Computer Concepts Eagle M2 User Manual

USER GUIDE

© Computer Concepts and Wild Vision 1994

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
any means without the prior written permission of Computer Concepts or Wild
Vision. Such written permission must also be obtained before any part of this
publication is stored in any form in a retrieval system of any nature.

Manual issue 1.4
January 1994

Computer Concepts and Wild Vision have no direct control over the use to which
this product is put and therefore offer no warranty, implied or otherwise, relating
to its use for any purpose other than that for which it is intended.

The product described in this manual is the subject of continuous development
and, whilst all efforts are taken to ensure that the information given is correct,
neither Computer Concepts nor Wild Vision can accept any liability for any loss or
damage caused by the use of these programs or the information in this manual.

Please send any comments you have about this manual to:
Publications Dept., Computer Concepts Ltd.

Trademarks:

Eagle and

ColourCard

are trademarks of Wild Vision Ltd.

!TakeTwo, Audio Works, ScanLight Plus, and Impression are trademarks of

Computer Concepts Ltd.

Acorn, Replay, and

!ARMovie

are trademarks of Acorn Computers Ltd.

All other trademarks are acknowledged.

Eagle is a joint development between :-

Wild Vision Ltd. and Computer Concepts Ltd.

15 Witney Way Gaddesden Place
Boldon Business Park Hemel Hempstead
Boldon Colliery Hens
Tyne and Wear HP2 6EX

NE35 9PE

Tel [phone] Tel [phone]

Fax [phone] Fax [phone]

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the assistance of Acorn Computers Ltd. in the

implementation of the Acorn Replay movie capture application and M1DI module,

and in granting a licence to distribute the Replay applications and M1DI module.

Contents

About this manual
Typographic conventions

Mouse buttons

1. Introduction 1
About MultiMedia 1

The Eagle package 1
What Eagle can do... 2
Abbreviations 3

System requirements 3

Movie-making 3
Possible extras 4
The internal speaker 4

15-bit and 24-bit display 5
The applications suite 5

2. Installation 7
What you should have received 7
Installing the Eagle expansion card 7

Remove the computer's cover

Archimedes only 8
A5000 only 9

Expansion card positioning – Archimedes & A5000 9
Connecting the ribbon cable... 10
Fitting the expansion card

Archimedes & A5000 12
A3000 13

Initial testing (Archimedes, A3000 & A5000) 13
Copying the software 14
Updating !System 15

3. Getting started 17

Connecting a video input 17
Connecting an audio input 18

Connecting the audio output 18
Playback using the computer's internal speaker 19
Playback using external speakers 19
Connection to MIDI 20

4. Viewing and grabbing images

21

Viewing a live video image 21
Grabbing a still image 21
Grabbing a movie 22

Grabbing a movie soundtrack 24
Viewing movies 24

Playing only the soundtrack 24

5. TakeTwo

25
Live display window 26
Picture controls dialogue box 27
Grab choices dialogue box 30

6. Audio options

35

7. Acorn movie compression routines and RCompress

39

Acorn movie compression routines 39
!RCompress 40

8. If problems occur...

45
"System Resources cannot be found" 45

Please refer to 'Updating ABI' in the manual." 45
Podule not recognised 45

Live display is black 45
Live display is greyscale only 46

Cannot view 15bpp or 24bpp sprites 46
Cannot record sound 46

Sound output does not work 48
Sound playback and/or recording are punctuated by

bursts of noise 49

Sound recording / playback is of poor quality 50
Movie recording fails 50

9. Technical information

53

1. Eagle link positions 53

2. Stereo line-level socket: pin-out. 54

3. S-Video connector: pin-out. 54

4. Exploded movie format 55

ii

About this manual

This manual describes the key aspects of the Eagle MultiMedia
package: the expansion card itself, hardware connections and
peripherals, and its associated software. It describes in depth the use
of software applications which are provided exclusively with this
product. However, only the briefest details are given for `stand
alone' programs for which separate manuals exist. Information about
using these applications can be found in the relevant user guides as
listed in the section What you should have received.

It is assumed that you have a basic knowledge of the RISC OS
conventions and are familiar with standard applications. If this is
not the case, it is advised that you first familiarise with the use of
the computer by consulting the Welcome Guide supplied with it.

Typographic conventions

This manual uses these conventions:

Menu options are shown like this: Save image.

Dialogue box switches are shown like this: Monochrome.

Where you use the keyboard for control, the name of the key is

shown in italics. (For example, Return.)

Mouse buttons

We use the Acorn convention for the three mouse buttons:

the left-hand button is called Select,

the middle button is called Menu,

the right-hand button is called Adjust.

Where we say click on something but do not specify a mouse

button, use Select.

iii

i

1. Introduction

About MultiMedia

Taken literally, the term 'MultiMedia' implies the use of many
different kinds of communication media to convey a single message.
However in recent years the word has earned a more specific
meaning, namely the combination of a computer with video, audio
and the printed page, united for the purpose of adding colour and
depth to the information presentation process, with the help of a
computer.

MultiMedia is the communication style of the nineties. In education
and training, traditional learning material is brought to life, with
video and audio technology adding a new dimension. As a
promotional tool, the MultiMedia-based information system is a
powerful method of retaining the browser's interest; small wonder
that big-time retailers such as Rover cars are using this technology in
consumer marketing programmes. Or that large institutions such as
museums use MultiMedia stations to guide their visitors around
buildings. The beauty of MultiMedia is that while digitally controlled
(and therefore self-contained), it can be interactive, letting you
explore a subject freely, accessing supporting material, images, film
and sounds in your own time, and according to your own
preferences.

The Acorn RISC computer, with its multi-tasking desktop and
highly graphical user interface, is the ideal platform for MultiMedia
work. This is emphasised by the advent of CD-ROM to the Acorn
platform, and by the sheer quality of material which can be shown on
the Acorn desktop. Even the traditional 'barrier' of a fixed 256-colour
desktop palette was lifted with the appearance of the ColourCard
graphics accelerator card.

The Eagle package

Eagle provides multi-media capabilities for both audio and video (
still and moving images). You can use Eagle either as a standalone
package or in conjunction with other movie editing applications.

1

1. Introduction

What Eagle can do...

It can receive video signals from a wide variety of sources (from,
for example, a camcorder or VCR) and then:

• Display the moving image in a window on-screen. (You
can watch TV on your computer monitor.)

• Grab a single frame of the video.

• Record the moving image to disc for later replay to create a `
movie'. (You can save the image in raw, uncompressed
format or, if you have the Eidos extension software, in a
compressed format.)

When saving the movie, you can also save:

• the audio input associated with the video source,

• audio signals from an external source (such as a hi-fi

amplifier).

Eagle calls this the 'soundtrack'. (You can also save movies
without a soundtrack.)

You can play movies from disc, pausing and frame advancing as
required. Eagle is fully compatible with the Acorn Replay movie
format. (Eagle includes the Replay applications, licensed from
Acorn Computers Ltd.)

Using a different application, you can record sound samples from an
external source and manipulate them in a wide variety of ways. You
can save the samples to disc in any of several different
formats, some suitable for use on other types of computer.

Eagle provides a high-quality stereo sound output. Using this, you
can output sound samples to, for example, a hi-fi system.

Eagle also includes a MIDI interface. This lets you interface third
party software on the computer to MIDI-compatible peripherals
such as keyboards.

As with all new software, the best way to gain an appreciation of
the capabilities of these programs is to experiment. If you have any
problems, refer first to the troubleshooting sections of your
manuals. Remember that there are also separate ScanLight, Audio

Works and MIDI manuals.

2

1. Introduction

Please return your product registration card to ensure swift
technical support and eligibility for any future software upgrades.

Abbreviations

These abbreviations are used in this manual:

bpp bits-per-pixel – measures colour depth.

fps frames-per-second – measures the video frame rate.

System requirements

Eagle can be used with Acorn computers having standard, half­width expansion slots. (These include the A300/A400 series
Archimedes, A540 and A5000 computers. The A3000 is also suitable
with certain limitations.) Eagle is

not suitable

for A3010, A3020,

A4000 or A4 portable computers.

If your computer meets these system requirements:

• RISC OS 3.1 or greater,

• at least 2 Megabytes of RAM (memory),

then you can use Eagle for:

• video image live display,

• capture of still video images in colour or monochrome,

• audio sample capture and playback through the stereo

connector on the Eagle,

• MID1 connection.

Outputting sound samples through Eagle requires an ARM3
processor. (ARM3 is standard on the A540 and A5000 computers
and available as an upgrade to other computers.) With a slower
ARM 2 processor, sound output is only available through the
computer's internal speaker. This gives lower-quality results.

