dtiberio@eeserv1.ic.sunysb.edu (David Tiberio) (05/07/91)
I am interested in doing some video digitizing. I have heard of people using
programs such as DCTV, but what else is out there? And how can I use video
digitized pictures from a programming language like C?
Right now I have a hand scanner, which does a nice job with black and
white images, but I want color...
--
David Tiberio SUNY Stony Brook 2-3481 AMIGA DDD-MEN
"If you think that we're here for the money, we could live without it.
But the world isn't too good here, and it wasn't always like that."
Un ragazzo di Casalbordino, Italia.jlong@uhunix1.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (John Long) (05/11/91)
In article <1991May7.155233.11899@sbcs.sunysb.edu> dtiberio@eeserv1.ic.sunysb.edu (David Tiberio) writes: > > I am interested in doing some video digitizing. I have heard of people using >programs such as DCTV, but what else is out there? And how can I use video >digitized pictures from a programming language like C? > > Right now I have a hand scanner, which does a nice job with black and >white images, but I want color... > I assmume you mean digitizing still pictures, and not grab frames from video. I have experience with Digi-View, and it does cut the mustard. The Digi-View "thing" is just a little plug that you put on the serial port and plug a video camera into it. The Digi-View "system" is the plug (with some electronics inside, natch), a *cheap black-and-white* (wait, you'll have color) camera, and a funky-looking 3-color filter wheel that attaches to the camera, software to drive the hardware, and a ham painting program. How it works is, you point the camera at your subject, with the red filter in front of the lens, and pull "scan red" from the menu. It takes a few seconds. Then likewise with green and blue. The grey-scale color information from each of the filtered passes is added together to produce a *good* color picture, in resolutions up to and including hires ham. There is also a good assortment of image processing filters in the software for controlling rgb levels, sat- uration, contrast and such. Lots of special effects are possible. It can also work with a color video camera and do single scan color passes, but amazingly it works best with the cheap bw camera, because you pick up the colors one by one (it's a bandwith thing). Resolution is excellent. You can focus down to about 10cm square objects no prob. The only difficulty is glare. Your light source should be very indirect and bright. Good stuff. Aloha, -LongJohn
ACPS1072@RYERSON <ACPS1072@Ryerson.CA> (05/15/91)
More on the DigiView... To add to the said stuff about DigiView (for scanning pictures using a black and white Camera, the color wheel, etc.) You can also buy a Color Splitter for about $250 CAN which splits the and composite color signal into the R, G and B components. This is useful if you want to grab a picture from video (like a cartoon off videotape or laserdisc), the only catch is that your video source has to have a good freeze frame option. (ie. you can't capture images while they are moving). Another problem is that most VCRs can only pause for a few minutes which may not be enought time to digiview in the images (red, green, and blue) depending on the resolution and scan rate you are working with. As for programming in C.... Both DCTV and DigiView DO NOT come with any programming documentation. However you can make you own digitizer if you have the time and skills... check out the Amazing Computing TECH magazines volume one, issues one and two - "the VidCell". Issue one has the actual article and issue two has the bug fixes for issue one. Derek Lang<<<<< | ACPS1072@Ryerson | "Get this clown trained. I want him in the games Toronto, ON | until he dies playing. Acknowledge." Canada | - Master Control Program
dave@pluto.dss.com (Dave Monachello) (05/15/91)
hi, I also use a digiview with a panasonic B/W camera and it works fine. I also use a Cannon Xapshot with DCTV which is a GREAT setup! The xapshot is a still video camera and produces very nice pictures. I also grab frames from my camcorder. later dave
jones@plains.NoDak.edu (Scott Jones ) (05/18/91)
Have you tried Digi-View?
