TECHniques The Newsletter for DVI* Multimedia Developers Spring 1992 A Message From the Editor: If you have had the time to read any of the trade press after COMDEX* /Fall 91' or happened to catch the COMDEX news on programs such as The Computer Chronicles, you have probably already shared in our enthusiasm for being named "Best of Show" this year. Our competition was tough - other products nominated included Microsoft Word for Windows* 2.0, Norton Utilities* and the portable Macintosh computer. The new ActionMedia* II boards and software stole the show, and IBM and Intel shared in the celebration and excitement. We are thrilled with this accomplishment, and with the support and hard work of all of our engineers and marketing staff. Most of all, we want to thank the developers who have been working with early versions of our hardware and software and were able to demonstrate ActionMedia products in desktop PC's in our own booth area and in many other locations on the COMDEX floor. Many of these customers are featured in the Developer News section of this issue of TECHniques. Make sure you check out the summaries of the COMDEX announcements. We know that all of you have shared in our vision to bring multimedia to the desktop PC, and these announcements are a giant step forward in reaching that goal. Our focus in this issue is on what you can expect with the new products. Mary Brooks has acted as content editor for this issue, and has put together an interesting variety of articles from people who have been using ActionMedia boards and software. In addition to the new tools and software outlined in "Developer News", our lead article, provided by Network Technologies, describes MEDIAscript* for OS/2* - an authoring tool based on the new ActionMedia AVK software. Active 8's John Singer describes his experience porting a DOS-based application to AVSS 2.20 for the ActionMedia II boards. Avtex Research's president Mark Bunzel gives an overview of how Avtex and Emtech teamed to convert videodisc-based material to DVI multimedia products. As always, Mark's insights include practical production tips as well as a view of the benefits of the ActionMedia products. These new application products can take advantage of improved image quality for PLV and RTV, and Al Korenjak's (Manager of Technical Marketing, Intel Corporation) article provides insight into these new capabilities. There is certainly a lot that is new at Intel's Multimedia Products Operation. Our work with ActionMedia II products is only the beginning. Where will the ActionMedia II product family end up in 1992? These boards will find homes in business and schools across the world....but more about that in our next issue. Write to us at: TECHniques, Intel Corporation, 313 Enterprise Drive, Plainsboro, NJ 08536. Sandra Morris Manager, Customer Marketing, Intel Multimedia Products Operation. _____________________________________________ MEDIAscript* for ActionMedia II by Ann Richards Multimedia Sales Manager, Network Technology Corp. Network Technology Corporation, publisher of the MEDIAScript DOS Multimedia Application Design Tools, has announced a family of new products: the MEDIAscript Desktop Edition. These products will provide developers with tools and authoring capabilities for the ActionMedia II product line. The new MEDIAscript OS/2 Desktop Edition provides a development environment which employs visual programming techniques and multimedia objects to quickly prototype and implement sophisticated multimedia and hypermedia applications without the need to write scripts. The scripting language is encapsulated within MEDIAscript Desktop and is not visible to the application creator. However, the existence of the scripts will provide the capability to port an application between delivery platforms (i.e. Windows, OS/2). For those professional publishers who require access at the script level, a set of enhanced language tools is available in the MEDIAscript OS/2 Professional Edition. A common high level scripting language facilitates transportability of MEDIAscript applications between DOS, Windows, and OS/2. The Professional Edition of MEDIAscript, which is intended for use by multimedia publishers, rather than creators of desktop presentations, also supports compilation and protection of application scripts, the ability to author capture, spreadsheet, and database functions into end-user applications, support for access to Dynamic Link Libraries (DLL) and the Multimedia Extensions Media Control Interface (MCI). The MEDIAscript OS/2 and Windows products will have an open architecture which enables developers to create applications using a rich set of multimedia resources including VGA and XGA displays, BMP, PIC and JPEG images, PCM and ADPCM audio files, various animation formats, touch displays, mouse and keyboard input and PLV and RTV digital motion video technology. Analog laser disc controls are also provided. The MEDIAscript OS/2 Desktop Edition software includes tools for still image capture, audio wave form, and 30fps digital motion video capture. Video inputs from cameras and camcorders, laser disc