houghton@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (Ric Houghton) (04/14/88)
Well, we have finally decided to take the advice of most you and
consider moving *upto* an Amiga. We have ran into only one problem.
If we are going to shell out the bucks for a graphics station, I
want to use a video disk. Pioneer has a model which can be driven
under computer control, only I can't find a controller to drive it
(only minor detail, I'm sure). Does anyone know if these controllers
exist. (Or is it like the OS/2...Only in the minds of a lot of peoplet.)
Thanks a heap.
Weekends
houghton@bars.on.fridaynights
houghton@jail.on.saturday.morning
Weekdays
houghton@silver
eric@hector.UUCP (Eric Lavitsky) (04/15/88)
In article <1481@silver.bacs.indiana.edu> houghton@silver.UUCP writes: > Well, we have finally decided to take the advice of most you and >consider moving *upto* an Amiga. We have ran into only one problem. Right on! >If we are going to shell out the bucks for a graphics station, I >want to use a video disk. Pioneer has a model which can be driven >under computer control, only I can't find a controller to drive it >(only minor detail, I'm sure). Does anyone know if these controllers >exist. (Or is it like the OS/2...Only in the minds of a lot of peoplet.) I believe I've seen the Pioneer box in question - it should have a standard RS232 port out the back, in which case you've already got the controller for it. All you have to do is write some Amiga software to deal with it. If you're luck, they'll accept simple ASCII commands. I bet if you called up the Pioneer folks (they have some big offices out here in Jersey) they'd be happy to tell you more or send you programming/tech info on their product. Eric ARPA: eric@topaz.rutgers.edu "Lithium is no longer available UUCP: ...{wherever!}ulysses!eric on credit..." ...{wherever!}rutgers!topaz!eric - from Buckaroo Banzai SNAIL: 34 Maplehurst Ln, Piscataway, NJ 08854
doug@eris (Doug Merritt) (04/15/88)
In article <1481@silver.bacs.indiana.edu> houghton@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (Ric Houghton) writes: > Well, we have finally decided to take the advice of most you and >consider moving *upto* an Amiga. Great, keep us posted on how it goes! >If we are going to shell out the bucks for a graphics station, I >want to use a video disk. Pioneer has a model which can be driven >under computer control, only I can't find a controller to drive it I don't have specific references available, but I've seen some that worked from the ever-popular SCSI...an ideal situation, since *everything* supports SCSI. You may have to write a device driver, but on the Amiga this is almost trivial, especially for SCSI and especially if you start with with one of the public domain SCSI drivers. Are you talking CDROM or WORM or what? Doug Merritt doug@mica.berkeley.edu (ucbvax!mica!doug) or ucbvax!unisoft!certes!doug
viking@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (04/15/88)
> Well, we have finally decided to take the advice of most you and > consider moving *upto* an Amiga. We have ran into only one problem. > If we are going to shell out the bucks for a graphics station, I > want to use a video disk. Pioneer has a model which can be driven > under computer control, only I can't find a controller to drive it > (only minor detail, I'm sure). Does anyone know if these controllers > exist. (Or is it like the OS/2...Only in the minds of a lot of people.) The Pioneer Videodisc players Models 6000 and 4200 have regular RS-232 inputs, so all you really need is the serial port provided on your Amiga. If you're trying to use one of the older players (models 4000 or 2000) with a special interface, I have some addresses you can contact for more interface information. The 4200 model videodisc player includes the ability to overlay ASCII text (internally generated from the player) over the video. If you want more graphics control, you'll have to use a genlock interface to overlay Amiga's graphics over video images. Feel free to contact me if you need any further help. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jon W. Backstrom "Yah sure...we gonna have fun, you bet!" Computer Science Department Indiana University ARPA: viking@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu Lindley Hall 101 UUCP: {pyramid,ihnp4,pur-ee,rutgers}!iuvax!viking Bloomington, IN 47405 "The world has arrived at an age of cheap (812) 335-4829 (Office) complex devices of great reliability; and (812) 336-3660 (Home) something is bound to come of it." - Vannevar Bush (1945) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
rjb@esosun.UUCP (Randy Blackwood ) (04/15/88)
In article <1481@silver.bacs.indiana.edu> houghton@silver.UUCP writes: > Well, we have finally decided to take the advice of most you and >consider moving *upto* an Amiga. We have ran into only one problem. >If we are going to shell out the bucks for a graphics station, I >want to use a video disk. Pioneer has a model which can be driven >under computer control, only I can't find a controller to drive it >(only minor detail, I'm sure). Does anyone know if these controllers >exist. (Or is it like the OS/2...Only in the minds of a lot of people.) You may wish to consider the Panasonic (Matshusita) optical disc products: TQ-2026F and TQ-2028F (monochrome). Each can be controlled through RS-232 and Panasonic claims to have software for them too. Features: wired and wireless remote controls, still, frame-advance, 10x fast forward/backward, 0.004x slow forward/backward, features needed for video production, 24,000 frames storage, random access, $?. This is not an endorsement - I'm simply copying from the sales lit. Randy Blackwood
shf@well.UUCP (Stuart H. Ferguson) (04/17/88)
I've used the Panasonic TQ series optical disk recorders at work. Except for ocassional glitches, they work very well. I believe they cost ~15K now, though we bought ours for 30K, so the price for this type of device is dropping. Two drawbacks are that the disks are non-standard -- that is, they won't play in the commercial players. The other drawback is that 24K frames is about only 10 minutes of full speed video. The first drawback is more or less canceled out by the fact that the read- only version of the disk player costs about 1.5K, and it can also be controlled remotely by RS-232. We use this system for recording digitally processed movie sequences and playing them back under computer (PC) control. The scientists here get no end of insights by playing the movies at different speeds and forwards and backwards. For this type of application it is ideal. I have used the Panasonic to record Amiga output with considerable success. You'll need a genlock, and a good video source since the TQ is a little fussy about sync. I used the built-in serial port control support in VideoScape 3D to record animations automatically, and it worked like a charm. Good luck. -- Stuart Ferguson (shf@well.UUCP) Action by HAVOC (shf@Solar.Stanford.EDU)
gungner@maui.cs.ucla.edu (David Gungner) (04/21/88)
In article <1481@silver.bacs.indiana.edu> houghton@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (Ric Houghton) writes: > Pioneer has a model which can be driven >under computer control We use one of Pioneer's LD-V6010 laser disk players on a Sun 3. It has a simple ASCII command language which is input through its serial port. Information on how to use the computer interface doesn't come with the unit, so you need to contact Pioneer's technical support services in Long Beach CA and request the technical user's manual. David Gungner <gungner@cs.ucla.edu>