4:4:4 10bit single CMOS HD project

[Rob Scott]

Rob Lohman wrote:
I'm assuming that if you implement a QuickTime writer it will be able to use all the codecs you have installed for it. But then again, I might be wrong on that.

I believe that's correct, Rob, but I haven't tried it yet.

[Rob Scott]

Jason Rodriguez wrote:
Adobe's just introduced a proposed open universal camera RAW format file called .DNG

That looks interesting, but the site mentions only photography. Though I haven't read the documentation yet, I suspect that this format is optimized for still photography -- where a high frame rate is generally not a big issue -- and not for filmmaking.

Besides, if someone really wanted to use it, it could end up being very simple to convert from IHD to DNG.

[Jason Rodriguez]

so we attempt to get the best performance possible by doing as few file open's as possible and doing lots of sequential writes.

Just curious then, why the 1GB limit when FAT32 has a 2GB limit?

Also do you think there will be a seek "hiccup" when the new file needs to be written, or is that what the RAM buffer is there to prevent?

Additionally, I think we'll need some sort of dropped frame indicator.

This all seems very exciting, but I'm wondering how far in the distance we're talking here, especially for Quicktime conversion.

[Rob Scott]

Jason Rodriguez wrote:
Just curious then, why the 1GB limit when FAT32 has a 2GB limit?

It seemed like a convenient "chunk" to use, and prevents problems if using unsigned longs for seeking.

Also do you think there will be a seek "hiccup" when the new file needs to be written, or is that what the RAM buffer is there to prevent?

Exactly, the RAM buffer should smooth that out.

Additionally, I think we'll need some sort of dropped frame indicator.

Yes, I have thought about that, but I'm not yet sure how I'm going to handle it.

This all seems very exciting, but I'm wondering how far in the distance we're talking here, especially for Quicktime conversion.

The Convert software is very close to being released under the GPL; at that point, anyone who wants to can add QuickTime support. I have downloaded the SDK myself, I just haven't yet had time to dig into it.

[Rob Lohman]

I've worked with the QT SDK a couple of years back and it was
pretty painfull to figure out how everything needed to be done.
However, this was for reading a movie, not writing, which in
theory should be easier. After I'm done with my compression
stuff I hope to spend some more time with the convert application
and output formats and such.

[Marto Lautz]

Hi, I have been intrested in this project since I found vence camera 3ccd 1/2 inch I think a year ago.
well now i think I'm ready to have my own one.
Have the mony and the skills to do any mecanical and electric work but not idea off programing.
So i have checked sumix and SI web pages and both have great solutions 1st quest
witch ccd is the best?
I'm looking for a 1 cmos ccd proyect.
maybe the best would be going for SI because of the gygabite interface that aloud for a low profile computer to run it (power is an issue for a portable camera) also i have chaqued the soft they have and it seems that they offer the capabilities to record to disk under windows with access to control frame rate and few other setups.
sumix with usb2 suffer of cpu power consuptin also but wich is the best ccd and software to record to disk and control frame rate is waht may decide the way to go.
by the way thaks every body for this great contribution to cinema and to break the big movie monopoly.

[Jason Rodriguez]

The best sensor by far is the Altasens 3560 which will be in the SI-1920, and also a camera by Sumix, although Sumix's ship date is unknown right now. The SI-1920 is over cameralink and gigabit (but the gigabit interface is coming later).

BTW, you might want to check out the SBC83850 from Axiomtek, it's ideal for this project with dual SATA channels and a PCI-X slot for a 64-bit framegrabber.

[Laurence Maher]

When is the SI-1920 supposed to come out?

[Marto Lautz]

Hve you check this driver any ideas of how to aply it to a cmos censor
orange micro
400 Mb/sec. IEEE 1394 compatible (camera consumes only 200 Mb/s bandwidth)
Non-compressed full-motion digital video at rates of up to 30 Frames/sec @ 640 x 480 depending on your system configuration
1/4" Color CCD Image Sensor
62 degree angle of view
Effective Pixels: 659 x 494
PCI 2.1 Compliant
Frame size up to 640 x 480
Focusable lens from 1cm to infinity
Supports YUV 4:1:1, YUV 4:2:2, YUV 4:4:4, and RGB 24-bit formats
Millions of colors (24 bit)
Supports Plug-and-Play specification
Supports up to 2 cameras per bus simultaneously
Connectors
6 foot cable with 6 pin IEEE 1394 FireWire connector
Package Includes:
iBOT FireWire Web Cam
Software CD with drivers

[Marto Lautz]

are SI suplying software for the camera ?
How it would work?

[Jason Rodriguez]

Thy guys here on the list like Rob S., Rob L., David Newman, and Obin are supplying software, although there is other software you can purchase.

The SI-1920 should be shipping by the end of October.

Hook the camera up to a PC and have fun!

[Rob Lohman]

Just note that we are actually still *working* on this software.
It isn't out yet. It does work already though!

[Laurence Maher]

Will the SI-1920 be a rolling or global shutter? How many stops of latitude do they predict?

[Jason Rodriguez]

Rolling shutter, although when you run it at a high enough Mhz, that's no longer a problem.

Also I've gotten 10 f-stops out of the chip at around ISO 500-type noise/grain, so there's lots of dynamic range in this chip, able to handle highlights and shadows.

[Marto Lautz]

then is this chip better then the altens chip ?
I heard that the altens have sensitivity issues.
hey rob s, rob l and david abut the software waht can you guys tell me?
for waht I have read you guys are working on a camera friendly user interface is taht right,