Date : Fri, 01 Mar 2002 10:50:01 -0000
From : "Dave Gorst" <dgorst@...>
Subject: Re: BBC Domesday on the telly
Can't think that the interface to the laserdisc player would be particularly
difficult - there's quite a few old laserdisc players about with a serial
interfaces, which I guess you could connect to the RS432 IIRC (have a look
at the Dragons Lair emulator Daphne for instance). Was there anything odd
about the player or disc format? Otherwise could we not write something to
step through and play the full contents of the disc and use a PC video
digitiser card to capture the result? Then either re-format the results into
either HTML or something similar, or hack in support for the Master AV and
playing MPEG video into BeebEm or whatever? It'd also be a great addition to
something like MESS (after all, preservation of old systems is what it's
supposed to be all about), but I don't think they've got it supporting the
Master as of the mo. Anyway, I'd be happy to have a crack at it if someone's
got the discs.
I actually saw a Master AV going free in my local paper a few years ago and
I'm kicking myself 'cos I was thinking of trying to re-write Dragons Lair
for it (I know, I have no life).
Cheers,
Dave.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Wheatley" <p.r.wheatley@...>
To: <news@...>
Cc: <bbc-micro@...>
Sent: Friday, March 01, 2002 10:22 AM
Subject: Re: [BBC-Micro] BBC Domesday on the telly
>
>
> news@... wrote:
> >
> > >news@... wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > On Wednesday JISC (Joint Information Systems Commitee) is
> > > > > holding a press launch for the Digital Preservation
> > > > > Coalition
> > > > > (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/dner/preservation/prescoalition.html).
> > > >
> > > > > As part of the launch I produced a press release
> > > > > describing BBC Domesday as
> > > > > an example of the loss of digital materials thru hardware
> > > > > and software obsolecence (and hence the need for digital
> > > > > preservation work).
> > > >
> > > > With the exception of the huge laser disc players,I wouldn't count
them
> > > > as obsolete!
> > >
> > > Well that depends on how you interpret the word obsolete.
> > >
> > > The Domesday system requires not just the Videodisc player but a
specially
> > > modified Master as well. Given that not many were manufactured and
hence not
> > > many are still around today (and even less that are still working)
> >
> > You could modify a 'normal' master,since tracking for the genlock
circuitry
> > is on all the motherboards.The VFS ROM is somewhere on the "BBC Lives!"
as
> > I recall.
> >
> > The interface to the laser disc could prove more tricky...
>
> Thats the key problem I believe.
>
> Anyway, all of this is somewhat missing the point. Hardware has a finite
> lifetime, and we want to preserve digital materials for the long term.
> "Technology Preservation" is simply not going to do the job.
>
> >
> > > > There are a good few still about and working,I'd imagine it wouldn't
be
> > > > too hard to suck the image off the laser disc and hack something
together
> > > > in an emulator,
> > >
> > > Not necessarily as easy as you think, but I'm hoping we'll have it
done by
> > > the summer.
> >
> > >From what I remember Acorn implemented a full filing system in VFS,so
some
> > BASIC to recursively transmit the files over Econet or the serial port
would
> > seem the most obvious solution.
> > Also,OSWords &60 to &64 are worth a look.
>
> Serial port was so slow that it would take literally days to pull the
digital
> information off the discs. The next avenue to explore is connecting to the
> videodisc player via SCSI.
>
> >
> > > The problems aren't just technical tho - the first obstacle is
> > > legal. We certainly won't be able to give access to anyone. It'll be
up to
> > > someone else (maybe the BBC or the British Library perhaps) to pay the
> > > relevant people and then provide access...
> >
> > Ah,yes,I'd forgotton about the BBC getting upset.Still,that doesn't stop
> > you doing the work - just from making it public!
> > Sprow.
>
> I believe the BBC have some interest in the work, but they aren't the
owners
> of the BBC Domesday material...
>
> Cheers
>
> Paul
> --
> UK Project Manager
> CAMiLEON
> http://www.si.umich.edu/CAMILEON/
> http://www.leeds.ac.uk/camileon
> 0113 233 5830