SONDRICK@HASARA11.BITNET (Rick Jansen) (06/21/91)
In our visualization lab we plan to use a Sony LVR6000 video disc for recording computer animations and still pictures. This appears to be not quite so trivial as we thought it would be at first. Especially the synchronization of video equipment and the program delivering the pictures itself is not quite clear (to me). For example, Wavefront Data Visualizer has an animation facility, where you can specify the number of frames to generate. It can take a while (seconds) before the next frame is ready. As far as I can see (correct me if I'm wrong please), there is no way to trigger the video equipment to record a frame as it is finished, from Data Visualizer. It IS possible though, to capture the frames in RLB files, and process them later, recording the animation frame by frame onto video disc. This has to be done with a self-written application. Silicon Graphics has a product called Video Creator to record onto video tape. Video Creator (VC) is connected to a Silicon Graphics workstation. It is connected to the RGB signals, and is controlled via the SCSI interface from an Iris. Via a coax cable VC controls a little box called V-Lan box, which controls the actual video recorder. In a window on the Iris screen you can control the operation of Video Creator, like start and stop the VCR, record single frames etc etc. Schematically this setup looks like this: +----------+ RGB +---------------+ PAL/NTSC +--------+ | SGI |-->--------| Video Creator |--------->| VCR | | Iris | +---------------+ +--------+ | | | | +-------+ | | |-->---------+ +-->| V-Lan |-->---+ +----------+ SCSI +-------+ control We intend not to use a VCR, but the mentioned Sony disc. We are still investigating if a Sony disc can be controlled by a V-Lan box. (These boxes are configurable.) Using a disc that can hold 36250 frames per side requires some administration, which is not covered in the above schematic. We could imagine a setup like the following scheme, where the laserdisc is controlled via a Mac or PC, while also an administration of recorded sequences and stills is kept. +----------+ RGB +---------------+ PAL/NTSC +-----------+ | SGI |-->--------| Video Creator |--------->| Sony 6000 | | Iris | +---------------+ +-----------+ | | | | +-------+ | | |-->---------+ +-->| PC |-->---+ +----------+ SCSI | + | control | disk | +-------+ Well, so much for ideas and plans. Does anyone on the net already have experience with a similar setup including a Sony disc and Silicon Graphics equipment? Any information would be very welcome! Rick Jansen SARA, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
blythe@sgi.com (David Blythe) (06/22/91)
In article <91172.145330SONDRICK@HASARA11.BITNET> SONDRICK@HASARA11.BITNET (Rick Jansen) writes: >In our visualization lab we plan to use a Sony LVR6000 video disc >for recording computer animations and still pictures. This appears >to be not quite so trivial as we thought it would be at first. >Especially the synchronization of video equipment and the program >delivering the pictures itself is not quite clear (to me). > >For example, Wavefront Data Visualizer has an animation facility, >where you can specify the number of frames to generate. It can take >a while (seconds) before the next frame is ready. As far as I can >see (correct me if I'm wrong please), there is no way to trigger the >video equipment to record a frame as it is finished, from Data >Visualizer. It IS possible though, to capture the frames in RLB >files, and process them later, recording the animation frame by >frame onto video disc. This has to be done with a self-written >application. I don't believe the Data Visualizer has any support for recording to devices [yet?]. On the other hand, it may not be such a bad thing to spool the images to tape or disk so that when you do record you can add a few frills like better titles, dissolves, longer intro and exit frames ... (production values) > >Silicon Graphics has a product called Video Creator to record onto >video tape. Video Creator (VC) is connected to a Silicon Graphics >workstation. It is connected to the RGB signals, and is controlled >via the SCSI interface from an Iris. Via a coax cable VC controls a >little box called V-Lan box, which controls the actual video >recorder. In a window on the Iris screen you can control the >operation of Video Creator, like start and stop the VCR, record >single frames etc etc. Schematically