[AG-TECH] Quality of video in vic from Videum boards

Tue May 4 03:50:11 CDT 2004

Many thanks for the tweak to get rid of the grey borders - Matt
or I will give it a whirl.

Bit puzzled by your comment about S-Video (aka Y-C) signal being
expected through a BNC connector: Y-C refers to the two components
(Y (luminance) and C (chrominance)) and so requires four pins
(three at a pinch, but I've never seen the grounds being shared).

Composite signals are normally bandwidth limited so that horizontal
resolution is limited to 250 lines or so; Y-C signals typically
produce 400 lines resolution [note for those not familiar with this:
this refers to what can be resolved along a horizontal scan line,
and is unrelated to the sampling (768 x 576, 640x480, 320x240 or
whatever) of the whole frame].  Personally I've never had the time
to set up a side-by-side comparison of the results of using
composite versus Y-C as the source of a video conference feed,
but both signals have so much more bandwidth than VC that I have
used whichever is more convenient, plug-and-socketwise, in VC
situations.

In the studio, of course, things are different and I use digital
for first preference, then component, then Y-C and composite as a
last choice, but then there's nothing scrunching the signal down
to less than a Mbit/sec in the signal chain!

Thanks again

Chris

____________________________________________________________________
Chris Osland                                               Office tel: +44
(0) 1235 446565
Digital Media and Access Grid                          Medialab tel: +44 (0)
1235 446459
BIT Department                                     Access Grid room tel: +44
(0) 1235 445666
e-mail:   C.D.Osland at rl.ac.uk                                       Fax: +44
(0) 1235 445597
CLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (Bldg. R18)
Chilton, DIDCOT, Oxon OX11 0QX, UK
[The contents of this email are confidential and are for the use of the
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If you are not the intended recipient do not take any action on it or show
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov [mailto:owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov]On
> Behalf Of Randy Groves
> Sent: 30 April 2004 17:43
> To: ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov
> Subject: RE: [AG-TECH] Quality of video in vic from Videum boards
> 
> 
> I may have found an answer to my quality issue.  I was under 
> the impression 
> (obviously in error) that the BNC connectors on the 4400 were 
> generating 
> S-Video - NOT! - they are composite outputs (I should have 
> read the card 
> specs more closely - my bad).  When I connect the Canon 
> cameras over a 
> composite connection they look quite nice.  I had a single conductor 
> conversion cable to S-Video in the mix, and I was connecting 
> the cameras 
> via their S-Video connection, rather than the composite.
> 
> As far as the grey border goes, here's an example of registry 
> settings for 
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER that will set the size to CIF (and also set 
> the sources 
> for the four vic streams).  You sould apply this AFTER you've 
> started up 
> the Venue Client and added the VideoConsumer streams for the 4 
> connections.  You can just use parts of this if you wish.  
> Obviously, you 
> should be comfortable tweaking the registry.
> 
> Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
> 
> [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Winnov\Videum\vic.exe0]
> "Width"=dword:00000160
> "Height"=dword:00000120
> "Compression"=dword:00000002
> "Source"=dword:00000000
> 
> [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Winnov\Videum\vic.exe1]
> "Width"=dword:00000160
> "Height"=dword:00000120
> "Compression"=dword:00000002
> "Source"=dword:00000001
> 
> [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Winnov\Videum\vic.exe2]
> "Width"=dword:00000160
> "Height"=dword:00000120
> "Compression"=dword:00000002
> "Source"=dword:00000002
> 
> [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Winnov\Videum\vic.exe3]
> "Width"=dword:00000160
> "Height"=dword:00000120
> "Compression"=dword:00000002
> "Source"=dword:00000003
> 
> Hope this helps.
> 
> -randy
> 
> At 08:04 AM 4/30/2004, Osland, CD (Chris) wrote:
> >We're running a Winnov 4400 with two cameras (and have tested with
> >4) under Windows XP and are getting good reports of our video
> >quality from remote sites.  I haven't looked for a way of getting
> >rid of the grey (gray!) surrounds yet, though.
> >
> >Cheers
> >
> >Chris
> >
> >____________________________________________________________________
> >Chris Osland                                               
> Office tel: +44
> >(0) 1235 446565
> >Digital Media and Access Grid                          
> Medialab tel: +44 (0)
> >1235 446459
> >BIT Department                                     Access 
> Grid room tel: +44
> >(0) 1235 445666
> >e-mail:   C.D.Osland at rl.ac.uk                                
>        Fax: +44
> >(0) 1235 445597
> >CLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (Bldg. R18)
> >Chilton, DIDCOT, Oxon OX11 0QX, UK
> >[The contents of this email are confidential and are for the 
> use of the
> >intended recipient only.
> >If you are not the intended recipient do not take any action 
> on it or show
> >it to anyone else,
> >but return this email to the sender and delete your copy of it.]
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov 
> [mailto:owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov]On
> > > Behalf Of Randy Groves
> > > Sent: 06 April 2004 23:06
> > > To: ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov
> > > Subject: [AG-TECH] Quality of video in vic from Videum boards
> > >
> > >
> > > I have to say that I'm not real impressed with the quality of
> > > the video
> > > that I see in the vic that is captured from a Winnov 1000 VO.
> > >  I also seem
> > > to remember thinking the same thing when I first saw the
> > > output in the vic
> > > that came from a Winnov 4400.  I just installed one in a
> > > machine that also
> > > has two Osprey 100 cards, and the difference is quite
> > > apparent.   The video
> > > in the vics from the Ospreys is clean and not pixelated at
> > > all.  The video
> > > from the vic that is coming from the Videum is quite pixelated.
> > >
> > > Is this just a basic problem?  Or is there a configuration
> > > that I'm not
> > > getting right?  Am I correct in thinking that the video
> > > output format from
> > > the card is significant to vic?  And if so, what is the
> > > optimum setting for
> > > this?  I've played with all that the Videum exposes (with
> > > VidCap32), but it
> > > doesn't seem to make much difference.  Leave aside the 
> fact that the
> > > configuration tools for the Videum cards don't seem to have
> > > the same set of
> > > option tweaking capability that VidCap32 has, for instance.
> > > And since
> > > there doesn't seem to be a way to modify these, you are left
> > > with making
> > > registry hacks.
> > >
> > > I thought that Winnov was supposed to have superior Windows
> > > drivers, but so
> > > far I'm not that impressed.
> > >
> > > -randy
> > >
> > >
> 
> 
> 