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From: taylorj@yvax.byu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.ivideodisc
Subject: Re: Interactive Video-disc.
Message-ID: <1455taylorj@yvax.byu.edu>
Date: 2 Aug 90 03:52:40 GMT
Lines: 25

This is a pretty vague question, so here is a vague answer:

You can do interactive video with both videodisc or video tape.  The main
disadvantage to tape is that it's slower than disc.  There are a number of
commercial hardware boxes that let a computer control certain videotape players
with complete accuracy.

There are many models of videodisc players designed to be computer controlled.
All you need is a serial connection between your computer and the player.

You can either use a separate TV monitor for the player or you can buy a
special card to combine computer video and videodisc video on the computer
screen (the cards run from $600 to $5000).

All this can be done both with Macintosh and IBM PCs.  There are special
toolkits for HyperCard that make it very easy to control almost all videodisc
players.  The same toolkits are just beginning to appear for ToolBook (which
requires Windows 3.0) on the IBM.

If you need more specific information than this, ask some specific questions.


Jim Taylor
Microcomputer Support for Curriculum   |
Brigham Young University               |   Bitnet: taylorj@byuvax.bitnet
101 HRCB, Provo, UT  84602             |   Internet: taylorj@yvax.byu.edu