Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!JVNCF.CSC.ORG!shaginaw From: shaginaw@JVNCF.CSC.ORG (Richard Shaginaw lac11205) Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi Subject: (none) Message-ID: <8911201627.AA22191@jvncf.csc.org> Date: 20 Nov 89 16:27:20 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 74 Regarding the Simms posting -- you won't need a scan converter if you're using the SGI CG2 board with your image compressed to a quarter of the screen. Alternatively, if you wish to create full-screen images and animate them, you need a scan converter, in which case you don't need a CG2 board. I read Simms's article as saying you need both scan conversion AND the CG2, which makes no sense. I'll re-post my comments, which are fairly accurate: --------------------------------- For Messrs Klaasen and Bates, and all others wishing videotape output: Your RGB signal (taken directly from the back of your monitor) must undergo scan-rate conversion and resolution reduction before conversion to a composite signal for recording. Several manufacturers have scan converters that meet these needs with varying degrees of sophistication. A real-time scan converter does the scan conversion and averaging fast enough to permit real-time recording; this, however, has several drawbacks. Chiefly, your VCR will record at whatever speed the IRIS is advancing the animation; on a busy or underpowered machine this looks terrible. A high-resolution scan converter from LyonLamb, Photron, YEM, or others also permits single-frame animation, provided you also have a VCR controller such as the LyonLamb MiniVas. The scan converter contains a frame buffer that stores each image as it's converted; it will transmit this image in NTSC format to your VCR, which the MiniVas can direct to capture a single frame. The whole process can be controlled by the IRIS; the scan converters and the MiniVas have serial ports that accept simple commands, which can be sent from the program that advances your frames one at a time. The MiniVas also sends codes that can instruct your program when a frame-record is complete, so that the program can proceed to load the next image, signal the scan converter, signal the MiniVas, block for its return code,.... A decent system should cost $20K-30K. Most areas have video integrators that serve area TV stations and production houses; most of these have experience with workstation-based systems. ----------------------- LyonLamb Video Animation Systems, Inc. 4531 Empire Avenue Burbank, CA 91595 818-843-4831 Photron Limited Dogenzaka 2-9-7 Shibuya-Ku Tokyo 150, Japan 03-486-3471 Yamashita Engineering Manufacture, Inc. James Grunder and Associates, Inc., distributor 5925 Beverly Mission, KS 66202 913-831-0188 ------------------------ P.S. I'm also interested in the SGI video board. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The John von Neumann National Supercomputer Center -- User Services Group Richard J. Shaginaw JVNC Applications Software Analyst P.O. Box 3717 Consortium for Scientific Computing Princeton, NJ 08543 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Internet Address: shaginaw@jvnca.csc.org 609-520-2000 Bitnet Address: shaginaw@jvncc FAX: 609-520-1089 ===============================================================================