players, and VCRs can be used as media. For better quality, capture of S-VHS cameras and players are supported. Tools are also included for finding, browsing, organizing, and playing motion video, images, audio, and animation files. In addition to the Intel 4-bit ADPCM audio formats, 8-bit PCM audio at 11, 22, and 44.1 khz is also supported for capture and delivery. This offers compatibility with audio standards for both the Windows and OS/2 Multimedia Extensions. In addition to image formats for 9 and 16 bit images, which support up to 16.7 million colors, MEDIAscript supports capture and display of 9 bit JPEG images. MEDIAscript enables developers to build complex interactive desktop video projects from a rich set of powerful object classes which includes text, data, images, graphics, audio, animation, and full motion video. Multimedia objects are manipulated visually, greatly accelerating the design and implementation of an application. One of the most powerful capabilities of the new MEDIAscript product is the creation of windows in the Presentation Manager. These windows enable the creation of applications which can co-exist on the desktop with other powerful applications. Fully operational windows and embedded controls can be created, including sliders, push buttons, check boxes, entry fields, radio buttons, list boxes, and hot areas without the need for C programming. Once a window is created it can be resized, repositioned, and dragged into position dynamically. A set of window objects providing video play, animation play, and image display is provided for developer's use. MEDIAscript also permits the creation of custom GUIs and full screen displays, such as those often required in typical kiosk and training applications. A number of foreign language versions of MEDIAscript are being planned in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The MEDIAscript OS/2 Desktop Edition is already being used to author Kanjii applications in Japan. MEDIAScript continues to promote upward compatibility in its software packages and work is now underway on an enhanced version of MEDIAscript DOS. This product will support Intel's ActionMedia II products, and will allow those developers working in MEDIAscript version 1.75, to upgrade. For further information on MEDIAscript multimedia products for DVI technology, please call Ms. Ann Richards at (703)866-9000. _____________________________________________________ ActionMedia II Video Compression by Al Korenjak Manager, Technical Marketing, Intel Corporation Intel's ActionMedia II products offer new video compression capabilities in nearly every category: PLV (Production Level Video) 2.0 off-line compression; RTV (Real Time Video) 2.0 symmetric compression; and JPEG still image compression. The new PLV 2.0 produces sharper than ever motion video sequences on VGA and XGA monitors. Using the added power of the i750* B components, 30 frames per second motion video can be dynamically scaled into a window of any size. This is important for graphical operating environments such as Microsoft Windows or IBM's OS/2 Presentation Manager. Full-screen PLV can be played from CD-ROM, or at higher data rates from a hard disk for even better image quality. RTV 2.0 displays a dramatic increase in video quality. With the new ActionMedia II capture module, RTV 2.0 provides our best-ever symmetric compression. Also, more control is available to the developer to adjust the data rate (up to twice CD-ROM rates) and the frequency of still images for precise video editing. For still images, JPEG capture and compression is supported, using 4:1:1 YUV color sampling. JPEG is a proposed standard developed by the Joint Photographic Experts Group of the International Standards Organization (ISO). Another feature of the ActionMedia II products is direct support of the PAL video format that is standard in Europe and other parts of the world. PAL video can be captured and compressed on-line with RTV or off-line with our Digital Compression Facility operated by Intel Compression Services, and displayed on any DVI playback system. The key to these improved video capabilities is the programmability of DVI multimedia. The video compression algorithms are implemented in microcode routines that are executed by the ActionMedia II boards. As improved algorithms are developed by Intel and others, they can be readily added to the DVI multimedia capabilities. _____________________________________________________ Developer News Asymetrix Corp. has announced Multimedia Toolbook* To Support Intel DVI Multimedia Products as the product continues its emergence as a Standard Multimedia Development Tool. Asymetrix Multimedia Toolbook is a complete, high-level authoring system for Microsoft Windows multimedia applications. The product is ideal for creating interactive Windows and DVI applications with motion video, text, graphics, and audio, while substantially lowering the cost and development time. Asymetrix Corporation is a privately held, employee-owned company that develops, markets and supports software that enables PC users to create their own solutions