COMM-TEC ProPLAY Digital Audio / Video Player User Manual Version 2.
1. Table Of Content 1. Table Of Content.....................................................................................................2 2. General Notes .........................................................................................................3 3. Product Description..............................................................................................3 3.1 Product Dimensions .........................................................................................3 3.
2. General Notes The COMM-TEC ProPLAY is a remote controllable Digital Audio / Video Player designed to use with TV and Video monitors. The data will be played back from a Sandisk Compact Flash Card, which is not in the scope of delivery. Please check the scope of supply, after you have received the shipment.
Top View (in mm) 3.
Description Compact Flash Card Slot USB Power LED Status LED PAL / NTSC Graphic output Graphic / Video Remote control / Speaker output S-Video output Composite video output Audio output – stereo right Audio output – stereo left 12V DC Power input jack Power on/off 3.3 Type / Use 25x2 pin Hirose CF-II Socket (accepts CF Card types 1 & 2) Mini USB 2.
4. User Instruction 4.1 Quick Start Instruction Never connect or disconnect parts of the system when the system is powered up as this may cause serious damage. Connection and usage are straightforward. However, care needs to be taken with the following: • • • • • Ensuring parts have been correctly connected – both power & signal considerations. Checking that all switches are set correctly. The input signal is compatible. Legal & safety requirements have been met.
- Stereo output. Volume is controlled by the switch mount buttons or preset with the ProPLAY Studio software. • Graphic output: Graphic displays with VGA resolution (60Hz). Graphic / Video switch has to be set correctly. S-Video cable should be disconnected. • Discrete Control: A external port for remote button control. User can use this port as a touch screen or button interface. Maximum up to 8 touches/buttons can be accessed.
The Year, Month and Day as well as Hour, Minute and Second of the internal real time clock can be set up with this item. • ID NO Up to 10.000 ID’s can be allocated to different ProPLAYs to identify the units. • DATA LOGGING The ProPLAY is able to write a logfile onto the CF Card. ID number, date and time as well as the played tracks will be reported as shown below. The logging option can be switched on or off with this setting. • OSD The On Screen Display can be switched on or off.
• • • • Plug in the external power supply Insert CompactFlash Card containing ProPLAY Studio exported “.pll / .prj” and other digital files. (e.g. .mpg, .mp3, .jpg) All filenames should be in 8+3 format (i.e. xxxxxxxx.xxx) and avoid using any illegal characters like “~”, “_”, “-“, etc Switch the power 'on/off' switch to 'on'. The first track of the collection of MPEG files will be auto-played.
• Simple play mode In simple play mode, the user just copies all video files (.mpg) or JPEG files (.jpg) onto the Compact Flash card. The ProPLAY will play these files in alphabetical sequence. For MPEG still pictures or JPEG files, the play time can be set by the last digit of the filename. (For example: APPLE5.mpg, where “5” means the track will be displayed for 5 seconds.) Note: Do not use the same filename on both MPEG and JPEG.
PAUSE (Button 3) • When PAUSE is pressed the video image instantly freezes. • Press Pause again or PLAY to resume normal playback from the position where it was paused. REPEAT (Button 4) • When REPEAT is pressed the current track loop back on itself continuously. • To disable the repeat mode press REPEAT, PLAY, PREVIOUS TRACK or NEXT TRACK . When the track plays to the end it will playback the next track (and etc.) as normal.
• • • Higher Frame Rate – Use of 30 frames per second (really 29.97) reduces visible flicker. Color Edits – With NTSC it is possible to edit at any 4 field boundary point without disturbing the color signal. Less inherent picture noise – Almost all pieces of video equipment achieve better signal to noise characteristics in their NTSC/525 form than in their PAL/625. NTSC/525 Disadvantages • • • • Lower Number of Scan Lines – Reduced clarity on large screen TVs, line structure more visible.
• 5.2 Variable Color Saturation – Since PAL achieves accurate color through canceling out phase differences between the two signals, the act of canceling out errors can reduce the color saturation while holding the hue stable. Fortunately, the human eye is far less sensitive to saturation variations than to hue variations, so this is very much the lesser of two evils. Content Specifications The ProPLAY is a dedicated solid-state MPEG playback machine.
5.3 704 x 480 720 x 480 352 x 480 720 x 480 352 x 240 720 x 480 • The playback machine uses a Compact Flash memory card. Important: Your content should be no larger than the memory on the Flashcard minus 0.5 MB. Preferably, leave more memory available – at least 5 MB is a good rule of thumb. • Keep in mind that videos can be transferred via the Internet, often using slow connections. It is recommended that you keep the size of your variable content (i.e.
Safe Area - an industry standard display area has been created to ensure that an animation, graphic or text will be seen on an NTSC screen when transferred from a computer using an RGB screen. An "action safe" area is where movement will most likely be seen. A "title safe" area is where stationary text or graphics will be sure to be seen. For instance, for NTSC, Action Safe = 432 x 576, and Title Safe = 384 x 504.
Ways of MPEG content creation: Graphic Utilities Digital Camera Still picture file (.jpg, .bmp, .gif,.tif, etc) Video Camera MPEG Encoding System .MPG file (MPEG Still Picture) .MPG file (MPEG-1) Betacam/VHS video .MPG file (MPEG-2) Betacam/VHS Recorder DVD Video DVD Player Video (.MPG) file - MPEG-1 / MPEG-2 A video source can be captured by video camera, which then outputs a video signal to the MPEG encoding system.
• • • The ideal resolution for MPEG still pictures is 704 x 576 (PAL) or 704 x 480 (NTSC). The optimal choice of font size is not less than 22 points when creating a still picture with text content. For better visual quality, the ideal line thickness should always be more than one point. Encoding Bit Rate Bit rate is the number of bits compressed per second. The higher the bit rate, the better MPEG video quality we get. For MPEG-1 encoding, the suggested encoding bit rate is 1.0M – 1.5Mbit/s.
For example: MPEG-1 file • Encoding rate = 1.
6. Technical Specifications Playable formats: Video Storage medium: Output Display Systems: Video Output: Graphic Output: Output Resolution: Audio Outputs: Signal-to-Noise: Speaker Output: Select Switches: MPEG-1/2 files (up to 5 Mbit/s) MPEG still picture MP3 audio JPEG still picture CompactFlash Memory Cards : Type 1 & Type 2 TV and Video, Computer Monitors Signal type : Composite and S-Video Output format : PAL and NTSC VGA (640x480) @ 60Hz (RGBHV) MPEG1 Res.
