VTCP - Video Telephone Coder/Decoder & Player ---------------------------------------------- Version 2.41 Beta 1. Description. --------------- VTCP is a program for compression, decompression and viewing video. Film is the set of frames, frames are written in separate 24-Bit BMP files: xxx00000.bmp,xxx00001.bmp. Files: - vtcp.exe VideoTelephone Codec&Player. - vtcp_r.doc Full documentation in russian. - vtcp_e.doc This file. - vtcp.hst Vtcp history. - vtcp.cfg Example of configuration file. 2. System requirements. ------------------------ - IBM PC AT or compatible - CPU 386 or higher with coprocessor - SVGA Videocard with VESA BIOS Extentions (see 6) HiColor/TrueColor Videocard is strongly recomended. - MS-DOS 3.30 or higher ( Works fine under MS Windows DOS Box and OS/2 VDM ) 3. Coder. --------- Usage : "VTCP C [/A] [/Rx] [/Cfile] [VideoOptions]" - the common part of file names of source film frames. - name of otput file : compressed film file. /A - animate coding (coding with visualization). /Cfile - use configuration file, which contains parameters of coder. ( vtcp.cfg by default ) /Rx - Set number of frames per second. ( 8 by default ). [VideoOptions] ( for visualization )- see 7. Example : "vtcp c _s sc /Cs.cfg" - compress movie _s00000.bmp,... into file sc.pvf with configuration file s.cfg For the /A option the VTCP shows the current original, previous decoded frames, the current decoded frame, maps of approximation methods used ad activity maps. Methods are shown in different colors (red - JPEG, green - Static, blue - Motion Compensation, yellow - 4x4 Motion Compensation, gray - Monochrome ). The domain activity is presented as different levels of gray: the more brightness, the more activity. The visualization may be switched on/off during compression by pressing of the A key. At the end of the compression the information on the compression rate achieved and approximation methods statistics is shown on the screen. 4. Decoder. ----------- Usage : "VTCP D " - name of input file: compressed film file. - the common part of file names of decoded film frames. Example: "vtcp d sc sd" - decompress sc.pvf into the film sd00000.bmp,... 5. Player. ---------- Usage : "VTCP P [/Sfile] [VideoOptions]" - plays source film. "VTCP P [/Sfile] [VideoOptions]" - plays compressed film with decompression on the fly. - the common part of file names of film frames. - name of compressed film file. /Sfile - synchroniously play wav-file. [ Only for ProAudio Spectrum - compatible sound cards now ] [VideoOptions] - see s.7 Example: "vtcp p _s" - play the film _s00000.bmp,... "vtcp p sc.pvf" - play compressed film sc.pvf Hot keys: Space: Stop film. Right: Show next frame. Up: Increase frame rate. Down: Decrease frame rate. Esc: Exit to DOS. Player shows film in auto-rewind mode. Red and yellow bars in the bottom of the screen mean, that player can't show required number of frames per second. Each bar corresponds to each frame. Many red bars mean, that In case of playing packed file (.pvf): Your computer can't decompress packed film in real-time. In case of playing sequence of bmp-files: Your computer can't show film in real-time. Usually it is concerned with low speed of your Hard Disk. In that case you can speed up playing process by playing film from virtual disk. 6. Example of usage. -------------------- Suppose that we have source film TTT ( files ttt00000.bmp,ttt00001.bmp, ... ) and configuration file t.cfg. 1. "vtcp p ttt" - Play source film. 2. "vtcp c ttt tc /ct.cfg" - Compress film. 3. "vtcp d ttt ddd" - Decompress film into sequence of frames ddd00000.bmp,... 4. "vtcp p ddd" - Play decompressed film. 5. "vtcp p tc" - Play compressed film with decompression on the fly. 7. VideoOptions. ---------------- VTCP works with the video card using VESA-BIOS extentions. If your video card does not support VESA, you should use the resident VESA driver (which should be given together with your videocard) or universal VESA-driver ( e.g. 'univesa.exe', 'univbe.exe' etc. ). By default VTCP looks for the graphic mode the closest to 640x480xTrueColor, but it is possible to enter parameters of the desirable video mode. The following parameters of desirable video mode may be set by VideoOptions in the Player and Coder: /B - Scan modes unsupported by VESA BIOS. /G - Set the GrayScale (preferable mode for 256-colors video card, otherwise you will have quite bad colors) /MiMode - Set BIOS Video Mode #iMode. /XiXres, /YiYRes - Look for the iXRes*iYRes mode. /D - Set only 640*480*24Bit/pixel mode. /8 - Allows to set low-quality 256-Color modes (without this option, the program wouldn't set 256color modes) Example: "vtcp p sc /M257 /G /8" - show sc.pvf in the 101h GrayScale mode. 8. Compression ratio and size of compressed file. ------------------------------------------------ This version is not a complete product and doesn't create the full bitstream. Thus, the output file size doesn't coincide with the possible compressed file size. The coder calculates and prints compression ratio. 9. Product support. ------------------ Internet E-Mail: ila@compromise.spb.su FIDOnet 2:5030/69.19 Tel. (7)-(812)-293-4214 Ilya April 4, 1995 Ilya Asnis.