Movie-making

The nature of digital video movies is such that their storage,
processing and playing back requires large amounts of memory,
both in terms of hard disc space and available RAM.

3

1. Introduction

If you wish to use your Eagle card for movie-making you will
require a computer with:

• at least 4 Megabytes RAM,

• a high-data-rate hard disc (IDE or SCSI),

• an ARM3 processor.

The only Acorn computers that meet these requirements as
standard are the A5000 (4

MB+

versions) and A540. Other,

upgraded computers may also be suitable.

Possible extras:

Depending on which features of the Eagle package you wish to
use, you may also need some or all of the following:

• S-Video or composite video source such as a camcorder or

VCR (video cassette recorder) or video disc player.

• Video cable for connection to BNC (for composite) or 4-pin

mini-D1N (for S-Video) inputs.

• Audio equipment with line-level input/output, such as hi-fi

equipment, CD player, or amplifier.

• Microphone (with built-in amp or connected via other

suitable equipment).

• MIDI equipment.

• 'Active' or 'MultiMedia' speakers (with line-level inputs —

those with headphone level inputs are not suitable).

The internal speaker

Eagle can play audio samples (in mono only) through the Archi­medes' internal speaker on Archimedes, A540 and A5000
computers. This is not possible on the A3000 — audio playback
using Eagle is only possible through external speakers via the
stereo connector on the hack panel of the card.

On all computers you can play samples through the internal
speaker using the internal sound system (not the Eagle hardware).

4

1. Introduction

15-bit and 24-bit display

A multisync monitor greatly enhances the functionality of the Eagle.
It is recommended that a monitor such as the AKF18, normally

supplied with the A5000, is the

minimum

specification monitor

that should be considered.

To appreciate fully the quality of the live image display facility of the
Eagle it is best to use 15-bit display modes. This option is currently
open only to users of graphics accelerator cards such as the
ColourCard.

Image and movie capture in 15bpp and 24bpp is possible without
such a card. However, to fully appreciate the results of video or
graphics work using the Eagle, you should consider purchasing a
ColourCard. The enhancements it provides are well worthwhile.

The applications suite

On the Eagle disc:

!TakeTwo– use this to:

• view an incoming video picture,

• grab a still image,

• grab a movie image, or

• view a movie image stored on disc.

For more information refer to 4. Viewing and grabbing images
and 5. TakeTwo later in this manual.

!SysMerge– this updates the !System directory on your computer.

This is detailed later.

!RInstall– this installs software associated with the Acorn movie

compression. This is described later.

On the Scan Light disc

!Scanner– the ScanLight Plus application. Use this to grab grey-

scale still images. For more information, refer to the ScanLight Plus

manual.

!SysMerge– do not use this version. It is provided for when

ScanLight is sold as a separate package.

5

1. Introduction

On AudioWorks disc 1:

!AudioCtrl– this has two uses:

• to play audio samples, and

• to set-up audio parameters.

!AudioWrks– use this to record and play back audio samples.

For more information on these applications, refer to the Audio­Works manual. For information on using !AudioCtrl to set-up
Eagle audio parameters refer to 7. Audio options.

!SysMerge– do not use this version. It is provided for when

AudioWorks is sold as a separate package.

On AudioWorks disc 2:

This disc contains a selection of audio samples.

On the Replay disc:

!ARMovie, !ARPlayer and !MultSound — these are the standard
Replay applications and are licensed from Acorn Computers.

!ARMovie provides the software needed to replay movies. You do

not need to run !ARMovie. Other applications automatically load it

when required.

!ARPlayerlets you play a movie and provides controls such as
pause and frame advance. These functions are also provided by !

TakeTwo.

!MultSound lets you replay just the soundtrack of a movie. This

function is also provided by !AudioWrks.

!CfsReader– !ARMovie, !ARPlayer and !MultSound are supplied in

compressed format. !CfsReader lets you uncompress these files. (

This operation is detailed later.)

6

2. Installation

Caution!
Static electricity can damage the Eagle expansion card. Store
the card hi its protective bag until you install it, and do not
allow the board to come into contact with static-productive
materials such as man-made fibres, wool, polystyrene or plastic
bags not designated anti-static. If possible, handle the board by
the back panel only and first discharge any static build up from
your hands by touching one of the metal screws on the
computer case.

What you should have received

Check that you have received the following:

• Eagle expansion card in anti-static packaging,

• this manual,

• ScanLight Plus manual,

• AudioWorks manual,

• MID] manual,

• five floppy discs,

• ribbon cable,

• MID1 cable,

• half-width blanking panel,

• registration card.

Installing the Eagle expansion card

Caution!
No special skills are required to fit the Eagle. However, the
suppliers cannot accept responsibility for any damage that may
result from incorrect installation. If in any doubt, consult
your local supplier.

The Eagle is suitable for installation in any Archimedes or A5000
with backplane fitted. It may also be used with the A3000 using the
external expansion slot. In all cases your attention is drawn to

System requirements.

The card is

not suitable

for installation in the A3010, A3020, A4
portable or A4000, for which there is no standard expansion card
provision.

7

2. Installation

Tools

The only tool required is a No. 2 (medium) cross-head screwdriver.

Disconnect power

Before installing the Eagle, switch off the power to the computer.
However, leave the power lead connected. Disconnect all other
leads to the computer. Remove anything (such as a monitor) that
may be on top of the case.

Remove the computer's cover — Archimedes on|y

1 Remove the five screws that secure the cover:

2 Slide the cover hack off the computer.

3 If you have an A305 or A310 computer — Ensure a backplane

is fitted. This is a vertically mounted circuit hoard, positioned
approximately half-way across the main circuit board. It
provides two or four sockets into which expansion cards can be
fitted.

Other types of computer — the backplane is already fitted.

8

2. Installation

Remove the computer's cover — A5000 only

The cover is secured by six screws (three each side) located
underneath the case. Take care tilting or lifting the A5000 as the
screw-heads can scratch a wooden or polished surface.

Remove all six screws. The cover should then slide back off the
computer.

Expansion card positioning — Archimedes & A5000

With no expansion cards fitted, the rear panel of the main unit
consists of three metal blanking plates, each secured to the case by
screws at both ends.

The lowest plate (containing various sockets) is secured to the main
circuit board and

should not

be removed during expansion card
installation. The upper two plates are temporary fitments that are
removed when expansion cards, such as the Eagle card, are
installed.

One standard width expansion card occupies half the width of the
back panel. The numbers 0...3 on the diagram above indicate the
positions in which expansion cards may be fitted. With a two-socket
backplane only positions 0 and 2 are available.

9

2. Installation

Connecting the ribbon cable...

The ribbon cable supplied is for connecting the Eagle to the
computer's internal sound system. This option is not possible for

users of the A3000 (see System requirements).

Caution!
Incorrectly connecting the ribbon cable can damage your computer.
Carefully follow the instructions in this manual and pay particular
attention to the orientation of the cable. The suppliers of Eagle cannot
be held liable for any damage that results from incorrect installation. If in
any doubt contact your local supplier.

Because of hardware differences you need to know exactly which
type of computer you have. The front panel of the computer shows
the model number. The options are:

• Archimedes 300 & 400 series,

• Archimedes 400/1 series,

• Archimedes 540,

• A5000.

The ribbon cable may seem longer than necessary but this lets it
reach any expansion card slot. Carefully fold any surplus cable
under the expansion card to make sure it doesn't snag with the
computer's cover.

If an existing expansion card is already fitted in the lower slot, the
connector on the computer may be slightly obscured.

The dark band in the following diagrams denotes the red stripe on
one edge of the cable.

10

2. Installation

...on

an Archimedes 300 & 400 series

The cable plugs into connector PL2 on the far
right of the Archimedes circuit board, partly
under the right-hand expansion card (looking
from the front of the machine). Note that the
cable turns through 180° (a half-turn) so the
rearmost pin on the Eagle card connects to
the frontmost pin on the Archimedes
circuit board.

There may be two plastic-covered links on
PL2. Remove them but keep them in a safe
place. You may need them in the future if
you change your monitor. The Archimedes
User Guide gives more details. (Look under

Connecting the monitor.)

...on

an Archimedes 400/1 series

This is similar to the 300 series except that PL2
is towards the centre of the circuit board,
partly under the left-hand expansion card.

...on

an Archimedes 540

The cable plugs into connector LK9, which
is towards the rear of the Archimedes circuit
board (looking from the front of the machine)
. Note the orientation of the cable as shown
in the diagram.

