clouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Kathy Strong) (01/11/91)
Just saw a demo of a rather interesting product today. It's a system that uses optical disks as the intermediate step between the video camera and laserdisc mastering. Works like this: You have a system that allows you to shoot direct to the optical disk (which is a huge thing, like about 15" square). I missed this part of the demo so I can't tell you much about it... But you have a two-disk system, and so instead of an edit suite, you do your editing from the "raw material" disk to a "library" (pre-master) disk (these are both optical disks). There's software to let you do editing, and it also lets you lay narration over the recorded video/natural audio. It makes an edit list rather like regular video editors, etc. etc. When you've got your "library" disk finished, you can send it to 3M or a couple of other folks and they will master a laserdisc straight from the optical disk (i.e., no need to transfer to 1" tape first). Also, the Panasonic player they use for the optical disks can be hooked up to an authoring station and used just as though it were a CAV videodisc... in other words, you could do authoring with your video before the laserdisc was even mastered. Kinda neat. For the demo (which was both of the optical system and of some authoring software), they shot a 5 or 10 second segment of video right there in the demo room, and then I authored a little demo around it (play video, pause, add graphic arrow, finish video, add another arrow, clear screen and ask user to identify the first item by pointing to it on a video freeze frame, with appropriate feedback for right and wrong responses). It was pretty impressive to be able to author a piece from video shot just a minute earlier! --K -- ........................................................................... : Kathy Strong : "Try our Hubble-Rita: just one shot, : : (Clouds moving slowly) : and everything's blurry" : : clouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu : --El Arroyo : :..........................................................................:
young@brahms.udel.edu (Philip Young) (01/14/91)
Who was giving the demo? I have seen the Panasonic system but, I am a bit skeptical that it can be used to master a videodisc. The reason is that at a conference last summer a Panasonic sales rep claimed their disc could be used to master a disc. However, when we asked some of the mastering houses about this, they said they wouldn't accept the Panasonic disc. Panasonic certainly makes a good system; but, I felt the sales force was making claims which weren't supported in practice. This may have changed since then. The Sony LVR-5000 would also be a good candidate for this kind of system if the mastering houses can/will accept the discs in lieu of a master tape.
clouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Kathy Strong) (01/14/91)
In article <17610@brahms.udel.edu> young@brahms.udel.edu (Philip Young) writes: > > Who was giving the demo? I have seen the Panasonic system but, I am >a bit skeptical that it can be used to master a videodisc. The reason >is that at a conference last summer a Panasonic sales rep claimed their >disc could be used to master a disc. However, when we asked some of the >mastering houses about this, they said they wouldn't accept the >Panasonic disc. Panasonic certainly makes a good system; but, I felt >the sales force was making claims which weren't supported in practice. >This may have changed since then. > Hurm. The demo was by a New York company called Catharon. The guy said that formerly one had to master from their system by going optical --> 1" tape --> videodisk, but that now three major houses (of which I only noted one, 3M, cuz that's who we use) now accept optical disks in lieu of 1" masters. He seemed to be pretty knowledgeable, but I suppose it's always a good idea to do a reality check on anyone pushing "non-standard" technology... --K -- ........................................................................... : Kathy Strong : "Try our Hubble-Rita: just one shot, : : (Clouds moving slowly) : and everything's blurry" : : clouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu : --El Arroyo : :..........................................................................:
gah@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Gerard Hutchings) (01/14/91)
In <17610@brahms.udel.edu> young@brahms.udel.edu (Philip Young) writes: Message about Panasonic deleted.... >The Sony LVR-5000 would also be a good candidate for this kind of system >if the mastering houses can/will accept the discs in lieu of a master tape. The University of Southampton has recently invested in the Sony kit, and we have successfully mastered a couple of LaserVision discs from the Sony cartridge. Apparently it's quite a simple process. Gerard Hutchings University of Southampton Electronics & Computer Science