Sneak Prevue Laserdisc!

[tin]

OOO!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PIONEER-LD-V8000- ... 2a0fc4b069

<edit> Hmmmm. dunno if this is current, looks like it might be tho.

http://www.audiovisionsinc.com/usedstuf ... 46381.html

big stash of documents here, but no picture of the full system - still searching...

http://www.lddb.com/_misc/Pioneer%20LD- ... %20Player/]

this video shows a PC emulating the LD player for a Dragon's Lair machine. Perhaps finding the project this is based on will be useful.

http://www.youtube.com/user/mownby#p/u/11/e0M8TRZEQWA

[AriX]

Very cool. I'm going to be buying one of those for sure.

[LocalH]

Whatever happens, please capture this at full 720x480 resolution without any deinterlacing and make sure it's encoded as interlaced in whatever container you put it in. Most computers made in the last few years can deinterlace video on playback with excellent quality. If you have a DVD recorder then it would be sufficient (t0 me at least) to put the DVD recorder on the highest quality and dub it that way, which will pretty much handle everything for you.

[nwgatwcfan]

I did some research on the actual LaserDisc Player they used for Sneak Prevue. There is a website that has a photo of the system in full. If you need it, I'll post a link to it. Anyway, the Model they used was the Pioneer LD-V8000 LaserDisc Player. This model was used in commercial applications and not necessarily for home use. I did some Googling on this model and it can be ran directly from the computer. It uses a serial RS-232 cable that connects to the back of the unit. There is a site that has the full user manual for this model. One of the features is that the computer can send a command for the LD player to jump to a specific frame and start playing or freeze frame at that frame. So, that might answer the question about chapters or tracks.

It would be worth a search online for this because it may lead to clues on how the Amiga would pull up the LD player.

Thanks again,
Steven.

Sounds pretty cool. I'd love the link to that if you don't mind.

Here is a page about the Amiga and the Laserdisc:
http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardw ... ?HARDID=54
The first picture shows the entire system.

[AriX]

I did some research on the actual LaserDisc Player they used for Sneak Prevue. There is a website that has a photo of the system in full. If you need it, I'll post a link to it. Anyway, the Model they used was the Pioneer LD-V8000 LaserDisc Player. This model was used in commercial applications and not necessarily for home use. I did some Googling on this model and it can be ran directly from the computer. It uses a serial RS-232 cable that connects to the back of the unit. There is a site that has the full user manual for this model. One of the features is that the computer can send a command for the LD player to jump to a specific frame and start playing or freeze frame at that frame. So, that might answer the question about chapters or tracks.

It would be worth a search online for this because it may lead to clues on how the Amiga would pull up the LD player.

Thanks again,
Steven.

Sounds pretty cool. I'd love the link to that if you don't mind.

Here is a page about the Amiga and the Laserdisc:
http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardw ... ?HARDID=54
The first picture shows the entire system.

Thanks, I forgot that they had a picture of the LaserDisc system there. That certainly does look like a Pioneer LD-V8000! The labels on the Amiga are a bit different than mine; it has a TV Guide Networks label in the bottom left instead of the Prevue Networks label mine sports, and the Sneak Prevue logo seems to have a silver background instead of a black one. Also, the power/control data indicator appears to be black instead of grey, although this could just be another difference between the Prevue Channel and Sneak Prevue decals.
I think I tried contacting these guys once but I had trouble finding their contact information.

[tin]

Here is a page about the Amiga and the Laserdisc:
http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardw ... ?HARDID=54
The first picture shows the entire system.

Aha, I had seen this, thought maybe there were more images somewhere showing more detail.

One thing that interests me with this page is that it says that sneak prevue had it's own satellite feed as well as the laserdiscs. Do we have any information about that? I will go and watch the videos again to see if I can see the switching between the two

[nwgatwcfan]

tin,

I think the Satellite feed was only used for the channel listings and pricing information that would appear on screen and the times and channels events would show up. Also, I think the satellite feed sent the timing and commands to pull up certain tracks or timecodes on the LaserDisc. I don't think the satellite ever provided any video feed for Sneak Prevue.

