Date   : Fri, 01 Mar 2002 11:48:27 -0000
From   : "Dave Gorst" <dgorst@...>
Subject: Re: BBC Domesday on the telly

> Dave Gorst wrote:
> >
> > Can't think that the interface to the laserdisc player would be
particularly
> > difficult - there's quite a few old laserdisc players about with a
serial
> > interfaces, which I guess you could connect to the RS432 IIRC (have a
look
> > at the Dragons Lair emulator Daphne for instance).
>
> This is slow, but a connection to the SCSI interface will hopfeully be
better
> *:-)
>

It has a SCSI interface?! Still I would have thought the speed of the player
was more likely to be a bottleneck than the speed of the controlling
interface? Does anybody remember much of what was actually on these discs,
as in stills, video etc., as I was all of about 9 at the time?

> > Was there anything odd
> > about the player or disc format?
>
> Lots of things. Like the format itself, which is pretty odd, and the
digital
> data stored in the space usually reserved in Videodiscs for audio! *:-)
>

Hmm. Interesting ...

> > Otherwise could we not write something to
> > step through and play the full contents of the disc and use a PC video
> > digitiser card to capture the result?
>
> Thats our plan, subject to sorting legal things.
>
> > Then either re-format the results into
> > either HTML or something similar,
>
> Its a little more complicated than that, simply becuase Domesday is a
*big*
> resource. We are looking into doing some migration owrk however.
>

Well it sounds intriguing anyway - keep us informed.

Cheers,
Dave.