11

2. Installation

...on

an A5000

The cable plugs into connector LK3, which
is towards the centre of the A5000 circuit
hoard. Make sure the cable is not twisted; the
rearmost pin on the Eagle card connects to the
rearmost pin on the A5000 circuit hoard.

Fitting the expansion card — Archimedes & A5000

Unscrew and remove the chosen blanking plate from the rear of
the case. The Eagle card can be fitted into any position.

The Eagle expansion card may now be inserted (usually from the
rear) and, whilst held horizontally, pushed into a corresponding
backplane socket. The backplane is supported by a strong metal
bar; however it is advisable to support it with one hand whilst
pushing the expansion card into place with the other hand.

If the Eagle expansion card is fitted adjacent to another card, bolt
their rear panels together after installation using the T-piece
provided. However, if no adjacent card is present, screw the half­width blanking plate supplied to the Eagle rear panel.

Replace any screws that you removed from the blanking plate.
Ensure that the Eagle expansion card is screwed to an adjacent
expansion card or to the half-width blanking plate.

The Eagle card is now fitted ready for initial testing. Replace the
cover by sliding it hack onto the computer from the rear. Replace the
securing screws.

12

2. Installation

Fitting the Eagle expansion card — A3000

Before plugging Eagle into an A3000 you must change two
links on the Eagle card. These are:

LK4 and LK5 Change both jumpers from pins 2-3 to 1-2.

(Pin 1 is marked with a dot.)

The position of these links is shown in 9. Technical

information.

Fitting the card

1 Disconnect the mains lead and all peripherals. You do not

need to remove the top cover of the computer.

2 Plug the expansion card into the external socket at the back

of the A3000.

Any expansion card plugged into an A3000 has little protection
against accidental damage. We therefore recommend that you protect
the card with a metal casing. Alternatively, Wild Vision can supply an
A3000 Expansion Box which provides three expansion sockets. Your
A3000 then has a total of four expansion sockets, the same as the
Archimedes and A5000. Contact Wild Vision for further details.

There are no further connections to make, as you cannot connect
the Eagle to the A3000's internal sound system.

Initial testing (Archimedes, A3000 & A5000)

Reconnect any previously connected peripherals, and switch
power on to your computer.

When the computer has finished its initialisation, go to the
command line (press F12) and type

P o dules and press Return.

This lists the expansion cards fitted in the computer. In the list the
following should appear:

Wild Vision/CC Eagle M2 Vx.xx

where x . xx is the version number.

Press Return to return to the normal desktop display.

13

2. Installation

Copying the software

Copying

!ARMovie, !ARPlayer & !MultSound

These are on the Replay disc and are in compressed format. !
ARMovie is used by TakeTwo to record and play movies. As

described earlier in The applications suite, !ARPlayer and !MultSound
duplicate functions provided by TakeTwo and AudioWorks. It is
therefore not essential to copy !ARPlayer and !MultSound. (They
supplied as part of the standard Acorn Replay applications suite.)

To decompress these applications to a hard disc:

1 Double-click on CfsReader (also on the Replay disc). This

disolays a disc drive icon on the icon bar:

2 Click on the drive icon. This opens a directory window (the

CfsReader window) showing the contents of the Replay disc.

3 Open a directory window (the destination window) onto a

suitable directory on your hard disc.

4 Drag the !ARMovie, !ARPlayer and !MultSound icons (as

required) from the CfsReader window to the destination
window. This decompresses and copies these files.

RInstall

This is on the Eagle disc. You only need to run this if you want to use
the Acorn movie compression routines. (We recommend using
the Eidos compression routines if these are included in your version
of Eagle.) The Acorn routines and !RCompress, a front-end utility,
occupy about 120KB of hard disc space.

1 Double click on .!Rhzstall. This opens a window:

2 Click on Install to start the installation process.

14

2. Installation

RInstall copies !RCompress into the same directory as !ARMovie. (!
RCompress controls the compression routines and is described

later.) If you have an existing version of !ARMovie, the compres­sion routines inside !ARMovie are updated if necessary.

RInstall fronts the directory window showing !ARMovie and !

RCompress.

The other applications

We recommend copying the Eagle applications onto a hard disc

for normal use. After copying, store the original discs in a safe

place.

Updating

!System

Do not delete your existing version of !System. Do
not copy !System from the Eagle disc.

Instead you must merge the two !System files. To do this:

On the Eagle disc is a program called !SysMerge.

(Do not

use !SysMerge from the ScanLight or AudioWorks disc.)
Load this in the usual way by double-clicking on its icon.
This opens a small window:

2 Drop your existing !System icon onto the window. (!System

is on your hard disc, if you have one, or your hoot disc.)

3 Drop the !System icon from the Eagle disc onto the window,

This creates a new, combined version of !System and

automatically updates the existing version.

4 When the window shows

!System updated,

click on its

Close icon to exit from !SysMerge.

15

2. Installation

16

3. Getting started

Connecting a video input

Eagle provides two video connectors:

• a 4-pin mini-DIN connector for S-Video sources, and

• a BNC (bayonet-style) connector for Composite video (
standard VHS) sources.

Different manufacturers use alternative names:

• S-Video may be called

Hiband, S-VHS,

or Hi8.

• Composite video may be called

CVBS, Video out,

or

SCART.

(
Not all SCART outputs produce composite video signals – check the
specification before plugging into Eagle. You will require a SCART to
composite video [BNC] adaptor.)

Signals from connectors marked

UHF, Aerial, RF,

or TVare

not

suitable.

Suitable video sources include: video camcorder, video recorder, TV (
via a VCR - a demodulated signal is required), Canon Ion still video
camera, or video laser disc player. Sources may be colour or
monochrome, but must he PAL or NTSC standard (the UK and US
formats). SECAM (the French and Russian standard) is not
currently supported.

The S-Video connection is similar to a mouse connector; the arrow on
the connector should face the top of the socket. The pin-out of this

socket is given in 9. Technical Information.

We recommend using 75 ohm coaxial cable for video work.
Preferably keep all cables as short as practical, and avoid sources of
possible noise in its routing, such as other electric or electronic
equipment.

17

3. Getting started

Make sure that power is supplied to your video source. In particular,
users of the Canon Ion camera should note that a time-out function
may come into operation if the camera is left standing for a time. See

section entitled 8. If problems occur...

Connecting an audio input

The Eagle has a 5-pin DIN socket for audio input and output.

The pin-out of the socket is given in 9. Technical Information.

Suitable audio sources include: CD players, amplifiers, or hi-fi
equipment.

Microphones may be used if connected through an external amplifier
or other equipment offering line-level output (such as a hi-fi). Some
microphones are supplied with their own amplifier. The input line-

level is selectable as 0.5V or 1 V r.m.s. (see 6. Audio options). You
should check that the line-level for any equipment used does not
exceed the selected line-level for the card.

Connecting the audio output

You can use the 5-way DIN socket to connect Eagle's stereo
output. The 5-pin DIN has both stereo input and output
connections.

Suitable devices include: a VCR for video dubbing; an amplifier
and thence to stereo speakers; direct to `active'or multimedia'

speakers; a tape deck for recording; and so on.

The output line-level is 1 V r.m.s. (or 2.8V p-p). Note that this is a
high impedance line-level output. It is not suitable for devices
intended for connection to a headphone socket. You should check
the specification of your equipment for compatibility.

18

3. Getting started

Use !AudioCtrl to set the variables affecting the level and quality of
the sound being played back - refer to the Audio options section.

Playback using the computer's internal speaker

To play back through the computer's internal sound system using
Eagle's superior sound reproduction facilities, the ribbon cable
must be connected. (Refer to 2. Installation: see also System
Requirements.) Sound played back through the speaker in the
computer is in mono only. This is a limitation of the computer.

When playing back to the internal speaker only, set the Internal
volume in the Eagle mixer (in !AudioCtrl) to minimum.

Otherwise, sound played back through the internal speaker will be
slightly louder with the low frequencies emphasised (compared to the
same sound played back through the speaker with no Eagle fitted).

Playback using external speakers

See System requirements for details of suitable speakers.

When using external speakers, you should turn off the computer's
internal speaker:

1 Click on Apps on the icon bar. This opens a directory

window.

2 Double-click on !Configure in the directory window. A

computer-shaped icon appears on the icon bar.

3 Click on this icon.

4 Click once on the bell icon labelled 'Sound'.

5 Deselect the Loudspeaker enabled option.

Jf the ribbon cable is fitted, the computer's internal sound system
can 'play' through the Eagle. (The volume is controlled by Internal
on the Eagle mixer).

