Alcorn McBride Knowledge Base

Category » Digital Video Machine 2

There were 61 questions found in this category:

1. Can I connect Alcorn McBride video players to an LCD Screen?
   Yes, the players can be used to drive various LCD screens such as TFT screens. The standard definition players output NTSC or PAL frequencies, so only an LCD that accepts component or composite video at these frequencies will work. Many desktop PC monitors will not sync to these standard video f ...
2. Can I use my removable drive bay with Windows NT/2000?
   Windows NT uses an NTFS file system instead of a FAT32 file system like Windows 98 or the DVM2. A company called SysInternals (www.sysinternals.com) makes a relatively inexpensive software package called FAT32 for Windows NT. When installed on a WinNT machine, this software allows you to view FA ...
3. Does DVM-2 have a component output (CMYK signal)?
   CMYK is not component video, it's a color space definition used by printers, also call four color process. The DVM2 does have both component (Y-C, also called S-Video) and RGB output, in addition to composite (NTSC or PAL). The DVM2/V does not have the CMYK.
4. Does the DVM2 lock to SMPTE or EBU timecode?
   No. In order to use timecode in your show, you must record timecode onto one of the audio channels in the material for the DVM2. Other equipment can then lock to this timecode if they need to be synchronized with the video. If you must accept timecode from some other device, you can use a combin ...
5. How big a hard drive can I get with my Digital Video Machine?
   The size of drives for the DVM2 and DVM/HD line are constantly increasing. Optional drives at least twice as big as the standard drive may be ordered along with your unit, or substituted for the standard drive. Please call your dealer, or if you are in the US, call our sales department at (407)2 ...
6. How Can I Create a New Drive for the DVM2?
   1. Install or insert the new, blank drive into PC running WinXP. 2. Use the Computer Management program that can be found in My Computer/Control Panel/Administrative Tools/ Computer Management. A wizard window may appear. If it does, just click Cancel to bypass the wizard. 3. Click on Disk Ma ...
7. How can I get my DVM2 to go to black upon stopping when using a contact closure?
   Since there is no way to tell the DVM2 to mute video from the discrete control interface, you can make your stop button select a clip that is 1 second's worth of black video and silent audio. If you don't happen to have your own you can download a 1 second black clip with silent audio here: ftp: ...
8. How can I implement an attract loop without a show controller?
   You can use a looping playlist that contains the attract loop followed by your main show. The playlist would look like this: L1, U, 2, I, ; In the above example, file 1 is the attract loop and file 2 is the main show video. Your trigger can simply close a contact on the play input of the discret ...
9. How can I make the DVM2 go to black after pressing the Stop parallel control input?
   Actually a simple solution to make the DVM2 go to a black screen while only using parallel control is to encode a small black video with muted audio. Then just do a separate file select that selects that black video. As a side note, you can also issue a Pause command serially, or mute the video ...
10. How can I make videos play automatically when my DVM2 powers up?
    It's very easy to do this, you just have to name the files properly. If you would only like one video to play on startup simply name that video vid00000.mpg and it will play once. To loop one video or play multiple videos on startup you must create a playlist with the name ply00000.lst. On power ...
11. How can I play video from multiple DVM2s in sync?
    You'll need to connect all the DVM2s together using the sync circuit on the rear of the units. Connect the Video output (bottom, left BNC connector) of the first DVM2 to the sync input (top, right BNC connector) of the second DVM2. Connect the sync output (bottom, right BNC connector) of the sec ...
12. How can I play video on the DVM2 with no audio?
    The DVM2 plays MPEG-2 program streams. By definition, a program stream must include an audio stream as well as a video stream. If you do not want to use audio in your show, you must still create a silent audio stream that can be multiplexed with the video stream to create the necessary program s ...
13. How can I put the DVM2 into service release mode instead of standard mode(default)?
    You need access to the dvm.ini file in the os directory. In there, add the following two lines: AudioMasterMode=2 StreamType=10 Or change them, if they already exist to the settings above. If you want to go back to standard mode, change them to: AudioMasterMode=0 StreamType=40 This mode has been ...
14. How can I run a playlist within a playlist or Schedule FTP?
    Check out the Examples directory: http://www.alcorn.com/library/appnotes/DVM2ExamplesDirectory.zip]DVM2 Examples In the zip file you'll find examples of how to load playlists from playlists, load schedules from schedules, control the automated FTP client , and there are even some numeric videos ...
15. How can I serially change my DVM2's audio playback rate?
    Before os version .78 You can send it one of four strings to change it's audio rate playback: 0ar(carriage return) makes it auto detect the video's audio rate. 1ar(carriage return) makes it playback at 32KHz. 2ar(carriage return) makes it playback at 44.1KHz. 3ar(carriage return) makes it playba ...
16. How can I tell the version of my DVM2's operating system?
    You can query it with a serial connection using ?V and pressing enter. You can look at the Release Notes page of the DVM2's web interface. These are the recommended ways. If you are in a pinch, and you are looking on the DVM2's drive itself, as you would when it is plugged into your computer, yo ...
17. How do I make MPEG-2 files for my Digital Video Machine?
    The most important step in creating video for your application is to perform the highest quality MPEG encoding of your source material. Encoding professional-quality MPEG material is more of an art than a science. The person encoding the material must be experienced and the hardware well-chosen ...
18. How do I put video onto my DVM2?
    Methods for transferring video onto a DVM2's hard drive are described in the http://www.alcorn.com/products/dvm2/manual.html]DVM2 manual, and a detailed description for how to FTP material onto the DVM2 is described in the http://www.alcorn.com/products/dvm2/manual.html]DVM2 Manual. If you need ...
19. How do I retrieve the MAC Address from my DVM2?
    You can look at the MAC Address by typing in the following DOS command at a command prompt. arp -a (then press Enter) Do this immediately after you have connected to the DVM2 via FTP or web. Also: The MAC ID for our units is established in the following way. The MAC.ID file is 12 ascii character ...
20. How do I sync my DVM2 to an external sync source.
    For DVM2 units manufactured after April 2003, you can use any source of regular video including the video from another DVM2 (you can use the BNC output). For these units do not use the 'Gen' output to sync other units. The 'Gen' output is only used to supply sync to Alcorn McBride show control e ...