MPEG-FAQ 4.0:

Video-Maker

From: jmm73@frmug.fr.mugnet.org (Jean-Michel Mercier)

Date: Tue, 22 Jun 93 22:07:34 MET DST

VITEC VIDEO-MAKER

Since December 92, there is a french MPEG PC-plugin. It's called
VIDEO MAKER and it's manufactured by :
 VITEC
 3 bis rue P. Baudry
 92140 CLAMART
 FRANCE
 tel (33) 1.46.29.03.00
 fax (33) 1.46.29.03.04

Features :
Claims to be the world 1st MPEG board.
2 selectable video inputs NTSC/PAL/SECAM/S-VHS
Picture up to 768x576 (by step of 16)
Colors  : 256/32K/16M
Frame : 1 to 25 Fr/s
No need for VESA Features connector
16 bit short card, no dip nor jumper, no DMA nor IRQ
Windows software :
IMAGER : record & compress moving or still picts.
MPEG PLAYER : full software MPEG decoder/player, doesn't need the board
(it seems that you can freely give this soft with your MPEG seqs.)
MULTIMEDIA MANAGER VM : well known software from Multimedia Telecom to
build your scripts with icons, sync. with sounds, etc...
DLL for MCI & AVI availables

What it's not said in the commercial :
The card doesn't sample sound today but a daughter board should become
available (you can still sample sound separ and the resync with M. MANAGER)
You can't use the full specs at the same time (ie 768x576, 16M colors,

25 fr/s) even with a 486 as the compression is made by software
In fact, the sequence is 1st stored in memory using a proprietary
compression scheme and saved to disk as .VSF files. Then the offline
compression could be achived. It seems that a PC with 8Mbytes of RAM
should be able to record about 10 to 30 secondes of video.

What's on the board :
The board use Philips Digital Desktop video chipset (TDA8708+TDA8709+
SAA7191+SAA7197) witch provides 4:2:2 YUV video @ 14.75 Msmp/s
It doesn't use the SAA7192 color space converter to get RVB so this
should be done by software.
There is also an XC3042-100 FPLA from Xilinx and 1Mx8bits of dynamic
ram (70ns). Probably used for pre-compression.

The public price is 3500FF ($625) but Surcouf (Paris' computer store)
sells it about 2300FF ($410).
There was an ad in march issue of BYTE (p127) @ $695. For US & canada
the ad said to phone to 404-921-6167 or fax to 404-921-9243.

There is an test of this card (9 other ones) in june issue of the french
magazine "Multimedia Solutions".


     NOTE : I have nothing to do with VITEC. This is not an ad. It is
     my personnal understanding of VITEC's ads, magazines reports and
     phone calls to VITEC. Please contact VITEC for any contractual
     informations.