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PC Testcard Program

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Anonymous
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I've just come across an interesting testcard program from a few years ago,the testcard maker.
It may have been mentioned before,if so my apologies.

http://www.oodletuz.fsnet.co.uk/soft/tcmaker.htm

To try it out simply I did the following..

Download the zip file and unzip,put the folder somewhere and run the cardmaker.exe" file

There are several tcd files (testcard definitions) already supplied with the program,open say the pm5544.tcd and various layers (a bit like photoshop) come up in the
viewer.

To get it to display properly in full mode,select tools-options-viewer and select the "full" option.

Now pressing the F12 button will give the full testcard display.

A lot more testcards are here

http://www.oodletuz.fsnet.co.uk/tcd/europe.htm .

I've only just started to play with it but the "definitions" can be opened in notepad and text changed or removed,like the FML writing for example.

I can see the output on a TV screen (my pc has an s vhs video output) and the results are very good on a TV screen....

Have yet to use the photoshop type editor.

It seems to have a lot of possibilities if one is into testcards.

Happy New Year

Hugh

 
Posted : 30/12/2012 10:12 am
crustytv
(@crustytv)
Posts: 11869
Vrat Founder Admin
 

Firstly, excellent link and tool Hugh

Secondly, unlike other fora apologies at the start of a post are not required at VRAT. :thumbl:

VRAT's will not be judged, chastised, publicly ridiculed or put in the naughty corner If it had been mentioned before ( it was not). If it had been posted before it would have been politely moved and attached to the original post as a further endorsement of a good source for VRAT's.

I know it takes time for members to break free from prior indoctrination, but together we can help break the programming ;)

Once again thanks for a good useful tool to play with, I'm sure the other Telly types will enjoy having a dabble.

Regards
Chris

CrustyTV Television Shop: Take a virtual tour
Crusty's TV/VCR Collection: View my collection
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Posted : 30/12/2012 10:19 am
Anonymous
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Hi Chris and Trevor...

If you find any shortcuts/tips on using the program perhaps post it here along with any
testcard (tcd) files you may have made.

There are a lot of non UK type testcards going back to the old Czech one from the
mid 50's,Retma, etc etc and the CBS early colour one.

Cheers

Hugh

 
Posted : 30/12/2012 10:36 am
crustytv
(@crustytv)
Posts: 11869
Vrat Founder Admin
 

A quick dabble and a VRAT ident :=D

Rather than using noted pad I just edited in the program, each element can be clicked and a highlight box appears, you can manipulate it's parameters from there. Delete, rotate, move, resize, add new elements & amend as you see fit. Creating a unique one seems straight forward too, adding gratings, grids and other elements from the drop done menus, hours of fun.

I think a copy of this program should be in our Technical Library as a safe keeping for the future. I will make contact with the owner and seek permission.

Regards
Chris

CrustyTV Television Shop: Take a virtual tour
Crusty's TV/VCR Collection: View my collection
Crustys Youtube Channel: My stuff
Crusty's 70s Lounge: Take a peek

 
Posted : 30/12/2012 10:54 am
unixmanuk
(@unixmanuk)
Posts: 28
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I have used this for a while now, and created a DVD with various testcards as movies that last around 30 mins each.

It's also possible to add tones using the tone box feature - select the frequency you want and it'll do it. You can then add that to the finished movie afterwards. I used Live Movie maker in Windows to do it you can put fancy menus to select the card you want to display.

It is very good :D

John

 
Posted : 30/12/2012 12:58 pm
Katie Bush
(@katie-bush)
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I've had it on my PC for a couple of years now.. I don't play with it as much as I used to, but it is good :thumbr:

In addition to making testcards, you can also add tones, as has already been said, >> AND << you can add music, via your PCs CD/DVD ROM drive, and control the music from your keyboard.. This is how I made my own "Tescard & Music" DVDs.

If, to begin with, you're not too keen on making your own cards, you can download a number of .tcd files from the website, which you can load up and use "as-is".

You can also add pictures to your cards, and using "cutouts" can overlay a card over an existing picture (see how "Testcard F" was reacreated).

The tools and options are simple, too simple in a way, and you have to be a bit imaginative in how you use the basic elements, but everything you need is there.

Remember to use the smoothing/anti-aliasing option, when viewing your card, to get a more professional appearance :thumbr:

Marion

 
Posted : 30/12/2012 10:13 pm
Panrock
(@panrock)
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I agree. A very useful program. But a very basic question coming up...

Okay let's say I've got the Test Card made. Could somebody please advise what I now need to get for my computer in order to extract a 625 line video signal from it?

Steve

 
Posted : 30/12/2012 10:57 pm
Anonymous
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But newer ones don't, they have HDMI.

