Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!lll-tis!ames!think!bloom-beacon!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ut-sally!utah-cs!utah-gr!uplherc!sp7040!wsccs!terry
From: terry@wsccs.UUCP (terry)
Newsgroups: comp.ivideodisc
Subject: Re: Are we alive here?
Message-ID: <325@wsccs.UUCP>
Date: 16 Mar 88 06:41:01 GMT
References: <8464@eddie.MIT.EDU>
Lines: 49
Keywords: quiet
Summary: RS-232 interfaces

In article <8464@eddie.MIT.EDU>, ooblick@eddie.MIT.EDU (Mikki Barry) writes:
> sheesh, this group is too quiet!  Maybe we should find a nifty
> controversey.  Like how how we can abort interactive video discs :-)
> 
> We are still experiencing a "training lull" around here.  No real IVD work
> until next month.  So we are doing consulting for others in the IVD field.

	What exactly does that have objective?  How can one "consult" on an
IVD?  What kind of bucks do you make doing it?

> So, let's start talking again....

Well, here's one.  A freind and myself each have an Amiga.  He has a pioneer
disc player (home model) that has no method of interfacing it.  Other models
have RS-232 control.  I have figured out an interface to write (centronics
paralell) seek addresses to the thing, albiet with the track displayed for a
single frame, using the centronics paralell as a keyboard matrix.  I suppose
if I were industrious, I could get all of the functions going... however, I
am not industrious.

The problem is this:  My freind has purchased a number of videodisc's to go
and play around with (Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, and Cliff Hanger).  While
the investment was under $30 each, we would really like to play with them.
We can't.  Turns out that due to timing considerations, our Amiga's do not
both agree with the number of cycles it takes to get from the start location
to the end of the sequence (mine has a 68010).  In addition, we realize that
not all players run at the same rate.  This means we really need to be able to
receive status info from the player to avoid having to have the user "tune"
the software by hand.  This would also allow porting to other machines,
preferrably those with composite video in on their monitors.

What we would really like to see are some panasonic<=>rs-232 diagrams for
circuitry for the player.  We know that there are other players out there
that impliment this, but don't want to have to buy another.  It would have to
be simple enough for the home abuser to hook up.  We wouldn't need status any
more than every n tracks or so, although we'd prefer n be 5 or less to prevent
us from having to "guess" too drastically.


Another thing we have open for discussion:  Would anybody miss the "boop"?
It turns out that that is generated by the controlling hardware, and is not
on the disc.


| Terry Lambert           UUCP: ...{ decvax, ihnp4 }                          |
| @ Century Software          : ...utah-cs!uplherc!sp7040!obie!wsccs!terry    |
| SLC, Utah                                                                   |
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