Sony 6000 video disc and Silicon Graphics

[Rick Jansen]

In our visualization lab we plan to use a Sony LVR6000 video disc
for recording computer animations and still pictures. This appears
to be not quite so trivial as we thought it would be at first.
Especially the synchronization of video equipment and the program
delivering the pictures itself is not quite clear (to me).
 
For example, Wavefront Data Visualizer has an animation facility,
where you can specify the number of frames to generate. It can take
a while (seconds) before the next frame is ready. As far as I can
see (correct me if I'm wrong please), there is no way to trigger the
video equipment to record a frame as it is finished, from Data
Visualizer. It IS possible though, to capture the frames in RLB
files, and process them later, recording the animation frame by
frame onto video disc. This has to be done with a self-written
application.
 
Silicon Graphics has a product called Video Creator to record onto
video tape. Video Creator (VC) is connected to a Silicon Graphics
workstation. It is connected to the RGB signals, and is controlled
via the SCSI interface from an Iris. Via a coax cable VC controls a
little box called V-Lan box, which controls the actual video
recorder. In a window on the Iris screen you can control the
operation of Video Creator, like start and stop the VCR, record
single frames etc etc. Schematically this setup looks like this:
 
 
  +----------+   RGB     +---------------+ PAL/NTSC +--------+
  |  SGI     |-->--------| Video Creator |--------->| VCR    |
  |  Iris    |           +---------------+          +--------+
  |          |            |        |   +-------+      |
  |          |-->---------+        +-->| V-Lan |-->---+
  +----------+  SCSI                   +-------+  control
 
We intend not to use a VCR, but the mentioned Sony disc. We are
still investigating if a Sony disc can be controlled by a V-Lan box.
(These boxes are configurable.)
 
Using a disc that can hold 36250 frames per side requires some
administration, which is not covered in the above schematic. We
could imagine a setup like the following scheme, where the laserdisc
is controlled via a Mac or PC, while also an administration of
recorded sequences and stills is kept.
 
  +----------+   RGB     +---------------+ PAL/NTSC +-----------+
  |  SGI     |-->--------| Video Creator |--------->| Sony 6000 |
  |  Iris    |           +---------------+          +-----------+
  |          |            |        |   +-------+      |
  |          |-->---------+        +-->| PC    |-->---+
  +----------+  SCSI                   |  +    |  control
                                       | disk  |
                                       +-------+
 
Well, so much for ideas and plans. Does anyone on the net already
have experience with a similar setup including a Sony disc and
Silicon Graphics equipment? Any information would be very welcome!
 
Rick Jansen
SARA, Amsterdam, The Netherlands