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- Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!news.mathworks.com!fu-berlin.de!cs.tu-berlin.de!phade
- From: phade@cs.tu-berlin.de (Frank Gadegast)
- Newsgroups: alt.answers,comp.answers,news.answers
- Subject: MPEG-FAQ: multimedia compression [4/9]
- Followup-To: alt.binaries.multimedia
- Date: 9 Nov 1996 09:33:27 GMT
- Organization: Technical University of Berlin, Germany
- Lines: 1304
- Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU
- Expires: 31 Dec 1996 12:00:00 GMT
- Message-ID: <561j57$otv$1@news.cs.tu-berlin.de>
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- Summary: This is the summary about the ISO video and audioformats MPEG 1, 2 and 4
- Keywords: MPEG, FAQ, Compression
- Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu alt.answers:21697 comp.answers:22307 news.answers:86422
-
- Archive-name: mpeg-faq/part4
- Last-modified: 1996/06/02
- Version: v 4.1 96/06/02
- Posting-Frequency: bimonthly
-
- 3. The pre-digital source was severely oversampled (compare 352 x 240
- SIF to 35 millimeter film at, say, 3000 x 2000 samples). This can
- result in a very high quality signal, whereas most video cameras do not
- oversample, especially in the vertical direction.
-
- 4. Finally, the spatial and temporal modulation transfer function (MTF)
- characteristics (motion blur, etc) of film are more amenable to the
- transform and quantization methods of MPEG.
-
- What is the best compression ratio for MPEG ?
-
- The MPEG sweet spot is about 1.2 bits/pel Intra and 0.35 bits/pixel
- inter. Experimentation has shown that intra frame coding with the
- familiar DCT-Quantization-Huffman hybrid algorithm achieves optimal
- performance at about an average of 1.2 bits/sample or about 6:1
- compression ratio. Below this point, artifacts become non-transparent.
-
- Is there an MPEG file format?
-
- The traditional descriptors that file formats provide in headers, such
- image height, width, color space, etc., are already embedded within the
- MPEG bitstream in the sequence header. Directory file formats are
- described in the White Book and DVD specifications.
-
-
- What is the Digital Video Disc (DVD) ?
-
- In 1994, Toshiba united with Thomson Consumer Electronics, Pioneer, and
- a handful of Hollywood studios to define a new 12 cm diameter compact
- disc format for broadcast rate digital video. The new format basically
- increases the effective areal storage density over the 1982 Red Book
- format by some 6:1 (800 Mbytes vs 5 GBytes). This is achieved through
- a combination of shorter laser wavelength, finer track pitch, inter-pit
- pitch, and better optics. The thickness of the disc is reduced from the
- Red Book's 1.2 millimeters to 0.6 millimeters. However, the new format
- can be glue two 0.6 mm thick discs back-to-back, forming a double- size
- disc 1.2 mm thick with a total capacity of 10 Gbytes. A two hour movie,
- encoded onto only one side, would contain a video bistream average at 5
- Mbit/sec. Or 10 Mbit/sec if distributed on both sides of a disc. Most
- of the 6:1 gain is achieved though more efficient encoding of bits onto
- the disc. Only a 2:1 factor comes purely from the reduction in
- wavelength.
-
- By comparison, today's double-sided analog video laserdiscs have a
- diameter of 30 cm (571 cm^2 of usable area), and a thickness of 2.4
- millimeters. Storage capacity is a maximum of 65 minutes per side.
-
- A future potential format for HDTV may employ a blue wavelength laser
- (0.4 microns), offering another 2:1 increase in areal density, or 20
- Gbytes total. Other alternatives include larger disc sizes. For
- example, if bit coding at DVD areal densities were applied to the
- familiar 30 cm disc, the average bitrate for the 65 minutes of video
- per side would be nearly 70 Mbit/sec !!
-
-
-
-
-
- What is the MPEG committee ?
-
- In fact, MPEG is a nickname. The official title is: ISO/IEC JTC1 SC29 WG11.
-
- ISO: International Organization for Standardization
- IEC: International Electrotechnical Commission
- JTC1: Joint Technical Committee 1
- SC29: Sub-committee 29
- WG11: Working Group 11 (moving pictures with... uh, audio)
-
-
- What ever happened to MPEG-3 ?
-
- MPEG-3 was to have targeted HDTV applications with sampling dimensions
- up to 1920 x 1080 x 30 Hz and coded bitrates between 20 and 40
- Mbit/sec. It was later discovered that with some (syntax compatible)
- fine tuning, MPEG-2 and MPEG-1 syntax worked very well for HDTV rate
- video. The key is to maintain an optimal balance between sample rate
- and coded bit rate.
-
- Also, the standardization window for HDTV was rapidly closing. Europe
- and the United States were on the brink of committing to
- analog-digital subnyquist hybrid algorithms (D-MAC, MUSE, et al). By
- 1992, European all-digital projects such as HD-DIVINE and VADIS
- demonstrated better picture quality with respect to bandwidth using the
- MPEG syntax. In the United States, the Sarnoff/NBC/Philips/Thomson
- HDTV consortium had used MPEG-1 syntax from the beginning of its
- all-digital proposal, and with the exception of motion artifacts (due
- to limited search range in the encoder), was deemed to have the best
- picture quality of all three digital proponents in the early 1993
- bake-off. HDTV is now part of the MPEG-2 High-1440 Level and High Level
- toolkit.
-
-
-
-
- Why bother having an MPEG-2 ?
-
- A. MPEG-1 was optimized for CD-ROM or applications at about 1.5
- Mbit/sec. Video was strictly non- interlaced (i.e. progressive). The
- international cooperation executed well enough for MPEG-1, that the
- committee began to address applications at broadcast TV sample rates
- using the CCIR 601 recommendation (720 samples/line by 480 lines per
- frame by 30 frames per second or about 15.2 million samples/sec
- including chroma) as the reference.
-
- Unfortunately, today's TV scanning pattern is interlaced. This
- introduces a duality in block coding: do local redundancy areas
- (blocks) exist exclusively in a field or a frame.(or a particle or
- wave) ? The answer of course is that some blocks are one or the other
- at different times, depending on motion activity. The additional man
- years of experimentation and implementation between MPEG-1 and MPEG-2
- improved the method of block-based transform coding.
-
- It is often remarked that MPEG-2 spent several hundred man years and
- 10s of millions of dollars yet only gained 20% coding efficiency over
- MPEG-1 for interlaced video signals. However, the collaborative
- process brought companies together, and from that came a standard well
- agreed upon. In many ways, the political achievement dwarfs the
- technical one. Also, MPEG-2 was exploratory. Coding of interlaced
- video was unknown territory. It took some considerable convincing to
- demonstrate that a simple syntax, akin to MPEG-1, was as efficient as
- other proposals. Left by themselves, each company would probably have
- produced a diverse scope of syntax.
-
- Is MPEG patented ?
