milne@ICS.UCI.EDU (Alastair Milne) (02/16/91)
To network people:
The project my group is working on is creating a highly interactive
set of programs using IBM's new (a few months old, anyway) M-Motion video
adapter for microchannel PS/2's. It is intended, or so I understand
to replace InfoWindow. (For those who haven't heard of it, I describe
it below.) However, a few things about this arrangement concern me:
- I have seen nothing mentioned about this system in the journals
I follow, even though IBM has already released version 2 of its
control software. Am I simply looking in the wrong places, or is
it really being generally ignored? (I do know at least one group,
Computer Teaching Corporation, has acknowledged it enough to have
provided an InfoWindow emulator to run on top of it, so that CTC's
InfoWindow-based packages could run on M-Motion.)
- As far as I can discover, the M-Motion video adapter is being
issued for microchannel only. But microchannel seems to be gaining
only very limited acceptance, at least on this side of the Atlantic.
(Having had to shepherd a couple of PS/2's -- model 80 and 70 --
for some months now, I am sympathetic to those who prefer to avoid
the complications of MCA).
Does anybody know if MCA is starting to look like a moderately
realistic target environment, or is it remaining a small pool?
Does anybody know if versions of M-Motion for none-MCA architectures
are planned?
- What other realtime video boards, whether for XT/AT-bus or for MCA,
are competing with M-Motion? The name VideoLogic has been mentioned
to me, but I've heard no more of it than that.
And for those who haven't heard of M-Motion, it is a video adapter
board for IBM microchannel PS/2's that augments VGA with realtime
input and display of a live video source, typically a videodisc player.
(Actually, it can connect with up to 3 of them.) A 3-component
package of interrupt handlers called the M-Control program provides
application programs with control of the board and the players,
through interrupt 7fh. So far I've found the documentation adequate
to implement a reasonably versatile demo program in Turbo Pascal 5.0 .
Under program control, the M-Motion system can shrink input images
to virtually arbitrary size and locate them as desired on the screen;
the whole source image or just a section of it can be read; and
the images are displayed from a video buffer where they remain until
overwritten, so multiple reduced images can be accumulated on the screen,
with as many of them in motion as there are videodisc players
connected. Transparency and reading of the video source can be turned
on or off, and the colour to be turned transparent can be set;
selected areas of the screen can have protection set for graphics,
video, or both.
(NOTE: this is more than just documentation claims: I've been doing
it all from Turbo Pascal, and without much difficulty.)
You're also supposed to be abled to erase sections of the video
buffer, and read 256-colour image files into it, but both are slow
(the file reading is *very* slow). At the moment, I use graphic protect
to hide any area of video I don't want seen, rather than trying to erase it.
Sound can be either channel, both, mixed, or silenced. For those
with tolerant ears, it can be played through the PS/2's speaker.
It can also be buffered, re-played, saved to files, and recalled.
(This I have not yet tried, but the M-Motion diagnostic program
exercises it.)
So if this sounds like another system you know of, please tell
me about it.
Thanks to all respondents,
Alastair Milne,
Technical Manager,
Educational Technology Centerjim@newmedia.UUCP (Jim Beveridge) (02/20/91)
In article <9102160028.aa18849@ICS.UCI.EDU>, milne@ICS.UCI.EDU (Alastair Milne) writes: > To network people: > > The project my group is working on is creating a highly interactive > adapter for microchannel PS/2's. It is intended, or so I understand > to replace InfoWindow. (For those who haven't heard of it, I describe > it below.) However, a few things about this arrangement concern me: > ... > So if this sounds like another system you know of, please tell > me about it. The New Media Graphics Super VideoWindows card was recently released. It replaces our old VideoWindows card, which came out several months before the IBM M/Motion card and had basically the same functionality for the ISA bus. The board is based on the Chips & Technologies PC Video Chip, which they designed in cooperation with us. The SVW card is designed for the ISA bus. It offers three audio and three video inputs, full yuv color, very fast framegrabbing and blitting, and arbitrary placement and sizing of the video window. It includes laserdisc control. TV tuner control and hardware JPEG compression can be purchased at additional cost. The board is designed to run under either Windows 3.0 or DOS, and the development package includes full Windows source code. SVW costs $695. (Yes, that is $695). Jim Disclaimer: I work for New Media Graphics.