19

3. Getting started

Connection to MIDI

Caution! Use only the MIDI cable supplied.

A cable has been supplied especially for use with the Eagle's MIDI
circuitry. This terminates in three 5-pin DIN sockets, for:

• MIDI in

(blue hand),

• MIDI out

(red band) and

• MIDI Thru

(yellow band).

The cable plugs into the 15-pin D-type socket on the Eagle card.

This cable should be connected into your M1DI system as required. (
The manual on the Acorn MIDI support software includes more
information on connecting MIDI devices.)

Please refer to the separate manual for details of the Acorn MIDI
support software.

Eagle can be used with any third-party MIDI software (such as
Glares' Rhapsody and Serenade) that operates under RISC OS 3.
You can also use Maestro (supplied with the computer on
applications disc 2 – refer to the computer's User Guide for more
information).

20

4. Viewing and grabbing images

This section provides an overview of using the facilities in Eagle.
Later sections give more details.

Viewing a live video image

Load TakeTwo. (Refer to 5. TakeTwo for a detailed description of
this application.)

You can either:

• click on the TakeTwo icon on the icon bar, or

• choose Show live display from the Icon Bar Menu.

Either action opens the live display window (described later).

When you first open the window, there may be no picture or a poor
quality image. This usually means that a video signal is not
connected or that the Video options in the Picture Controls dialogue
box are not correctly set.

Grabbing a still image

You have two options for grabbing a still image:

• ScanLight— this is suitable for grabbing grey-scale Sprites.

• TakeTwo— you can grab colour images in Sprite, TIFF or

Clear format.

ScanLight

The ScanLight application is called !Scanner.

Refer to the ScanLight Plus manual for full details of using ScanLight.
After grabbing an image, you can manipulate it (or any Sprite of up
to 8bpp format) in a variety of ways. Examples include
changing the grey-map or enhancing or blurring the image.

You do not need to run TakeTwo but grabbing the image is easier if
you can preview it in the TakeTwo live display window.

21

4. Viewing and grabbing images

To grab an image:

1 Load !Scanner.

2 Click on the Scanner icon on the icon bar. This opens the

Scan dialogue box.

3 When ready to grab the image, click on Scan. This opens a

window (called the Original window) showing the grab.

4 You can save this image or, to manipulate the image, open the

Altered window. To open the Altered window, either choose
Altered from the ScanLight menu or double-click on the

Original window.

Take Two

1 Load TakeTwo. The live display window shows the

incoming video signal.

2 If necessary, change the Video source switches in the Picture

controls dialogue box to get a satisfactory image.

3 Display the Grab choices dialogue box either using Grab

choices on the TakeTwo menu or by clicking

Select

on the

live display window.

4 Choose the required file format (Sprite, TIFF or Clear).

5 Set up the file save path by dragging the icon to a directory

window. See Grab choices dialogue box for more information.

6 If necessary, set-up the Format and Size options.

7 When the live display window shows the required image, click

on the Record button. This grabs the image and saves it to
disc. The image is grabbed as soon as you click on Record but
processing and saving to disc may take a second or two.

Grabbing a movie

This is similar to using TakeTwo to grab a still image:

1 Load TakeTwo. The live display window shows the

incoming video signal.

2 If necessary, change the Video source switches in the

Picture contro/s dialogue box to get a satisfactory image.

22

4. Viewing and grabbing images

3 Display the Grab choices dialogue box either using

Grab

choices on the TakeTwo menu or by clicking on the live

display window.

4 Set the file format to Replay.

5 Set up the file save path – see Grab choices dialogue box for

more information.

6 If necessary, set-up the Format and Rate options.

7 If necessary, set-up the mixer controls in AudioCtrl. See the

Audio options section of this manual for more details.

8 When the live display window shows the required image; click

on the Record button. This starts recording the movie.

9 Click on the

Stop

button to stop recording. (Recording also

stops if the disc becomes full.)

10 The title page of the movie is displayed. Click on

Play

to

play the movie or

Stop

to return to the live display.

How Replay movies are processed and stored

Grabbing movies makes heavy demands on the computer. A movie
image represents a large amount of data to process in real-time.
You can also quickly fill a disc with the movie data, especially if it is
stored uncompressed.

The Replay format has two speeds, 12.5 or 25fps. 25fps gives the best
results but only very fast computers can process the data. At 12.5fps,
data is read in and processed in two second "chunks". At 25fps, the
chunks are one second long. Chunks are initially stored in RAM (
memory) as they are received. When a chunk is complete, it is
processed and then stored on disc. If you have the Eidos

software and have selected ESCaPE, the chunk is also compressed
before storing.

The RAM requirements to hold the chunks depend on the save
format. For grey-scale format (the smallest), 1Mbyte is needed, for
RGB format (the largest), 2Mbyte.

For information on compressing a movie using the Acorn com­pression routines, refer to 7. RCompress.

23

4. Viewing and grabbing images

Grabbing a movie soundtrack

You can grab just the soundtrack (and not the associated video
image) by using AudioWorks to produce a sound sample. This is
described in detail in the AudioWorks manual.

Viewing movies

Before you can play a movie, the !ARMovie application must have
been "seen" by the computer. This means displaying !ARMovie in a
directory window. You never need to load it.

You can use either TakeTwo or ARPlayer. We recommend
TakeTwo.

1 Drop a movie (Replay) file icon onto either:

• the TakeTwo live display window, or

• the TakeTwo icon on the icon bar.

2 Click on Play to play the movie.

Click on Stop or Pause to stop or pause the movie.

If you have just recorded a movie, step (1) is unnecessary. Click on
Play to play the movie.

Playing only the soundtrack

This is similar to viewing a movie. That is, you drop the movie file
icon onto either AudioWorks or MultSound. We recommend
AudioWorks for short movies; MultSound for long movies. (
AudioWorks loads the complete soundtrack into memory before
playing it; MultSound reads direct from disc and so requires less
memory. However, AudioWorks provides extra features.)

24

5. TakeTwo

TakeTwo is a digitising program written especially for Eagle. It
makes full use of the 24-bit video capabilities of the Eagle video
hardware. It provides the necessary controls to:

• display a video image,

• capture still images in colour or monochrome,

• capture digital movies with or without sound in Acorn Replay
format. (The ESCaPE real-time video compression module
lets you record and compress movies in real-time.)

To use TakeTwo, first load the application by double-clicking on
its icon. The !TakeTwo icon appears on the right-hand side of the

icon bar:

Click

Menu

on the icon on the icon bar to display the TakeTwo

menu:

Info displays an information box about TakeTwo.

Show live display opens the live display window (described

below). You can also open this window by clicking

Select

on the icon on the icon bar.

Picture controls opens the Picture controls dialogue box (

described below).

Grab choices opens the Grab choices dialogue box (described

below).

Quit closes all TakeTwo windows and removes the application

from memory.

25

5. TakeTwo

Live display window

This window displays the received video image. If the window is
black, the picture is unstable or the colours are wrong, you need to
change the Video settings in the Picture controls dialogue box (
described below).

The Title bar of the window shows the current resolution of the
display in pixels (horizontally) and lines (vertically).

The buttons along the top of the window act like the buttons on a
conventional video recorder:

When viewing a live video image:

Record either:

starts recording a movie, or

grabs a single frame. (This is controlled by File format in the

Grab choices dialogue box.)

Stop displays the title page of a pre-recorded movie, if there is

one loaded, or returns to the live display.

Play starts playing a pre-recorded movie, if there is one loaded. (

Refer to P/aying a movie.)

Pause freezes the current image in the window.

Frame advance starts playing a pre-recorded movie by display-

ing the first frame.

Mute only has an effect when preparing to record a movie. It

sets the Mute opt ion in the Grab choices dialogue box.

When recording a movie:

Record has no effect.

Stop stops the recording of a movie and displays the title page of

the movie. Press Play to play the movie or Stop to return to
the live display.

Play has no effect during recording. After recording, click on it

to play the movie.

26

5. TakeTwo

Pause has no effect.

Frame advance has no effect.

Mute has no effect.

When replaying a movie:

Record has no effect

Stop stops the movie.

Play starts or resumes playing a pre-recorded movie. (Refer to

Playing a movie.)

Pause freezes the current image in the window.

Frame advance advances the movie by one frame.

Mute mutes the sound.

Picture controls dialogue box

To display this either:

• choose Picture controls from the TakeTwo menu, or

• Adjust-click on the live display window.

This dialogue box sets options for the live display window.

Video Source

Change the current settings if there are problems with the dis-

played video image.