-
- Many of the companies which participated in the MPEG committee have
- indicated that they hold patents to fundamental elements of the MPEG
- syntax and semantics. Already, the group known as the "IRT consortium"
- (CCETT, IRT, et al) have defined royalty fees and licensing agreements
- for OEMs of MPEG Layer I and II audio encoders and decoders. The fee
- is $1 USD per audio channel in small quantities, and $0.50 USD per
- channel in large quantities.
-
- A royalty and licensing agreement has yet to be reached among holders
- of Video and Systems patents, however the figure has already been
- agreed upon, ranging from $3 to $4 per implementation. Whether it is
- retroactively applicable or not to products already sold, or whether it
- is possible to avoid the patents via approximation techniques, is not
- known. The non-profit organization,CableLabs (Boulder, Colorado), is
- responsible for leading the MPEG Intellectual Property Rights effort
- (known canonically as the "MPEG Patent Pool."). An agreement is
- expected by mid 1995.
-
- In order to reach the IS (International Standard) document stage, all
- parties must have sent in a letter to ISO stating they agree to license
- their intellectual property on fair and reasonable terms,
- indiscriminately. For MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, this was accomplished in mid
- 1993.
-
- Companies which hold patents often cross-license each other. Each
- party does not have to pay royalties to one another.
-
- What is White Book
-
- The White Book specifies the file structure and indexing of multiplexed
- MPEG video and audio streams. White Book also specifies the Karaoke
- application's reference table which describes programs and their sector
- locations. At the lowest layer, White Book builds upon the CD-ROM XA
- spec.. Extension data includes screen pointing devices, address list of
- all Intra pictures within a program, CD version number, Closed Caption
- data, and information indexing of MPEG still pictures.
-
- The specific MPEG parameter definitions of White Book are:
-
- Audio coding method: MPEG-1 Layer II
- Sampling rate: 44.1 kHz
- Coded bit rate: 224 Kbits/sec
- Mode: stereo, dual channel, or intensity stereo
-
- Video coding method: MPEG-1
- Permitted sample rates:
- 352 pixels/line x 240 lines/frame x 29.97 frames/sec (NTSC rate)
- 352 pixels/line x 240 lines/frame x 23.976 frames/sec (NTSC film rate)
- 352 pixels/line x 288 lines/frame x 25 frame/sec (PAL rate)
- Maximum bitrate: 1.1519291 bits/sec
-
- Recommendations include:
- pixel aspect ratios: 1.0950 (352x240) or 0.9157 (352 x 288)
- Intra pictures be placed at least once every 2 seconds.
-
- Still pictures: ("Intra" picture_coding_type only)
- Normal res: 352 x 240 or 352 x 288 (maximum 46 Kbytes coded size)
- Double res: 704 x 480 or 704 x 576 (maximum 224 Kbytes coded size)
-
-
- The other books are:
-
- Red Book: this is the original Compact Disc Audio specification (circa
- 1980). All other books (Yellow, Green, Orange, White) are identical at
- the low-level, sharing a common base with Red Book. This grandfather
- specification defines sectors, tracks, and channel coding (8/14 EFM
- outer forward error correction (FEC), 8-bit polynomial interleaved
- Reed-Soloman inner forward error correction, etc), and physical
- parameters (disc diameter 12 cm, laser wavelength 0.8 microns, track
- pitch, land-to-pit spacing, digital modulation, etc.).
-
- Yellow Book: first CD-ROM specification (circa 1986). Later appended
- by the CD-ROM XA spec.
-
- Green Book: CD-I (Compact Disc Interactive).
-
- Orange Book: Kodak Photo CD
-
- ISO 9660: (circa 1988) describes file structure for CD-ROM XA (circa
- 1988). Similar to MS-DOS, filenames are case insensitive and limited to
- 8 characters, and 3 extension characters (8.3 format). Many CD-ROMs
- containing MPEG are nothing more than Yellow Book CD which treat
- multiplexed video and audio bitstreams as an ordinary file.
-
-
- Further information can be retrieved from:
-
- Philips Consumer Electronics B.V.
- Coordination Office Optical & Magnetic Media Systems
- Building SWA-1
- P.O. Box 80002
- 5600 JB Eindhoven
- The Netherlands
- Tel: +31 40 736409
- Fax: +31 40 732113
-
-
-
- What are some typical picture sizes and their associated
- applications ?
-
-
- 352 x 240 SIF. CD WhiteBook Movies, video games.
- 352 x 480 HHR. VHS equivalent
- 480 x 480 Bandlimited (4.2 Mhz) broadcast NTSC.
- 544 x 480 Laserdisc, D-2, Bandlimited PAL/SECAM.
- 640 x 480 Square pixel NTSC
- 720 x 480 CCIR 601. Studio D-1. Upper limit of Main Level.
-
-
-
- Future topics:
-
- How are MPEG video and audio streams synchronized?
- What is Digital Video Cassette (DVC) ?
- How does the D-VHS format encode MPEG signals?
- What is MPEG-4 ?
- The high level and low level differences between MPEG, JPEG, H.261, and H.263
- MPEG in applications
- More on DVD.
- Details on DVB
- Implementations (semiconductor chips)
- Software Complexity and performance. Well known speedup methods.
- MPEG software on the Internet (audio, video, systems)
- Specific MPEG articles in literature.
- Current activities of MPEG-4
- MPEG Compliance bitstreams
-
- -----
- cfogg@chromatic.com
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- ~Subject: What happened at the MPEG - NY meeting ?
-
- From: cfogg@ole.cdac.com (Chad Fogg)
- Date: 22 Jul 93 05:31:41 GMT
-
- INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION FOR STANDARDISATION
- ORGANISATION INTERNATIONALE DE NORMALISATION
- ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11
- CODING OF MOVING PICTURES AND ASSOCIATED AUDIO
-
- ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 N0500
- July 16, 1993
-
- Source: ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11
- ~Title: Press Release (Final) -- MPEG New York Meeting
- Status: For immediate release
-
-
- Summary
-
- This week in New York, at a meeting hosted by Columbia University, the
- Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) completed definition of MPEG-2
- Video, MPEG-2 Audio, and MPEG-2 Systems. MPEG therefore confirmed
- that it is on schedule to produce, by November 1993, Committee Drafts of
- all three parts of the MPEG-2 Standard, for balloting by its member
- countries.
-
- To ensure that a harmonized solution to the widest range of applications
- is achieved, MPEG, an ISO/IEC working group designated ISO/IEC
- JTC1/SC29/WG11, is working jointly with the ITU-TS Study Group 15
- "Experts Group for ATM Video Coding." MPEG also collaborates with
- representatives from other parts of ITU-TS, and from EBU, ITU-RS, SMPTE,
- and the North American HDTV community.
-
-
- MPEG-2 Video
-
- MPEG is developing the MPEG-2 Video Standard, which specifies the coded
- bit stream for high-quality digital video. As a compatible extension,
- MPEG-2 Video builds on the completed MPEG-1 Video Standard (ISO/IEC IS
- 11172-2), by supporting interlaced video formats and a number of other
- advanced features, including features to support HDTV.
