(none)

[Richard Shaginaw lac11205]

     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.

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            Richard J. Shaginaw                      JVNC
       Applications Software Analyst                 P.O. Box 3717
    Consortium for Scientific Computing              Princeton, NJ 08543
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