5 Nov
2008
5 Nov
'08
11:11 a.m.
Hey all;
I've been wanting to do some video capturing from an SGI and have been
trying to work out the 'best way' (or, perhaps, the EASIEST way) of doing
it. The video I'm capturing is prior to the OS coming up (waffling around
the Command Monitor, etc), so I can't have the system itself help me out.
If I had some LCD panels which spoke SGI I would simply sit a DV cam in
front of the LCD and record it - the quality should be acceptable - but I
don't (LCD since CRTs would have flicker, of course, when recorded). Plus,
I'd quite like to source video from Suns and other machinery.
I imagine there really -isn't- a catch-all solution, but I'd love to have
the thoughts of the Geek Masses. I've never done video capture before in
any form, and have little experience with working with video at all to be
honest, so anything would help.
Many thanks;
- JP
5 Nov
5 Nov
11:55 a.m.
If you have a sun or SGI that outputs somewhat normal VGA, you could use
something like an Avermedia Quickplay to convert it to SVHS and record from
there.
On Wed, Nov 5, 2008 at 11:11 AM, JP Hindin <jplist2008 at kiwigeek.com> wrote:
Hey all;
I've been wanting to do some video capturing from an SGI and have been
trying to work out the 'best way' (or, perhaps, the EASIEST way) of doing
it. The video I'm capturing is prior to the OS coming up (waffling around
the Command Monitor, etc), so I can't have the system itself help me out.
If I had some LCD panels which spoke SGI I would simply sit a DV cam in
front of the LCD and record it - the quality should be acceptable - but I
don't (LCD since CRTs would have flicker, of course, when recorded). Plus,
I'd quite like to source video from Suns and other machinery.
I imagine there really -isn't- a catch-all solution, but I'd love to have
the thoughts of the Geek Masses. I've never done video capture before in
any form, and have little experience with working with video at all to be
honest, so anything would help.
Many thanks;
- JP
12:08 p.m.
On Wed, 5 Nov 2008, Jason McBrien wrote:
If you have a sun or SGI that outputs somewhat normal
VGA, you could use
something like an Avermedia Quickplay to convert it to SVHS and record from
there.
If they outputted standard SVGA I'd just use a standard LCD panel ;)
Alas, no, the machines in question can only be relied upon to output
standard SGI and standard Sun video.
Thanks;
- JP
On Wed, Nov 5, 2008 at 11:11 AM, JP Hindin
<jplist2008 at kiwigeek.com> wrote:
Hey all;
I've been wanting to do some video capturing from an SGI and have been
trying to work out the 'best way' (or, perhaps, the EASIEST way) of doing
it. The video I'm capturing is prior to the OS coming up (waffling around
the Command Monitor, etc), so I can't have the system itself help me out.
If I had some LCD panels which spoke SGI I would simply sit a DV cam in
front of the LCD and record it - the quality should be acceptable - but I
don't (LCD since CRTs would have flicker, of course, when recorded). Plus,
I'd quite like to source video from Suns and other machinery.
I imagine there really -isn't- a catch-all solution, but I'd love to have
the thoughts of the Geek Masses. I've never done video capture before in
any form, and have little experience with working with video at all to be
honest, so anything would help.
Many thanks;
- JP
12:31 p.m.
On 05/11/2008 17:08, JP Hindin wrote:
On Wed, 5 Nov 2008, Jason McBrien wrote:
What are they? Anything from an Indigo onwards can drive VGA or SVGA.
I have an Indy and an O2 with LCD panels, and used to have a VGA monitor
on an Indigo (so I expect my LCDs would work). An Indy even has an
S-video o/p already (nitpick: SVHS is a tape format) though I've never
tried using it without IRIX running. I've never used older SGIs than
that but I thought if you got the right levels on the monitor sense pins
on the ones with 13W3 connectors, they'd output at sensible rates with
appropriate sync signals. Doesn't help if you only have 3 x BNC, of
course; you'd at least have to construct a sync separator, but that's
potentially just a one-chip stripboard design.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
If you have a sun or SGI that outputs somewhat
normal VGA, you could use
something like an Avermedia Quickplay to convert it to SVHS and record from
there.
If they outputted standard SVGA I'd just use a standard LCD panel ;)
Alas, no, the machines in question can only be relied upon to output
standard SGI and standard Sun video. 
2:02 p.m.
can you got from the output to something like the Raritan converter (ex:
ebay has one now 160294578592) to vga to video?
The one on ebay looks suspicious but might be the proper unit. I have
some which have the 13W3 connector integrated in. Info is sparse on
these converters, but they do work for me. At least on the Sparc video
Jim
7:30 p.m.
Pete Turnbull wrote:
On 05/11/2008 17:08, JP Hindin wrote:
I just thought I'd mention that I took a stock VGA to 3-BNC cable and
used it "backwards" to connect the HP 9000/380 I picked up recently to a
Dell/Phillips 20" LCD. The output from the HP running the PROM monitor
displays just fine.
YMMV, but perhaps this might work for an old IRIS 3130, or whatever
tasty gear you're not divulging the nature of JP... ;^)
--S.
Alas, no, the machines in question can only be relied upon to output
standard SGI and standard Sun video.
I've never used older SGIs than that [...] Doesn't help if you only
have 3 x BNC, of course; you'd at least have to construct a sync
separator, but that's potentially just a one-chip stripboard design. 
6 Nov
6 Nov
8:53 a.m.