-
- As a generic International Standard, MPEG-2 Video is being defined in
- terms of extensible profiles, each of which will support the features
- needed by an important class of applications. At the March MPEG meeting
- in Sydney, the MPEG-2 Main Profile was defined to support digital video
- transmission in the range of about 2 to 15 Mbits/sec over cable, satellite,
- and other broadcast channels, as well as for Digital Storage Media (DSM)
- and other communications applications. Building on this success at this
- week's New York meeting, MPEG experts from participating countries in
- Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America further defined parameters of
- the Main Profile and Simple Profile suitable for supporting HDTV formats.
-
- This week the MPEG experts also extended the features of the Main Profile
- by defining a hierarchical/scalable profile. This profile aims to support
- applications such as compatible terrestrial TV/HDTV, packet-network
- video systems, backward-compatibility with existing standards (MPEG-1
- and H.261), and other applications for which multi-level coding is
- required. For example, such a system could give the consumer the option
- of using either a small portable receiver to decode standard definition TV,
- or a larger fixed receiver to decode HDTV from the same broadcast signal.
-
- This week's accomplishments in New York mean that the technical
- definition of MPEG-2 Video has been completed. This was a critical
- milestone, and shows that MPEG-2 Video is on schedule for a Committee
- Draft in November.
-
-
- MPEG-2 Audio
-
- MPEG is developing the MPEG-2 Audio Standard for low bitrate coding of
- multichannel audio. MPEG-2 Audio coding will supply up to five full
- bandwidth channels (left, right, center, and two surround channels), plus
- an additional low frequency enhancement channel, and/or up to seven
- commentary/multilingual channels. The MPEG-2 Audio Standard will also
- extend the stereo and mono coding of the MPEG-1 Audio Standard (ISO/IEC
- IS 11172-3) to half sampling-rates (16 kHz, 22.05 kHz, and 24 kHz), for
- improved quality for bitrates at or below 64 kbits/s, per channel.
-
- This week in New York, MPEG produced an updated version of the MPEG-2
- Audio Working Draft, and is on track for achieving a Committee Draft
- specification by the November MPEG meeting.
-
- The MPEG-2 Audio multichannel coding Standard will provide
- backward-compatibility with the existing MPEG-1 Audio Standard
- (ISO/IEC IS 11172-3). Together with ITU-RS, MPEG is organizing formal
- subjective testing of the proposed MPEG-2 multichannel audio codecs and
- up to three non-backward-compatible (NBC) codecs. The NBC codecs are
- included in order to determine whether an NBC mode should be introduced
- as an addendum to the standard. If the results show clear evidence that an
- NBC mode improves the performance, a formal call for NBC proposals will
- be issued by MPEG, with a view to incorporate these features in the audio
- syntax.
-
-
- MPEG-2 Systems
-
- <IMG SRC="mpeg2sys.gif">
-
- MPEG is developing the MPEG-2 Systems Standard to specify coding
- formats for multiplexing audio, video, and other data into a form suitable
- for transmission or storage. There are two data stream formats defined:
- the Transport Stream, which can carry multiple programs simultaneously,
- and which is optimized for use in applications where data loss may be
- likely, and the Program stream, which is optimized for multimedia
- applications, for performing systems processing in software, and for
- MPEG-1 compatibility.
-
- Both streams are designed to support a large number of known and
- anticipated applications, and they retain a significant amount of
- flexibility such as may be required for such applications, while providing
- interoperability between different device implementations. The
- Transport Stream is well suited for transmission of digital television and
- video telephony over fiber, satellite, cable, ISDN, ATM, and other
- networks, and also for storage on digital video tape and other devices. It
- is expected to find widespread use for such applications in the very near
- future.
-
- The Program Stream is similar to the MPEG-1 Systems standard (ISO/IEC
- 11172-1). It includes extensions to support new and future applications.
- Both the Transport Stream and Program Stream are built on a common
- Packetized Elementary Stream packet structure, facilitating common
- video and audio decoder implementations and stream type conversions.
- This is well-suited for use over a wide variety of networks with
- ATM/AAL and alternative transports. This week in New York, MPEG
- completed definitions of the features, syntax, and semantics of the
- Transport and Program Streams, enabling product designers to proceed.
- Among other items, the Transport Stream packet length was fixed at 188
- bytes, including the 4-byte header. This length is suited for use with ATM
- networks, as well as a wide variety of other transmission and storage
- systems.
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- ~Subject: Whats with MPEG-4 ?
-
- MPEG-4
-
- Work on a new MPEG initiative for very low bitrate coding of audiovisual
- programs has been approved by unanimous ballot of all national bodies of
- ISO/IEC JTC1. This work will begin officially at the next MPEG meeting in
- Brussels in September 1993. It is scheduled to result in a draft
- specification in 1997.
-
- This work will require the development of fundamentally new algorithmic
- techniques. In conjunction with the MPEG meeting this week in New York,
- a one-day seminar was held on current research ideas applicable to low
- bitrate coding. Demonstrations and papers were presented on a number of
- techniques, including model-based image coding, human interaction with
- multimedia environments, and low-bitrate speech coding.
-
- When completed, the MPEG-4 standard will enable a whole spectrum of
- new applications, including interactive mobile multimedia
- communications.
-
-
- From Leonardo.Chiariglione@CSELT.STET.IT Fri Aug 18 15:10:47 1995
-
- INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR STANDARDIZATION
- ORGANISATION INTERNATIONALE NORMALISATION
- ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11
- CODING OF MOVING PICTURES AND ASSOCIATED AUDIO INFORMATION
-
- ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 N0997
- MPEG 95/
- July 1995
-
-
- Source: Leonardo Chiariglione - Convenor
- Title: MPEG-4 Call for Proposals
- Status: Approved at 31st WG11 meeting
-
-
- MPEG (originally, Moving Pictures Experts Group) is a working group
- operating within ISO (International Standardisation Organisation) and
- IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission). Since starting its
- activity in 1988, MPEG has produced ISO/IEC 11172 (so-called MPEG-1)
- and ISO/IEC 13818 (so called MPEG-2) and among others, plans to
- finalise the so-called DSM-CC standard protocol for set-top to server
- and set-top to network dialogue in July 1996.
-
- While its standards are obtaining wide support from both the
- manufacturing industry and service providers and have actually been
- instrumental in triggering the digital revolution that is making
- possible the coming of interactive multimedia for widespread consumer
- applications, MPEG is turning its attention to more advanced forms of
- interactivity that technology will make possible in the next few
- years. This is the objective of the MPEG-4 project whose completion,
- planned to take place in November 1988, will give users the
- possibility to achieve various forms of interactivity with the
- audio-visual content of a scene and to mix synthetic and natural
- audio and video information in a seamless way.
