#Pers Anim Rec
28 messages in this thread
I have access to a Personal Animation Recorder (from DPS), probably the fir
unit to leave the shop (professional courtesy, etc, via a friend), and it
is……GREAT!!! This is for real: 30 fps at hires-overscan NTSC, right off
the (fast and big) hard drive! And, of course, vice versa with a TBC IV. This
must be seen to be believed – and then purchased!
Glad to hear it's shipping.
How much, and when is it expected to be widely available?
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom
It is $1999 w/o the hard drive (a 500MB IDE, or so – runs about $1000), from
what I was told. I like when something is faster, cleaner, and cheaper, too!
Because of speed reqts, only about 1/2 the drive is usable f anims (about 5
minutes of video), the other 1/2 for stills (around 10,000 of them). It will
take IFF24s and convert them to anims and store on the drive. You calibrate the
drive for a certainly quality level where you are guuaranteed 30 fps (like jpeg
quality), and you are ready. Oh, and with a TBC IV, you can capture video, too
(same quality!). Expect to be ready RSN (like, this week?). -Ed
Thanks, sounds like a nice, cheap little device!
What's this about 'calibrating' the drive for speed? Are we talking
interleave here, or does this system actually use some compression scheme
(like JPEG)?
Thanks,
Erik Flom
JPEG compression, I believe, is used (see laterpost).
Ed,
This is great news, I've been looking forward to hearing about someone
with a Personal Animation Recorder. Any information (how it is used,
quality of software, quality of signal, etc) would be appreciated.
Rick
The signal quality is superb. You can select the compression loss (like j
– sorry – jpeg). The signal is better than SVHS quality – greater than 400
lines – and I think spec'd at MII level. The process is: select the frames to
be made into the anim (IFF24, I believe, but ADPro would be helpful here –
other formats may supported, don't know, haven't had much time with it), say
go, and they are written to the drive as an animation. Then, just double click
and instant animation. Oh, and you can have it create the animation on the
drive on the fly, as the frames are being generated (from anything, kind of
like Sentry with ADPro), to minimize disk space usage. S'ware looks clear and
simple to use, although I am using an early release (v.39?). -Ed
Ed,
Thanks for the info. One more thing, what kind of frame rate are we
talking here for full screen anims? And what kind of compression loss are
we talking about for full screen anims? Would I be able to get 30fps full
screen without significant loss?
Rick
yes, Yes, YES! I saw zero detectable loss (on a Sony monitor) at 30 fps with a
"slower" 500 MB IDE. We will be getting a faster IDE, that allows for higher
quality. For example, this drive calibrates to a quality rating of 23/100
(kind of like JPEG quality factor); however, the typical s (sorry!) setting is
about 20. The new drive will be at 39 (I think – can't remember), although
that would only be uasble for stills (on a big monitor!) This is all full
screen (overscan). Anyone in the Cincinnati area could stop down at the OVAUG
(Ohio Valley Amiga Users Group) meeting tonight at Room 502, Rievschel Hall,
University of Cincinnati (8:00-?) and we will be showing off the PAR and the
Picasso board (incredible board!).
Ed,
Can you tell us what the Picasso is about?
//Jonathan,
\\//via AutoPilot
The Picasso is German-developed RTG board, that patches into Intuition and
intercepts all display calls and routes them to the board. It is a 24/16/8 bit
board (I believe) that does the standard SVGA thing –
640×480,800×600,1024×900,1240×1024 (as far as I can remember). It has an
onboard blitter that does about 30-40 MB/sec memory transfers (!) and will
build a database of your applications (as you load them the first time) to
remember their settings. It patches in to your display database so it appears
as a monitor mode in a properly written ADos 2.0+ application. It is fast.
Very fast. Several times faster than an A4000. I told you it was fast. It
blows away the other simlar (?) boards since it does not copy the display from
chip ram; the blitter on the board does the lines fills, pixel draws, etc. The
Alice/Agnus chips can idle. A side effect is that 1) it uses no chip ram, and
2) it speeds up the machine since the cpu never has to wait for the screen to
be drawn. It is in FCC right now, and expect the 1MB version
(field–upgradable to 2MB) to be on the streets in 1-1/2 months – at a MSRP of
$599 (so apply the normal MSRP -> street price ratios).
Ed,
But is it fast? 🙂
A couple of other questions:
1. Does it sit in the video slot, or does it live in a Zorro slot? Is it
Zorro II, or III, or both?
2. Have you seen it in a 2000 of any kind? Is it still fast on that
machine (which is what I happen to have 🙂
3. Does it animated worth a damn? Can it put out NTSC scan rates?
//Jonathan,
\\//via AutoPilot
The Picasso boars is a Zorro II/III board. The developer I talked to (and
trust) said that it is actually a bit faster on a 2000 that a 3000 or 4000
(athough maybe not so much as to notice – my comment). I pumps data at full
bus speed. I have only seen it in a 3000, but will get one in my A2000 when
available. See the upload in the AmigaUser forum for specs on the board. As
far as I know, it does not put out NTSC scan rates.
