Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr55/mpeg_faq.zip/1

Text File | 1993-05-13 | 46KB | 1,002 lines

        ======================================================
        THE MPEG-FAQ              [Version 2.0 - 11. May 1993]
        ======================================================
        PHADE SOFTWARE Leibnizstr. 30, 1000 Berlin 12, GERMANY
        Inh. Frank Gadegast            Fon/Fax: [phone]

        [e-mail]


===========================================================================

This is my summary about MPEG.

It's the third publication of this file. Lots of errors have been removed,
and lots of information has been added (which has surely brought other
errors with it, see Murphy's Law).

This third addition is VERY different to the previous ones.

First:  Some sections have been removed, because the are old or there was
        nothing changing. So if you are NOT familiar with the theme, get
        the the last MPEG-FAQ (Version 1.1) via ftp from

        host: ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de (130.149.17.7)
        file: /pub/msdos/windows3/graphics/mpegfa11.zip

        This new FAQ will be there soon too, as 'mpegfa20.zip'.

Second: The E-MAIL-ORDER-SERVICE has been removed, because it was causing
        to much traffic on my account. The damon HAS been changed, it will
        send a message back, saying, that the service has been removed.
        Right now, there are enough placed where to get the desired files
        from (via Internet, E-Mails to others, ftp, mail-access etc.)

Third:  The people where more interested to get the complete archives.
        Therefore the TRAIL-PACK-Service is still running. I'm still
        collecting EVERY info, video, sound or program. Get the Trail-Pack !

You should read carefully through this FAQ this time, cause lots of new
information is hidden in all the sections. F.e. news about Dos, Amiga-,
Atari-, OS/2-, Windows-, Windows-NT, VMS- and Mac-Players arrived !!!


This summary is devided in 12 parts:

 I    |  WHAT IS MPEG ?
 II   |  PROFESSIONAL SOFTWARE
 III  |  PUBLIC-DOMAIN SOFTWARE OR SHAREWARE
 IV   |  MPEG-RELATED HARDWARE
 V    |  MAILBOX-ACCESS
 VI   |  FTP-ACCESS (PD)
 VII  |  MAIL-ORDER
 VIII |  RETRIEVED MAIL OR ARTICLES
 IX   |  ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
 X    |  WHERE TO FIND MORE INFOS
 XI   |  NEWS
 XII  |  QUESTIONS

I add my comments in brackets [], lines (---- or ====) seperate the
chapters.

Please try and find out more information yourself. I had enough to do by
getting and preparing this information. And only bother me with file-
request if its not possible for you to get it somewhere else !!!

If you want to contribute to this FAQ in any way, please email me
(probably by replying to this posting). My email address is:

  [e-mail]

Or send any additional information via fax or e-mail. The fax is only
reachable between Mo.-Fr. from 10.00-13.00 and from 15.00-18.30 german
time.

    Phade (Frank Gadegast)


DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE NAMED COMPANIES, NO BUSINESS,
            IT'S JUST MY PERSONAL INTERESTED. THESE COMPANIES ARE NAMED,
            BECAUSE, THEY ARE THE FIRST BRINGING MULTIMEDIA TO THE PC-
            WORLD. SURE I MAKE ADVERTS FOR THEM WITH THIS FAQ, BUT HOPE-
            FULLY YOU, AS A READER OF THIS FAQ, WILL FORCE THEM TO PRODUCE
            MORE AND BETTER PRODUCTS.


===========================================================================
 I | WHAT IS MPEG ?
===================

From comp.compression Mon Oct 19 15:38:38 1992
Sender: [e-mail]
Author: Mark Adler <[e-mail]>

[71] Introduction to MPEG (long)
       What is MPEG?
       Does it have anything to do with JPEG?
       Then what's JBIG and MHEG?
       What has MPEG accomplished?
       So how does MPEG I work?
       What about the audio compression?
       So how much does it compress?
       What's phase II?
       When will all this be finished?
       How do I join MPEG?
       How do I get the documents, like the MPEG I draft?

[ There is no newer version of this part so far. Whoever wants to update ]
[ this description, should do the job and send it over.                  ]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: [71] Introduction to MPEG (long)


Written by Mark Adler <[e-mail]>.

Q. What is MPEG?
A. MPEG is a group of people that meet under ISO (the International
   Standards Organization) to generate standards for digital video
   (sequences of images in time) and audio compression.  In particular,
   they define a compressed bit stream, which implicitly defines a
   decompressor.  However, the compression algorithms are up to the
   individual manufacturers, and that is where proprietary advantage
   is obtained within the scope of a publicly available international
   standard.  MPEG meets roughly four times a year for roughly a week
   each time.  In between meetings, a great deal of work is done by
   the members, so it doesn't all happen at the meetings.  The work
   is organized and planned at the meetings.

Q. So what does MPEG stand for?
A. Moving Pictures Experts Group.

Q. Does it have anything to do with JPEG?
A. Well, it sounds the same, and they are part of the same subcommittee
   of ISO along with JBIG and MHEG, and they usually meet at the same
   place at the same time.  However, they are different sets of people
   with few or no common individual members, and they have different
   charters and requirements.  JPEG is for still image compression.