-
- MPEG-4 technology will comprise two major parts: a set of coding
- tools for audiovisual objects, and a syntactic language to describe
- both the coding tools and the coded objects. From a technical
- viewpoint, the most notable departure from traditional coding
- standards will be the possibility for a receiver to download the
- description of the syntax used to represent the audio-visual
- information, a feature that VLSI technology will soon be able to
- support. It should be noted also that the audiovisual information
- will not be restricted to have the format of conventional video,
- i.e., it will not necessarily be frame-based. The additional degrees
- of freeedom that will result from not forcing the data structure of
- the coded representation of the data to be the same as the data
- structure of the presentation of the data are expected to produce
- significant improvements in both efficiency and functionality.
-
- Using the same approach as for the case of the MPEG-1 and MPEG-2
- standards, MPEG is now requesting technical proposals in line with
- the general philosophy described in document WG11 N0998 "Proposal
- Package Description". A Call for Pre-registration has already
- produced more than 70 statements of intention to submit a proposal on
- Synthetic/Natural Audio/Speech or Video Coding. The companion
- document WG11 N0999 "MPEG-4 Test/Evaluation Procedures", finalized at
- 31st MPEG meeting, describes the details of the expected content of
- submissions and the methodology to be used in assessing their
- suitability for the intended scope of the MPEG-4 standard. Please
- note that two kinds of submission will be accepted for coding
- techniques: algorithms for certain functionalities will be subjected
- to formal testing, while algorithms for other functionalities, and
- coding tools that may constitute only part of a complete algorithm
- will be subjected to evaluation by a panel of experts. Also,
- submission of proposals for syntactic language will be evaluated by
- experts. This document (w0997.doc) and the two documents referred to
- above (w0998.doc and w0999.doc) can be obtained in electronic form
- (Word 6.0 for Windows) from:
-
- name: wuarchive.wustl.edu
- login: iso
- password: !more!less
- directory: uploads/
-
- Those intending to submit a proposal should send the registration
- form contained in the WfW file w0997.doc duly filled in to:
-
- Dr. Leonardo Chiariglione
- CSELT
- Via G. Reiss Romoli, 274
- 10148 Torino
- ITALY
- Tel.: +39 11 228 6120
- Fax: +39 11 228 6299
- Email: leonardo.chiariglione@cselt.stet.it
-
- and
-
- Dr. Cliff Reader
- Samsung Semiconductor Inc.
- 3655 North 1st Street
- San Jose, CA 95134
- USA
- Tel.: +1 408 954 7853
- Fax: +1 408 434 5510
- Email: cliff@reader.com
-
- by 15 September 1995. Registrations will be acknowledged by 30
- September 1995. Please refer to document WG11 N0999 for a detailed
- calendar of deadlines to be met by prospective proposers.
-
- Video and audio tapes submitted for subjective testing will be
- assessed in the two weeks preceding the 32nd MPEG meeting. This
- meeting will be held in Dallas, TX, USA, on 6 to 10 November 1995. At
- this meeting both the results of subjective tests and the technical
- proposals with supporting information will be assessed by MPEG.
- Proposers are strongly encouraged to upload the textual and graphical
- parts of their proposals in Word 6.0 for Windows format by 27 October
- 1995 for early and better consideration of their proposals. Please
- note that a mandatory financial contribution to cover the cost of
- tape editing will be requested to submitters of proposals that
- include tapes for subjective tests. The exact amount of the
- contribution will be communicated in the letter of acknowledgment, as
- this depends on the number of tapes to be edited.
-
- The major steps in the MPEG-4 standard development following the
- Dallas meeting will be the attainment of "Working Draft" level in
- November 1996 and of "Committee Draft" level in November 1997.
- International Standard level will be reached in November 1998.
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- ~Subject: What's about Video-CD and CD-I ?
-
- FAQ ABOUT VIDEO CD and CD-i
- Copyright (c) 1996 Steve Perlman, Visible Light
- Revised: 15 Mar 96
-
- Introduction
- The Different Formats of Video CD and CD-i
- Special Considerations To Play Green Book
- An Important Choice: Windows 3.1 or 95
- Playback Software For Video CD and CD-i
- Using Software Decoders
-
- Introduction
-
- Every day, I'm contacted by an increasing number of PC owners
- who want to playback their CD-i and Video CDs on their PCs. The
- answer to the question "Can I play Video CDs and CD-i on my PC?"
- is absolutely and positively a "maybe!"
-
- Without question, you must have an MPEG decoder to playback a
- Video CD or CD-i. Software-only decoders, like CompCore SoftPEG,
- are inexpensive and work well with fast Pentium based PCs. The
- hardware decoders, like Sigma Designs' REALMagic, are more costly
- but will run well even on 486 PCs, since the processing is all
- done on the board.
-
- But, just having an MPEG decoder just isn't enough! So beware!
- There are hardware, software, driver and configuration issues that
- must be resolved to play Video CD or CD-i. The bright spot is that
- it generally can be done!
-
- This FAQ explains the factors involved in playback of Video CD and
- CD-i. Hopefully, you're somewhat knowledgeable of your PC hardware
- and configuration!
-
-
-
- The Different Formats of Video CD and CD-i
-
- Looking at the way Video CD and CD-i has evolved may arguably lead
- one to believe that it was created to confuse the world on purpose.
-
- Have you ever stopped to think about how many types of Video CD and
- CD-i there really are? There are at least four types! Each one has a
- different format!
-
- There is Green Book, White Book, CD-i Interactive and Video CD 2.0.
- Wow! Which one you have will affect your ability to playback the CD
- using Windows. So, let's start by unraveling the mystery behind the
- formats of Video CD and CD-i.
-
- Don't let the term "book" confuse you. It's just a cute name given
- to that particular format. It's not difficult to identify which type
- of CD you have!
-
-
- GREEN BOOK
- This is the earliest format created by Philips for CD-i movies. Most
- of the Philips CDs dated 1993 and earlier are Green Book. Look on the
- CD itself for the wording "Digital Video". You will also find that
- the directory is unreadable on a PC.
-
- WHITE BOOK (Video CD 1.1)
- This is the latest format used by Philips for CD-i movies. Most of
- the Philips CDs dated 1994 and later are White Book. Look on the CD
- itself for the wording "Video CD". You will find that this directory
- is readable, and there are files with the extension .DAT
-
- CD-i INTERACTIVE
- This is the Philips format for games and other interactive content.
- The CDs use wording like "CD-i Games" and "CD-i Interactive". These
- CDs are not playable on a PC unless you have a very expensive board
- which only Philips supplies.
-
- VIDEO CD 2.0
- The world wants to develop interactive content. But, it doesn't want
- to pay high fees to Philips to develop CD-i Interactive disks, and
- wants to have wide distribution on PCs. Thus, the new Video CD 2.0
- standard was created. It is an extension of Video CD 1.1, and has a
- readable directory with .DAT files. These CDs should begin to receive
- widespread distribution by the end of 1996.
