Merlin 2003 DV and MPEG-2 Recorder and Dual Stream Decoder
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This section of the player application shows that you are in play mode and allows you to switch to the available
record and transcode modes. The only available record modes on the Merlin board are “MPEG-2 (4:2:0)”,
“MPEG-2 (4:2:2)”, and “MPEG-1”. The DV to MPEG transcode modes will be available soon.
“MPEG-2 (4:2:0)” mode lets you record up to 15 Mbs and “MPEG-2 (4:2:2)” mode lets you record up to 50 Mbs.
“MPEG-2 (4:2:2)” mode is used for higher quality recording, but does not let you record using back to back B
frames which are useful for obtaining better quality recordings at lower bitrates.
This section of the player application shows that you are in NTSC mode and allows you to switch to PAL mode.
This section of the player application shows you the currently selected reference input and allows you to switch to
other input references. The input reference will be used as the sync timing for playing video as well as what will be
seen when the video is stopped if viewing reference video is desired.
1.
C-Video - Selects the yellow Composite video input connector.
2.
SVHS – Selects the Black S-VHS 4 pin mini din video input connector.
3.
SDI – Selects the BNC Serial Digital Video(SDI) input connector.
4.
VP – Selects the 26 pin internal VIP port connector.
5.
Free – Selects Freerun mode. In this mode no reference is used for sync timing.
This Section of the player application allows you to turn on or off the TBC (Time Base Corrector), and allows you
to view Reference video when the player is not playing any video.
The TBC is a circuit on the Merlin board that samples incoming video, stores it in a temporary buffer, and then
reads from the temporary buffer using an extremely low jitter clock. This has many benefits in video applications.
The reason it is included on the Merlin board is that it allows analog video that comes from a jittery source to pass
through the Merlin board and get jitter reduced so that it can be passed out the D1 port and have low enough jitter to
meet the very tight jitter requirements of D1 serial digital video.
Viewing reference video when the player is stopped is useful for switching between a reference and recorded
material much like a typical VCR works. If Reference is turned off, a default color can be selected by using the
color setting dialog box that can be selected in the Settings menu.
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