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analog video signals

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bob@coolgroups.com - 26 May 2007 18:06 GMT
I was just wondering if anyone knows what the analog video signals
going from the computer to the monitor look like or what they are
called.

Also, is there a microcontroller that could generate such signals?
Eeyore - 26 May 2007 20:05 GMT
> I was just wondering if anyone knows what the analog video signals
> going from the computer to the monitor look like or what they are
> called.

Component video.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_video

> Also, is there a microcontroller that could generate such signals?

Microcontollers are too slow for such a task. Display controllers are a specfic
kind of faily dumb (as a rule) processor of sorts.

As ever........ What is it you actually want to do ?????

Graham
BobG - 26 May 2007 22:34 GMT
There are a couple of projects on avrfreaks that use an AVR
microcontroller and 2 outputs as a 2 bit dac to generate NTSC timing
and video... puts 120 pix x 90 pix in B&W on a TV. If you told me you
were trying to do that, I'd have bet against you ever getting it to
work. I suppose I have to believe it... there was a picture of the
screen... maybe it was all bogus?
Marra - 27 May 2007 01:12 GMT
What rubbish I have designed microcontrollers into numerous video
projects.

I have used PIC micros to do it.
So long as you keep the timing tight it works fine.
Michael A. Terrell - 27 May 2007 01:25 GMT
> What rubbish I have designed microcontrollers into numerous video
> projects.
>
> I have used PIC micros to do it.
> So long as you keep the timing tight it works fine.

  Really?  My monitor is 2048 * 1536 resolution.  Lets see you drive
THAT with a PIC.  BTW, I want true color, not that 16 bit crap.

Signature

Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

Eeyore - 27 May 2007 03:53 GMT
> What rubbish I have designed microcontrollers into numerous video
> projects.
>
> I have used PIC micros to do it.

How fast is your bit clock ?

Graham
Marra - 27 May 2007 12:49 GMT
On 27 May, 03:53, Eeyore <rabbitsfriendsandrelati...@hotmail.com>
wrote:
> > What rubbish I have designed microcontrollers into numerous video
> > projects.
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>
> Graham

I never said it was for PC video.

One project was to use a PIC to drive an on screen display for a CCTV
system.
The PIC cut into the picture to display time and camera information.

Clearly for PC type resolution you need to go for a proper video card.
Or use a PIC with some dedicated video hardware.
Eeyore - 27 May 2007 14:37 GMT
> > > What rubbish I have designed microcontrollers into numerous video
> > > projects.
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>
> I never said it was for PC video.

I wasn't assuming it was specifically but you'll have a bit clock when you make
such a signal with a uP or whatever.

> One project was to use a PIC to drive an on screen display for a CCTV
> system.
> The PIC cut into the picture to display time and camera information.
>
> Clearly for PC type resolution you need to go for a proper video card.
> Or use a PIC with some dedicated video hardware.

A big issue is syncing the two video streams.

Graham
Kit - 27 May 2007 19:00 GMT
On May 27, 6:37 am, Eeyore <rabbitsfriendsandrelati...@hotmail.com>
wrote:
> > > > What rubbish I have designed microcontrollers into numerous video
> > > > projects.
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
>
> Graham

I hear that the Propeller from Parallax can create VGA signals, with
ok quality.
-Kit
Homer J Simpson - 27 May 2007 00:00 GMT
> I was just wondering if anyone knows what the analog video signals
> going from the computer to the monitor look like or what they are
> called.
>
> Also, is there a microcontroller that could generate such signals?

Look on Amazon.com for "The Cheap Video Cookbook" by Donald E. Lancaster.
There's a second book in the series also, "Son of Cheap video".

These may tell you more.
Bob Myers - 27 May 2007 00:40 GMT
>I was just wondering if anyone knows what the analog video signals
> going from the computer to the monitor look like or what they are
> called.

There are a lot of things that could qualify as "analog video,"
but the sort which most commonly are found going from a PC
to its monitor (the "VGA" interface) are three separate signals
(one each for red, green, and blue) which have an amplitude of
0.7V p-p, and in which the most positive excursion of the signal,
with respect to the blanking level, is considered "white".  (Note
that you will often see the "white" level for each channel as 0.7V
positive with respect to the video return pins, but technically
VGA is an AC-coupled system and the white level is supposed to
be referenced to the blanking level, not "ground.")  Oh, and this
assumes a 75 ohm termination impedance.

The vertical and horizontal sync signals are seperate, each on its
own physical line, and are positive-true pulses at standard TTL
levels.

> Also, is there a microcontroller that could generate such signals?

A microcontroller by itself would likely not be fast enough to
generate anything but the crudest video; for even the lowest
standard format (640 x 480 at 60 Hz), you need a pixel rate
of a bit over 25 MHz.  Simple pattern generation (color bars,
etc.) can often be done with just a microcontroller, though.
Actually, I put together just such a generator a number of years
back, for the purpose of EMI testing of monitors. What is
it you're trying to do, exactly?

Bob M.
bob@coolgroups.com - 27 May 2007 02:20 GMT
> <b...@coolgroups.com> wrote in message
>
[quoted text clipped - 32 lines]
>
> Bob M.

Right now, I just want to understand how it works a little better - I
don't have a specific project.