-
-
-
- Special Considerations To Play Green Book
-
- Green Book is not entirely supported on PCs, because Green Book format
- cannot be read as a standard ISO-9660 CD (meaning no readable directory).
- Therefore, some CD drive manufacturers did not build Green Book format
- support into their CD drive hardware. These CD drives cannot read Green
- Book format. They must be replaced to play Green Book CDs.
-
- Panasonic and Matsushita drives typically do not support Green Book.
- Unfortunately, many of these drives were distributed by Creative Labs
- with their multimedia upgrade packages. When selecting a drive, make
- certain that it is "CD-i compatible". Most CD drives are.
-
- The error most attributable to the CD-ROM hardware problem is the now
- infamous MMSYSTEM001: External Error. This is a general catch-all error
- which means that the CD-ROM drive is not responding properly. The most
- likely reason is that the drive simply can't read the disk.
-
-
- That's not all!
-
- Windows 3.1 CD drivers, using the file MSCDEX.EXE, supported Green Book
- format. As long as the CD drive hardware could read Green Book, you can
- playback a Green Book CD without problems. Windows 3.1 was such a nice,
- friendly operating system.
-
- Then came Windows 95, touted to us as being 100% compatible with Win 3.1.
- Except for one thing! Microsoft didn't tell us that Green Book support
- was removed from the Windows 95 CD drivers!
-
- So, Green Book CDs are specifically not supported in Windows 95.
-
- That doesn't mean you won't be able to use Windows 95 to play Green Book
- in the future. But, Microsoft has to release a new driver or another fix
- must be found. It is believed that you may be able to use the Windows 3.1
- MSCDEX drivers, and disable the Windows 95 CD drivers. This is all being
- tested now, so we will cover this point in a later revision to this FAQ.
-
-
-
- An Important Choice: Windows 3.1 or 95
-
- We covered the requirement for playback of Green Book CDs, that the
- Windows 3.1 CD driver (MSCDEX) be used instead of the Windows 95 driver.
- But, there is also a special bug in Windows 95, for which Microsoft has
- not yet released a fix publically yet.
-
- An IDE CDROM may not reside on the primary channel with you Hard Drive.
- It must be on the secondary channel. If you have a 486 with no EIDE
- (no secondary channel) and want to use an IDE CDROM, tough luck. If
- you have a Pentium and an IDE CDROM, move it to the secondary channel.
-
- In general, you will find Windows 3.1 to be the preferable environment
- for playback of Video CD and CD-i. There are less things to go wrong,
- and configuration problems are easier to control.
-
- Windows 3.1 is a good test environment also. If you have problems with
- playback of Video CD and CD-i under Windows 95, you should test first
- under Windows 3.1 if possible. That will help you define whether or not
- the problem is hardware (the CD drive) or Windows 95 itself. Unless you
- have a hardware problem, you should always be able to play Video CD and
- CD-i under Windows 3.1!
-
- Direct Draw improves video considerably under Windows 95, and improves
- the frame rate. Direct Draw drivers write YUV information directly to
- a video card that supports it. Generally, these video drivers are not
- available yet, but some vendors have begun distribution of the beta
- versions of their Direct Draw drivers. Diamond has Direct Draw beta
- drivers available for its Video 2001 series. S3 reportedly has also
- released its beta version for public testing. A special warning though.
- These beta versions are generally untested, and may generate unwanted
- or unexpected results during playback!
-
-
-
- Playback Software For Video CD and CD-i
-
- Media Player, distributed with Windows, will playback .MPEG and .DAT
- files very nicely. But, you have to point to these files directly.
- With Video CD and CD-i, you want software that will read the CD header
- and begin automatic playback of the CD. Media Player does not support
- this, and most of the players for the PC will not either.
-
- Therefore, you must find a player that will support playback of Video
- CD and CD-i. CompCore's SoftPEG 2.0 is distributed with CD Vision, a
- player that supports Green Book, Video CD 1.1 and Video CD 2.0.
-
- So, if you want to playback Video CD or CD-i, you need more than just
- an MPEG decoder. You need one that has a driver and a player that will
- support the playback of these formats!
-
-
-
- Using Software Decoders
-
- Software decoders will run fine with Video CD and CD-i, although there
- are CPU constraints. Because these decoders use your CPU for processing,
- frame rate is dependent upon the speed of your processor. Generally,
- the decoder should be configured for maximum CPU usage (90%), and all
- other applications should be closed.
-
- Another factor is that Windows 3.1 is a bit faster than Windows 95 for
- software decoding. Windows 95 tends to use more system resources. This
- is a minor consideration, though, because the 32-bit decoder drivers
- talk nicely with the new graphics accelerator boards. In fact, the new
- Direct Draw drivers will greatly improve things further.
-
- Use of software decoders should be limited to Pentium platforms, for
- best frame rate and better compatibility.
-
- ===========================================================================
-
- ~Subject: SECTION 2. - PROFESSIONAL SOFTWARE
-
- This section describes commercial software, even when a free, but restricted
- demo version is available.
-
- SECTION 2. - PROFESSIONAL SOFTWARE
- SUBSECTION - DOS
- SUBSECTION - WINDOWS
- SUBSECTION - UNIX
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- ~Subject: SUBSECTION - DOS
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- ~Subject: MPEG Encoder by Xing
-
- The MPEG Encoder is available starting from 349.-DM incl. VAT.
- 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( ]
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- ~Subject: SUBSECTION - WINDOWS
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- ~Subject: SoftPEG
-
- [ The current version 2.0 seems to be the quickest software decoder for ]
- [ for Windows, check there site under http://www.compcore.com/ ]
-
- CompCore SoftPEG MPEG Decoder
-
- SoftPEG MPEG-1 Decoder Engine
-
- Tecnical specification:
-
- MPEG:
-
- - MPEG-1 compatible System, Audio & Video streams.
- - Automatic rate control.
- - Full lip-sync from 30 fps (P90 + DCI graphics) to 8 fps (486 + GDI graphics).
- - User defined frame-rate support.
-
- Video:
-
- - Support for DCI, WinG, GDI.
- - 2X optimized scaling option.
- - User defined scaling through DCI, WinG or GDI.
- - Suports RGB8, RGB24, YUV12, YUY2, YVYU and UYVY color formats.
-
- Audio:
-
- - Automatic support fot 16/8 bit, stereo/mono sound.
-
- System requirements:
-
- - 486 DX or above (Pentium recommended).
- - Windows 3.x in enhanced mode.
- - 4 MBytes RAM.
- - Windows compatible Sound Card.
-
-
- Implementation:
-
- - Windows 3.x DLL.
- - API and MCI interface.
- - Virtualized stream input/ graphic output.
- - Low CPU usage (40-70%).
- - Low memory consumption (1.3 MB).
- - MCI driver for MediaPlayer integration.
- - SoftPEG player application.