Q. Then what's JBIG and MHEG?
A. Sorry I mentioned them. Ok, I'll simply say that JBIG is for binary
   image compression (like faxes), and MHEG is for multi-media data
   standards (like integrating stills, video, audio, text, etc.).
   For an introduction to JBIG, see question 74 below.

Q. Ok, I'll stick to MPEG.  What has MPEG accomplished?
A. So far (as of January 1992), they have completed the "Committee
   Draft" of MPEG phase I, colloquially called MPEG I.  It defines
   a bit stream for compressed video and audio optimized to fit into
   a bandwidth (data rate) of 1.5 Mbits/s.  This rate is special
   because it is the data rate of (uncompressed) audio CD's and DAT's.
   The draft is in three parts, video, audio, and systems, where the
   last part gives the integration of the audio and video streams
   with the proper timestamping to allow synchronization of the two.
   They have also gotten well into MPEG phase II, whose task is to
   define a bitstream for video and audio coded at around 3 to 10
   Mbits/s.

Q. So how does MPEG I work?
A. First off, it starts with a relatively low resolution video
   sequence (possibly decimated from the original) of about 352 by
   240 frames by 30 frames/s (US--different numbers for Europe),
   but original high (CD) quality audio.  The images are in color,
   but converted to YUV space, and the two chrominance channels
   (U and V) are decimated further to 176 by 120 pixels.  It turns
   out that you can get away with a lot less resolution in those
   channels and not notice it, at least in "natural" (not computer
   generated) images.

   The basic scheme is to predict motion from frame to frame in the
   temporal direction, and then to use DCT's (discrete cosine
   transforms) to organize the redundancy in the spatial directions.
   The DCT's are done on 8x8 blocks, and the motion prediction is
   done in the luminance (Y) channel on 16x16 blocks.  In other words,
   given the 16x16 block in the current frame that you are trying to
   code, you look for a close match to that block in a previous or
   future frame (there are backward prediction modes where later
   frames are sent first to allow interpolating between frames).
   The DCT coefficients (of either the actual data, or the difference
   between this block and the close match) are "quantized", which
   means that you divide them by some value to drop bits off the
   bottom end.  Hopefully, many of the coefficients will then end up
   being zero.  The quantization can change for every "macroblock"
   (a macroblock is 16x16 of Y and the corresponding 8x8's in both
   U and V).  The results of all of this, which include the DCT
   coefficients, the motion vectors, and the quantization parameters
   (and other stuff) is Huffman coded using fixed tables.  The DCT
   coefficients have a special Huffman table that is "two-dimensional"
   in that one code specifies a run-length of zeros and the non-zero
   value that ended the run.  Also, the motion vectors and the DC
   DCT components are DPCM (subtracted from the last one) coded.

Q. So is each frame predicted from the last frame?
A. No.  The scheme is a little more complicated than that.  There are
   three types of coded frames.  There are "I" or intra frames.  They
   are simply a frame coded as a still image, not using any past
   history.  You have to start somewhere.  Then there are "P" or
   predicted frames.  They are predicted from the most recently
   reconstructed I or P frame.  (I'm describing this from the point
   of view of the decompressor.)  Each macroblock in a P frame can
   either come with a vector and difference DCT coefficients for a
   close match in the last I or P, or it can just be "intra" coded
   (like in the I frames) if there was no good match.

   Lastly, there are "B" or bidirectional frames.  They are predicted
   from the closest two I or P frames, one in the past and one in the
   future.  You search for matching blocks in those frames, and try
   three different things to see which works best.  (Now I have the
   point of view of the compressor, just to confuse you.)  You try using
   the forward vector, the backward vector, and you try averaging the
   two blocks from the future and past frames, and subtracting that from
   the block being coded.  If none of those work well, you can intra-
   code the block.

   The sequence of decoded frames usually goes like:

   IBBPBBPBBPBBIBBPBBPB...

   Where there are 12 frames from I to I (for US and Japan anyway.)
   This is based on a random access requirement that you need a
   starting point at least once every 0.4 seconds or so.  The ratio
   of P's to B's is based on experience.

   Of course, for the decoder to work, you have to send that first
   P *before* the first two B's, so the compressed data stream ends
   up looking like:

   0xx312645...

   where those are frame numbers.  xx might be nothing (if this is
   the true starting point), or it might be the B's of frames -2 and
   -1 if we're in the middle of the stream somewhere.

   You have to decode the I, then decode the P, keep both of those
   in memory, and then decode the two B's.  You probably display the
   I while you're decoding the P, and display the B's as you're
   decoding them, and then display the P as you're decoding the next
   P, and so on.

