <19921119.052316.689@almaden.ibm.com>  
simonofb@wmavm7.VNET.IBM.COM writes:
> Our local discount warehouse has the subject product for sale
> for $399.  It comes with NEC CD ROM, Pro Audio Spectrun card
> and amplified speakers.  Can anyone provide more technical
> info about the products included?  They just didn't have any
> tech info available.
> 
> Thanks
> Robert Simonoff
> simonofb@wmavm7.vnet.ibm.com

	I believe that the audio card offers full 16-bit stereo with a  
22kHz sampling rate, a built in SCSI interface, and MIDI capabilities.   
The last time I checked, the package contained a Sony CD-ROM drive with a  
slow (>600 ms) access time.  I am told that there is a small (64K) on the  
SCSI controller which mitigates this somewhat.  If this kit actually  
contains an NEC CD-ROM (the best brand, by far) drive with a decent access  
time, jump on it!  I got quoted a price of $499 with the Sony drive after  
spending two hours searching for the best price in the Computer Shopper  
magazine for an hour and a half.  That package contained Compton's  
Illustrated Encyclopedia plus some silly games that I couldn't care less  
about.  Check out what is bundled with your package, and try and get a  
discounted copy of MS Bookshelf when you buy your MM package.  It's pretty  
spendy, otherwise.  By the way, except for the included MS Bookshelf, the  
Media Fusion pack a much better value than the comparably priced Creative  
Labs MM stater kit.  The Soundblaster Pro card in that has a woefully  
inadequate 11kHz sampling rate which sounds like your dad's transistor AM  
radio, and only does it at 8 bits.  Also, it has a non-standard CD-ROM  
interface, so good luck upgrading in the future.  Did I mention no MIDI  
interface?
	Please tell me where you are getting this price.  I desparately  
want one of these setups, but $500 and no decent bundled software is too  
rich for me.

	Ian Crosby
	icrosby@sloth.Reed.Edu
From: ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University)
Newsgroups: comp.multimedia
Subject: Re: Quicktime for Windows
Date: 18 Nov 92 16:50:04 +1300
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

In article <1e9s5lINNf42@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>, ae302@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Peter Haller) writes:
>
> In a previous article, ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University) says:
>
>>
>>That would be interesting. All Apple's CDs are in Macintosh HFS format, which
>>means you're going to have an interesting time trying to read them from a
>>machine running Windows. So how you're going to get the player software onto
>>a Windows machine?
>>
>>Yeah, I know, copy them onto DOS-format floppies from a Mac running Apple
>>File Exchange, or DOS Mounter, or something...
>
> I normally don't say much, but IMHO, your statement is dumb. Don't you
> think Apple has enough intelligence to release Quicktime for Windows
> on a CD-ROM that can be read on a PC running Windows? Think before
> you speak!

Luckily I'm a polite, tactful person who doesn't like to call people idiots for
shooting their mouths off without thinking. Didn't you read the following lines
from the posting I was replying to, which you deleted from my followup:

>> The announcement I got (which, of course, I can no longer find. :-/)
>> implied that it would only be released on one of Apple's QuickTime
		^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>> Development CD's, at, I belive just at $250.00, with a more complete
   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Lawrence D'Oliveiro                       fone: +64-7-856-2889
Computer Services Dept                     fax: +64-7-838-4066
University of Waikato            electric mail: ldo@waikato.ac.nz
Hamilton, New Zealand    37^ 47' 26" S, 175^ 19' 7" E, GMT+13:00
From: ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University)
Newsgroups: comp.multimedia
Subject: Re: TV resolution?
Date: 17 Nov 92 11:31:57 +1300
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

In article <Bxn4Jt.K2p@rahul.net>, jonathan@rahul.net (Jonathan Heiliger) writes:
> In article <1992Nov12.190043.1@mars.slu.edu> jesse@mars.slu.edu writes:
>
>>What is the resolution of normal NTSC TVs?
>
>    NTSC is an analog format with a total of 525 lines.  However only 485 lines
> are active.  The most universal is about 648x485 pixels;

Most video digitizers I've come across seem to prefer to give you 640*480
resolution when grabbing frames from an NTSC source. I guess they're just
rounding it to a more convenient number. Or perhaps there's some standard
allowance in there for overscan.

> and NTSC cycles at approximately 59.94Hz.

I heard that the original black-and-white NTSC was 60Hz, and that the frame
rate was lowered slightly to accommodate the colour signal--probably a question
of avoiding interference between integer multiples of different frequencies.

Lawrence D'Oliveiro                       fone: +64-7-856-2889
Computer Services Dept                     fax: +64-7-838-4066
University of Waikato            electric mail: ldo@waikato.ac.nz
Hamilton, New Zealand    37^ 47' 26" S, 175^ 19' 7" E, GMT+13:00
Newsgroups: comp.multimedia
From: Mitch=Kazel%Staff%UIUC=CMC@bigbird.will.uiuc.edu (Mitch Kazel)
Subject: Re: New Media magazine?
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 17:05:43 GMT

In article <1992Nov19.094628.58853@qut.edu.au> barham@qut.edu.au writes:
>I would be very interested in finding out any info people have on the
>magazine "New Media" - I believe this magazine is free to people working
>in the "multimedia" industry?  Any info on where I go to order it would
>be really useful.

I've been getting "New Media" for a few months now.  It is indeed free to 
qualified applicants.  Their address is:

	New Media
	901 Mariner's Island Blvd.
	Suite 365
	San Mateo, CA   94404

	(415) 573-5170
	(415) 573-5131 (fax)
--
Mitch Kazel (N9HDQ)                                PHONE:  (217) 333-1259
Department of Journalism                             FAX:  (217) 244-3348
University of Illinois                          INTERNET:  kazel@uiuc.edu
From: ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University)
Newsgroups: comp.multimedia
Subject: Re: VideoSpigot problemfree?!?
Date: 18 Nov 92 17:04:12 +1300
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

In article <1992Nov17.141533.1250@polaris.utu.fi>, Jukka Ahtikari <jahtikari@finabo.abo.fi> writes:
> I have tried to get still pictures from VideoSpigot/ScreenPlay-program to
> other Macintosh-programs, such as MacroMind Director 3.1, Adobe Premiere
> etc. Unfortunately some of those video still pictures haven't appeared in
> those programs. You may get a QuickTime -logo or absolutely nothing in
> the program window.

I've had absolutely no problems getting images from a Spigot (grabbed with
ScreenPlay) into Premiere (both 1.0 and 2.0) and Canvas 3.0.

Re the QuickTime logo--would that be the image you get when you try looking
at a QuickTime-compressed picture on a machine which doesn't have QuickTime
installed?

> I am using Macintosh Quadra 700 with 16" color monitor (millions of
> colors). This problem doesn't appear when you are using 256 colors, but
> the quality is not so good and according to the local
> VideoSpigot-importer this card and its programs should be compatible with
> millions of colors (32-bit). Does anyone have similar problems and how
> they have been solved?
> 																									Jukka

Are you saying you have one of these still images in a window, and it shows
up in 256-colour mode, but disappears when you switch to "millions" of colours?

All the PICT files that ScreenPlay creates always contain "millions" of colours,
regardless of your screen mode at the time you grab the images.

Lawrence D'Oliveiro                       fone: +64-7-856-2889
Computer Services Dept                     fax: +64-7-838-4066
University of Waikato            electric mail: ldo@waikato.ac.nz
Hamilton, New Zealand    37^ 47' 26" S, 175^ 19' 7" E, GMT+13:00