Replied: Wed, 07 Jun 1995 01:10:30 -0700
Replied: "brian@MediaCity.com (Brian Litzinger) "
Message-Id: <m0sJFc4-000reKC@easynet.com>
From: brian@MediaCity.com (Brian Litzinger)
Subject: Talisman MPEG Stream & VideoCD player
To: freebsd-announce@freebsd.org
Date: Wed, 7 Jun 1995 00:33:16 -0700 (PDT)
Content-Type: text
Content-Length: 3044      
Sender: announce-owner@freebsd.org
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You can now play VideoCDs and MPEG Systems Streams using the 
Omni Media Talisman MPEG decoder under FreeBSD -current or 2.0.5.

More information on the OmniMedia products can be had from
   http://www.omt.com

Since the Talisman produces both a VGA Window, and has NTSC/S-Video Out
you can watch the stuff on your TV.

All the Talisman support code for FreeBSD is alpha.

Also, at this time the ONLY CDROM supported to play VideoCDs
is the Plextor 4plex (either 256K or 1MB buffer models)
(You need a special access mode to read VideoCDs which is not supported
by all CDROMs and is different between manufacturers.) (As manufacturers
make the necessary information available I'll support them)

Other things to consider:

    Your VGA card must have a VGA expansion connector that works.
    At this time only 640x480 or 720x400 VGA modes are supported.
    There is no window control code at this time. You can plop a
       window over your VGA or use the NTSC/S-Video out.
    You will need a -current or 2.0.5 kernel and libscsi.a 
       to play VideoCDs
    You should probably have at least a 486DX2/66 CPU.
    Your Disk Subsystem must be fast enough to support the data
       rates required. Though a standard IDE controller with
       most IDE drives will work fine for MPEG Streams.


To get things up and going:

    get a Talisman Card from OmniMedia, 408 774 9999
       (see OmniMedia Below)

    fetch the following files:

     Talisman microcode loader, executable only
       ftp://omt.com/pub/omt/talisman.freebsd.loader.v1.02.tar.gz

     initialization & mpeg stream player
       ftp://omt.com/pub/omt/tm-support-v1.02.tar.gz 

     device driver source
       ftp://omt.com/pub/omt/tm0.04.tar.gz 

     videocd support tools
       ftp://omt.com/pub/omt/tm-videocd-v1.02.tar.gz 

    upgrade your system to -current or 2.0.5 kernel and libscsi.a

    untar all the omt stuff in the same directory and read the READMEs.

What is coming:

    Improved buffering and performance.
    Support for original CDI CDROMs
	(Currently reads VideoCD 1.1 and CDI VideoCD, but not old style CDI)
    Window control with X Application
    Support for higher VGA resolutions
    Support for more CDROM Drives
    General Video Capure (requires an add on board)
    H.261/320 teleconferencing (actually requires another card)

OmniMedia Talisman: How to get:

    OmniMedia is offering the Talisman for $100 off, if
    you take it WITHOUT the MS Windows/DOS support software.
    That is $299 without, and $399 with the MSWindows/DOS stuff.
    You can direct questions to OmniMedia to sales@omt.com, or
    see their WEB site at http://www.omt.com, or call them
    at 408 774 9999, or fax them at 408 774 9919.

Please remember all the FreeBSD stuff is alpha, and is NOT an
officially supported product of OmniMedia.

Brian Litzinger
brian@easynet.com

Thanks to Plextor for help reading mode 2 form 2 sectors!

Thanks to Amancio Hasty for the effort in driving Plextor and
figuring out how to get the VideoCD data off the CDROM!