Q. You've got to be kidding.
A. No, really!

Q. Hmm.  Where did they get 352x240?
A. That derives from the CCIR-601 digital television standard which
   is used by professional digital video equipment.  It is (in the US)
   720 by 243 by 60 fields (not frames) per second, where the fields
   are interlaced when displayed.  (It is important to note though
   that fields are actually acquired and displayed a 60th of a second
   apart.)  The chrominance channels are 360 by 243 by 60 fields a
   second, again interlaced.  This degree of chrominance decimation
   (2:1 in the horizontal direction) is called 4:2:2.  The source
   input format for MPEG I, called SIF, is CCIR-601 decimated by 2:1
   in the horizontal direction, 2:1 in the time direction, and an
   additional 2:1 in the chrominance vertical direction.  And some
   lines are cut off to make sure things divide by 8 or 16 where
   needed.

Q. What if I'm in Europe?
A. For 50 Hz display standards (PAL, SECAM) change the number of lines
   in a field from 243 or 240 to 288, and change the display rate to
   50 fields/s or 25 frames/s.  Similarly, change the 120 lines in
   the decimated chrominance channels to 144 lines.  Since 288*50 is
   exactly equal to 240*60, the two formats have the same source data
   rate.

Q. You didn't mention anything about the audio compression.
A. Oh, right.  Well, I don't know as much about the audio compression.
   Basically they use very carefully developed psychoacoustic models
   derived from experiments with the best obtainable listeners to
   pick out pieces of the sound that you can't hear.  There are what
   are called "masking" effects where, for example, a large component
   at one frequency will prevent you from hearing lower energy parts
   at nearby frequencies, where the relative energy vs. frequency
   that is masked is described by some empirical curve.  There are
   similar temporal masking effects, as well as some more complicated
   interactions where a temporal effect can unmask a frequency, and
   vice-versa.

   The sound is broken up into spectral chunks with a hybrid scheme
   that combines sine transforms with subband transforms, and the
   psychoacoustic model written in terms of those chunks.  Whatever
   can be removed or reduced in precision is, and the remainder is
   sent.  It's a little more complicated than that, since the bits
   have to be allocated across the bands.  And, of course, what is
   sent is entropy coded.

Q. So how much does it compress?
A. As I mentioned before, audio CD data rates are about 1.5 Mbits/s.
   You can compress the same stereo program down to 256 Kbits/s with
   no loss in discernable quality.  (So they say.  For the most part
   it's true, but every once in a while a weird thing might happen
   that you'll notice.  However the effect is very small, and it takes
   a listener trained to notice these particular types of effects.)
   That's about 6:1 compression.  So, a CD MPEG I stream would have
   about 1.25 MBits/s left for video.  The number I usually see though
   is 1.15 MBits/s (maybe you need the rest for the system data
   stream).  You can then calculate the video compression ratio from
   the numbers here to be about 26:1.  If you step back and think
   about that, it's little short of a miracle.  Of course, it's lossy
   compression, but it can be pretty hard sometimes to see the loss,
   if you're comparing the SIF original to the SIF decompressed.  There
   is, however, a very noticeable loss if you're coming from CCIR-601
   and have to decimate to SIF, but that's another matter.  I'm not
   counting that in the 26:1.

   The standard also provides for other bit rates ranging from 32Kbits/s
   for a single channel, up to 448 Kbits/s for stereo.

Q. What's phase II?
A. As I said, there is a considerable loss of quality in going from
   CCIR-601 to SIF resolution.  For entertainment video, it's simply
   not acceptable.  You want to use more bits and code all or almost
   all the CCIR-601 data.  From subjective testing at the Japan
   meeting in November 1991, it seems that 4 MBits/s can give very
   good quality compared to the original CCIR-601 material.  The
   objective of phase II is to define a bit stream optimized for these
   resolutions and bit rates.

Q. Why not just scale up what you're doing with MPEG I?
A. The main difficulty is the interlacing.  The simplest way to extend
   MPEG I to interlaced material is to put the fields together into
   frames (720x486x30/s).  This results in bad motion artifacts that
   stem from the fact that moving objects are in different places
   in the two fields, and so don't line up in the frames.  Compressing
   and decompressing without taking that into account somehow tends to
   muddle the objects in the two different fields.

   The other thing you might try is to code the even and odd field
   streams separately.  This avoids the motion artifacts, but as you
   might imagine, doesn't get very good compression since you are not
   using the redundancy between the even and odd fields where there
   is not much motion (which is typically most of image).

   Or you can code it as a single stream of fields.  Or you can
   interpolate lines.  Or, etc. etc.  There are many things you can
   try, and the point of MPEG II is to figure out what works well.
   MPEG II is not limited to consider only derivations of MPEG I.
   There were several non-MPEG I-like schemes in the competition in
   November, and some aspects of those algorithms may or may not
   make it into the final standard for entertainment video compression.

Q. So what works?
A. Basically, derivations of MPEG I worked quite well, with one that
   used wavelet subband coding instead of DCT's that also worked very
   well.  Also among the worked-very-well's was a scheme that did not
   use B frames at all, just I and P's.  All of them, except maybe one,
   did some sort of adaptive frame/field coding, where a decision is
   made on a macroblock basis as to whether to code that one as one
   frame macroblock or as two field macroblocks.  Some other aspects
   are how to code I-frames--some suggest predicting the even field
   from the odd field.  Or you can predict evens from evens and odds
   or odds from evens and odds or any field from any other field, etc.