to match their individual tasks and work styles. Novell Inc., pacesetter in the network computing industry, has committed to supporting multiple networking solutions that meet their customers needs. Novell believes that one technology that is at the forefront of the network computing market is that of integrating video and audio into business applications via a NetWare* network connection, the support of Intels DVI products represents a exciting opportunity for customers to take advantage of state-of-the-art distributed computing systems using new breeds of network-aware applications. Novell has worked with ProtoComm Corp. to develop a NetWare Loadable Module (NLM) that allows DVI mutlimedia to be distributed from a NetWare server across the network to the desktop. Novell has also developed network application programming interfaces (APIs) to enable developers to produce NetWare-aware applications designed to access DVI multimedia data from the network. Software Publishing Corporation (SPC), a prominent supplier of information presentation software, has committed to incorporating leading-edge multimedia technology into its graphics and database product lines, by utilizing the ActionMedia II products. This new product line will enable Software Publishing Corporation to provide dynamic full-motion, full- fidelity digital video solutions for business presentations and customized database applications. Software Publishings support for the new DVI products will begin with the first release of Harvard Graphics* for Windows. Using the products innovative HyperShow and Launch Application features, users will be able to easily incorporate DVI motion video sequences in Harvard Graphics presentations. Superbase* 4 developers will also be able to incorporate DVI motion video into their customized applications, both in terms of database searching, as well as playback. By incorporating DVI multimedia technology into its products, Software Publishing continues its heritage of providing users with leading-edge, cost-effective solutions for accessing and presenting information. The Eastman Kodak Company and Intel Corporation announced support for PhotoYCC on Intels ActionMedia II boards. This development will make it easier and faster to incorporate high-resolution images in desktop applications such as advanced presentation graphics, color desktop publishing and multimedia. PhotoYCC is the color encoding scheme used in Kodaks Photo CD system, which converts color photographs into digital files. Kodaks PhotoYCC is a device-independent color encoding scheme that allows consistent representation of digital color images on television or computer displays or from high-quality printing devices. Based on nonlinear CCIR 709 RGB, it allows efficient image compression by converting RGB data into luma and chroma. PhotoYCC, used in the Photo CD system, supports a broad range of display resolutions, from thumbnail (128 x 192) to four times that of the proposed HDTV standard. Kodak and Intel demonstrated the Photo CD technology with ActionMedia II boards at COMDEX/Fall 91. Lotus Development Corporations Communications Products Division is working with Intel to expand the capabilities of Lotus Notes* to include video in a standard Notes document. This capability will allow the creation of Lotus Notes databases of video clips. For example, an advertising agency could create a Notes database of film clips of actors and directors for use in selecting talent for new commercials. Businesses could access databases of TV news footage correlated with the text of wire service news stories. Customer support groups could access databases of training videos on how to use a product. Video could be incorporated into electronic mail messages to allow one user to send another a video clip. Lotus Notes is a group collaboration product that allows people to share information organized in databases of documents. New Video Corporation, of Venice, CA begins shipment of their DVI boards for the Apple Macintosh. The EyeQ* product family includes a Delivery Board, a Capture Adapter and MacDVI Software, enabling Macintosh developers and end users to capture, compress, and playback full-screen, full-motion video in real time. The New Video EyeQ products are based on Intels i750 video processor. New Videos EyeQ products offer distinct advantages over the other Macintosh based motion video compression solutions. EyeQ products require up to 85 percent less storage, provide symmetrical compression and decompression, graphics overlay and JPEG support, offer two channels of 16-bit audio and support high-quality, full-screen motion video. The EyeQ product family provides the most highly integrated solution for digital video in the Macintosh environment. Finally, New Videos products are cross-platform compatible with Intel and IBM architectures, enabling customers to capture video and author productions on the Macintosh and play them back on the PC under Windows. For the first time, customers can exchange binary-compatible video files between platforms. Comsell, Inc. a leading developer of interactive multimedia courseware