-
- Product Background:
- CompCore Multimedia, Inc., the leader in low cost, high performance
- MPEG solutions, is proud to announce the availability of the SoftPEG tm
- MPEG decoder. SoftPEG is the highest performance MPEG software decoding
- solution in the industry. Using the same patented algorithms as
- CompCore's efficient hardware solutions, SoftPEG tm is able to generate
- unparalleled picture and sound quality with full audio/ video
- synchronization, without added hardware or assemble language
- programming.
-
- Performance:
- Achieves real-time performance at SIF resolution (352 x 240 @
- 30 frames/sec or 352 x 288 @ 25 frames/sec) on 90 MHz Pentium
- systems with YUV color space conversion hardware assist.
- Delivers smooth motion quality and full audio/video
- synchronization on base level Pentium and 486DX2 systems.
- Decodes video frames faster than real-time on basic PowerPC,
- MIPS and Alpha systems.
-
- Features:
- Fully decodes and displays any MPEG-1 compliant bit stream.
- Uses CompCore's patented algorithms to efficiently decode,
- synchronize and present audio/video frames. Able to perform
- decode and presentation without full utilization of CPU.
- SoftPEG tm delivers exceptional audio/video synchronization
- quality regardless of platform (Pentium, 486, MIPS,
- PowerPC). Automatically configurable to either DCI or WinG
- interfaces. SoftPEG, tm designed with a 16 bit interface in
- mind, runs under the Window 3.1, as well as Windows NT,
- without the use of Win32S. Compliant to OpenMPEG standard.
- Written in high level C code making the design easily portable
- to other platforms.
-
- Licensing and Availability:
- SoftPEG is available for immediate distribution.
- For information on licensing please contact Tanya Sitterly at:
-
- CompCore Multimedia, Inc.
- 1270 Oakmead Parkway, Suite 214
- Sunnyvale, CA 94086
- Tel: (408) 773-8310 ext. 22
- Fax: (408) 773-0432
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- ~Subject: MPEG ARCADETM
-
- Mediamatics Inc.'s MPEG ARCADETM Player is a software only, full
- implementation of the MPEG-I ISO 11172 standard. The entire MPEG-1
- decompression, both video and audio is implemented in software (along with
- system stream parsing and video/audio synchronization). Finally, a MCI-DV
- Media Player interface is provided to control/playback MPEG-1 encoded system
- stream files. This media player is fully compliant with OPEN PC MPEG
- consortium's MpegVideo command set. This player will soon be available in
- the retail market from major manufacturers of graphics cards, who will be
- bundling our Arcade Player with their recently announced video-enabled
- graphics cards. Arcade Player is currently offered only
- to OEMs and has been licensed by Brooktree, Western Digital.
-
- Arcade Player - Key Features:
- * Performance benchmarks:
- 24-30 fps with synchronized audio on a Pentium PCI system with a video
- enabled graphics card.
- [Note: assumes graphics subsystem to contain a hardware color space
- converter]
- * Supports Windows 3.1, Windows95TM and Windows NT operating system.
- * Supports playback of CD-I/VideoCD/CD-Karaoke format encoded content.
- * Tested with major DCI-aware graphics devices from companies such as
- Brooktree, Western Digital, Trident, S3, Cirrus, Avance, Alliance etc.
-
- For More information:
- Mediamatics Inc.
- 4633 Old Ironsides Drive #328
- Santa Clara, CA 95054
- Ph: 408-496-6360
- Fx: 408-496-6634
- Email: info@mediamatics.com
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- ~Subject: XingSound
-
- [ Well, the encoder costs, but the decoder is PD ! But, attention ]
- [ they say, they support full-MPEG-audio, but sure they are not. ]
- [ They do dirty tricks again, had a look at the streams, tststs ]
- [ Buts good stuff and its helping the MPEG-comunity. ]
-
-
- XingSound Realtime MPEG Audio Layer II Encoding on the PC !
-
- Here it is: the first low cost REALTIME MPEG AUDIO Encoding on the PC via
- a high quality 16 Bits Stereo DSP based Audio-Soundcard and the famous
- Xing Technology XingSOUND(tm) MPEG Audio Encoder software.
-
- The XingSound MPEG audio encoder encoder supports the DSP on the Soundcard
- and enables realtime 15:1 compression of high quality Audio material without
- any audible loss in quality.
-
- REALTIME means REALTIME !
-
- Wait no longer endless time (hours) to convert your WAV-files offline, like a
- few shareware encoders do. No just record your songs in realtime to MPEG Audio
- MP2 files. Compression factor can be set .
-
- Comfortable record software coming with the package and also an offline WAV to
- MP2 converter.
-
- All software runs under win3.x !
-
- With the optinal MPEG Audio- MCI-driver you can paste your MPEG audio files
- directly via Media player into your applications and save huge disk space
- compared when using 16 bits Stereo WAV files !
-
- Also , when the DSP Soundcard is installed, you get full CD-quality
- STEREO playback with 16 bits resolution ! (if other soundcard is installed,
- XingSound MPEG player will only play in Mono)
-
-
- Available only as a bundled package consisting of:
-
- 1. XingSound MPEG Audio Realtime software for Windows 3.x incl. free MPEG audio
- win3.x player program, WAV to MP2 offline converter, Realtime DSP supported
- Audio recorder program, Realtime DSP supported FULL Stereo CD-quality MPEG
- Audio playback
-
- 2. 16 bits Stereo CD-quality DSP Soundcard, with win3.x drivers
- (can be used as a normal Windows soundcard as well, Soundblaster and WSS
- compatible, jumperless design, options set via software, Sony CD-ROM I/O onbord)
-
- All manuals have english language !
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- ~Subject: XingCD
-
- <IMG SRC="xingcd2.gif">
-
- It is the first AVI to MPEG Encoder, which allows you to make
- MPEG system streams from AVI movies.
-
- This means, you can directly use a Motion JPEG capture board at 352x288
- resolution to capture Realtime video,
- edit it with Adobe Premiere for Windows and make a Video CD out of it,
- using the new XingCD Encoder.
-
- The XingCD Encoder is software only, so there is no further hardware
- required. It converts the AVI Video file to MPEG Video and the sound WAV file
- to MPEG Audio and interleaves (multiplexes) these 2 bitstreams into an MPEG
- system layer bitstream, so it could be played back via a REEL MAGIC card
- for instance or the new Inside Technology MPEG player card for the PC.
-
- The new MPEG Encoder supports full IBP format and is compatible with the
- ISO11172 MPEG system layer description.
-
- Price is 995.-US$, but this is still cheaper than a 20K US$ realtime MPEG
- capture board.....
-
- It can also encode from single TGA or BMP pics and it supports various
- output format of:
- 352x240, 352x288, 160x120 and custom output resolution.
- Rescales source to desired ouput resolution etc...
-
- Encode Process runs in the background.
-
- I hope, we will get soon many "fresh" MPEG Video CDs !