Q. So what works?
A. Ok, we're not really sure what works best yet.  The next step is
   to define a "test model" to start from, that incorporates most of
   the salient features of the worked-very-well proposals in a
   simple way.  Then experiments will be done on that test model,
   making a mod at a time, and seeing what makes it better and what
   makes it worse.  Example experiments are, B's or no B's, DCT vs.
   wavelets, various field prediction modes, etc.  The requirements,
   such as implementation cost, quality, random access, etc. will all
   feed into this process as well.

Q. When will all this be finished?
A. I don't know.  I'd have to hope in about a year or less.

Q. How do I join MPEG?
A. You don't join MPEG.  You have to participate in ISO as part of a
   national delegation.  How you get to be part of the national
   delegation is up to each nation.  I only know the U.S., where you
   have to attend the corresponding ANSI meetings to be able to
   attend the ISO meetings.  Your company or institution has to be
   willing to sink some bucks into travel since, naturally, these
   meetings are held all over the world.  (For example, Paris,
   Santa Clara, Kurihama Japan, Singapore, Haifa Israel, Rio de
   Janeiro, London, etc.)

Q. Well, then how do I get the documents, like the MPEG I draft?
A. MPEG is a draft ISO standard. It's exact name is ISO CD 11172.
   The draft consists of three parts: System, Video, and Audio. The
   System part (11172-1) deals with synchronization and multiplexing
   of audio-visual information, while the Video (11172-2) and Audio
   part (11172-3) address the video and the audio compression techniques
   respectively.

   You may order it from your national standards body (e.g. ANSI in
   the USA) or buy it from companies like
     OMNICOM
     phone [phone]
     FAX [phone]


===========================================================================
 II.1 | PROFESSIONAL SOFTWARE
=============================

Xing Technology Corporation
PO Box 950                                Voice: 805-473-0145
456 Carpenter Canyon                      FAX:   [phone]
Arroyo Grande, CA 93420

Xing products include:

    MPEG Motion video capture/encode and decode.
    JPEG Photo image encode and decode.
    Video capture boards and associated software for both JPEG and MPEG.

    Microsoft Windows Applications, DOS Applications,
        and Software Developers Kits are available for JPEG and MPEG.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Check out the latest in Frame Grabber technology, the

      PC-Hurricane,

a realtime  true color frame grabber, which can digitize about 500 frames
in realtime (25 frames/sec) into Extended Memory (32 MBytes).
So it gives you 20 seconds of full-motion video on the PC.

These 320 frames can be saved with one command to the harddrive and can
then be processed to a MPEG file with just one other command.
You can then join several 20 seconds MPEG clips together to a whole
MPEG movie with the MPEG utilities.

PC-Hurricane, only available from Ingenierbuero Gatz & Hartmann, GERMANY.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 II.2 |
-------

Ingenieurbuero Gatz & Hartmann,

Fehrbelliner Str. 32, 1000 Berlin 20, GERMANY

Tel: [phone] or 030-375 55 68
FAX: [phone] or 030-375 56 55

email to: [e-mail] (Stefan Hartmann)


The MPEG Encoder is available starting from 349.-DM incl. VAT.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

PC-Hurricane, only available from Ingenierbuero Gatz & Hartmann.
It is available for a price of 699.-DM inclusive 14 %  VAT.

Here comes the technical info about the new moviegrabber(tm)
PC-Hurricane(tm):

It is a hicolor color YUV (4:1:1) realtime video movie digitizer which can
store 25 frames/sec(PAL) or 30 frames/sec(NTSC)  into Expanded Memory. It
has support for ET4000 Hicolor and true color boards.

The software is a userfriendly DOS software, which displays the incoming
video signal in almost realtime (about 5-10 frames/sec) on a ET4000 Hicolor
board in 32768 colors/pixel. This is okay for video purposes, cause the
noise inside a video movie almost does already the dithering to a true
color quality (simualar to 24 bit quality).

If you don't have a Hicolor card inside your PC, then there is also a 256
color version driver, which displays the video signal in almost realtime
in 3-3-2 color quantisation (still the TGA pics are saved as 16 bit
Hicolor/pixel, so quality from the saved output is the same as in the
Hicolor software driver).

If the sequence arrives, which you wanna digitize, just hit the space key.
Then it is digitized into the Expanded Memory in realtime with 25 or 30
frames/sec maximum rate. This can be adjusted to 12.5 or 8 or 4 frames/sec!
During this storing process, you will not see any signal on your VGA
monitor, but if the RAM is filled with e.g.396 frames at 320x240, then you
can already watch the digitized movie play of the Expanded Memory!

It plays in slow motion the YUV coded fields to the SVGA card via the ISA
bus. This gives a real slow motion Hicolor digital movie out of the RAM !