for PC-based applications demonstrated their Windows Basic utilizing Intel ActionMedia II products at COMDEX/Fall 91. The multimedia demo uses full-motion video sequences to instruct students in the fundamentals of Windows. Through motion video sequences, students can easily switch or toggle between the application and the on-screen instructor. The students use their senses to learn by hearing, seeing, and then doing. Because the students acquire hands-on knowledge, their learning retention and confidence level is increased throughout the learning process. Through DVI multimedia technology, users can access the course through standard storage media devices such as CD-ROM or other disk drives. DVI motion video is stored digitally and will eventually allow users to access video over a LAN. Since the courseware is in digital format, it will be ideally suited for business and educational environments to provide embedded training in Comsells facilities. Authorware, Inc is promoting the advancement of Authorware Professional for Windows, by providing their developers access to digital video and audio through Intels ActionMedia II boards. Authorware will support the DVI multimedia products through its integrated Dynamic Link Library. Authorware is the industry leader in software for interactive learning and communication. Its flagship multi-platform product, Authorware Professional, is the premier multimedia authoring software for business, and education. Macromind announces its intentions to support Intels ActionMedia II products in future versions of its multimedia presentation and authoring tools. Macromind will support DVI products in future versions of Macromind Action!, its newly announced multimedia presentation software for Windows. Macromind will support DVI multimedia under Apples Quicktime* System Software, allowing the technology to be extended across multiple platforms. Also in 1992, Macromind plans to ship DVI Clipmedia, CD ROM-based DVI compressed video "clipart" for use in multimedia presentations and productions. Synthetic Images Inc., of Campbell, CA has begun shipping the XPc-100, a transportable multimedia i386* PC based on Intels ActionMedia II board. This well designed, transportable PC delivers compressed full motion video, high quality audio, color images, text, graphics, and special effects from hard disk or CD-ROM. This compact PC packs a 9 1/2" analog CRT VGA monitor, an Intel386* 25 Mhz CPU with 4Mb RAM, a Intel ActionMedia II delivery board, a fast 130 Mb SCSI hard disk and controller card, a VGA 16 plus card with feature connector, a CD ROM drive and a 3 1/2' floppy drive into a solidly engineered chassis complete with power supply and 101 key keyboard. Straylight Corp., a new entrant into the virtual reality industry, has announced an innovative photorealistic display system for VR applications. The Straylight PhotoVR system features near real-time interactive motion and freedom of view in three dimensional environments addressing numerous application areas including: architectural walkthroughs, kiosks, data visualization, medical training, and entertainment markets. PhotoVR is delivered as a complete turnkey system incorporating Intels ActionMedia II board and Straylights photorealistic display engine. Design Tech Inc., begins manufacturing their Copernicus multimedia systems which provide full motion video, CD-quality stereo and wireless remote interaction in personal computer platforms. Incorporating Intels i750 video processor and ActionMedia II multimedia software, Design Techs multimedia products are available in a variety of configurations -- ranging from the Model 2000 stand alone playback systems to the Model 1000 custom motherboards with application-specific features. In all Copernicus model variations, a complete IBM PC AT-compatible computer is integrated with DVI multimedia functionality on a single printed circuit board. The complete Model 2000 systems run all standard DOS and Windows software and have integral mass storage and expanded I/O capabilities. They are designed primarily for customer service workstations and industrial educational theaters. The Model 1000 motherboards can be specified to include features such as modems and NTSC interfaces for use in dedicated systems such as video kiosks and point-of-sale displays. The standard configuration of the Copernicus Model 1000 includes an Intel i386 microprocessor, i750 video processor, 4-16 megabytes of RAM and 1-8 megabytes of VRAM. Each system will hold two serial ports, one parallel port, a SCSI controller for CD-ROM, an IDE controller for a pair of hard disk drives and a floppy controller. VGA output is supported - with optional NTSC composite and S-VHS video converters. In addition to the specifications outlined above, the Model 2000 system offers front panel LCDs to display parameter selections and infrared remote controls to set audio levels and pace graphics. They integrate heavy-duty power supplies, high-performance CD-ROM drives, large capacity Winchester drives, high-density floppy drives, five backplane slots and extended keyboards. Digital Video