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- ~Subject: SUBSECTION - UNIX
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- ~Subject: Xing Distributed Media Architecture
-
- {XDMA} Network Description
-
- The Xing Distributed Media Architecture ("XDMA"), developed by Xing Technology Corporation
- ("Xing") is the first commercially available low-cost solution for world-wide and local network
- delivery of live and on-demand video+audio. The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) has
- broadly deployed XDMA for broadcast delivery of financial news programming to subscribers in
- the U.S and Europe. New applications are being developed with XDMA for distance learning,
- corporate communications, news delivery and computer based training in corporate,
- educational, government and health care markets, employing wide area, local area and ISDN
- networks.
-
- How XDMA Differs from other Video Networks
-
- Existing "on-demand" multimedia (video) network architectures are based on tightly coupled
- point-to-point client-server communication, which result in 4 major limitations:
-
- 1. significant interaction is required between client and server for flow control,
- requiring complex server programming and signficant data overhead (on
- the order of 25% - 50%);
-
- 2. servers are not designed to deliver the same streams simultaneously
- to multiple users, making "live" delivery to multiple users impractical;
-
- 3. LAN-based server architectures are not designed to operate (and generally
- don't work well) over wide area networks; and
-
- 4. communication protocols employed are proprietary, and do not directly support the
- TCP/IP international standard
-
- XDMA represents a significantly different multimedia network architecture, based on the
- concept of "streaming media". This architecture supports both "on-demand" as well as "live" It
- video and audio delivery which does not require close coupling between the client and server.
- It easily supports "broadcasting" or "multicasting" of live or on-demand content to multiple
- simultaneous users over local as well as wide area networks. The benefits of XDMA are
- reduced network component complexity, significantly increased network flexibility, and
- significantly reduced network overhead. Moreover, Xing's approach is built around
- international standards-based components - Unix and (in 3rd quarter 1995) Windows NT
- servers, TCP-IP connections, MPEG video and audio compression, and HTTP-HTML client
- server communication. This allows better economies in implementation and easy integration
- into existing communication networks.
-
- Technical Description
-
- XDMA was developed as a client-server media distribution architecture which can operate
- independently or complement existing WWW (World Wide Web) HTTP / HTML architectures
- on local area networks, private data wide area networks and public data wide area networks
- (e.g. Internet).
-
- XDMA delivers *streaming* multimedia - pictures, video and sound - based on the MPEG
- international standards for video and audio compression from Unix and (in 3rd quarter 1995)
- Windows NT servers. When integrated with WWW, XDMA augments existing WWW
- architectures by providing a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) to existing Web (HTTP)
- servers, and viewer extensions to popular "Web HTML browsers" (i.e. Mosaic, Netscape,
- Winweb, Spyglass, etc). As such, XDMA can take advantage of user authentication
- procedures as supported by current Web browsers and HTTP servers.
-
- Streaming of multimedia data is a significantly different way of delivery, as the user can view /
- hear the data as it is being transmitted instead of waiting for file transfer completion, and there
- is no requirement for complex file systems such as Netware or NFS.
-
- In addition, XDMA uses standard TCP-IP network protocols, and takes advantage of new
- "multicast IP" protocols (RFC 1112) for data delivery, allowing multiple users to simultaneously
- view / hear the same data streams without duplication of data or use of intrusive broadcast
- protocols.
-
- A typical XDMA configuration will include some of the following components:
- * XDMA Network Encoders
- - video+audio
- - audio only
- - file transmitter / encoder emulator
- * XDMA Network Servers
- * XDMA Network Clients
- - for PC Windows
- - for X-Windows
- - Standalone
- * XDMA Network Routers
- * XDMA Network Editors
- * XDMA Network Manager
- as described below.
-
- XDMA Benefits
-
- * compatible with existing enterprise TCP/IP networks, including Ethernet,
- ATM, FDDI, ISDN, T1 and Frame Relay
- * adds live and on-demand video and audio services to private and public WAN's
- and LAN's without infrastructure changes
- * low overhead (3%) video and audio streams are fully routable
- * all network components are SNMP manageable (3rd quarter 1995)
- * network congestion is controlled by on-the-fly bitrate reduction of video and
- audio streams; streams are scalable from full rate down to ISDN
- BRI (56-128kbps)
- * SQL database management of XDMA streams (3rd quarter 1995)
- * servers may be distributed for load balancing and stream caching
- * software-only and hardware accelerated video and audio decode provided
- on client systems
- * user interface customizable through HTML / HTTP (Web / Mosaic) interface
- * compressed video and audio streams compliant with MPEG-1 and MPEG-2
- (ISO/ICE 11172 and 13818) international standards
-
-
-
- XDMA Applications
-
- Applications requiring "media on-demand" benefit from XDMA's simplified approach. The
- advantage becomes most apparent in applications with a combination of "on-demand" and
- "live" media delivery requirements, especially when the clients are geographically dispersed.
- NBC is using XDMA to deliver multiple simultaneous live financial and news video broadcast
- channels to financial market subscribers (money managers, stock brokers, financial analysts)
- in cities throughout the US and Europe as part of their "NBC Desktop Video" service. Xing is
- developing similar delivery services for other commercial TV and radio programmers.
-
- Although commercial broadcast services provide very visible and compelling examples for
- Xing's capabilities, the largest volume applications for "streaming media" will be in corporate,
- educational, government and health-care networks with "on-demand" and "live" communication
- requirements, including training, presentations, status reporting, and occassionally,
- entertainment. Because of the rapid proliferation of TCP-IP / HTTP / HTML ( Internet + World
- Wide Web + Mosaic), the infrastructure for integration of Xing "streaming media" architectures
- is quickly developing.
-
- Representative XDMA applications include:
-
- * Commercial broadcast delivery systems;
- * Internet Service Provider delivery of radio and TV programming;
- * On-line marketing, sales, service and customer support;
- * Enterprise-wide training, corporate information systems and regulatory
- compliance;
- * Medical information systems, including live monitoring and on-demand
- multimedia information retrieval;
- * Educational systems for live and on-demand distance learning as well
- media production;
- * Government networks for live and on-demand delivery of news events
- and briefings to policy makers and dissemination of public information;
- * Media production and distribution; and
- * Information archives
-
- XDMA and ISDN
-
- XDMA is ideally suited for ISDN remote access server and regional server applications such as
- distance learning and news delivery, through its ability to provide on-the-fly MPEG stream
- bitrate reduction and service of large numbers of simultaneous users. Xing is currently
- developing a reference platform for ISDN regional servers which delivers both high resolution /
- low frame rate as well as low resolution / 30 frame per second video streams. Demonstration
- of this capability will be available via Xing's World Wide Web site - http://www.xingtech.com, as
- well as via direct ISDN dial-in - 805/473-7200.
