Upscale or converter to VGA/DVI?

[edDV]

Well as Mr Mallin stated earlier ("If we remove the video processor the image will never be as nice as what we are getting now. The internal video processor is a 14 bits type and is very high performance.") it would seam that he is not interested in converting it to a digital out, but has some interest in the VGA conversion since a lot of his customers do have a typical computer monitor with those connections. When you talk about a VGA connection as a simple connection to a computer monitor or a LCD-TV with a PC port, you hit the demographic of the people who buy these units. Plus if it was a USB out he would need software with WDM drivers for it to appeal to some.

As far as the sources you listed, should I google them for VGA display card to give him examples?

Thanks!
Neil

He should know. Current lower performance VGA/DVI-D chipsets are much smaller these days with frame memory in the chipset. Some representative end products are
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815118301
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815290006
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812225007
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812200034

[smokinoakum]

Those devices don't look like something you could install in a camera?

Neil

[edDV]

Those devices don't look like something you could install in a camera?

Neil

The chips inside are what he could use. YCbCr digital in, VGA or VGA/DVI-D out.

[smokinoakum]

Those devices don't look like something you could install in a camera?

Neil

The chips inside are what he could use. YCbCr digital in, VGA or VGA/DVI-D out.

Thank you so much for your help, and I'll make sure to keep you guys updated.

Neil

[smokinoakum]

Hey guys, what about something like THIS to go inside the camera?

Neil

[edDV]

Hey guys, what about something like THIS to go inside the camera?

Neil

That chipset is for analog input to an SDTV set. Not the same thing. A telescope imager needs to convert camera RGB to VGA/DVI-D or to a digital video YCbCr stream over USB2.

[smokinoakum]

So am I looking for a encoder, or a decoder?

[edDV]

So am I looking for a encoder, or a decoder?

A display chipset.

[smokinoakum]

Ok, I'm having a hard time finding a RGB to VGA display chipset as a search. I also tried YCbCr to VGA display chipset, and a host of every combination I can think of. I know I'm a bit slow, but am I missing something?

[edDV]

Ok, I'm having a hard time finding a RGB to VGA display chipset as a search. I also tried YCbCr to VGA display chipset, and a host of every combination I can think of. I know I'm a bit slow, but am I missing something?

Your camera engineer will know.

http://www.intel.com/technology/graphics/index.htm
http://www.nvidia.com/page/products.html
http://ati.amd.com/products/index.html
http://www.siliconmotion.com.tw/en/en2/products_sm370.html
http://www.siliconmotion.com.tw/en/en2/products_sm722.html
http://www.4dsystems.com.au/prod.php?id=15
http://www.cmd.com/applications/support/mediaguard/index.php
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/micro-vga.html

[smokinoakum]

Update:

I heard back from the camera maker and he thinks it will work with the chipset already in there. My camera goes back to him tomorrow.

So now my question is, what can I expect as far as improvement with the VGA compared to the s video?

Neil

[jagabo]

A slightly sharper picture. Less macroblock artifacts. He'll probably have to change the contrast, gamma, and saturation in order to get better levels.

[smokinoakum]

I just wanted to thank you guys so much for helping me out with this project. I would have been in total darkness if it wasn't for you. I hope this will offer up a new experience for us Video and Electronically Assisted Astronomy geeks. I realize though experience that this form of capture will not rival standard AP, but that's a different animal with way more work to achieve results that you can share with others, especially in real time over the web.

I will make sure to post the final results when I get everything running, and in the meantime, if you have any further suggestions on how to improve the picture quality with what I will be working with, be sure to do so.

Neil

[smokinoakum]

I just wanted to thank you guys so much for helping me out with this project. I would have been in total darkness if it wasn't for you. I hope this will offer up a new experience for us Video and Electronically Assisted Astronomy geeks. I realize though experience that this form of capture will not rival standard AP, but that's a different animal with way more work to achieve results that you can share with others, especially in real time over the web.

I will make sure to post the final results when I get everything running, and in the meantime, if you have any further suggestions on how to improve the picture quality with what I will be working with, be sure to do so.

Neil

Hi all. I just wanted to share an update into this little project I have running. I did end up getting the VGA2USB LR screen grabber, and have had some success in improving the streamed video feed when I broadcast. What I have done is use two computers to acomplish this conversion from s video to VGA for streaming. On the first computer I am running an AVerTV Hybrid ExpressCard HC80 to capture the s video, and thI upscale the feed to 1200x1600 and go full screen with the Windows Media Player on an extended desktop function at 1280x1024. The I use the VGA2USB LR to go into the second computer and optimize and inhance the video for streaming. Yeah, I know this is like taking your right hand around your back to get into your left pocket, but the Mallincam designer is currently working on, and profecting a VGA output on the caera itself, so this technique will hopefuly be redundant very soon.

Here is a few comparison Snaps using three different devices, and setups.

Feel free to suggest better ways of doing this.

Neil

The First snap is with the ADS video express.

[smokinoakum]

The second snap is with the Dazzle DVD recorder.

[smokinoakum]

The last one is with the VGA2USB LR working with the Aver Hybrid express and Windows Media Player.

[smokinoakum]

Like I said, if you know a better way to do this, please speak up!

Neil

[smokinoakum]

So no one has any suggestions on how to do this?

[edDV]

Only to repeat what I said above. This is a good way to display on a generic computer monitor but not a good way to stream. VGA is not intended for capture.

[jagabo]

Where are you getting those colorbars from? The VGA cap is way overblown. The colorbars in the first two caps are much closer to what's normal for a computer monitor.

AviSynth's RGB ColorBars() (luma 16-235):



AviSynth's ColorBars(pixel_type="YUY2") after rec609 contrast expansion for computer RGB display (what most PC programs when displaying YUV sources):