So if you have 32 MBytes of Ram on your motherboard, you can be happy.
Then you can store about 16 seconds of realtime MPEG resolution 320x240
true color video with one shot ! With the enclosed software you can save
this with one command to single TGA pics onto the harddisk or save it as a
complete Hicolor movie (uncompressed, big file size).

PC-Hurricane also digitizes the resolutions: 384x288, 360x240, 320x240 and
320x200. So max. resolution is 1 PAL field (384x288). Field digitisation
is preferred, cause it gives no Interlace artifacts, due to motion...

So if you want to make a FLI file out of the 16 seconds sequence, no
problem, just start DTA17e (Dave's Targa Animator) and it produces a FLI
animation file out of the single TGA pics. Also, if you have the Xing
Technology software only MPEG encoder, it will be possible to compress
this about 400 single TARGA(tm) pics with just one second command to a
MPEG movie ! So you have in about 5 minutes of work a ready to display
MPEG movie !

PC-Hurricane has NTSC/PAL switchable. So it can also digitize NTSC video.
It has Video(FBAS) and Y/C(SVHS/Hi8) inputs.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

MPEG 2.0 for windows3.x is now available !

It is the digital Video player via a software only solution ! It displays
in a 320x240 window under win3.x a realtime decompressed digital video !
Decompression is done only by software and it reaches 30 frames/sec on a
486 PC ! The new version has a very enhanced picture quality, because the
compression rate with the encoder can now be adjusted ! The very new thing
is the WAV-Sound support ! So if you have a soundcard inside your PC [or
the speaker-drv installed !], you will have a real video-clip with
accompagning sound !

They currently sell 3 demo disks with the full featured Player, version
2.0 and lots of animations on the disks.

It is available for 39.-DM over here in Germany, which is 26 US$.

[ It does no sounds over the speaker-drv (works only with sound-card), ]
[ does now recognize Windows 3.1, and does OLE, but only if you buy    ]
[ the MCI-driver. Works for nearly every card under 640x480x256. Works ]
[ with ET-4000 under 1024x768x256 (only with small fonts) too.         ]

[        ATTENTION !!! THIS ONE IS NOT UP TO DATE ANYMORE !!!          ]
[======================================================================]
[ This player is the one, you can get now for free from Xing's         ]
[ BBS or find on several ftp-servers. This player was an offer to get  ]
[ this player even before it was available for the public-domain. Thnx ]
[ to Stefan !                                                          ]

[ Here the description of the PD-Player :                              ]

MFW.EXE Version 2.0

1.1 General Description

MFW can be started from the DOS command line or as a "run" command from
within Windows.  From the DOS prompt, enter WIN MFW.  From the Windows FILE
RUN dialog, enter MFW.  Using either of the two command line methods,
additional command parameters can be passed to the program for customizing
its startup.

Valid command line parameters will take precedence over the customization
parameters saved in the MFW.INI file.  Invalid command line parameters will
be ignored as if missing altogether.  The MFW.INI file provides default
startup values for each missing command parameter except the optional file
name.  The MFW.INI file is updated at user discretion from menu options
selected while running MFW.

[      ATTENTION ! SEVERAL BUGS ARE KNOWN FOR THIS PLAYER !!              ]
[=========================================================================]

[ The player doesn't detect where it resided, by checking the argv[0]     ]
[ argument (complete pathname !).                                         ]

[ So, if you start the player via double-click on a .mpg-File from the    ]
[ FILEMAN.EXE (or similar), the player doesn't find it's MFW.INI-File. It ]
[ can't read its system then, and the hole thing is fu**ed !!             ]

[ Or the player doesn't find his .INI-File, thinks that this was the      ]
[ first time it was started and:                                          ]

[   LEAVES A NEW MFW.INI-File in the current directory !!!                ]

[ Not in the one the player is, no ! In the current one. So my movies are ]
[ in g:\mpeg\movies, the player is somewhere under c:\windows.31\mpeg, I  ]
[ double-click on the .mpg-Movie and get a new MFW.INI in g:\mpeg\movie ! ]

[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]

[ Now the second 'maybe not so bad' bug:

[ The description says, to put the corresponding DLL-Files in the SYSTEM- ]
[ directory.  That's NOT neccessary, cause the DLL-loading-API-function   ]
[ will look through the path-variable and try to load the DLL's from      ]
[ there.                                                                  ]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

BTW, the encoder still sells for 349.-DM and the MCI-driver for 199.-DM

[ The MCI-driver is nice, because it allows you to include movies in      ]
[ other documents. But it includes only the MPLAYER.EXE-icon in the       ]
[ document (not the first picture of the movie), the movie runs at        ]
[ whatever position (not where the icon is !), when you double-click it.  ]

[ Xing should have a close look at Microsoft's AVI-driver ;o) (but there  ]
[ movies are incredible slow and small, compared to MPEG  :o(             ]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

24 bit to TV converter box which is a box connected outside of the PC to
the SVGA card via its VGA connector. There must be a TSR program run in the
background to change automatically the scanning frequencies of the SVGA
board. This works also very well with win3.1. It supports up to 800x600x
65K colors (only PAL) and 640x480 with 24 bits color (true color) on the
Genoa 7900 ET4000 SVGA board. It has  Video (FBAS) and Y/C (SVHS/HI8)
outputs.

