roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) (09/03/85)
Everybody wants windows. People buy Suns (and other work stations) because they have windows. Using the "wm" package recently posted you can have windows on any ascii terminal. Mac's have windows. The ATT Unix PC has windows. Now you can have windows too, in the comfort of your own living room. I have in front of me an ad from Toshiba for their new Color TV. If you want to watch a broadcast program and your VCR at the same time, what do you do? What else; pop up a window, move it over to the corner of the screen, shrink it down to whatever size you want, and put your VCR output there! The "simulated picture" in the ad shows a full-screen window with a football game in it and a smaller window down in the corner with a movie running. All the ad says is that it's digital. It must have a frame grabber with adjustable x and y output scan for the second video input in order to be able to shrink the image (shrink mind you -- not crop). Plus a video mixer (big deal -- another op amp). The ad implies that you can make the second window any size and position you want, but they don't actually come out and say this. Certainly, the small window they have in the ad looks like a standard 4:3 aspect ratio. I have no idea what this costs, nor would I consider buying one for myself, but still, it *is* kinda nifty. I could even imagine times when it would be useful. Over-all, though, I think I'll file this one under "very impressive, but useless featureism". -- Roy Smith <allegra!phri!roy> System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016
lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) (09/09/85)
I recall Toshiba talking about the "windowing" TV quite some time ago in the trades, I think. I believe I remember reading about the chip set that does most of the work. I think there's a catch--the VCR and broadcast signal must be genlocked. Since you can't move the broadcast signal without an (expensive) timebase corrector, I think this means that you need to have a sync input on your VCR (which most consumer machines these days don't have, of course) If they've found a way to do it without genlocking the VCR to the broadcast signal I'll be very surprised. --Lauren--
hunter@oakhill.UUCP (Hunter Scales) (09/10/85)
In article <797@vortex.UUCP> lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) writes: >I recall Toshiba talking about the "windowing" TV quite some time >ago in the trades, I think. I believe I remember reading about the >chip set that does most of the work. I think there's a catch--the >VCR and broadcast signal must be genlocked. Since you can't move >the broadcast signal without an (expensive) timebase corrector, I think >this means that you need to have a sync input on your VCR (which most >consumer machines these days don't have, of course) If they've found >a way to do it without genlocking the VCR to the broadcast signal >I'll be very surprised. > >--Lauren-- Digital television receivers (as opposed to digital broadcasts) have been in the works for a number of years. The Toshiba is just the first to be offered in the US. The "window" is availble in 1/4 or 1/16 of the screen and you can pick the quadrant in which is dispalyed. It has its own tuner and will except standard NTSC composite video for the "window". It does not need a genlocked signal because it has a frame buffer that acts as a FIFO for the second signal. A neat toy, it retails for around $1200. -- Motorola Semiconductor Inc. Hunter Scales Austin, Texas {ihnp4,seismo,ctvax,gatech}!ut-sally!oakhill!hunter (I am responsible for me and my dog and no-one else)