strauss@aero.org (Daryll Strauss) (05/04/90)
I am looking into the possibility of setting up video production
capabilities in our lab. What we would like to be able to do is
stop-frame animation, mixing of live/taped and computer generated
images, general editing, and video in a (preferably X) window on a Sun.
What I think I am looking for (and please correct me if I am wrong) is:
1) RGB<->NTSC converter
2) A VTR controller
3) A good VTR (videodisk?)
4) Software to work with all this
If you have any comments, suggestions, costs, or names/address/phone of
vendors, I would appreciate hearing from you. Please send me mail at the
address listed below.
If you are interested in the results of this, please send me mail and I
will summarize to the net.
Thanks In Advance,
- |Daryll
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Daryll Strauss f The Aerospace Corp.
strauss@aero.org n Mail Stop: M1-102
...!uunet!aero.org!strauss o P.O. Box 92957
r Los Angeles, Ca. 90009
"MY opinions. You here me? They're mine!" d (213) 336-9358
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Path: aerospace.aero.org!strauss
Newsgroups: comp.graphics, rec.video, comp.ivideodisk
Distribution: world
Followup-To:
From: strauss@aero.org (Daryll Strauss)
Reply-To: strauss@aero.org (Daryll Strauss)
Organization: The Aerospace Corporation
Subject: Video Production Facilities
Keywords: sun, video, animation
I am looking into the possibility of setting up video production
capabilities in our lab. What we would like to be able to do is
stop-frame animation, mixing of live/taped and computer generated
images, general editing, and video in a (preferably X) window on a Sun.
What I think I am looking for (and please correct me if I am wrong) is:
1) RGB<->NTSC converter
2) A VTR controller
3) A good VTR (videodisk?)
4) Software to work with all this
If you have any comments, suggestions, costs, or names/address/phone of
vendors, I would appreciate hearing from you. Please send me mail at the
address listed below.
If you are interested in the results of this, please send me mail and I
will summarize to the net.
Thanks In Advance,
- |Daryll
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daryll Strauss f The Aerospace Corp.
strauss@aero.org n Mail Stop: M1-102
...!uunet!aero.org!strauss o P.O. Box 92957
r Los Angeles, Ca. 90009
"MY opinions. You here me? They're mine!" d (213) 336-9358
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------strauss@aerospace.aero.org (Daryll Strauss) (06/12/90)
Well, there was plenty of interest in Video capabilities on the Sun
workstation, so I am finally getting around to summarizing. Thanks to
all those who contributed and apologies to those who asked for a
summary and had to wait so long.
This is going to be more of a "video primer", because one of the things
I learned from all this was that I didn't know enough when I started.
What are you trying to record? Well, there is a standard called RS-170A
or NTSC video which standardizes the timings and levels of the signal
you are recording. NTSC can be composite (like you television) where all
the signals are combined into one, 4:2:2 where red gets a whole channel
and green and blue share a channel, or 4:4:4 where each color gets its
own channel.
Some workstations, like the silcon graphics, have NTSC outputs, others
like the Sun do not. This is a fairly major problem. I came across four
solutions to this problem. The first is to buy something called a Real
Time Converter (RTC). This will set you back about $25K, but it will
convert an RGB signal at one scan rate to NTSC. The next option is to
buy a TAAC board. It provides NTSC output. (We have one here, but I
don't know the cost) The third option is to buy a parallax board. They
have a new VME bus card for $13K that will do live video in a window and
conversion for you. Finally, there is a box that Abaacus sells which you
place on your ethernet and ship images to and it provides the NTSC
output. I didn't find out much about this other than that it exists and is
expensive.
Now, you have a NTSC signal, but you need to record it on something.
Your standard home VHS system takes composite NTSC input. You need a box
called an encoder or genlock which takes an NTSC signal (RGB) and
provides a composite output. These will cost around $4000, and various
people make them. If you, go to SVHS, then the signal isn't composite,
but is carried on two channels (Luminance and Chroma). This improves
signal quality a lot. Betacam is the next step up with the 4:2:2 format.
Finally, you can go all the way up to D1 and D2 which are purely
digital recorders. Costs range from ($200 cheap VHS, $8000 good SHVS/Umatic,
$25K cheap Betacam, $$$ for the real high end stuff)
In order to do animation you need to precisely position the tape on
each frame. To do this you need a time code generator. Basically, this
works with your VTR (an optional piece of equipment on the higher end
machines) and places a time code on a "spare" section of the tape. Then
when you want to record stop-frame animation first you "lay down a time
code" by recording over the tape once, and then you use some form of
animation controller to drive the tape recorder. Lyon-Lamb sells one
most people mentioned. It turns out that most higher-end VTRs have an
RS-422 interface, and I would assume that you could drive this directly
if you wanted to go through the hassle, but the Lyon-Lamb is another
$4000 if you buy it.
If you are doing your own editing and/or special effects you will want
two VTRs and you may want something called an ADO (Ampex Digital Optics)
or DVE (Digital Video Effects) box. The two VTRs are so that you can
record all your pieces of tape onto one tape and then "lay down" the
tape from the first VTR to the second. The digital effects box is so
that you can do "mixing" of images, or any of the nifty visual effects
that you see on television. These digital effects boxes are very
expensive (on the order of $50K, and I didn't look into them much) There
are also character generators, that make nice fonts move around on top
of your graphics and these are around $25K.
I have a few miscellaneous pieces of information to provide as well.
Several people "in the biz" told me that you save the most time by
buying good equipment that does as much of the work as possible, and by
storyboarding EVERYTHING. Plan out exactly how many seconds of what goes
where on you tape, and write it all down in advance. Another hint, was
that technical people and creative people usually don't come in one
package. (I haven't verified this yet, because I am definitely a techie)
But that you usually want a creative person to design all your wonderful
videos for you. Third, is that if you are going to do any amount of
professional work this way you should be using at least Betacam
equipment, and have a dedicated setup with two VTRs. Finally, there are
"post houses", at least here in LA, which rent you equipment. The time
costs somewhere around $300/hr and you get some one to sit with you and
they have all the wizzy equipment for you to use. So, you would arrive
with all your tape made up and they would help you in getting a nice
final product. On the other end of the spectrum, several people
recommended the Amiga as a video production facility. I also saw a lot
of Amiga work in the Video expo I attended. It turns out that Amiga's
were designed with Video in mind. They have a particular slot that is
meant to house a video board. (The Video Toaster is a very wizzy $1600
product that does everything I mentioned above into DVE)
This information was compiled from a number of sources that I can
recommend to any one starting into this. First, the May issue of
Computer Graphics and applications has a nice introduction to video in
Jim Blinn's corner. Second, I attended a Video Expo which was a
professional trade show about Video. It wasn't quite "open to the
public" but no one minded me asking them questions. Third, I had a
number of friends "in the business" who were gracious enough to swamp me
with information and more details/experiences than I could have
imagined. Finally, lots of people sent me their tidbits via email, and I
would like to thank them all.
If anyone has further questions feel free to send me some mail and I
will see what I can do to answer them. I also have names and addresses
of vendors and salesman, so if you are looking into details I might be
able to point you in the correct direction. Finally, if you read all
this and thought it was useful drop me a note.
- |Daryll
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daryll Strauss f The Aerospace Corp.
strauss@aero.org n Mail Stop: M1-102
...!uunet!aero.org!strauss o P.O. Box 92957
r Los Angeles, Ca. 90009
"MY opinions. You here me? They're mine!" d (213) 336-9358
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------