Composite/S-Video

If you select the wrong option, there will be no image displayed in
the TakeTwo window. (Also check that you have properly connected
the video lead and that the video source is live.)

27

5. TakeTwo

Composite selects input from the BNC connector on the Eagle

hack panel. This is suitable for standard CC1R sources, such
as Video cameras, recorders, and so on.

S-Video selects input from the 4-pin mini-DIN connector on the

Eagle hack panel. This is suitable for S-Video (S-VHS)
sources, including Hi-8.

Tape/Live

If you select the wrong option, the image may be unstable or
distorted. This is more likely to happen when playing a tape with
Live selected.

Tape is optimised for signals from video tape recorders.

Live selects the correct syncs for video from live display

equipment such as demodulated TV signals, Canon Ion live
display, CCD cameras, or direct output from video
camcorders.

PAL/NTSC

If you select the wrong option, the image appears unstable and in
the wrong colours.

PAL is the UK standard for video and selecting this button

ensures that the Eagle recognises the incoming video signal as
standard 50Hz, 625 line video.

NTSC is the north American TV standard and should be selected

by US and Canadian users or European users with imported
NTSC video equipment.

Colour control

This is similar to the colour control on a conventional television.
Colour settings suitable for the computer desktop may be too vivid
for normal video images (for example, from a video camera). You
can then "turn" the colour knob to adjust this. There is no correct
setting; it depends on personal preference.

Turning the control to 0% displays the image in black and white. If
you have a ColourCard, select the 256-grey palette for the best
possible grey-scale quality. (Use FlipTop to change the palette.)

28

5. TakeTwo

Auto-Zoom/Pan & Scan

These affect the scaling of the live image.

Auto-Zoom – this switches to an image scaling function, where

resizing the window automatically scales the whole of the
video image to fit within the window. The aspect ratio of
the image adheres to the chosen shape of the window and
may therefore be distorted vertically or horizontally to
achieve "squashed" or "elongated" effects. To keep the correct
aspect ratio, select the 4:3 Aspect Ratio button.

Pan & Scan – the live window behaves in the normal R1SC OS

way. Scrolling or resizing the window results in panning
around the image which remains at the current scale. You
can check the current resolution by looking at the live
display Title Bar which shows the resolution in pixels x lines.

4:3 aspect ratio/Free aspect ratio

These, as suggested above, are used in conjunction with Auto-

Zoom.

4:3 aspect ratio – the aspect ratio of the image remains fixed

whatever the display size.

Free aspect ratio – the aspect ratio corresponds to the shape of

the resized window.

29

5. TakeTwo

Grab choices dialogue box

To display this either:

• choose Grab choices from the TakeTwo menu, or

• click

Select

on the live display window.

This dialogue box sets options for grabbing an image or movie.
However, an image grab is not initiated from this box but from the
Record button on the live display window.

File format

This dictates the file type, destination and name of the grabbed
image or movie. On the left it shows the icon for the selected
image or movie file type. These are chosen from a menu that
appears when you click on the icon to the right of the dialogue
box. The available options are:

Sprite – the normal bitmap format for RISC OS. 8bpp (256

colours) is widely used. Some applications cannot display the
newer "deep-colour" 15bpp and 24bpp Sprites.

TIFF– a format that allows for easy cross-platform transporta-

tion of images. (For example, to IBM-compatible PCs and
Apple Macs.)

30

5. TakeTwo

Clear— this format also allows "deep-colour" images. Some

older applications can display Clear format but not deep­colour Sprites.

Replay— the Acorn digital movie format.

File icon and editable field

These let you tell the computer where to save the grab:

1 Type a suitable file name into the editable field. If you want to

make several still frame grabs, we recommend names of eight
characters or less (see below).

2 Drag the file icon to the required directory window.

This does not save the image; it just tells the computer where to
save the grab when you click on the Record button.

For still frame grabs, you only need to do this before making the first
grab. For second and subsequent grabs, Eagle adds a numeric suffix

to the file name. For example, if you type in filename, Eagle saves
the first grab as filename, the second as filename0, the third as

filename1, and so on.

Dragging the icon tells the computer to overwrite any existing file
with that name. So, in the example above, any existing file called

filename in that directory is overwritten when you click on Record.

Adjust-click on the Close icon for this dialogue box to open a

directory window onto the selected directory.

Image type

The previous settings for Format, Rate and Audio/Size are redis-

played if you change to a different image type.

31

5. TakeTwo

Still frame grabs: Format

Options:

Sprite 8bpp, 15bpp, 24bpp
TIFF 15bpp, 24bpp

Clear 24bpp

Replay see movie grabs (below)

Number of colours:

8bpp 256
15bpp 32 thousand (approximately)

24bpp 16.7 million (approximately)

Which option you choose is based on:

• Memory —

15 & 24 bpp images are notorious for eating

Kilobytes. A 15bpp Sprite can easily fill an 800K floppy disc.

• Viewing the image —

Many applications can handle 8bpp

Sprites. However, fewer applications can handle 15 or 24bpp
Sprites or can only handle Clear files. (Impression Style or

Publisher or ArtWorks version 1.5 can handle 15bpp and

24bpp images.)

For best quality display of 15bpp or 24bpp images, you
currently need ColourCard or other graphics accelerator
card.

• Printing —

If you want to print the grab, choose either 8bpp

grey-scale or 15/24bpp sprites.

Rate

For Sprite, TIFF and Clear options, this field reads Static.

Size

There are two options:

• From Live Display— only the image area shown in the window

is grabbed. Any image areas outside the window are
ignored.

• Maximum size — the entire image (768x288 pixels) is

grabbed.

32

5. TakeTwo

Movie grabs:

Format

This menu is in two parts – Replay movie save options and
sampling format. For more information on sampling format, refer

to

Introduction

in the AudioWorks manual.

Replay save options:

ESCaPE– this saves the movie using the additional Eidos

compression routines. It is the recommended format if this
option is available. To grab a movie requires about 1.3MByte
of memory free.

8 bit greyscale – black-and-white format. This requires least

memory – about 1MByte.

15 bit RGB – colour format. This format is not recommended

unless you intend to use an application that requires RGB
format. This requires most memory – about 2MByte.

20 bit YYUV– colour format. This requires less memory than

15 bit RGB– about 1.2MByte.

15 bit RGB and 20 bit YYUV provide the best quality but generate

the largest files. (YYUV quality is slightly less than RGB and
produces smaller files. However, ESCaPE provides good results
with the benefit of smaller files than either RGB or YYUV.)

Sampling format:

Mute - the movie is grabbed without a sound track. You can

also choose this option by clicking on the Mute button on the
Live display window.

8 bit lin/8 bit log/16 bit lin – we recommend 8 bit log. However,

some movie editing applications only work with linear (lin.)
sound recordings.

8 bit lin gives the lowest quality sound; 16 bit lin the best but
requires most memory. The results from 8 bit log are almost
as good as 16 bit lin and require far less memory.

If you select 16 bit lin, Eagle actually samples in 12 bit linear
quality (the maximum available from the hardware) but stores
the sample in 16 bit linear format.

For more information on linear (lin.) and logarithmic (log.)

sampling, refer to

Introduction

in the AudioWorks manual.

33

5.

TakeTwo

Rate

This menu is in two parts – frame rate and audio frequency.

You have a possible choice of12.5 or 25 fps, depending on the
hardware resources available.

25 fps gives better results but requires more memory and processor
power. It is only available on top specification computers. You
cannot use ESCaPE compression with 25fps movies; you must use
the slower Acorn compression routines.

7kHz/11kHz/22kHz/44kHz

This sets the sampling frequency. Increasing the sampling
frequency, increases the sound quality but also uses more memory.
If you intend to replay the movie using the computer's internal

speaker,

11kHz

gives acceptable quality and processor overhead.
For more information on sampling frequency, refer to Introduction in
the AudioWorks manual.

You also need to set the mixer controls in AudioCtrl. Refer to the

6. Audio options section of this manual.

Size

At present the Replay format has a fixed image size of 160x128
pixels. Future developments may permit other image sizes. (The
window size when replaying movies is 320x256 pixels.)

Brightness and contrast controls

These modify the brightness and contrast of a grabbed Sprite or a
paused image in the live display window and let you optimise the
incoming video signal.

To set the controls before grabbing an image click on the pause
button. You can now change the brightness and contrast by using
the mouse to "turn" the knobs. The centre position (0%) represents
no change.

34

6. Audio options

AudioWorks gives extensive audio manipulation options. It lets Eagle
users create and play back audio samples in stereo or mono and up
to 12 bit in resolution. Detailed instructions on using AudioWorks
are given in the accompanying manual. However, AudioWorks
includes extra features when used in conjunction with an Eagle
card.

