Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Immersive SDI output card

In the past we discussed SDI for the 800, and since Immersive stopped selling them there was no option anymore.

I wrote a mail to Immersive that was answered by Tom Strade. They would be willing to make a new batch of cards if sufficient numbers of people want one:


So perhaps if there are a number of people which want such a card, the price could become reasonable.

I doubt there are 19 other people on this forum who want one too, so i guess we are looking at $1500
I would not want to spend $1800 on this card as with shipping and import tax i pay $2500, i fear

I am also thinking on buying a VE12 card, and put a SDI modification on it. That could be cheaper than $1800 depending on the SDI mod cost. Need some information which are the 8 data legs on the VE-12 connector to the backplane for that..

Jaco

you will also need a good video processor with SDI in.

Correct, i own a Immersive Holograph3D-II. Perhaps some do not define that as good, but i am happy with it (still need a few bug fixes)
Jaco

I dont know since Ive never seen it- but I will take your word that its good. besides it seems immersive makes some good things.

Indeed, aside from it's DLP twitter making me want to gouge out my own eyes I thought the Virtuoso was fully the equal of a 7" CRT projector.

There's always the S&W SDI card for the 800

Mark

Problem with the S&W card is that it's an encrypted output, designed to interface with an S&W Interpolator.

Looked at this option already.

Now a modifed VE12 card might offer some interesting possibilities.

M.

[This message has been edited by Martin Cox (edited 12-26-2003).]

[This message has been edited by Martin Cox (edited 12-26-2003).]

Yes, that is what i thought as well.

SDI mods come for around 360-500 Euro's (examples: http://www.jvb.nl/jvb.asp?cur=1�i...rchtype=brand&searchstring=Up grade)
A VE-12 costs 1200 Euro list.
Normally one would need 8 data lines, ground and +5 volts (or other value) That should be easy to pick up from the connector, and a little piggy backed PCB is not that difficult. Take a spare slot cover, drill a hole and fit a BNC.

So if someone has a Immeresive or S&W card and would be kind enough to look if it can be seen which connectors are used ?

Jaco

[This message has been edited by jaco (edited 12-26-2003).]

Why go SDI when the new VE12 has digital video on HDMI,

SDI is not as good as HDMI I think you are all a bit bit mad modding products I will go for this HDMI card and then get a good display device with HDMI in the next year.

HDMI is the way to go leaves SDI standing.

John

The reason to use SDI is to avoid any onboard deinterlacing and scaling on the VE card. For use on a large high resolution display I wouldn't want to use Faroudja DCDi, better deinterlacers exist from KDS, S&W, Terranex etc.

If you want to mod an 800 series for SDI, then the answer is to purchase one of the older VE cards, the VE00, and find the datasheet for the video encoder chip on that, chances are it uses the same input as an SDI transceiver and SDI output is a fairly simple soldering job.

Mark

I am a poor 'sucker' with a CRT projection system. Problem: no DVI/HDMI input.
Because of the fear of copying there seems to be little change we can buy a box with HDMI-in and RGBHV output.

So a scaler with SDI input and RGBHV output gives you the closest thing to a digital path with as few as possible D/A and A/D conversions.

Jaco

The problem with SDI is, that it passes the chroma bug to the external scaler. If the external scaler does not use a FLI2x00 or a vertical chroma filter, you'll end up with the chroma bug on screen.

Depending on what scaler is used, it should be considered before one jumps to SDI or if it isn't better to leave the deinterlacing to an internal card which uses FLI2xx0, masks the chroma bug and pass a 480p/576p signal from there to the scaler.

Also, there is no scaler out there that supports 48/72Hz with proper cadence detection and lock.
The Terranex does not count, since it has no analogue inputs and only a HD-SDI output.

Once such a scaler is out, who knows what chip it will use and if it has a filter.
The iScan HD should have it, but I guess noone has seen it yet. Also it won't scale 720p and 1080i to higher resolutions.

Jaco, if you're a poor 9" crt 'sucker' like me, there's hope for DVI/HDMI input cards. At least for the Sony G90 and Barco 1209 series.

Check avs-forum for details.


Stephan


[This message has been edited by Stephan (edited 12-27-2003).]

I am so tired of reading about the Teranex, it is an overpriced serious piece of gargabe. We spent $60k on a full blown version 6 months ago and if we could get our money back, we would. We have written our own scaling software because the Teranex is so bad.

It's deinterlacing is worse than the old Genesis chip. It has really bad frame rate conversion. Its scaling is poor. The only thing it has going is its scratch removal. However, I don't let any HD or SD that I am working on near the box.

[quote]Also, there is no scaler out there that supports 48/72Hz with proper cadence detection and lock. []/quote]

The FLI23xxBC rev (and beyond)supports this feature with a little bit of work. (ok, a lot as their product support is really bad.) The InFocus 5700 supports this feature.

I doubt you will ever see an HDMI input card for a G90. Why? The annual fee for HDCP is a lot of money. There are not enough G90s on the market to support someone to create such a product. Well, if they charaged $10k for the product (input card) and had at least 1000 orders, it might be worth their while.

HDMI has the potential to be better than SDI. HDMI can pass 480i to a scaler. So you could take advantage of a high end scaler (as soon as someone builds one).