nivek@rover.ri.cmu.edu (Kevin Dowling) (08/06/87)
Frame insert will work but head wear and tape wear is tremendous. The Sony BVH-2500 is currently the best unit on the market for video animation. Much of the video stuff at Siggraph passes through these models. It does true single frame recording including single-field recording. Of course, this unit costs over $70K... There is a unit that will act as a computer interface to less expensive units on the market made by Image Space. They make: Videolink 232 - for connection to any RS-232 source VIPc - a plug in board for IBM-PC's and compatibles Both devices provide exact, frame accurate video editing capability. The command interface to either device is identical. All commands are four letter ASCII strings, sometimes followed by parameters, also in ASCII. There is typically no need to write a device driver or other complex code to control the Videolink, since it uses ordinary printable commands, with handshaking. A typical sequence of commands might be: EDIN 3600 prepare to insert at frame 3600 EDOT 3602 stop insert at frame 3602 EDIT perform the insertion The Videolink and VIPc are able to create animation with any of: Sony BVU-800, BVU-820, VO-5850, SLO-383 Panasonic NV-9600 Both versions are quoted at $1895.00, which includes the controller, a comprehensive manual and example programs in Microsoft Basic. An interface cable is also required, priced at $29.95. Users of BVU series machines who wish to insert audio as well as video will need two interface cables. Image Space Inc. Suite #3 125 Washington St. Hoboken NJ, 07030 (201) 798-0429 Another real possiblity besides Lyon Lamb and others is the use of a real-time disk like the Fujitsu M2350A (Eagle with parallel transfer) that can do nearly 10Mb/s data rate. A couple of companies (Storage Concepts, Oktel and other) market controllers that allow real video to be spooled off the disks and into a VCR/VTR, and of course the generated data is spooled directly onto the disk. nivek