Does ADos and Apps think they are in an AGA machine? Will AGA specific
processing be available? What frequencey monitors are supported? Any
unique, genlock support features?
wmc – via Autopilot!
If the application is writtten properly, the Picasso will be able to be opened
like any other screen, providing AGA emulation. No, they don't think they are
on an AGA machine, just displaying data on a dev/monitor that has display
attributes similar to AGA (but better). I hear there will be NTSC scan rates
supported (later), but know of no genlock features. The minimum monitor is a
VGA, I believe, but a multisync is (obviously) preferred. Refresh rates in
excess of 80 hz are supported.
Ed,
Thanks for the info.
wmc – via Autopilot!
Thanks for the info – this is neat stuff. Looks like I'm on the phone to
my dealer tomorrow. Too bad I can't pop by Cincinnati – It's a bit of a
drive from Vancouver.
Rick
EMFJI, Ed, but I need to know… Will the Pers Anim Rec work with Opal Vision?
I am on the verge of buying an Opal and if this is the last link in the R/T
animation chain, then I want to know if it will use the Opal as the 24 bit
output device. Thanks. Or wait an minute, are you saying that the Personal
Anim Recorder is also a 24 bit display device as well?
The PAR outputs NTSC stills and anims in component format, by taking a 24 bit
file and performing what can only be described (by me, anyway) as JPEGing the
video (4:2:2) signal, to compress the file. Compression is "lossy" like JPEG,
but at a user-selectable quality level (with comparable output size and
quality). It IS a 24 bit display. By using the "fastest" part of a BIG hard
drive, it stores the frames as animations on the drive, to be played back at a
guaranteed 30 fps. The drive "calibration" determines the highest quality level
that drive can deliver and guarantee 30 fps. I will know more after tonight; I
am president of OVAUG, and we are demoing on tonight!
Best of luck with the demo. I am sure that all of us are drooling for happy
results. It outputs video in what amounts to true color (24 bit) in real time.
Well, that seems to eliminate the need for a Panasonic AG7750 solely for SFC
purposes. Is there some voodoo involved with the particular TBC that they sell
that could not be matched by my Prime Image TBC for recording taped video to
hard disk?
Yes, only a DPS TBC IV will do the video-to-disk compression – there w room on
the PAR board to fit the extra electronic bits.
Ed, what kind of output does it support? Composite – yes, S-Video – yes, but
how does it output to MII? Is the 500M HD the minimum recommended size? Will
it fit in my 3000 (is it a super-fat board?)
Is there anything else you could tell us? I got a brochure from them it was
less than information-packed.
Don't know about board size, but we have a Toaster 4000 and a PAR in a 4000 (of
course) – talk about the ultimate video peripheral! Don't know how it goes to
MII. 500 MB is the (currently) largest IDE out there; actually, that only give
5 minutes of 30 fps hires overrscan video (maybe more), PLUS 5-10000 stills.
ONLY 5 minutes on a 500MB drive!
When will these people EVER be satisfied! :^)
Sounds like a cool/hot little setup!
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom
Ed,
->500 MB is the (currently) largest IDE out there
FYI, Micropolis makes a 1050MB 3.5" IDE drive, MC2112A, which sell for
about $1400. It has been availible for a while. You can get them at Hard
Drives International.
BTW, do you know if DPS's board retains all the information in both fields
of the frame? I read a review of a realtime playback board on the MAC and
it obtained part of it's real-time playback speed by droping every other
field.
As fas as I know, ther are no tricks like dropping every other field. (note:
fas = far 😉 ) You get full resolution 30 fps, period. This will
revolutionize the desktop, together with the Toaster4000. In the span of the
last 1-1/2 weeks I have see three amazing Amiga products – Toaster4000, PAR
board, and the Picasso board. Wow, what a blast for the Amiga community.
Congratulations. How many colours? How do you "fill" the hardddisk?
Backwards play? Any syncronizing (gpi/timecode..)?
What kind of input and output connections?
Harddisk type and capacity (MB/sec)?
PAL??
Hope you could take the time to answer all this questions.
Thank you.
The PAR does full 24-bit color at 30 fps with overscan. By clicking on (or
otherwising selecting) the stills, it will compress and build an anim on the
dedicated hard disk – 500 MB = 5 minutes of video + 5-10,000 still frames. It
reads StillStores directly. I think it will play backwards (it has a regular
virtual-VTR interface), but won't get to try that till Friday. Don't know
about synchonizing, but I seem to remember a GPI button (will check). It has a
5 BNC connectors in back with composite and component out.