SGI: Video

So I finally get ahold of a component to SDI converter box. Hooked everything up to my Onyx2/DIVO combo and the live audio/video feed come through fine. I also have an Octane/DIVO combination as well. Everything works with that too. Vpaper, shatter, awesome... everything works.

However, capturing video is another story. From what I have read, and tried, dmrecord does not work with DIVO boards. The manual pages make no mention of the DIVO board. I've also tried Orion, but that application will bring both systems to their knees. All I can do is hit the reset button. I've only found two posts that make mention of Orion, one person got it to work and the other never could. The most I'm able to do is use divo_vidtomem to grab individual frames, which are worthless.

What am I missing here?

Not sure, but I believe Vagabondo got it working using SDI output from a hacked DVD player, judging by the comment "It sure uses up a lot of disk space". You might try and PM him to see what he did or didn't get working.

If you do, let us know what is required, I have a DIVO/DVCPRO board here that I haven't had a chance to play with.

Thanks for the referal Dr. Dave

The best (and only because I stopped looking when I found a way that worked) way is through command line, but it can be a bit tedious.

There is a listing of all available modes/options for the divo card...man DIVO?

Let me check my notes (if I still have them)...otherwise I will look to find it somewhere.

Well I got Orion to work. The trick is... Don't use 6.5.30. I installed 6.5.8 on the Octane, then upgraded to .12, installed the DIVO software and Orion works. Fairly good. It's still a little funky, but it doesn't kill the machine anymore. Maybe it would work even better by going to a mid 20's release.

However, I did stumble across the 'avcapture' command late last night and that works perfectly. I haven't tried it on the Onyx2 yet (.30) but it's great on the Octane. Is that the command you were using?

Exactly...I am sure that is the command I was using. If you type in -help or something there is a huge list of options to be used on capture from bit depth to compression (and specifics within compression), etc. That is also where you can use the 4:4:4:4 dual link capability of the board with genlock. Never tried it, but I was very impressed with the quality of the captures even if they were huge. Simple enough to string some FC drives and get sufficient space to work with.

Regards

I'd try the magic 6.5.22 release... not sure if anything beyond that was just some minor things (timezone updates, etc.) and possibly some extra hardware firmware updates with regards to O2k, seems that much of the new updates seem to have been targeted at the IP35-class boxes.

That will a good next step.

Was it .22 or .23 that had the anti-aliased fonts and icons?

Thought it started somewhere around 6.5.21, definitely in 6.5.22

Do you mean that you are using a Onyx2/Origin2000 style DIVO card in an Octane (with the latch modified, obviously)? Or do you have two different boards and you are just calling them both DIVO? Or am I just confused and they are actually both called DIVO even though they are two different boards?

There's two identical DIVO boards. One in an Onyx2, and the other with a modified latch bolted to a V6 in an Octane2.

Did it take anything special to get the Onyx2 DIVO working in the Octane?

I'd like to know that too.

Also, is anyone using ShotMaker? (rewrite of MovieMaker, optimised for uncompressed video)

SGI released a license some time ago:

FEATURE SHOTMAKER sgifd 1.000 01-jan-0 0 8D523EC13F12C3B65C47 \
HOSTID=ANY vendor_info="ShotMaker" SN=133659 \
ISSUER="Silicon Graphics, Inc." NOTICE="Courtesy" ck=77

but I've not managed to find the installation source yet.

Setting up a capture array is easy. For SD, even a QLA1080 or 1280 will do, though I use a QLA12160.

Ian.

I thought you asked for that tardist a while back - I put it up on Nekochan FTP (under /pub/irix/Graphics).

Oh! Not quite sure what happened there. Perhaps I was unable to download it at the time for some reason.

Thanks!! Downloading now... I'll add it to my site later this evening.

Ian.

I just went through the process - here's the installation notes.

Installing an Onyx2 style Digital Video Option <DIVO> into a VPro equipped Octane or Octane2:
1. Replace the <Onyx2> XIO latch on the DIVO with an Octane XIO latch.
2. Power down the Octane and remove the power cord.
3. Extract the VPro graphics tri-carrier, remove a blanking plate <XIO slot C>, and attach the DIVO.
4. Install the graphics carrier <with DIVO> into the Octane.
5. Reconnect power and start the system.
6. Stop in the PROM and run an hinv - the DIVO should appear in the PROM hinv.
7. Boot the system <the DIVO will not appear in an IRIX hinv until software is installed>.
8. Install the required software:

8a. The 'base' software is 6.5.11_divodvc_2.4 - if you obtain it from the provided link rename the file extension .tardist <as opposed to .tar > or Software Manager will complain <alternatively you could un-tar the file to a directory and point Software Manager at the extracted files>.
8b. You also need files from your IRIX overlay set to 'upgrade' 6.5.11_divodvc_2.4 to match your current IRIX revision level. Those files are located in the /dist/unbundled directory of the second IRIX Overlay Disk. The necessary file will be named divo_65xx: DIVO/DIVO-DVC Video Execution Environment, 2.4 for IRIX 6.5.xx <or something fairly close, where the "xx" will represent the your Overlay revision number>.

9 . Once the software installation is complete, you'll be prompted to restart the system.
10. After the system restarts, you can confirm the software installation with either an IRIX hinv, or a divohinv < /usr/dmedia/bin/DIVO/divohinv >. You can confirm the hardware installation with the DIVO diagnotics utility: /usr/diags/DIVO/bin/divotest -divo <see man divotest for specific test parameters>.

Reference Materials:

DIVO Product Release Notes
DIVO Option and DIVO-DVC Option Owner's Guide
divohinv man pages
divotest man pages

Is this possible also with Mgras Graphics instead of VPro in a Octane with a Lucent Power Supply but a revison F X-Bow??

Don't think I've seen a mention of any one trying an MGRAS/Onyx2 DIVO combination. My *guess* is that it would work. Why not give it a try and report back?

I thought the DIVO w/MGRAS was the way to go by default or by production hardware for a while

It is/was. But this time it's a case of too many DIVOs <and rolling an old thread over onto a a new page without any accompanying quotes - sorry>. The DIVO we were referring to is the O2k/Onyx2 version <used in an Octane>. Jump back to the last post on the first page for details>.