By the way, I am kicking myself for not recording times when our cable company's Sneak Prevue would go out. It was about as buggy as the Prevue Guide in my area.

Thanks,
Steven.

[nwgatwcfan]

One more thing I forgot to mention. When you pull up the Specs on the LD-V8000, you will also find that there is a second piece that goes with the LD player that turns the LD-V8000 into a LD-ROM system for computers to read the data from. It was sold separately, but could be able to use to download all of the data from the LaserDisc in the format they stored it under.

I have the spec sheet on my other computer, but you can search for it as well. Very interesting find.

Thanks,
Steven.

[tin]

tin,

I think the Satellite feed was only used for the channel listings and pricing information that would appear on screen and the times and channels events would show up. Also, I think the satellite feed sent the timing and commands to pull up certain tracks or timecodes on the LaserDisc. I don't think the satellite ever provided any video feed for Sneak Prevue.

I thought the same, and as we know now Prevue guide did this kind of information download and control through 2x audio streams on sub-carriers which is how I assumed Sneak Prevue worked. BUT if it is teh case that it did not use any Satellite video, what is the UVCOM Satellite video switch mentioned on http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardw ... ?HARDID=54 for?

By the way, I am kicking myself for not recording times when our cable company's Sneak Prevue would go out. It was about as buggy as the Prevue Guide in my area.

Yeah that's a bit of a shame. I read some comments on the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlkLDFOgJe4 and am interested about the "flip out" comment. I wonder if it flipped out if the local operator did not change the disc on time? After the videos Bolt96 posted, it looks like the Amiga would seek the disc to exact times for video/static backgrounds and audio. So if the Amiga was seeking to times meant for a different disc, I am sure that would look like some flipping out! Or maybe they were a bit cleverer than that, and the flipping out was just standard bugginess. To be fair, prevue guide is clearly quite buggy so I doubt sneak was much better.

<edit> having a think about it all, they should have made the system have 2 videodisc players. It could have queued up one while the other was playing, or used one for continuous background music while various branded promos were playing. I find the audio stopping for 1sec over and over again jarring. Maybe that would be too expensive...

[nwgatwcfan]

I thought the same, and as we know now Prevue guide did this kind of information download and control through 2x audio streams on sub-carriers which is how I assumed Sneak Prevue worked. BUT if it is teh case that it did not use any Satellite video, what is the UVCOM Satellite video switch mentioned on http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardw ... ?HARDID=54 for?
....
Yeah that's a bit of a shame. I read some comments on the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlkLDFOgJe4 and am interested about the "flip out" comment. I wonder if it flipped out if the local operator did not change the disc on time? After the videos Bolt96 posted, it looks like the Amiga would seek the disc to exact times for video/static backgrounds and audio. So if the Amiga was seeking to times meant for a different disc, I am sure that would look like some flipping out! Or maybe they were a bit cleverer than that, and the flipping out was just standard bugginess. To be fair, prevue guide is clearly quite buggy so I doubt sneak was much better.

[/quote]

tin, to answer the first question. On the back of the LD-V8000, there were three inputs on the back for the video. I'm thinking that on the UVCOM board, these were loopbacks to the Laserdisc player. The LD player had the ability for text to be overlayed over the video playing. I'm wondering if it was for this reason the UV card that the multiple outputs. Might also explain a previous post when they were trying to run the Prevue Guide software that there was no sound, etc. Their system may have been setup for Sneak Prevue only. You may want to investigate this further.

To comment on the "flip out", i remember on occassion seeing a Progress bar run across the screen when the system was booting up and when the cable company would change the discs. When ours went out, the progress bar would stall towards the end and throw up a Guru Mediation error. There was an issue with the RAM on our system here at the time. Ususally when the progress bar completed, it would start with the beginning of the Laserdisc showing the date the disc was effective and then pick up where it left off previously. I think the Sneak Prevue Tonight segments and the Premeiring Soon segments were shown at specific times every half-hour, thus needing a control signal from Prevue to keep it on schedule.

I am trying to remember everything I can from Sneak Prevue back in those days.

Thanks,
Steven.