this setup looks like this: > > > +----------+ RGB +---------------+ PAL/NTSC +--------+ > | SGI |-->--------| Video Creator |--------->| VCR | > | Iris | +---------------+ +--------+ > | | | | +-------+ | > | |-->---------+ +-->| V-Lan |-->---+ > +----------+ SCSI +-------+ control > >We intend not to use a VCR, but the mentioned Sony disc. We are >still investigating if a Sony disc can be controlled by a V-Lan box. >(These boxes are configurable.) > >Using a disc that can hold 36250 frames per side requires some >administration, which is not covered in the above schematic. We >could imagine a setup like the following scheme, where the laserdisc >is controlled via a Mac or PC, while also an administration of >recorded sequences and stills is kept. > > +----------+ RGB +---------------+ PAL/NTSC +-----------+ > | SGI |-->--------| Video Creator |--------->| Sony 6000 | > | Iris | +---------------+ +-----------+ > | | | | +-------+ | > | |-->---------+ +-->| PC |-->---+ > +----------+ SCSI | + | control > | disk | > +-------+ > >Well, so much for ideas and plans. Does anyone on the net already >have experience with a similar setup including a Sony disc and >Silicon Graphics equipment? Any information would be very welcome! > To the best of my knowledge the LVR can be controlled directly via RS-232 (or some serial interface -- I don't know the difference between the 5000 and 6000), so why bother with the V-LAN or the PC? Just plug it into the SGI and control it
oconnor@wsl.dec.com (Mike OConnor) (06/22/91)
I've seen the Data Visualizer running on a DECstation 500 Model 200PXG and a SONY CD writer capturing the animation. It was very impressive. In addition to being a beta site for Wavefront and Digital, they make local commercials. The advert I saw was for a local hardware store. Mike
wes@maui.lbl.gov (Wes Bethel) (06/24/91)
In article <1991Jun21.193048.1587@odin.corp.sgi.com+ blythe@sgi.com (David Blythe) writes: +In article <91172.145330SONDRICK@HASARA11.BITNET> SONDRICK@HASARA11.BITNET (Rick Jansen) writes: +>In our visualization lab we plan to use a Sony LVR6000 video disc +>for recording computer animations and still pictures. +>... +>For example, Wavefront Data Visualizer has an animation facility, +>where you can specify the number of frames to generate. It can take +>a while (seconds) before the next frame is ready... + +I don't believe the Data Visualizer has any support for recording to +devices [yet?]. On the other hand, it may not be such a bad thing to spool +the images to tape or disk so that when you do record you can add a few frills +like better titles, dissolves, longer intro and exit frames ... (production +values) + +>Well, so much for ideas and plans. Does anyone on the net already +>have experience with a similar setup including a Sony disc and +>Silicon Graphics equipment? Any information would be very welcome! +> + +To the best of my knowledge the LVR can be controlled directly via RS-232 +(or some serial interface -- I don't know the difference between the 5000 +and 6000), so why bother with the V-LAN or the PC? Just plug it into the SGI +and control it As a number of people on the net have indicated, the Sony disk makes a good mastering device, solving the problem of render rate vs. record rate. What bothers me is that many of the vendors (SGI, Stardent, etc) have their own setup for solving this problem. Why is this a problem? Many of these vendors will try to sell you an expensive scan-converter, or sell you something which takes as input the RGB lines to the monitor, or some other configuration which is unnecessarily expensive or proprietary. Here at LBL, we have made extensive use of the SCRY movie system, which is essentially a software layer for transporting images around in an ethernet environment. There is server and client software. The idea is that there is a central server somewhere to which clients can connect and record frames onto the videodisk in a frame-at-a-time fashion. When the sequence has been completely recorded (often, this takes DAYS), then a tape can be dubbed off of the videodisk. Also, this setup accomodates the use of various packages which are suited to different applications. For instance, we use AVS as a rendering engine for scientific data, then use a paint box for producing title frames. The bottom line is that the Scry code is designed to be portable to nearly any platform that supports "sockets". As for the Sony 6000, I personally don't know anything about it. We use a Sony 5000 and it does allow disk control via an RS232 channel. wes -- wes ewbethel@lbl.gov
