What do I do with the Matrox 2-Person Lift Military Surplus Combination 286/Laserdisc Player?
Well, if you are not keen on 9 of the top ten uses, you are probably wishing
to use it for watching laserdiscs. Some helpful tips:
1. The Video and Audio outputs are on the back of the laserdisc player
unit (it is surprisingly modular, though it all runs from one power
source and is hence largely inseparable). To access these you must remove
the panel that covers the top 2/5 of the back. This is held in place with
two screws at the back. Also under this cover is the celebrated "hours
of use" meter, and a ribbon cable connecting the 286 to the computer. You
must disconnect this for the buttons on the front to work. Otherwise the
computer takes control of the laserdisc player, and repeats the same
annoying 2-second clip from the middle of the disc over and over
again.
2. The video output is BNC and not standard RCA, so you'll need a BNC-to
RCA adapter, which you can get at Radio Shack, or probably more cheaply
elsewhere. The signal is not an RF (antenna) signal, but a standard video one,
so you'll need a VCR or a TV with a video input, or in a pinch a
monochrome CGA monitor.
3. THX laserdiscs are not completely compatible with the old Audio standard
and playing them on this machine produces sound on one channel and a garbagey
whiney signal on the other. You will want to turn the balance to the
other channel or see #6 below.
4. Yes, you can stop it without ejecting the disc, just press the eject button
twice quickly.
5. If the little door breaks as a result of use #5 of the top ten uses, causing
the platter to close incorrectly, and the disc sensor to malfunction so it
immediately ejects any disc you place in it, you can fix this with a small
bent finishing nail and a little ingenuity.
6. The laserdisc unit actually has a serial port on the back! And a
standard one at that! Who would have thought the military would settle for
a standard serial port when they could have an enhanced and thoroughly
incompatible one? The computer also has a serial port (It actually has
two, but COM1 doesn't seem to work). After weeks of painstaking
experimentation, I have determined what signals to send to the player
to make it function, which I wrote down somewhere and lost. However,
before I lost it I wrote a library of routines in C++ to control the player,
through the COM2 port on the computer (just run a serial cable between
them). I then wrote a cute (if rather terse) little utility that
allows you to control the player via a joy-stick plugged into
the 286! I am making both code and program available to you, the only
requirement being that if you use them to make money, TELL ME HOW!
The Utility (Zip compressed binary for DOS/WIN)
The Utility (Code)
Laserdisc Routines
Joystick Routines
PROGRAMMERS' NOTE: Because I wanted to test on the machine itself, I had to use
my old Version 2 of Turbo C++, the only thing I had that would run on
the 286. I used the provided COMM routines, which Borland claims
are compatible with other compilers but they are probably lying.
Utility instructions:
After a simple joystick calibration, the program is in STOP mode.
Although I did find a 'go to chapter' function, I couldn't locate the
'NEXT chapter' or 'PREVIOUS chapter' functions, so I hacked them
up myself. If you press button 2 while in stop mode, Laserjoy
attempts to detect which chapter numbers your disc encompasses, so it
can tell which chapter you are in and consequently skip to the correct
next or previous one. Then you can
use the skip to next or previous chapter functions in PLAY mode. Otherwise
their behavior is not guaranteed.
To enter PLAY mode from stop mode, press button 1.
To move forward (faster than play) move the joystick to the right, the
further the faster. For visual rewind, move the joystick to the left,
the further the faster. To pause move the joystick down. To advance
the frame keep the joystick down and inch to the right, the further
the faster. To retreat the frame, keep the joystick down and inch to the left, the further, the faster.
To hold the player at a rate of speed other than normal play,
hold down button 2
while returning the joystick to the center position, then release button 2.
To return to normal play press button 2 again. To toggle the on-screen
display, move the joystick to the upper left, and press button 2. To
toggle the Audio output (useful for THX or multilingual discs) move the
joystick to the upper right and press button 2. To use the chapter skip
functions, move the joystick all the way to the left or right, and
press button 1.
To exit PLAY mode, press button 1 with the joystick in the center.
To re-calibrate the joystick, delete the file JOYSTICK.CAL.
Simple eh? If you've made it this far, you should get the hang of it soon enough.
So, What is it? (featuring dialogue from Red Dwarf)
Yeah, but what IS it? (featuring dialogue with the manufacturer)
What good is it? (featuring a brilliant Top Ten List)
What good is it to me? (featuring a link to itself)
What's it look like? (featuring a stunning photo)
Who do you think you are? (featuring a famous useless link)