Frame grabbing database

Frame Grabbing

Video can be extracted from a number of devices and stored as rgb files using the frame buffer in lucille and frame grabbing software.

Equipment Needed:

Vid/IO Box
SGI VideoLab I/O Box
Lucille
Video Cart (for videodisc & VCR), Sony Hi-8 Camera or JVC CCD Camera
various cables

The SGI VideoLab I/O Box should always be connected to Lucille and have cables running out to Lucille's console for RGB IN and SYNC.

Equipment Setup:

The equipment are connected as follows:

Grabbing from Sony Laser VideoDisc:
Video Cart(v-disc out) --> SGI VideoLab I/O Box(rgb in)
Grabbing from VCR (VHS tape):
Video Cart(VHS OUT) --> Vid/IO Box(VIDEO OUT) --> VideoLab I/O Box(RGB IN)
Grabbing from VCR (SVHS tape):
Video Cart(S-VIDEO OUT) --> Vid/IO Box(S-VIDEO IN) --> VideoLab I/O Box(RGB IN)
Grabbing from Sony Hi-8 Camera:
Sony Hi-8 Camera(S-VIDEO OUT) --> Vid/IO Box(S-VIDEO IN) --> VideoLab I/O Box(RGB IN)
Grabbing from JVC CCD Camera:
This is an odd one:
Turn-arounds are needed(i.e. male to male connectors.) All we seem to have are the T shaped connectors, but these will do the job.
The two types of connectors.
They can usually be found in Imager Light in one of the bottom drawers of the filing cabinet on the immediate right as you enter the lab.
There are three ways to connect this up:
1. ```
CCD:            Lucy:
Red	--->	Red
Blue	--->	Blue
White	--->	Green	(if you choose to sync on 
			 green ingore the next line)
White	--->	Sync	(set sync to C on interface
			 for Lucy's grab software.)
```
2. A variation on this, which is far less troublesome, is to attach it as follows:
```
CCD:		Lucy:
Red	--->	Red
Blue	--->	Blue
Green	--->	Green	
```
  The last connection is not terribly stright forward:
  Video out (on the back of the camera) --> Vid/IO box(video in) and (sync out) --> VideoLab I/O Box(sync in)
3. An alternative to either of these is to connect the white output (composite/NTSC) to the video in on the Vid/IO Box and connect the outputs to VideoLab I/O box (i.e. Lucy's video inputs):
  JVC CCD(Composite out) --> Vid/IO Box(video in) --> VideoLab I/O Box(RGB in)
  One thing to note is that NTSC is subject to lots of noise, and will not (in general) give very good quality frame grabs. In fact this camera is quite inferior to the Hi-8 cameras that the department has.
Why use method two which seems to be the most complex? Well, it gives the best quality (certainly better than method three) and will cause the least amount of grief of all three methods. (Trust me, I've wasted hours :-)

For more information on the frame grabber software see the frame grab document.

Please send comments to

Stan Jang sjang@cs.ubc.ca or Marcello Lioy lioy@unixg.ubc.ca