wes@maui.lbl.gov (Wes Bethel) (06/24/91)
I neglected to mention one very important fact about the Scry system. It's FREE. -- wes ewbethel@lbl.gov
pfl@minerva.inesc.pt (Pedro Faria Lopes) (06/24/91)
In article <91172.145330SONDRICK@HASARA11.BITNET> SONDRICK@HASARA11.BITNET (Rick Jansen) writes: >In our visualization lab we plan to use a Sony LVR6000 video disc >for recording computer animations and still pictures. This appears >to be not quite so trivial as we thought it would be at first. >Especially the synchronization of video equipment and the program >delivering the pictures itself is not quite clear (to me). > ... > > +----------+ RGB +---------------+ PAL/NTSC +--------+ > | SGI |-->--------| Video Creator |--------->| VCR | > | Iris | +---------------+ +--------+ > | | | | +-------+ | > | |-->---------+ +-->| V-Lan |-->---+ > +----------+ SCSI +-------+ control > >We intend not to use a VCR, but the mentioned Sony disc. We are >still investigating if a Sony disc can be controlled by a V-Lan box. >(These boxes are configurable.) > ... > >Well, so much for ideas and plans. Does anyone on the net already >have experience with a similar setup including a Sony disc and >Silicon Graphics equipment? Any information would be very welcome! > >Rick Jansen >SARA, Amsterdam, The Netherlands We are also considering to buy the LVR 6000. It accepts several different kinds of input signals, PAL/NTSC being one of them but not the best. Instead of Video Creator we will buy VideoFramer (VF). It enables you to output images in different formats (D1, D2, Betacam, RGB, PAL/NTSC) all of them with very good quality (broadcast) except for the PAL/NTSC. BTW, VF lets you also digitize imagens from any source. VF uses one VME slot in your Iris and it has also a V-LAN output. Because the LVR 6000 has a RS-232 input we will not use V-Lan. So our configuration will be much simpler: iris + VF ----> LVR 6000 | rgb ^ +---------------^ rs-232 The rgb outputs in the VF are very good quality, you can easily control the LVR using the rs-232, if you know the ASCII codes which Sony provides in a separate manual, the LDM-5000 Interface Manual. If you want I will be glad to discuss this further via email. Pedro Faria Lopes -- Pedro Faria Lopes Carl, Computer Animation Research Lab. @ INESC, Phone: 351 1 545150 pfl@eniac.inesc.pt pfl@inesc.uucp Fax: 351 1 525843
ak3j+@andrew.cmu.edu (Anjana Kar) (06/29/91)
In article <1991Jun21.91172.145330SONDRICK@HASARA11.BITNET> (Rick Jansen) writes: > In our visualization lab we plan to use a Sony LVR6000 video disc > for recording computer animations and still pictures. This appears > to be not quite so trivial as we thought it would be at first. > ....... SARA, Amsterdam, The Netherlands At the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, we are using locally developed software to record animations on a SONY LVR5000 video disc. Most of our images are in the Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) format. To render the CGM files, we use GPLOT, the CGM interpreter. GPLOT's IRIS device driver (igl) renders the image, and recording is done on the Sony Laser Videodisk Recorder (LVR-5000) using Gplot's lvr controller. GPLOT's LVR controller selects the first available blank space on the laser video disc to start laying down a series of CGM images. In addition to the video area on disk, there is also a user data area. For each GPLOT session, a user data frame is written. The frame contains a datastamp, the CGM file name, user name, number of copies per CGM image, and video start and end frame numbers. A disc need's to be initialized before any frames can be layed down on it. The software "lvr_do" will initialize a disk. It can also be used to perform playback, search and other operations on the video disc. GPLOT and LVR_DO software are available from calpe.psc.edu (128.182.62.148). ftp in as user anonymous (any password). cd to pub/gplot, and get the gplot.tar file. Un-tar it on the IRIS, and edit the Makefile before building Gplot. cd to pub/lvr, and get lvrdo.tar and rs170.c. Before starting laying down frames, you will need to type "rs170 on" on the IRIS. Un-tar the tar file on the IRIS, and make lvr_do. Please send me mail if you pick up a copy of this software. -Anjana Kar Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center kar@a.psc.edu