You will note that AudioWorks recognises Eagle as an available

input/output device in its

Preferences =>Devices

dialogue box:

and in the recording dialogue box:

In these dialogue boxes you will find that two sampling

devices

are

available for use: Eagle (Stereo) and Eagle (Mono). Choosing the

former accesses Eagle as a stereo sampling source, while the latter
makes Eagle pretend to be a mono sampler by mixing the left and

right channels together:

35

6. Audio options

When Eagle is installed in your computer, an Eagle option appears in
the !A udioCtrl preferences window.

Clicking upon the Eagle icon opens the mixer preferences
window:

This window allows you to configure the Eagle mixer settings to
adjust signal levels for the sound input and output channels. Each
mixer option has a stereo slider associated with it — by dragging the
left or right slider buttons up or down, you can increase or decrease
the overall level of that input/output.

To alter the levels on the left and right channels independently, click
on the option button at the base of the slider, and then drag the left
or right slider as appropriate. Clicking again on this button links the
channels together if you want them equal.

The five slider pairs control:

Sampling Line In

This sets the level of the input signal used when recording
samples.

Playback (Eagle)
Playback (Internal)

Playback (Lineln)

These three sliders control mixing of the three playback

signal sources:

• the Eagle card (when playing sound from the computer

through the Eagle),

36

6.

Audio options

Normal operation

Sampling

Using the mixer controls

37

6. Audio options

• the computer's internal (VIDC) sound system, and

• the line input socket at the back of the Eagle card.

Monitor Line Out

This controls the output volume from Eagle's line out.

There are further options available at the bottom of the window:

Sampling Gain control

The input signal can be boosted with two different gain levels (
Low, 0.5V r.m.s. or High, V r.m.s.). The icon shows L or H to
indicate the current setting. Clicking on the icon displays a
menu allowing you to set a new gain level.

Playback Gain control

The output signal can be boosted with three different gain
levels (Low, Medium, and High). The icon show L, M, or H to
indicate the current setting. Clicking on the icons displays a
menu allowing you to set a new gain level.

Mute

This mutes the Eagle card so that it inputs and outputs no
sound.

Mono

The Eagle card mixes left and right channels of the output
signal to give a mono sound output.

Choose Save preferences from the main AudioCtrl menu to save
the current settings as your permanent preferences.

To use your preference settings in the future, you can either:

• Save preferences from the main AudioCtrl menu, and run

AudioCtrl each time before using the Eagle card, or

• Save a desktop boot file including commands to set up the
Eagle card mixer according to the settings currently showing

in the Eagle mixer window. See Desktop boot files in your
RISC OS 3 User Guide for more details on these files.

38

7. Acorn movie compression routines

and RCompress

Acorn movie compression routines

These are an alternative to the optional Eidos ESCaPE routines.

The Acorn routines compress movies in two stages. They operate
on the stored movie. (Unlike ESCaPE, which can compress a 12.5fps
movie as it is stored to disc.) However, they let you compress 25fps
movies. The routines are accessed using !RCompress (described
later).

Stage 1 — compression

This stage compresses the movie, frame-by-frame, into a series of
files in a specially created directory. The result of this stage is called
an exploded movie (because it has exploded into several files). For
details of these files, see 9. Technical information.

This stage uses a module inside !ARMovie called Differ: Compres­sion is slow – each frame takes several second to process.

The first frame in the movie is as a complete frame. For subsequent
frames, only the differences from the preceding frame are stored.
Thus, a slowly changing or static picture has little difference between
frames and so good compression is achieved. A rapidly changing
image has more differences and so is compressed less. A dialogue box
(described later) specifies the minimum permitted compression
for each frame. If necessary, Differ reduces the image quality for
individual frames to meet this compression. Usually this reduced
quality is unnoticeable because subsequent frames have fewer
changes. This gives better compression and so they can be displayed
at higher quality.

Stage 2 — combining the files

This stage merges the exploded movie files into a single com­pressed Replay movie file.

This stage uses a module inside !ARMovie called Join. Combining

is much quicker than compression and takes only a few seconds to
complete.

39

7. Acorn movie compression routines & RCompress

You can then play the movie to check it. If the quality is satisfac­tory, you can delete the exploded movie directory and the original,
uncompressed movie.

!RCompress

Load !RCompress in the usual way by double-clicking on it.

Setting the compress options

Click on the !RCompress icon on the icon bar to display a dialogue
box:

You only need to display this dialogue box if you want to change
the settings.

Click Set to implement any changes you make.

ARM 2 compatibility

This option selects a compression format better suited to the
slower ARM 2 processor. (ARM 2 processors are fitted to A300/
A400 series and A3000 computers.) It has no effect for 25fps
movies as these require an ARM 3 processor.

Double-buffered playback

This is suitable for playback from storage devices that have slow
transfer rates. However, it requires more memory to play the
movie.

Include key frames

Normally, a movie is stored as a complete first frame and then the
changes between subsequent frames.

This option stores key (or complete) frames at regular intervals in
the compressed movie. This lets editing software process the

40

7. Acorn movie compression routines & RCompress

movie from any key frame. (Applications such as TakeTwo and
ARPlayer always play movies from the beginning. Therefore, this
option is only useful if you want to use the compressed movie with
editing software.) The disadvantage is that compression is less
efficient.

Faster quality matching

This speeds up compression slightly but with a possible quality
penalty.

Run in task window

This allows Differ and Join to multi-task with other applications.
This has the advantage that you can use the computer for other
tasks while compressing a movie. (Although other tasks run
slowly.) The disadvantage is that compression takes slightly longer
and you do not get a frame-by-frame preview.

A window shows compression progress. It has three buttons:

Abort —

terminates compression and discards any processed

data.

Suspend —

stops compression after processing the current
frame and saves processed data. You can resume processing
later — see below.

Pause —

pauses processing but does not terminate. Click
Pause a second time to resume processing. Pausing com­pression allows more time for other applications to run.

Display in screen mode

The selected screen mode must be at least 256 colours.

When you click Set, RCompress switches to the selected screen
mode and then starts compressing the movie. For suitable screen
modes (those large enough), a frame-by-frame preview is displayed
with the compressed image on the left and the original image on
the right.

Press Esc to abort processing (see above) or Space to suspend
processing.

This option requires about 128KB more memory than Run in task

window.

41

7. Acorn movie compression routines & RCompress

Output quality

This specifies the minimum permitted compression. The default
values are those recommended by Acorn. You can specify the
output quality in three different ways:

Data rate/latency

This lets you set a quality suitable for a particular storage
device. Data rate is the sustained data transfer rate. Latency
is the typically the time required to access the data.

Quality

This specifies a minimum quality level. (Differ uses a higher
quality if possible.) 0 is the highest (little quality reduction).
Values above 15 give a noticeably poorer quality.

Frame size

This lets you specify the maximum number of bytes used to
store a frame.

Compressing a movie

Drop the uncompressed movie file on the RCompress icon on the

icon bar. This opens a dialogue box:

This displays information about the movie. (It is sometimes useful

to drop a movie onto RCompress just to display this information.) You

can edit the Title, Date, and Author fields. The other fields are

information only.

The Video and Audio fields show the technical details:

size (160x128 pixels),
data type (16bit RGB),
number of frames (25),
frame rate (12.5fps),
total play time (2 seconds),
audio data format (8bit linear signed),

mono/stereo, and
playback rate (11kHz).

42

7. Acorn movie compression routines & RCompress

Make any changes you wish to the editable fields and then click
Compress. This displays a standard Save box.

The default name of the directory is the first eight characters of the
original movie name with _E appended. For example, if the original
movie is called Gerry Wave, the compression directory is called
GerryWav_E You can rename this file if you wish.

Either:

• drag the icon from the Save box to a suitable directory
window, or

• click OK to save the exploded movie directory in the same
directory as the uncompressed movie.

RCompress displays compression progress. How progress is
displayed depends on which option you selected earlier (Run in task
window or Display in screen mode n).

At any time you can suspend compression by clicking Suspend (if
running in a window) or pressing Space (if single tasking).
RCompress suspends after processing the current frame.

Resuming after suspending

To resume processing, drop either:

• the exploded movie directory or

• the original movie

on the RCompress icon on the icon bar. Save the movie to the
same exploded directory.

Joining an exp|oded movie

Drop the exploded movie directory onto the RCompress icon on
the icon bar: This displays a standard Save box with a Replay icon.

The default filename is the original movie name with_C appended to
it. (In the example above, the filename would be GerryWav_C) You
can rename this file if you wish.