There is also a version of this box with additional RGB output, so you get
the best picture quality on a TV-set with SCART - RGB-inputs..

The VGA Monitor is also connected to the 24 Bit to TV converter box, so if
you don't start the driver software, your system is like normal: You see
the picture on your SVGA monitor. The DC-power comes from the keyboard
connector, so you don't have to fiddle around with AC-DC-aptor power
supplies !

Just don't start the driver software, if you don't need video out ! The box
doesn't interfere with your daily work. Just forget it behind you PC. If
you need video out, just start the 2 KBytes driver software and then you
can toggle between video out and VGA monitor display with a hot key !

The driver software is adapted to SVGA FLIC-files from Autodesk Animator
PRO to give a 640x288 x256 colors Fullscreen-Overscan display on PAL TV-
sets. This works by using double scanning with 50 Hz Non-Interlace !
Every scanline from the 288 is scanned twice, so it gives 640x576
Fullscreen display ! (with no flicker)

This way you can record your favourite SVGA animations to tape without
seeing any black borders !

There is also a NTSC version available, which works only up to 640x480 with
16, 256 ,32K , 65 K and 24 bits colors ! On NTSC model the 640x480 mode is
already Fullscreen !

It also works with the new Hicolor FLI player, so you can play and record
hicolor animation directly from a RAMdisk to VCR tape. You don't need NO
single frame accurate expensive VCR anymore ! Cause it works also with
win3.1, you can record all your daily windows application work to video
tape !

If you have a presentation program like Microsoft Powerpoint, no problem !
Just record your presentation to video tape to show it via video cassette
to everyone, who has a VCR !

In windows the 24 bit to TV-box works in 50 or 60 Hz Interlace to display
the 640x480 or 800x600 (only PAL) scanlines. This gives a little flicker on
Menu-buttons, which have only very small horizontal lines with big contrast
in color. So use an appropriate color palette under windows to reduce
flicker..

With the Y/C output (SVHS/Hi8) you almost get SVGA monitor quality on your
video tape !

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

VGA2TV adaptor. This is an internal board which is hooked inside the PC to
the feature connector of the VGA card. So the VGA or SVGA board must have a
feature connector ! The VGA2TV samples the contens of the VGA RAM into its
own dual ported RAM and gives it out with the Video scanning frequencies to
its Video (FBAS) or Y/C output. It also has a Genlock possibility. So it
can be used to do titling in front of a holiday movie video tape running in
the background of the computer graphics titles !

Input of the external video source could also be FBAS or Y/C. This unit is
called M2150 for the PAL version. M2100 is the NTSC version.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

VGA2TV PRO with integrated Flicker fixer. This is the new release of the
VGA2TV board. It has also a flicker filter for making the Interlace flicker
much less visible. It also has OverScan/Underscan feature and the position
of the screen on the TV set could be controlled via software. This board is
of course more expensive than the older VGA2TV, but still either cards are
sold.  The new one is called M2200 .

Both max resolutions to convert with these VGA2TV boards are 640x480 with
256 colors ! It has the advantage, that it does not need any software !
Just plug and it plays !

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Productlist from Gatz & Hartmann
================================

Genoa 7900 SVGA 24 bit true color Multimedia Graphik-Karte.... 299.-DM
24 bit to TV Konverter Box, passend zur Genoa 7900 Karte.......349.-DM
Genoa 7900 und 24 bit to TV Box, im Bundle.....................629.-DM
24 bit to TV Box mit zusaetzlichem RGB-Video Ausgang auf Scart.549.-DM
VGA2TV Genoa Genlock-Karte,intern, Computergrafik ueber Video..998.-DM
VGA2TV PRO, Profi-Version mit Flicker-fixer,etc...............1599.-DM
PC-Titler Standard,Video Vertitelungs-Software fuer VGA-Karten.349.-DM
PC-Titler Deluxe, Profi-Version vom PC Titler, mehr Effekte....649.-DM
The Video Workshop, PC gesteuerter Video-Schnittplatz.........1599.-DM
The Video Workshop Lite, Druckerport gesteuerter Video-Schnitt.999.-DM
MPEG Encoder VTM, digitales Video per Software,fuer TGA-pics...349,-DM
MPEG MCI-win3.x-driver,Treiber zum Einbinden von MPEG-clips ...199.-DM
MPEG 2.0 Demo, 3 Disketten mit dem neuen WAV-support player ....39.-DM
PC-Hurricane,25 Bilder/sec realtime MPEG true color Digitizer..699.-DM
FG-02 , Hicolor DTP Framegrabber, 512x512 pixel Videodigitizer.499.-DM
VT-Express,sehr schneller JPEG-Bild viewer, ca. 1.2 sec/Bild...349.-DM
Hicolor(32768Farben) Animations-Software f. TGA-Animationen ...149.-DM

[ Looks like, if I don't have to translate this ;o)                  ]

[ Well, I know, looks like advert, but they are the only ones, that  ]
[ produce MPEG-Hard- and Software for this price. Hereby I declare,  ]
[ everybody can send me their lists, too. I will publish them in the ]
[ next FAQ. Current Dollar-DeutschMark-course is: 1$ = 1,67 DM !!!   ]


===========================================================================
 III | PUBLIC-DOMAIN-SOFTWARE OR SHAREWARE
==========================================


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 III.1 | DOS
------------

[ This is the NEW Xing-Dos-Player ! ]

The MPEG-Player 'MPLAY.EXE' from Xing Technologies is included
in the 'MPEGXING.LZH'-file.

