Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ames!elroy!daemon
From: rgd059@Mipl3.JPL.Nasa.Gov
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Comments on Perfect Vision?
Message-ID: <5381@elroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov>
Date: 5 Feb 88 17:15:57 GMT
Sender: daemon@elroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov
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[ This is slightly commercial, so sorry if it offends you, but they asked! ]

In article <296NETOPRHM@NCSUVM> Hal Meeks writes:
>I am going to be in the market for a video digitiser RSN, and
>initially was looking at DigiView (what else?). I have seen the
>ad for Perfect Vision, but haven't had a chance to play with one
>yet.

DISCLAIMER:  I'm affiliated with SunRize Industries... I wrote the color
display section of the Perfect Vision software (as well as part of City Desk),
so I'm not unbiased.  However, I'm not an employee of theirs (part-time
contract programming), so I'm not an "official" representative of SunRize.

>Initially, I will be needing a way to digitise still objects, but
>eventually would like to be able to digitise a series of frames from
>a VCR. I know that Live! is meant for this, and it is amazing. But
>the picture quality just isn't good enough for my needs (closed system
>video). I also know that DigiView can do it, given a stable still
>frame VCR and patience. The ad for Perfect Vision leads me to believe
>that it would be better for this.

PV is a frame-grabber.  It digitizes in 320X200 or 320X400 mode only, 16 gray
scales (4 bits).  As for quality, well, it is lo-res, but given that limitation
it's quite good.  It has brightness and contrast knobs on the box so you can
adjust it for the best picture.  It lists for $219 and some change and has
been shipping for several weeks now.  It works on any Amiga model (it has a
standard Centronics connector on it).  It grabs the entire frame in one video
frame time (1/60 sec noninterlace, 1/30 sec interlace) so you can digitize
from a moving source without smearing.  It interfaces through the parallel
port, so even though it grabs the frame in 1/60 of a second and stores it in
on-board memory, it takes about a half a second to send all the data over the
parallel port.  So if you want continuous grabbing, it can get about two
frames a second.  But, of course, each frame is a still shot of one frame on
the tape.  Note that Live! takes 1/15 second to grab a picture, even for
gray-scale images, since it grabs only one bitplane per frame time, so you
get smearing if there's any motion.

It is black & white only (well, gray scale) for moving images.  To do color, you
have two options.  First, use optical filters with a camera to get three images
(red, green, and blue), like DigiView does.  Filters are included.  Second,
SunRize will be coming out with a box in a month or two that does electronic
color separation... that is, it takes a composite color signal and splits it
into the red, green, and blue components.  It should retail about $70-$80, but
that hasn't been decided yet.  It will be automatically controlled by the PV
software, so you don't have to flip any switches... just tell it to grab a color
image and it does it.  (I shouldn't say this, but the separator will probably
also work with DigiView... but you have to flip your own switch ;-} )  To do
color with this color separator box, you need a still image or a VCR with a
good freeze-frame, but, it should take only about 3 seconds to grab a
full-color image (since each color takes about 1/2 second).  DigiView would
still take 30 seconds or more.

Version 1.0 of the software is shipping now, and we are hard at work on version
1.1, which has a lot of enhancements.  It should be out RSN.  The upgrade will
be free to registered owners.  I don't know about upgrades after 1.1... they
will be free or very reasonably priced (about $5-10)... SunRize has a good
history of inexpensive upgrades with Perfect Sound.

Someone in another message asked about using the digitizer from application
programs.  The source code is not included (at least not currently).  If you
need the digitizing code, call up SunRize and you can work something out.
The source for Perfect Sound is provided with that package, so they don't
have much problem with releasing such things.

For more information, contact SunRize Industries at (409) 846-1311.  Or, you
can email me, but again, I'm just a programmer... not an official
representative.

Sorry again for the commercial nature of this, but you asked......

Disclaimer #2:  JPL has nothing to do with this.  But then, neither do I :-)

Bob Deen  @  NASA-JPL Multimission Image Processing Laboratory
rgd059@mipl3.jpl.nasa.gov	span:  mipl3::rgd059