-
- Xing Technology Corporation
-
- Xing is the world's leading producer of PC based software technologies and products for digital
- compression and decompression of video and audio in accordance with the MPEG (Moving
- Pictures Expert Group) international standards. Technology licensees include Microsoft, Intel,
- Pacific Bell, NTT Japan, Fujitsu, Hewlett Packard and IBM. In addition, Xing provided the key
- technologies to NBC for the development of the first wide area digital video broadcast delivery
- system ("NBC Desktop Video").
-
-
- Glossary
-
- MPEG - Motion Picture Experts Group. The international standards for compression of video
- and audio. There are actually two standards - MPEG-1 (ISO/IEC 11172) and MPEG-2
- (ISO/IEC 13818). MPEG-1 was originally designed for delivery of video to consumer devices
- at single speed CD-ROM data rates (150kbytes/sec), and is therefore lower resolution and
- lower quality than MPEG-2, which was designed for delivery of broadcast and HDTV quality
- video. Each MPEG specification actually has 3 parts which define the video stream, the audio
- stream and the video+audio encapsulating transport stream.
-
- TCP-IP - Transmission Control Protocol + Internet Protocol. A collection of communications
- protocols (including TCP, IP, UDP, ARP, IGMP, ICMP, RAP, RIP, SNMP) that are the basis of
- the Internet and all Unix networking. Because TCP-IP can support both local and wide area
- networking, while Novell's Netware protocols were designed only to support local area
- networking, TCP-IP is rapidly become the standard as well for PC Windows networking
- through an interface called "WINSOCK".
-
- HTML+HTTP - Hypertext Markup Language + Hypertext Transport Protocol. HTML is a page
- description language and HTTP is a communications protocol that runs on top of TCP-IP.
- Combined, HTML+HTTP define the basis for applications such as Mosaic and Netscape, which
- are the primary tools for navigating the Internet's "World Wide Web". HTML defines the
- contents of pages which are viewed on the "Web", and HTTP defines the way an HTML
- browser talks with an HTML server (refered to as an HTTPD or Web server). It is important to
- note that HTML+HTTP can be used on local area networks and private data networks, and are
- rapidly becoming the standard for in-house corporate information systems which are not
- necessarily Internet connected.
-
- URL=http://xingtech.com/
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- ~Subject: NVR Research Kit
-
- [ Its really nice software, but its expensive ! You find the infos and ]
- [ software on there ftp-server (see below !), don't forget to order a ]
- [ licence key. There are several nice and long MPEG-movies to ftp !!! ]
-
- [ If you require a demo version, please send mail to support@nvr.com ]
-
- From: Chris Jacobson <chrisj@dinghy.nvr.com>
- Date: Thu, 13 May 93 10:31:32 -0700
-
-
- North Valley Research
- Digital Media Systems
-
- North Valley Research is pleased to announce immediate availability of
- a family of products for working with video and other time-based media
- in a UNIX environment. These products are the first, affordable software
- products that enable the end user to take video and audio all the way
- from video camera or tape to an MPEG sequence that can be played back in
- real-time on most Sun SPARCstations. Starting now until May 5th, 1993,
- individual products can be purchased for $150 in quantities of 30 or
- more; or under $300 for quantity 1.
-
- These software products have well-designed Motif user interfaces and a
- robust architectural design. The first set of products is sold as a kit, and
- consists of three user interfaces:
-
- - The Player. This tool provides a viewing mechanism for working with
- + MPEG sequences
- + analog video (requires the Parallax XVideo board)
- + JPEG movies (requires the Parallax XVideo board with JPEG option)
-
- - The Recorder. This tool enables the user to peruse analog material
- with an interface very similar to the Player, but in addition, allows
- you to create JPEG movies using the JPEG hardware on the Parallax XVideo
- board.
-
- - The Compressor. This tool allows you to choose input files, specify
- the compression characteristics and finally, compress them with
- our software MPEG compression engine.
-
- The MPEG playback mechanism is purely software, requires no special
- framebuffer, and depending on the size of picture, the size of the window
- and bandwidth of the bitstream, can run at 6 - 30 fps with synchronized
- audio. The color is dithered from 19 bits down to 7 bits,
- gamma-corrected, with real-time adjustments for contrast and brightness.
- The displayed window can be one or four times the size of the MPEG sequence
- picture size. For example, a sequence compressed at 320x240 can be played
- back at 320x240 or 640x480 (depending on the performance of the host
- computer).
-
- Both the MPEG compression and playback mechanisms support:
- + variable I:P:B ratios
- + variable picture sizes from 64x48 to 320x240
- + variable and fixed bit rate
- + three motion estimation algorithms (Jain & Jain and two Exhaustive methods)
-
- The MPEG compressor is relatively fast for compression that includes motion
- estimation, and depending on the input stream and the selected compression
- parameters, can compress a twenty second sequence in as little as an hour.
-
- The JPEG record and playback is accomplished with the aid of the Parallax
- XVideo board. Recording and playback of JPEG movies is controlled by
- a special software engine that always keeps the audio and video synchronized.
- Recorded sequences may be "running records" from a camera or broadcast, or
- assembled from a controllable video source with in and out points.
- Both the Player and Recorder support Sony's ViSCA/LANC, and Pioneer 4400
- disc players (and other compatible models). VideoMedia's VLAN will be
- added in the future.
-
- Prices and Availability
- -----------------------
-
- All prices below are retail, with a special, 40%-off, introductory price
- in parenthesis. These special prices are good until May 5, 1993.
-
- All products require:
- Operating System: Solaris 1.0.1
- Computer: SPARCstation 1+, 2, IPC, IPX
-
- Availability: All products are available for immediate delivery
- Media: 8mm tape or Quarter-inch cartridge (QIC)
- Terms: P.O. prior to shipment, net 30 days with credit
-
- NVR Digital Media Player:
- Includes: Support for audio and viewing analog video, JPEG movies
- and software MPEG.
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- Requirements: For analog video: Parallax XVideo board
- For JPEG movies: Parallax XVideo board with JPEG option
- For MPEG playback: most any 8-bit pseudo-color frame-buffer,
- including CG3, CG4, CG6 and Parallax XVideo.
- Black-and-white monochrome support available on request.
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- Prices: 1 floating license $495 ($297 intro)
- 10 floating license $2,000 ($1,200 intro)
- 30 floating license $4,500 ($2,700 intro)
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- NVR Digital Media Recorder
- Includes: Support for viewing analog video and creating JPEG movies
- Requirements: Parallax XVideo board
- Price: 1 floating license $1,595 ($960 intro)
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- NVR Digital Media Compressor
- Includes: Support for compressing JPEG movies (both audio
- and video) into MPEG. Other input formats available on
- request.
- Requirements: No special display requirements
- Price: 1 floating license $2,495 ($1,495 intro)
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- Development Kit:
- Includes: 5 Player licenses
- 1 Recorder license
- 1 Compressor license.
- Requirements: As above for each product
- Price: $3,995 ($2,395 intro)
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- Support and Maintenance:
- Includes: software upgrades
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