Hi, this is the new Full-Screen DOS only MPEG player from Xing Technology.

Use it under DOS:  mpeg name.mpg

This will give a fullscreen 320x200 display with 256 colors. You can play
with it the Xing MPEG files which are normally 320x240 screen size.

With this shareware player you have 40 scanlines less, so upgrade to the
upcoming XMode DOS player which will have 240 scanlines and will also
support WAV audio with it.

For more info just contact Xing Technology under:

805-473-0145 (voice)  or
805-473-0147 (fax)

(in the USA)

Best regards, Stefan Hartmann
email to: [e-mail]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

There is another player called PLAYMPEG.ZIP including two executables
MPEG128.EXE and MPEG250.EXE (for 128 and 250 colors) by:

PLAYMPG v. 0.9 - Jan. 1993 - by Giampiero Caprino, Olivetti, Italy.
This is a pre-release version being distributed for evaluation

The modified berkeley-source-code is avilable as MPEGSRC.ZIP.

[ The user-interface is more comfortable than the MPEG.EXE one, but ]
[ these players here are terrible slow. Anyway, it shows how easy   ]
[ you can adapt the berkeley-code (see below) and port it to other  ]
[ systems. And it works on ALL VGA-cards !!!                        ]

[ Hopefully, Rowe, Patel and Smith include this additional code in  ]
[ the next version of their MPEG-Player to get a system-undependent ]
[ distribution.                                                     ]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ A new implementation of the berkeley-code for DOS. This code is   ]
[ available for AT286/386 and the files are named MPEG286.ZIP and   ]
[ MPEG386.ZIP .                                                     ]

MPEG translator and player V0.00

This is the 286 version of the MPEG traslation and playback routines.
I would like to thank Giampero Caprino for providing the VGA routines and
the authors of the Mpeg standard Unix distribution for most of this code.

To play back an animation you first must translate it to a raw data file.
To do this type

   mpeg <dither-options> input-file output-file

You will see it counting off the frames as it runs. When it is finished
type

   playback <delay-value> input-file

Where input-file to playback corresponds to the output-file of mpeg.exe.
The delay value defaults to 0, but this is probably too fast.
On a 486sx with no delay, I get just over 20 frames per second.
Try values between 0 and 200.

Note that several dithering options are not supported: 2x2, hybrid2,
and gray. Perhaps I will fix this in the future.

Also please note that if the MPEG animation loops, the translator will
happily write a file as big as your disk drive. Hit CTRL-C to stop it.

This program is freeware.
I have included the original Unix man page and docs for the MPEG player.

Greg Ennis
[e-mail]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Stefan Eckart)
Subject: dmpeg10.zip info: Another DOS MPEG decoder/player posted
Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1993 08:53:14 GMT

I have posted a DOS MPEG decoder/player to alt.binaries.pictures.utilities.

Here is a short description and some technical information, taken from the
accompanying documentation:

                              DMPEG V1.0
                       Public Domain MPEG decoder
                           by Stefan Eckart

0. Features
===========

DMPEG/DMPLAY is another MPEG decoder/player for the PC:


 - decodes (nearly) the full MPEG video standard
   (I,P,B frames, frame size up to at least 352x240 supported)

 - saves decoded sequence in 8 or 24bit raw file for later display

 - optional on-screen display during decoding (requires VGA)

 - several dithering options: ordered dither, Floyd-Steinberg, grayscale

 - color-space selection

 - runs under DOS, 640KB RAM, no MS-Windows required

 - very compact (small code / small data models, 16 bit arithmetic)

 - real time display of the raw file by a separate player for
   VGA and many Super-VGAs

...

4. Technical information
========================

The player is a rather straightforward implementation of the MPEG spec [1].
The IDCT is based on the Chen-Wang 13 multiplication algorithm [2]
(not quite the optimum, I know). Blocks with not more than eight non-zero
coefficients use a non-separated direct multiply-accumulate 2D-IDCT
(sounds great, doesn't it?), which turned out to be faster than a 'fast'
algorithm in this (quite common) case. Dithering is pretty standard. Main
difference to the Berkeley decoder (except for the fewer number of supported
algorithms) is the use of 256 instead of 128 colors, the (default) option to
use a restricted color-space and the implementation of a color saturation
dominant ordered dither. This leads to a significantly superior quality of
the dithered image (I claim, judge yourself).