Arts, Ltd., recently announced version 2.0 of NewWorld, a collection of system software products for developing DOS applications which utilize DVI multimedia. The new product release will support the ActionMedia II products and consists of an operating environment (NWOE) and developers kit (NWDK). The operating environment comes complete with device drivers for the ActionMedia II boards, a variety of input/output peripherals, and the i750 microcode. Source code licenses are available to hardware OEMs and developers interested in porting NewWorld to other platforms. The NewWorld Developers Kit includes the above operating environment, as well as application development libraries, documentation, sample applications and limited free technical support. NWDK speeds familiarity with the product and simplifies DVI application development. Applications can be developed with the small, medium, or large memory models of Microsoft C and Zortech C++ compilers. _____________________________________________ The Porting of "Advancing the Game" by John Singer, Active 8 Corporation The current version of the ActionMedia II software (AVSS 2.20) provides a stable environment that allows the programmer to focus on creative decisions. Accolades to those at IBM & Intel who worked so long to provide all of us with these much-needed tools. Porting my application, "Advancing The Game", to AVSS 2.20 and the ActionMedia II board set was a simple matter. Following the instructions, I added the new boards, loaded the 2.20 software and adjusted my CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files. I then recompiled using the new INCLUDES and LIBRARY, ran the program, and it worked! "Advancing The Game" ran as it did, only faster. It also ran smoother, especially when performing several actions and playing video. Previous problems with decode time were eliminated, and the video looked great. When switching your application over to 2.20, you may want to include, as I did, a check at the beginning of the code to determine which board set you are running. This is simply a call to DviGET with the parameter DviBOARD. The ActionMedia II delivery board will return the constant DVI_ACTIONMEDIA_2. This will help avoid a crash caused by attempting to run on the old board set. At the same time I switched to 2.20, I also changed to DOS 5.0. I was able to get much more DOS memory to work with by setting DOS=HIGH and using 386MAX to load VVIDEO and VAUDIO high. An additional benefit I discovered while exploring 2.20 is the ability to work in the 256-color, 640 x 480 mode. The port to 2.20 was simple and I am delighted that we now have not only an amazing hardware platform, but a solid set of tools with which to work. _____________________________________________________ New Intel/McGraw-Hill Book for DVI Application Developers. Multimedia Applications Development: Using DVI Technology is now available from McGraw-Hill, ISBN #0-07-043297-X. Written by Sandra Morris, Manager of Customer Marketing at Intel, and Mark Bunzel, President of Avtex Research Corporation, this book provides information on the basic steps in the production process, tips and recommendations for production and programming techniques, a description of software tools for creating applications, information about final testing, distribution media and copyright issues, as well as guidelines for budgeting and project management. The book is $39.95 plus tax and shipping. Orders can be placed by calling 1-800-548-4725 or by faxing the information to 1-408-765-1596 (VISA, MasterCard, and American Express are accepted). _____________________________________________ New AVK White Paper now available. The Audio Video Kernel: The Foundation for a Portable, Extendable Multimedia Environment, October 1991 is now also available from Intel Corporation at no charge. Order #241247-001. _____________________________________________ ) 1992 Intel Corporation *DVI and i750 are registered trademarks of Intel Corp. ActionMedia, Intel386 and i386 are trademarks of Intel Corp. COMDEX is a registered trademark of The Interface Group. MEDIAscript is a trademark of Network Technology. Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corp. Norton Utilities is a Trademark of Symantec Corp. Macintosh is a registered trademark of Apple Corp. Authology is a registered trademark of CEIT Systems, Inc. OS/2 is a trademark of IBM Corp. Toolbook is a trademark of Asymetrix Corp. Netware is a registered trademark of Novell, Inc. Harvard Graphics is a registered trademark of Software Publishing Corp. Lumena is a registered trademark of Time Arts, Inc. Superbase is a trademark of Software Publishing Corp. Lotus Notes is a trademark of Lotus Development Corp. QuickTime is a trademark of Apple Corp. EyeQ is a trademark of New Video Corp. TECHniques is published by the Multimedia Products Operation of Intel Corporation All submissions and correspondence should be sent to: Editor: TECHniques Intel Corporation 313 Enterprise Drive Plainsboro, NJ 08536 Order Number 241192-002 Copies of TECHniques or any other Intel Literature can be obtained by calling 1-800-548-4725.