peck@ral.rpi.edu (Joseph Peck) (05/20/91)
In article <4323@pluto.dss.com> dave@pluto.dss.com (Dave Monachello) writes: > >hi, > I also use a digiview with a panasonic B/W camera and it works fine. I also >use a Cannon Xapshot with DCTV which is a GREAT setup! The xapshot is a >still video camera and produces very nice pictures. I also grab frames from >my camcorder. I am looking at getting the same setup (Xapshot with DCTV), and I had a couple of questions about its quality. How well does the Xapshot work with a fast moving source, such as a charging Knight and horse in a jousting match? Also, the Xapshot only uses one field for its pictures, so how good does the detail come out after digitizing? For example, the details in a person's face? Finally, how well does it compare to using a camcorder with a color splitter? > later > dave Thanks, Joe Peck peck@ral.rpi.edu
cwpjr@cbnewse.att.com (clyde.w.jr.phillips) (05/20/91)
In article <4323@pluto.dss.com>, dave@pluto.dss.com (Dave Monachello) writes: > > hi, > I also use a digiview with a panasonic B/W camera and it works fine. I also > use a Cannon Xapshot with DCTV which is a GREAT setup! The xapshot is a > still video camera and produces very nice pictures. I also grab frames from > my camcorder. > > later > dave I didn't know the Xapshot had any interface besides it's picture "wheels". What else is there or how do you do it? THanks, Clyde
dave@pluto.dss.com (Dave Monachello) (05/22/91)
Hi, Alot of people have asked me about this. I'm not an expert in photography or video but I think that the xapshot and dctv is a good low priced portable digitizing solution. I can't seem to find the stats for the ccd res for the xapshot, but I know the sony mavica is higher and also works with dctv. The dctv slow scan digitizer will take any fairly stable composite video input. The setup is simple just take the composit output from the xapshot adapter into the video in of the dctv and use the dctv scan function. dctv has some limited image processing software but it can save the image in any standard amiga format, including iff24, so that it can be used elsewhere. DCTV can also output in their own format which produces a pretty good NTSC image. The great trick is that these files can be animated using standard amiga animation programs (but that a whole different topic). later, dave
amorsin@cs.vu.nl (A.W.Morsink) (05/22/91)
In article <4342@pluto.dss.com> dave@pluto.dss.com (Dave Monachello) writes: > > The dctv slow scan digitizer will take any fairly stable composite video > input. How stable does it have to be? Has anybody ever tried digitizing (slow-scan) still pictures from their VCR? (With ANY digitizer.) With a digital screen memory that shouldn't be a problem, but what if you don't have that feature? Is that a hopeless situation? My VCR (Panasonic J35 - it's got 4 heads) 's still picture LOOKS pretty stable (but a digitizer might think otherwise of course). Any information you've got would be welcome - please post or mail. Axel (currently residing on: amorsin@cs.vu.nl)
wwarner@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Art Warner) (05/28/91)
In article <10022@star.cs.vu.nl> amorsin@cs.vu.nl (A.W.Morsink) writes: >In article <4342@pluto.dss.com> dave@pluto.dss.com (Dave Monachello) writes: >> >> The dctv slow scan digitizer will take any fairly stable composite video >> input. > >How stable does it have to be? Has anybody ever tried digitizing (slow-scan) >still pictures from their VCR? (With ANY digitizer.) With a digital screen >memory that shouldn't be a problem, but what if you don't have that feature? >Is that a hopeless situation? My VCR (Panasonic J35 - it's got 4 heads) 's >still picture LOOKS pretty stable (but a digitizer might think otherwise of >course). >Any information you've got would be welcome - please post or mail. > I just got through doing a fairly good video digitization using a consumer Sony Super-beta VCR that has a better mechanical still frame than most S-VHS decks in the $1000 range. I should know, I have both. I never liked VHS. S-VHS isn't much better. The only problems that we encountered was with dropouts, but that was due mostly to a poorer quality tape than what I should have been using. We did about 3 seconds (about 78 stills) and played them back REALTIME on DPAINT3 in uncompressed mode. BOY! Looked GREAT! Absolutely NO stability problems. I even turned off the TBC option to see how it looked. It did a fair job, but not quite as good. As I mentioned earlier, I also have a NEC S-VHS top-of-the-line (hah!) deck. It does happen to have a GREAT digital freeze frame. It is definately a field though, not a complete frame (odd and even fields). If you have a digital freeze and would like to know if yours is the cheaper version (almost all are) then just catch your local cable channels FLICKERING reveiw channels. I say flickering because these channels are produced on a computer displaying pixel thin lines. (only show on one field). Just "freeze" this channel and watch to see if some parts of the characters in the words disappear, like an "E" turns into an "F" because that bottom line was on the opposite field. The Digital freeze also did a great job and since it was not actually interlaced information, only half of the file size was necessary for storage. This DCTV stuff is FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -- William "Art" Warner //\ CBM Amiga Student Rep. \X/--\miga makes it happen.......... wwarner@en.ecn.purdue.edu IBM, Apple, Sun, & Next make it expensive! -- William "Art" Warner //\ CBM Amiga Student Rep. \X/--\miga makes it happen.......... wwarner@en.ecn.purdue.edu IBM, Apple, Sun, & Next make it expensive!
mark@calvin..westford.ccur.com (Mark Thompson) (05/28/91)
In article <1991May27.073145.20911@en.ecn.purdue.edu> wwarner@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Art Warner) writes: >As I mentioned earlier, I also have a NEC S-VHS top-of-the-line (hah!) deck. >It does happen to have a GREAT digital freeze frame. It is definately a frame >though, not a complete field (odd and even frames). Actually its just the other way around. Two fields (one odd, one even) make up a single video frame. %~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~% % ` ' Mark Thompson CONCURRENT COMPUTER % % --==* RADIANT *==-- mark@westford.ccur.com Principal Graphics % % ' Image ` ...!uunet!masscomp!mark Hardware Architect % % Productions (508)392-2480 (603)424-1829 & General Nuisance % % % ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~