Restricted color-space means that the U and V components are clipped to
+/-0.25 (instead of +/-0.5) and the display color-space points are distributed
over this restricted space. Since the distance between color-space points
is thus reduced by a factor of two, the color resolution is doubled at the
expense of not being able to represent fully saturated colors.

Saturation dominant ordered dither is a method by which a color, lying
somewhere between the points of the display color space, is approximated
by primarily alternating between two points of constant hue instead of
constant saturation. This yields subjectivly better quality due to the
lower sensitivity of the human viewing system to saturation changes than
to hue changes (the same reasoning as used by the PAL TV standard to improve
on NTSC). The improvement is particularly visible in dark brown or redish
areas.

Stefan Eckart, [e-mail]


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 III.2 | WINDOWS
----------------

The MPEG-Player 'MPEGXING.LZH' from Xing Technologies.

[ Good player ! Works for nearly every card under 640x480x256   ]
[ Works with ET-4000 under 1024x768x256 (with small fonts) too. ]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Genoa product presentation MPEG demo. Its available via
Ingenieurbuero Gatz & Hartmann,

This is what you need to play it:

  A fast 486 ( at least 33 Mhz) with 16 MBytes of RAM.
  Also it is a ET4000 board required. Local-Bus is also okay...

  [ Also you need about 20MB free disk space. 10 for the file ]
  [ and 10 for the SMARTDRV-Cache. Didn't try it on the PC,   ]
  [ but on the Sun's. It's a animated product info, not a     ]
  [ movie; not worth to bother !!                             ]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

MPEGPLAY V1.0 (c) 1993 Michael Simmons

[ Hup ! Anotherone, that thinks, he's alone ... I proclaim, that this ]
[ player should be called MPEGW32 from now on !!!                     ]

This is Release Version 1.0 of an MPEG player for WIN32(tm) and WIN32s(tm).

This player can play standard mpeg files that include P and B frame
encoding, and large 354x288 movie files.

It has several display options including mono,gray scale,color dither and
Full color (for Hicolor graphic cards).

To install the player under Windows 3.1(tm), Unzip the file disk1.zip
to a floppy disk. Then, run the setup.exe file from Windows.

To install the player under Windows NT(tm) copy the files mpegplay.exe and
mpegplay.hlp to a common directory. Then, create a new program item for the
mpegplay.exe file via the File New option of the Program Manager.

The working directory must be the same as the program path. Otherwise
the Online help file will not be found (see known bugs section at the end
of this document.)

Read the Disclaimer in the online Help before loading any mpeg movie files.

This program is SHAREWARE.

To receive the latest version of the Player send $25 US and a list of
suggestions and/or bugs to:

  Michael Simmons
  34 Shillington Way
  THORNLIE WA 6108
  AUSTRALIA

DISTRIBUTION:

This File must not be separated from the rest of this archive.

Due to licensing conditions of the WIN32s(tm) System this archive can only be
Redistributed in the following ways:
(1) Archive site to End user.
(2) Archive site to Archive site.
The following means of redistribution are not permitted:
(1) End user to End user.
(2) End user to Archive site.

Redistribution from Archive site to Archive site may only be performed by
the operators of those sites.
An Archive site is taken to be any large collection of software which is
operated by a person or group of persons for the primary purpose of
redistributing that software.
An End user is taken to be the person or group of persons who use this
software.

Known Bugs:
(1) Help file must be in the working directory when the player is started.
(2) The Mono Dither is not working properly.
(3) The 2x2 Color Dither has patches of incorrect color.
(4) Sometimes the player fails to display Full Color 354x288 images after
    a previous movie has been Opened and then Closed.
(5) The Player is slower than is possiable.
(6) Bug/feature The Player runs slow when ever the mouse is moving.

Windows NT, Win32s, Windows 3.1 are trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

This code was derived from the U.C. Berkeley MPEG Player (version 2.0)
developed by L.A. Rowe, K. Patel, and B. Smith ([e-mail]).
That code included the following copyright:

  Copyright (c) 1992 The Regents of the University of California.
  All rights reserved.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 III.3 | WINDOWS-NT
-------------------

From: [e-mail] (Michael Simmons - mgmt_staff)
Subject: MPEG PLAYER for NT/WIN32s uploaded to cica
Date: 16 Mar 1993 02:49:03 GMT

I have uploaded my port (alpha version) to Windows NT and Win32s of
the berkeley Public Domain MPEG player to ftp.cica.indiana.edu
It is in the /pub/pc/win3/uploads directory.File name mpegnt.zip

Below is the contents of the mpegnt.txt file.

This archive contains my port (alpha version) to Windows NT(tm) and Win32s
of the berkeley Public Domain MPEG player.

WARNING this is code is very buggy so use it at your own risk.
Read all of this file before running the player.

I suggest that you close any running applications before running this player.

To run this program under Windows 3.1 you will need a copy the the Win32s
runtime this can be found in the Spice4?.zip files in the /pub/pc/win3/nt
directory on ftp.cica.indiana.edu.
It is also include on the October 92 Win32 SDK CD-ROM.