Pete Turnbull wrote:
Doesn't help if you only have 3 x BNC, of
course; you'd at least have to construct a sync separator, but that's
potentially just a one-chip stripboard design.
I'm not sure how easy a sync separator is. I seem to remember there's a
SAA-family chip that'll do it, but I'm not sure how obtainable those are these
days.
I suppose finding a junk old monitor with sync-on-green / combined sync
ability might source some useful parts. I don't know how easy it would be to
build something out of passive components / 74xx logic parts...
If there's a way of doing it reasonably easily then that'd be a good route -
build a sync splitter and then feed the output into a PC-based capture card.
Another option might be to convert the video to composite and feed it into a
PC-based TV capture card (some of these seem to have composite inputs) - but
I'm not sure if there are problems there either with using composite for high
resolutions or with the capture card expecting only a set of "TV" resolutions
and barfing on something different.
cheers
Jules
11:31 a.m.
On 06/11/2008 13:53, Jules Richardson wrote:
Pete Turnbull wrote:
I don't know of an SAA series one; I was thinking LM1881, which is still
readily available. There are other single-chip solutions, of course,
such as various Intersil EL45xx chips.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
Doesn't help if you only have 3 x BNC, of
course; you'd at least have
to construct a sync separator, but that's potentially just a one-chip
stripboard design.
I'm not sure how easy a sync separator is. I seem to remember there's a
SAA-family chip that'll do it, but I'm not sure how obtainable those are
these days. 
8:43 p.m.
Doesn't
help if you only have 3 x BNC, of
course; you'd at least have to construct a sync separator, but that's
potentially just a one-chip stripboard design.
I'm not sure how easy a sync
separator is. I seem to remember there's a
SAA-family chip that'll do it, but I'm not sure how obtainable those are
these
days. 
5 Nov
5 Nov
6:03 p.m.
JP Hindin wrote:
On Wed, 5 Nov 2008, Jason McBrien wrote:
Standard Sun video is just analog RGB, like VGA, right? If so, the scan
converter advice I gave you earlier is valid as long as you build a
connector that carries the R, G, B, Hsync, Vsync lines over.
--
Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org) http://www.oldskool.org/
Help our electronic games project: http://www.mobygames.com/
Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/
A child borne of the home computer wars: http://trixter.wordpress.com/
If you have a sun or SGI that outputs somewhat
normal VGA, you could use
something like an Avermedia Quickplay to convert it to SVHS and record from
there.
If they outputted standard SVGA I'd just use a standard LCD panel ;)
Alas, no, the machines in question can only be relied upon to output
standard SGI and standard Sun video. 
6 Nov
6 Nov
11:48 a.m.
Standard Sun video is just analog RGB, like VGA,
right?
Which standard? :-) I've seen Suns use 5BNC (R, G, B, Hsync, Vsync)
and 4BNC (R, G, B, composite sync). With 13W3 it's harder to tell; I
suspect some use sync-on-green, but that's only a suspicion, and I also
suspect it may be in addition to, rather than instead of, a separate
sync line (or lines) - I've never had something fail for lack of sync,
but for all I know that could be luck; most of the monitors I've used
with Suns have been sold/designed for use with Suns....
And, of course, this is all tagged with the caveat that I have just
about nothing to do with Suns more recent than their dropping Sbus.
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5 Nov
5 Nov
6:02 p.m.
JP Hindin wrote:
If I had some LCD panels which spoke SGI I would
simply sit a DV cam in
front of the LCD and record it - the quality should be acceptable - but I
don't (LCD since CRTs would have flicker, of course, when recorded). Plus,
I'd quite like to source video from Suns and other machinery.
LCDs don't flicker. CRTs don't either, as long as you can match your
camera's shutter speed with the refresh rate of the CRT. While most
consumer cams only have speeds of 1/60th, 1/100th, and some "sports"
settings, more professional cameras have completely variable shutters
where you can literally dial a 1/56th or 1/72nd shutter.
I imagine there really -isn't- a catch-all
solution, but I'd love to have
the thoughts of the Geek Masses. I've never done video capture before in
any form, and have little experience with working with video at all to be
honest, so anything would help.
Your best bet is a scan converter. For a prior video project (capturing
pure 24-bit RGB from Amigas, no composite or Y/C as they weren't
high-quality enough), I had to do a lot of research to find
broadcast-quality scan converters that did what I wanted (ie. accept the
15KHz horizontal from the Amiga RGB port; most only do 31KHz and higher)
and then watch ebay for an old model I could afford. From that point
on, it was just a matter of finding a 25-pin D-shell (Amiga) to 15-pin
VGA adapter, then using a VGA cable that split out to R, G, B, Hsync,
Vsync on five BNC connectors, which went into the scan converter. The
output of the scan converter was whatever I wanted: PAL or NTSC; YCrCb
component or s-video or composite (ick) or VGA; etc.
These are SGIs -- don't they have some sort of native video output,
given their nature?
--
Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org) http://www.oldskool.org/
Help our electronic games project: http://www.mobygames.com/
Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/
A child borne of the home computer wars: http://trixter.wordpress.com/
5737
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11 comments
9 participants
participants (9)
-
alexandre-listas＠e-secure.com.br -
classiccmp＠crash.com -
jbmcb1＠gmail.com -
jplist2008＠kiwigeek.com -
jules.richardson99＠gmail.com -
jws＠jwsss.com -
mouse＠Rodents-Montreal.ORG -
pete＠dunnington.plus.com -
trixter＠oldskool.org