hamilton@vms.macc.wisc.edu (Doug Hamilton) (02/20/91)
In article <9102160028.aa18849@ICS.UCI.EDU>, milne@ICS.UCI.EDU (Alastair Milne) writes... > > To network people: > > The project my group is working on is creating a highly interactive > set of programs using IBM's new (a few months old, anyway) M-Motion video > adapter for microchannel PS/2's. It is intended, or so I understand > to replace InfoWindow. (For those who haven't heard of it, I describe > it below.) However, a few things about this arrangement concern me: > > - I have seen nothing mentioned about this system in the journals > I follow, even though IBM has already released version 2 of its > control software. Am I simply looking in the wrong places, or is > it really being generally ignored? I haven't seen much about it either, but I think it is more because these technologies are generally ignored except in specialized publications. There was a review in PC Magazine in September, and a review of the ISA competition (VideoLogic, Matrox) in a recent PC Week (sorry I don't have the date and page, the magazine is at home). You don't see much about InfoWindow, either. > As far as I can discover, the M-Motion video adapter is being > issued for microchannel only. Count on it--we're talking IBM. But microchannel seems to be gaining > only very limited acceptance, at least on this side of the Atlantic. > Which side? Can't quite tell for sure. (Having had to shepherd a couple of PS/2's -- model 80 and 70 -- > for some months now, I am sympathetic to those who prefer to avoid > the complications of MCA). I used to feel the same way about MCA, but having the system take care of configuration and arbitration is rather nice, once you get used to it. Also, the capability of bus-mastering is potentially important. For example, XGA is much faster because of the coprocessor design. > > Does anybody know if MCA is starting to look like a moderately > realistic target environment, or is it remaining a small pool? > Most seem to agree that MCA will turn out to be pretty much "IBM and friends." But since there's not currently much EISA installed, it could go either way, particularly if some "must have" technology comes along which REQUIRES an advanced bus. > Does anybody know if versions of M-Motion for none-MCA architectures > are planned? > > - What other realtime video boards, whether for XT/AT-bus or for MCA, > are competing with M-Motion? The name VideoLogic has been mentioned > to me, but I've heard no more of it than that. > I've heard that IBM's overlay solution in Canada and Europe is OEM'ed by VideoLogic. The VideoLogic board is available in both ISA and MCA versions. We recently acquired both MCA and Macintosh versions, but haven't had time to do much with them yet. VideoLogic's home office is at Unit 8, Home Park Industrial Estate, Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, WD4 8LZ, UK. Their US office is 245 First Street, Cambridge, MA 02142. I think it is likely that video on computers eventually will be entirely in the digital domain, especially when symmetrical compression/decompression becomes a reality and mass storage becomes cheaper and masser. But in the interim, overlaying video from an analog source on the computer screen is often more effective than having the video on a separate monitor beside the computer screen. As standards emerge and costs come down, I think we'll be seeing much more of it in instructional applications. In the development stage, I'd be less concerned about the specific platform (M-Motion, VideoLogic, other) than about protyping an effective design. The design can always be converted or adapted later. Whichever you choose, you'll count some users in and others out. Or some device independent layer will be developed making which overlay card irrelevant to your program. (VideoLogic's MIC System makes some claims to device independence--probably why IBM decided to roll their own ;-) Also, choosing VideoLogic at least allows you to cover both ISA and MCA solutions. BTW, VideoLogic sells something called an "InfoWindow Emulator." InfoWindow went away because it was cumbersome and dreadfully expensive. Why spend $5000 on an InfoWindow display when you can spend $2500 on M-Motion and a touch screen. Also, while video is on the InfoWindow screen, graphics can have only CGA resolution, in itself making M-Motion a big step up. Hope this is helpful and my facts are mostly straight. Feel free to contact me if you want to know more about how the VideoLogic works out. Doug Hamilton hamilton@macc.wisc.edu Instructional Technology Support hamilton@wiscmacc.bitnet Academic Computing Center (608) 262-5667 University of Wisconsin-Madison