43

7. Acorn movie compression routines & RCompress

Either:

• drag the icon from the Save box to a suitable directory
window, or

• click OK to save the joined movie in the same directory as
the exploded movie.

We recommend playing the movie to check it before deleting the
exploded movie.

44

8. If problems occur...

"System Resources cannot be found"

This message appears upon loading RISC OS applications if the !
System folder has not first been seen by the computer. One way to
avoid this happening on machines with hard discs is to install !
System in the root directory of the hard disc, with applications

stored in secondary folders so that !System is always "seen" before
the application. Another is to build an instruction to run !System
into an auto-boot file so that it is automatically "seen" and run
whenever the machine is switched on or after a reset.

"The copy of ABI Modu|e in !System is out of date.
Please refer to the section 'Updating ABl' in the
manual."

The ABI module covers the user interface of TakeTwo and other
Computer Concepts applications. The above error message means
that the application requires a more recent version of ABI than is
currently in your !System folder: To remedy this, run !SysMerge – see

2. Installation for more information.

Podule not recognised

If, upon typing P odul e s against the star on the command-line,
the Eagle does not appear as a listed expansion card, you should
switch off your computer, and check that the card is properly
installed. In particular, check that the card is firmly pressed into
the expansion card backplane.

Failing this, remove the card from your machine, and contact Wild
Vision.

Live dispay is black

The live display window may sometimes be black when the Show
live display option is first selected from the TakeTwo menu. Within a

few seconds, Eagle usually detects that the brightness and
contrast are wrong and corrects the picture.

45

8. If problems occur...

If the window remains black, the reason could be:

• the Picture controls dialogue box is not set-up correctly (set

Video Source according to the video source you are using),

or

• the video cable is not plugged in, or

• the video source is not sending data.

Live display is greyscale on|y

This normally indicates either that:

• you are in a 16-colour screen mode, or

• your colour saturation setting is set to zero or a very low
value, or

• if you have a ColourCard, you have selected a grey-scale
palette.

In 16-colour screen modes, TakeTwo displays a live image in grey
shades so as to optimise the quality of the live image, but con­tinues to grab in colour if this is the selected grab format.

Cannot view 15bpp or 24bpp sprites

15bpp and 24bpp sprite formats are not yet supported by many
applications, so you may find that applications such as Paint and
Draw are unable to display these images. However, they can be
viewed by any of the following means:

• ColourCard owners can load these sprites into the !Clearly

application

• Owners of Impression Style, Impression Publisher, or

ArtWorks (version 1.5 or later) can load these sprites into
their documents. They may then be viewed in any screen
mode, although owners of ColourCard Gold will see the best
colour representation in the 15bpp desktop screen modes
provided by that card.

Cannot record sound

This procedure works only if the audio ribbon cable is connected.
You therefore cannot use this test on an A3000.

46

8. If problems occur...

First try using

Audio Works.

Load AudioCtrl and display the mixer
panel. Drag the Playback Lineln mixer to its top setting, and set
the sampling gain to H. Check the

Mute

button is not pressed.

(You may wish to use an external amplifier connected to LineOut

as a monitor for this procedure if you are sure that this works whilst

a sound source is connected to the Eagle board. Check LineOut is

also set to full.)

Check that the computer's sound system and speaker are switched
on. To do this:

1 Click on

Apps

on the icon bar. This opens a directory

window.

2 Double-click on !Configure in the directory window. A

computer-shaped icon appears on the icon bar:

3 Click on this icon.

4 Click once on the bell icon labelled 'Sound'.

5 Check

loudspeaker enabled

is selected.

6 Check the volume is high enough so you can hear the computer

beep. The computer beeps every time you adjust anything in
this dialogue box.

If you still cannot hear the sound source through your internal
speaker, then the sound source is either:

• Silent. Check that any controls on the sound source are
correctly set.

• Incorrectly connected. Refer to the diagram of the stereo

line-level socket in 9. Technical information.

• Unsuitable. Note the requirements for sound input sources in

System requirements. Note especially that a line level source is

required. A normal microphone

not

suitable.

If the sound is too loud and distorted through the internal speaker,

adjust Playback Lineln on the mixer panel.
Now adjust Sampling Lineln on the mixer panel to the same level

as Playback Lineln.
Select Create new sample in AudioWorks (a stereo sample is best for

this test), and choose Record. Ensure the stereo Eagle sampler is

selected in the record dialogue box, select

Continuous recording

and

check that high quality is not selected. Click

OK.

47

8. Ifproblems occur...

You should continue to hear your sound source through the
internal speaker. The incoming waveform should be displayed. You

can now adjust the volume of the incoming signal using Sampling

Lineln on the mixer panel. Adjust this so that the waveform is as

large as possible without 'clipping' (touching either the top or the
bottom of the display).

If you can no longer hear your sound source, then you have set up
the mixer panel incorrectly.

If you can hear the sound source but nothing appears in the
AudioWorks sample display, then you have probably not set up
AudioWorks properly.

When you are satisfied, click on Stop. Press Play and you should
hear your sound source played back.

If you wish to record a movie with sound, then you should follow
the same procedure. However, you cannot alter the LineIn setting

whilst recording a movie (or when recording in AudioWorks with
High Quality on). Thus you must set the level before using the
above procedure.

Sound output does not work

This procedure works only if the audio ribbon cable is connected.
You therefore cannot use this test on an A3000.

Check the computer's internal sound system is switched on. See

Cannot record sound for details.

Now load AudioCtrl and display the mixer controls. Check the
mute switch is not selected, and drag the slider for Playback

internal to full volume, and set the playback gain setting to high.

Now load AudioWorks, and double-click on a sound sample such
as BellString. This loads the sample into AudioWorks. Click

Menu

on the AudioWorks icon and choose Preferences. A window should
appear: Click on the Devices icon to open the Device preferences

window. Click

Menu

over the playback device, and select Eagle M2

44.1kHz st. Click OK.

Now select Repeat play in the AudioWorks sample window and
press Play. The play cursor should move indicating the sample is
playing.

48

8. If problems occur...

You should hear the sound playing through the internal speaker: If
not, you have probably connected the audio connector incorrectly or
have set-up the mixer panel incorrectly.

If you wish to test the connection of the Eagle to an external
amplifier, note that the Eagle's output is at line level, and is not
suitable for driving equipment designed for direct connection to a
headphone socket. Connect Eagle to the amplifier using the DIN

connector. The pin-out of the connector is shown in 9. Technical

information.

Whilst the sound is still playing through the internal speaker,
increase the setting of the Monitor LineOut slider on the mixer: You

should now hear the sound playing through your external amplifier.
(It may be helpful to disable the internal speaker using the !

Configure application.) You may need to adjust the volume and/or

input source on your amplifier: If you do not hear any sound, it is
likely that your amplifier is incorrectly connected.

Sound playback and/or recording are punctuated by
bursts of noise

This is due to other expansion cards or other programs in the
machine interfering with the correct operation of the Eagle. The
problem (in technical terms) is that the other product introduces
too much `IRQ latency' into the system.

To check that this is the problem, remove all other expansion
cards from the machine. Switch-on the machine in such a way that
it does not load any programs. (Depending on your setup, you might

do this by holding down Shift.) Now try the Eagle software again.

If it works, then an expansion card or another program is interfer­ing with the correct operation of the Eagle. By a process of
elimination (gradually re-introducing elements hack into the
system), you should be able to tell which expansion card or
software is at fault. If you wish to use the Eagle card successfully
you should remove the offending card or not run that program.
Contact the supplier of the product that causes the problem.

This problem can also occasionally occur in high bandwidth screen
modes on some machines . The computer has to spend so much
time handling the screen that there is insufficient time to

49

8. If problems occur...

handle the Eagle card correctly. The solution to this problem is to
switch into a lower bandwidth screen mode (try Mode 12).
Alternatively, you might consider purchasing a ColourCard from
Computer Concepts or Wild Vision. This reduces the processor
bandwidth needed to display equivalent screen modes (as well as
offering you greatly enhanced graphics performance).

Sound recording / playback is of poor quality and/or
volume

Sound recording quality improves if the sampling rate is raised, or if
the number of bits per sample is increased. When recording movies,
the recommended format is 8 bit logarithmic.

If changing the sound format and rate does not cure the problem,
check your sound source is of sufficient quality. Try listening to it
directly through the internal speaker:

The sound quality of the internal speaker is limited — an external
amplifier connected to the sound DIN connector on the Eagle
provides far better quality.

To adjust the volume, use the mixer controls. As well as the sliders,
remember you can also alter the gain settings.