BTW, if you spread out the horizontal retrace pulses, will this
actually slow down the speed at which lines get updated?  And,
similarly, if you spread out the vertical syncs, will this slow down
the speed at which it moves down a line?  If so, I was thinking maybe
you could send analog video to an LCD monitor with really spread
out horizontal and vertical sync signals using a cheap
microcontroller.

For instance, instead of doing 1 frame in 1/60 of a second, you might
take a minute to draw the frame.
Eeyore - 27 May 2007 03:57 GMT
> BTW, if you spread out the horizontal retrace pulses,

What "horizontal retrace pulses" ?

Do you make this stuff up as you go along ?

> will this
> actually slow down the speed at which lines get updated?  And,
> similarly, if you spread out the vertical syncs, will this slow down
> the speed at which it moves down a line?  If so, I was thinking

You have not been doing any thinking at all have you ?

What you should do is some *LEARNING* and stop wasting other ppls' time.

Graham
Michael A. Terrell - 27 May 2007 10:58 GMT
> > BTW, if you spread out the horizontal retrace pulses,
>
> What "horizontal retrace pulses" ?
>
> Do you make this stuff up as you go along ?

   That's it Donkey.  Attack, rather than explain.

  The proper term is "Horizontal Sync", and it can only be varied
within the limits of the monitor you use.   I have never seen a monitor
that could take one minute for a single horizontal scan. It has to be
real time, because the monitor needs all of the signals synchronized to
create the image you want.

Signature

Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

Jasen - 27 May 2007 07:38 GMT
[vga timing]

> Right now, I just want to understand how it works a little better - I
> don't have a specific project.
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> similarly, if you spread out the vertical syncs, will this slow down
> the speed at which it moves down a line?  

maybe.

> If so, I was thinking maybe
> you could send analog video to an LCD monitor with really spread
> out horizontal and vertical sync signals using a cheap
> microcontroller.

LCD is more forgiving than cathode ray, if it has a video input that
runs at the normal TV scan rates it can probably handle those rates on
the VGA input too.

> For instance, instead of doing 1 frame in 1/60 of a second, you might
> take a minute to draw the frame.

probably not.  I doubt that the electronics inside the monitor is designed
to go that slow.

Another option may be to interface your microcontroller with an old ISA bus
VGA card... you won't need all 118 lines, just 17 address lines (16 if you
don't need colour text mode) 8 data, and maybe 8 others.
the card may need the -12V supply for the output to work. (I had one
like that in a PC)

Signature

Bye.
  Jasen

Bob Myers - 28 May 2007 05:57 GMT
> Right now, I just want to understand how it works a little better - I
> don't have a specific project.
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> out horizontal and vertical sync signals using a cheap
> microcontroller.

You can certainly generate slow video - i.e., longer line and
frame times, which is what I think you're getting at in the above -
but the LCD monitor very likely will not accept it. The LCD panel
itself has a fairly limited range of timings over which it will operate,
and generally the scaler/controller IC typically found in the front
end also will accept only a certain range of timings.  Most often,
the bottom end of that range isn't too far removed from the
60 Hz VGA standard (640 x 480 pixels, 25.175 MHz pixel
rate, and about 31.5 kHz horizontal (line) rate).

Bob M.
Rich Grise - 28 May 2007 23:49 GMT
On Sat, 26 May 2007 18:20:38 -0700, bob wrote:
>> >I was just wondering if anyone knows what the analog video signals
>> > going from the computer to the monitor look like or what they are
>> > called.

...

> Right now, I just want to understand how it works a little better - I
> don't have a specific project.
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> similarly, if you spread out the vertical syncs, will this slow down
> the speed at which it moves down a line?

These will depend on how you set the parameters for your sync generator,
and you'd have to modify the horizontal and vertical scan oscillators
and probably deflection amps to make them scan slower.

> If so, I was thinking maybe
> you could send analog video to an LCD monitor with really spread
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> For instance, instead of doing 1 frame in 1/60 of a second, you might
> take a minute to draw the frame.

This is called "slow-scan TV" - it's a way to put a TV pic on an audio
bandwidth. But you need a very long persistence phosphor.

Have Fun!
Rich
Bob Myers - 29 May 2007 04:36 GMT
> This is called "slow-scan TV" - it's a way to put a TV pic on an audio
> bandwidth. But you need a very long persistence phosphor.

Phosphor?  What's that? :-)

Actually, these days (with memory and other digital
bits so cheap), it's a lot more common simply to decode
the SSTV and shove it into a frame buffer, then display
it on a standard monitor, running at a more normal rate.

Bob M.
Rich Grise - 29 May 2007 18:34 GMT
>> This is called "slow-scan TV" - it's a way to put a TV pic on an audio
>> bandwidth. But you need a very long persistence phosphor.
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> the SSTV and shove it into a frame buffer, then display
> it on a standard monitor, running at a more normal rate.

Oh, well, that's different!

Never Mind!

Emily Litella ;-)
Jasen - 27 May 2007 07:19 GMT
> I was just wondering if anyone knows what the analog video signals
> going from the computer to the monitor look like or what they are
> called.

colloquially "VGA"
technically it's "RGB" with separete sync signals
RGB is a class of component video

> Also, is there a microcontroller that could generate such signals?

I expect so, getting more than a blank screen or horizontal bars
could be a challenge on the lesser micros, although even there it
may be possible to do some trickery with a fast synchronous serial
port and emit a monochrome image....

Bye.
  Jasen
 
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