Hardware or Software codecs for Starnet Development ad insertion system

[cybertheque]

I recently acquired a Starnet Development Inc. (SDI) cable system ad insertion "video server",
which is just a Netware 3.11 fileserver (486/33 EISA with 5-channel Mylex DAC960 RAID and 100Mbps
TCNS Arcnet); the commercial 'spots' on the RAID volume are identified as MPEG-1 elementary stream,
704x480 29.970fps, ~9kpbs by the Windows program 'Gspot'. I don't have a decoder that will faithfully
play these files; my Optibase hardware decoder stalls after about ten seconds of play which is full of
blocky breakups, VLC says nothing to play, Winamp plays as well as the Optibase does and plays the
whole file.

Does anyone know what hardware and/or software encoders and decoders were used by this
system (circa 1995)? I see some references to Vela and Starnet Development, but Vela seems to
be related to products announced in 1999. Other candidates include Scientific Atlanta, QI, and so
on, but I have no hard information. Here is an example of strings found in the file (header):

20000104142315VERSION=Encode 3.1, Record 1.5, DSR 2.3, FLASH 0.995
VCODE=OFF
TRAFFICSITE=0
TRAFFICTYPE=ccms
EXPIREDATE=09/29/2002
AUDIO=S
LENGTH=900
SPOTNAME=<changed to protect the innocent>
SPOTID=005009


Michael

[filmboss80]

You already know about Vela (http://www.vela.com/action.cfm/us_en/page=homepage), and they were the ones that offered mpeg decoders for SDI ad insertion systems (yours is quite old, methinks). You should contact Vela for advice. Your trouble seems to lie in that Optibase decoder. If you can replace that with a workable MPEG-2 decoder, you'll be getting somewhere. But that's the issue, isn't it? Otherwise, it seems to me, you could use any software encoder (including freeware tools like those linked to this site) to make MPEG-1 files that would play, though the quality may be lacking.

[cybertheque]

If you can replace that with a workable MPEG-2 decoder, you'll be getting somewhere. But that's the issue, isn't it?

Indeed, the decoder is the issue as I have tried several hardware decoders and my collection of software codecs with
no satisfactory results. I don't have the encoder hardware from the SDI system, only the collection of spots on the
RAID array which I would like to play. If I could identify the hardware used to encode them I could pursue obtaining
a decoder board or perhaps hack some existing software decoder. I'm sure there are some proprietary differences
in the file structure that confuse standard decoders, much like the ReplayTV 4000 series mpeg-2 files which have
well-documented differences and for which there are software tools to convert them to standards-based formats.

Interestingly, my Optibase hardware decoder has no problem with raw ReplayTV 4k series mpeg-2 files.

[cybertheque]

A quick update: 'mplayer' (p3-svn-27743 -- nothing special about the choice, its just the last ver I downloaded)
plays the files best of all players that I've tried (perhaps due to FFMPEG features) and it also emits an analysis of
the stream. The player interpolates around perceived 'damage' and makes viewing tolerable to at least identify
content and read captions, etc. A sample of the emitted output:

Starting playback...
VDec: vo config request - 704 x 480 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is 1.34:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO: [directx] 704x480 => 704x526 Planar YV12
[mpeg1video @ 0xde46a0]skipped MB in I frame at 10 11
[mpeg1video @ 0xde46a0]skipped MB in I frame at 12 26
[mpeg1video @ 0xde46a0]Warning MVs not available
[mpeg1video @ 0xde46a0]concealing 208 DC, 208 AC, 208 MV errors
[mpeg1video @ 0xde46a0]concealing 306 DC, 306 AC, 306 MV errors
[mpeg1video @ 0xde46a0]concealing 352 DC, 352 AC, 352 MV errors
[mpeg1video @ 0xde46a0]ac-tex damaged at 38 11
[mpeg1video @ 0xde46a0]ac-tex damaged at 43 26
[mpeg1video @ 0xde46a0]Warning MVs not available
[mpeg1video @ 0xde46a0]concealing 192 DC, 192 AC, 192 MV errors
[mpeg1video @ 0xde46a0]mb incr damaged
[mpeg1video @ 0xde46a0]Warning MVs not available
[mpeg1video @ 0xde46a0]concealing 352 DC, 352 AC, 352 MV errors
[mpeg1video @ 0xde46a0]mb incr damaged
[mpeg1video @ 0xde46a0]invalid cbp at 16 26
[mpeg1video @ 0xde46a0]concealing 352 DC, 352 AC, 352 MV errors
[mpeg1video @ 0xde46a0]ac-tex damaged at 43 11
[mpeg1video @ 0xde46a0]invalid cbp at 16 27
[mpeg1video @ 0xde46a0]concealing 188 DC, 188 AC, 188 MV errors
...

I now also have the DOS-based playback software, but unfortunately nothing in it identifies the hardware
decoder board(s) used. The player uploads Xilinx microcode and CPU code for an unknown CPU onto the
board and also uses a mapping file (perhaps colorspace data). I also discovered the name of the author
of the software and emailed a request for any information he may have, but I fear that getting a reply may
be a problem since the website attached to the domain name appears to be about ten years old and may
be stale.

(Edited:) Research of company filings online reveals that Starnet Development as a producer of ad-insertion
gear discontinued operations in 1995 and support of the line was transfered to parent Starnet, Inc. which
later became Lenfest , and later Comcast, and post 1995 the ad-insertion products were only used internally
and not marketed. References to Vela as a supplier was for newer generation gear not marketed externally.

Does anyone know a hardware decoder which uses Xilinx FPGA or CPLD devices that require a microcode
upload to function? (Edited:) The board would have been ISA or EISA bus (not PCI) since the code is
dated from 1991 -> 1994.

Would someone comfortable with low-level analysis of an MPEG-1 elementary stream care to look at
some of these and make some suggestions for conversion?