|
As I mentioned previously, laserdiscs directly encode and reproduce the broadcast signal format (either NTSC or PAL). So in order to understand how the information about frame numbers and other details are encoded, it is important to know the basics of the underlying signal format. In this case, I'll talk about NTSC specifically.
An NTSC frame consists of 525 scanlines of data, broadcast 29.97 times per second. As I mentioned before, each frame consists of two fields, which makes each field 262.5 scanlines (yes, it is true that there is an extra half-scanline). Of these 262.5 scanlines, only 240 are normally visible. This is because your classic CRT-based TV set required some time to move the electron beam from the bottom-right of the screen back to the upper-left in preparation for the next field, and 22.5 scanlines' worth of time was decreed to be an appropriate timeframe for this to happen.
These extra 22.5 scanlines each field are known as the Vertical Blanking Interval, or VBI. Traditionally, there is not much of interest transmitted within the VBI area of the field, apart from a few basic control signals that were used for calibrating the picture and synchronizing the timing. Over time, however, people came up with reasons to add useful data to the VBI area. One of the most well-known of these is Closed Captioning, which is encoded on line 21 of each field (the top 22 lines are the VBI, and the following 240 are the visible lines).
Laserdiscs took this a step further, and defined special encodings of their own. Line 11 of each field contains what is known as the "white flag", which is a simple binary indicator of whether the current field is the first field of a frame. Laserdisc players look for this white flag to know how to do a still frame that doesn't consist of a split between two film frames. Since it takes two fields to make one frame, and since many film-based laserdiscs are encoded in a 3:2 cadence, it is not straightforward to ensure this without some additional information.
Even more interesting than the white flag are the "Philips codes" that are encoded on lines 16, 17, and 18 (note that all the laserdisc encodings are on lines different from Closed Captioning, so that laserdiscs could be encoded with Closed Captioning data as well). The Philips codes are special 24-bit digital values that are encoded in the VBI area of each field, and which are used to describe the field. In general, there are up to two Philips codes encoded on three lines, with line 17 generally being a redundant copy of line 18 for added resilience against dropouts or other transmission errors.
So how do you encode a 24-bit binary number into a single scanline of an analog video signal? The answer is to use an encoding technique known as Manchester codes. If you treat bright white as a '1' bit, and black as a '0' bit, then this encoding uses two bits to encode each bit of the code. The reason for two bits is to ensure that the decoded value makes sense, and also to establish a clock for the codes. This works because Manchester codes encode a '0' bit as 10 and a '1' bit as 01. Because of this, you are guaranteed that in the middle of each bit there is a transition from black to white or vice-versa, and this can be used to establish the clock. Once you figure out the clock, then the direction of each transition tells you what the actual value of the bit is.
Below is a picture of the VBI region for a CAV laserdisc. The top few rows are an ugly green because those lines of VBI data were not provided by the capture card. The remaining lines show what the white flag and Manchester-encoded Philips codes look like:
Once the Philips codes are extracted, they can be treated as binary data and evaluated. Unfortunately, it seems as though most of the information about what the various Philips codes mean has been kept relatively secret. However, the most important codes are understood:
| $88FFFF | Lead-in code
indicates the field is located before the official start of the disc |
| $80EEEE | Lead-out code
indicates the field is located after the official end of the disc |
| $FXXXXX | Frame code
specifies the 5-digit frame number (XXXXX) in BCD format |
| $8XXDDD | Chapter code
specifies the 2-digit chapter number (XX) in BCD format |
| $82CFFF | Stop code
indicates the player should pause at the current field |
So as the player reads data from the disc, it also needs to detect the white flag and Philips codes, and act on them as necessary. By capturing the VBI data along with the normal active video, we are able to preserve this information, and write a laserdisc simulator that operates off of the same information that the original players did.
|
