kenb@amc-gw.amc.com (Ken Birdwell) (12/21/90)
A few months ago I asked if anyone knew anything about the NEC PC-VCR (also
called the PV-S98A). It's a low cost ($2000) S-VHS machine that can be
connected to your PC with an RS-232 port and can supposedly do single frame
recording. Well, no one knew so I called NEC and here is some of what's in
the brochure they sent me.
COMPUTER - CONTROLLED VIDEO CASSETTE RECORDER REVOLUTIONIZES DESKTOP
VIDEO MULTIMEDIA - Desktop video multimedia presentations are now a
reality with NEC's new PC-VCR, the first S-VHS/VHS video cassette
recorder you can control interactively from your personal computer. The
PC-VCR from the Professional Systems Division lets you expertly
record,assemble and edit moving images and sound right at your own PC
desktop.
A standard RS-232 serial port is all you need to turn your computer into
a command center allowing it to not only control all VCR functions but
to receive exact frame number and location data back form the video
tape. You can create interactive multimedia programs simply and easily,
all in-house...
...THE PC-VCR CAN RECORD FRAME CODE INFORMATION ON ANY PREVIOUSLY
RECORDED TAPE WITHOUT INTRUDING ON THE EXISTING PROGRAM....
...the PC-VCR is the best librarian you'll ever have. Its frame accuracy
and random-access capabilites let you prcisely locate individual frames,
passages or segments within the tape at a touch of your keyboard.
Updates are quick and simple, too, since you can avoid the expense and
delay of disc mastering associated with videodisc technology.
Anyway, they never use the phrase 'single frame recording' but they get
pretty damn close. Unfortunitly, no store in Seattle has one in stock and
I can't get a 30 day eval from anyone local so I would like to confirm that
it can actually do single frame recording before I spend my $. Anyone
used one of these?
-- tj@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Terry Jones) (12/21/90)
My understanding after talking to a local NEC person is that it is NOT designed for single frame recording. Looking at it I personally don't think it it tough enough to handle that task on say an animation with 10000 frames. If anyone can get an NEC spokesperson to say differently I think we would all be interested! I asw the unit at a couple of trade shows and it does pretty good as a prototype multimedia output device. Its a little slow for an actual finished product if the access methods are true hypermedia since long searches take way more time than the .1-1 second of a laser disk. Interesting note is that locally we can make a test laser disk for $380CDN with 24hour turnaround, drops to 320 for 7 day! This makes it reasonable to actually prototype an application. tj