Movie recording fails due to lack of memory

Movie recording requires a large amount of memory. The memory
in the computer can be used up in a number of ways. Click on the
Acorn on the icon bar to display the task manager: This shows you
how much memory is being used by the various components of
your system. You can reduce this by:

* Quitting other applications.

* Reducing your Font Cache, System Sprites and RAM disk.

* Switching into a smaller memory screen mode.

* (If all else fails), reboot your machine and do not load any

other applications. This is the only reliable way to reclaim
memory from the section marked 'module area'

Because movie recording needs so much memory, it is unlikely that
you can run many other applications on a 4MB machine. The only
solution to this problem is to upgrade your machine.

50

8. If problems occur..

Movie recording fails with the error 'Your machine is
not fast enough to record with these settings'

The Eagle card offers movie recording at rates beyond the capabilities
of many Acorn computers. Refer to Movie making in System
requirements. You will not be able to perform 25fps recording in
colour on all but exceptional (that is, customised) A5000 & A540
machines. This is a machine limitation. Also movie recording requires
a fast hard disk. This means a data rate of 600MB per second or
greater (ST506 hard disks are not suitable; we recommend fast 1DE
or SCS] hard disks). A fast hard disk is not so essential for
compressed recording (ESCaPE) as there is less data to write when
it is compressed. Thus you may find you have more success
recording compressed movies than uncompressed ones.

51

8. If problems occur...

52

9. Technical information

1. Eagle link positions

The following diagram illustrates the position of various links on the
Eagle which may or may not be shorted by default.

Do not alter any
of these link settings unless you are sure what you are doing. If
in any doubt, you should in all cases first contact Wild Vision.

Eagle link positions

LK1 75 ohm video termination resistor

LK2 Auxiliary sound input L and R

LK3 VIDC Sound header for ribbon cable

LK4 Audio power supply: 1-2 for A3000; 2-3 for other types

LK5 Video In power supply: 1-2 for A3000; 2-3 for other types

LK6 EPROM Select — do not change

LK7 FIFO Select — do not change

LK8

not fitted

LK9 Effects header

53

9. Technical information

2. Stereo line-level socket: pin-out.

The following is the pin-out for the stereo audio line-level connector
on the rear panel of the Eagle, provided for those users needing to
make up their own connecting cables.

(Viewed from back panel with expansion card PCB held away)

3. S-Video connector: pin-out.

The following is the pin-out for the S-Video connector on the rea
panel of the Eagle, provided for those users needing to make up
their own connecting cables.

(Viewed from back panel with expansion card PCB held away)

54

9. Technical information

4. Exploded movie format

As described in 7. RCompress, the first stage of the Acorn compres­sion routines generates several files in a special directory. These files
form the exploded movie.

The exploded movie directory contains these files:

Header

Contains 14 lines of text that form the Acorn Replay movie
header: You can edit the second, third and fourth lines (title,
copyright/date, and author). Do not edit any other line and
do not add extra lines.

Images

(optional)

Frames are stored as a series of sub-directories called
Images°, Images1, and so on. Each sub-directory contains
up to 74 frames.

If these files are absent, Join produces a soundtrack-only
movie.

Info

A text file used by !RCompress to record the origin of the
uncompressed movie.

Key (optional)

Similar to Images, this contains Key frames.

Log

This lists information on the compression of each frame in
the exploded movie.

Sound/Samples/ADPCM

(multiple files – optional) The base
name is Sound1 (for 8-hit logarithmic data); Samples1 (for 16­bit linear data), or ADPCM1 (for adpcm compressed data). (
ADPCM files may be produced by other applications – it is not
an option for Eagle movie grabs.)

!RCompress does not create these files. Instead, when it
joins the movie, it reads the soundtrack from the original,
uncompressed file.

If you add or delete soundtrack files, you may need to edit

Header:

55

9. Technical information

Sprite

Contains a single sprite. This is displayed by !ARPlayer and !

TakeTwo as the title frame. You can edit or replace this sprite

with a 256-colour sprite of the same dimensions to create
custom titles.

Stopped

(three files – optional)

If compression is suspended, these files record the suspen­sion point. They allow compression to resume at the next
frame.

Delete these files if you want to join the suspended movie
rather than resume compression.

Any other files in this directory are ignored.

56

B

Index bpp, explained 3

Bursts of noise when recording

49

!ARMovie

6, 14, 24 C

!ARPlayer 6, 14, 24 Cannot record sound 46
! AudioCtrl 6, 34, 36 Canon Ion camera 18, 28

'AudioWrks

6 CfsReader application 6, 14

!CfsReader 6, 14 Clear file type 31-32
!MultSound

6, 14, 24 Composite 17, 28

!RCompress 15, 40 Connecting
!Rlnstall 5, 14 a video input 17

!Scanner 5, 21-22 an audio input 18
!SysMerge

5, 15 the audio 0utput 18

!System

5, 15, 45 the ribbon cable 10

!TakeTwo

5, 14, 21-22, 24-25, 46 to M1D1 20

_C appended to file 43 Copying the software 14
_E appended to file 43 CVBS connector 17

15/24-bit display, requirements for 5 D
25fps movies 39 Differ module 39

A Display is greyscale only 46

A300 series Archimedes 3, 11 E
A305 Archimedes 8 Eagle disc 5

A310 Archimedes 8 Eagle link positions 53
A3000 computer 3-4, 7, 10, 13 ESCaPE compression 23, 33-34

A3010 computer 3 Exploded movie 39
A3020 computer 3 format 55

A4 portable computer 3

F

A400 series Archimedes 3, 11
A4000 computer 3 File format 30

A5000 computer 3-4, 7, 9, 12-13 fps, explained 3
A540 computer 3-4, 11 Frame rate 34

Abbreviations, explained iii G

ABIModule, updating 45 Getting started 17
Abort, when compressing a movie 41 Grab choices dialogue box 30

Active speakers 4, 18 Grabbing images 21-24

Adjust mouse button iii a movie 22

Aerial connector 17 a movie soundtrack 24
Applications suite 5 a still image 21

Archimedes 3-4, 7-13 H
ARM 2 processor 3, 40 Hi8 connector 17

ARM 3 processor 3-4 Hiband connector 17
ARMovie application 6, 14, 24

I

ARPlayer application 6, 14, 24

Installation

7-16

Audio input, connecting 18

Internal speaker

4

Audio options 35-38
Audio output, connecting 18 J
AudioCtrl application 6, 34, 36 Join module 39

AudioWorks 14, 24, 35 Joining an exploded movie 43
AudioWorks disc 6

57

K Sampling format 33

Key frames 40 Sampling frequency 34
Keyboard characters iii ScanLight application 5, 21-22

L SCART connector 17

SECAM TV standard

17

Lack of memory when recording 50

Select mouse button

iii

Live display is black 45

Serenade application

20

Live display window 21, 26, 45

Show live display

21

LK4 on Eagle card 13, 53

Sound output does not work

48

LK5 on Eagle card 13, 53

Soundtrack, described

2

M playing 24

Maestro application 20 Sprite file format 30, 32
Menu mouse button iii Stereo line-level socket 54
Menu options iii Still frame grabs 32

MIDI, connection to 20 Suspend, compressing a movie 41
Mixer window 36 SysMerge application 5, 15

Mouse buttons iii System requirements 3
Movie, described 2

'System Resources can't be found'

45

Movie grabs 22-23, 33 T
Movie recording fails 50~51

TakeTwo application
Movie~making, requirements 3 5, 14, 21~22, 24-34, 46
Movies, processing and storing 23

Technical information

537

MultiMedia speakers 4, 18

TIFF files

30, 32
MultSound application 6, 14, 24
TV standards

17, 28

N

U

NTSC TV standard 17, 28

UHF connector

17

P Updating !System 15

PAL TV standard 17, 28

'Updating ABI'

error message 45

Pause, compressing a movie 41 V
Picture controls dialogue box 27

Video out connector

17

Playback 19

Vide0 input, connecting

17

Playing 0nly the soundtrack 24

Viewing a live vide0 image

21

Podules 13, 45 Viewing and grabbing images 21~24
Poor quality sound recording 50 Viewing movies 24

Problems 45-52

Y

R

'Your

machine is not fast enough'

51

RCompress application 15,40-44

YYUV movie save option

33

Replay 31-32
Replay format 23
Resuming compression 43

RF connector 17
RGB movie save option 23, 33

Rhapsody application 20
Ribbon cable, connecting 10~12

Rlnstall application 5, 14

S

S-VHS connector 17
S-Video 17, 28

S-Video connector 54

58

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