The TV out is often poor standards compliant and quality. I get better results using free tools to author a DVD and using a cheap DVD player.

 
Posted : 30/12/2012 11:06 pm
Katie Bush
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Hi Steve,

At a guess, I'd say you need a graphics card with a "TV out".. Or in My case, my DELL laptop has a TV output socket (needs a plug in adaptor to get the CVBS) which I can connect to a VCR, DVD Recorder etc, and can record to my DVD/HDD recorder.

Marion

 
Posted : 30/12/2012 11:07 pm
Anonymous
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Hi Steve,

The simplest way without a TV out type graphics card to get testcard out of the program/pc is to use a DVD player.

The "El Cheapo" ones will often happily display jpeg images more happily than more expensive ones and jpegs can be put even onto just a CD which the DVD will then display.

I've got a 12 year old Sony DV camera with a memory card which is meant for downloading video/stills
to the pc,they can be uploaded to the memory card from the PC as well however and then the camera will give 625 Pal/S VHS out from the uploaded jpeg image.

Cheers

Hugh

 
Posted : 30/12/2012 11:58 pm
Panrock
(@panrock)
Posts: 421
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Thanks all.

Yes, I remember trying the DVD method once before. I used a real cheapo player - a wonderful thing that will play discs of all regions, whereas my expensive Panasonic HDD/DVD refuses. I think there were aspect ratio problems and/or unwanted borders being inserted at the sides. Maybe 768 x 576 pixel bitmaps or jpegs would work best? (Think I tried that too though).

Steve

 
Posted : 31/12/2012 12:14 am
Anonymous
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You'll have to experiment with the dimensions of the jpeg to give correct aspect ratio.
Do a few test images of different sizes onto a disc.

My Sony camera needs 640 x 480...can't remember what the DVD needed for jpegs.

Hugh

 
Posted : 31/12/2012 12:19 am
Anonymous
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For accurate DVD authoring you need 720 x 576. Most PC graphics cards with TV out (especially bad) or DVD players displaying jpegs will considerably distort and add artefacts due to rescaling. Authoring "correct" size stills to video and then Authoring DVD video is the only reliable method as in 16 years of trying the ONLY time I have got "proper resolution" without rescaling is in DOS, Linux or Win3.1 with RGB to SCART from a modified ISA VGA card with a custom driver running a genuine native 625 lines interlace. Actual active number of lines I forget.

Most PC cards / Laptops do PAL best when PC resolution is 800 x 600, but it's less than ideal for a test card. HDMI at 1920 x 1080 p 50 and 1920 x 1080 p 60 are the ONLY two modes I have got accurate video from Windows. Even then most HDTV bizarrely overscan and resample even 1920 x 1080 to have about 90% of image rescaled to 1920 x 1080! Some HDTVs have a "just scan" or "actual size" option on external HDMI.

ALL current PC or Laptop graphics with S-Video or PAL composite out are rescaling a native VGA mode of 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768 etc. The 640 x 480 jpeg playback in a camera or DVD is only good for NTSC, doesn't give proper PAL resolution. Most cheap consumer gear is orientated to NTSC with PAL support fudged.

 
Posted : 31/12/2012 12:13 pm
Terrykc
(@terrykc)
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Something which is easily over looked is that test cards, historically, were generated from slides or, occasionally, monoscopes.

In both cases, the original card was much larger than the portion actually transmitted in order for accurate alignment marks to be incorporated so that the slide scanner or monoscope could be correctly set up.

Unfortunately I seem to have cropped all of my examples except this one:

The four pairs of arrow heads mark the limits of the transmitted image ...

Obviously an electronically generated card doesn't need these alignment marks or any overscan - it is always guaranteed to be exactly the right size.

As Michael says, the correct size is 720 x 576 pixels so it is important to remember this when generating your own test card. If you want to produce an authentic slide image with registration marks you must make allowance for the excessive size in the original so that the cropped image is correct.

I note that Chris's VRAT version of Test Card C includes excessive border areas. Was this the way you cropped/converted it Chris or is it an error in the original?

When all else fails, read the instructions

 
Posted : 31/12/2012 2:22 pm
Anonymous
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Even then most HDTV bizarrely overscan and resample even 1920 x 1080 to have about 90% of image rescaled to 1920 x 1080! Some HDTVs have a "just scan" or "actual size" option on external HDMI.

Not as daft as it sounds. I can't lay my hands on the formal spec immediately but some small fraction of the area round the edge of the image isn't intended to be displayed on receivers. Some info here, some of which is disputable IMO: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overscan

It would be best to offer a blanking option as "rescaling" ALWAYS either blurs or creates artefact edges or both depending on methods.

On that point why does no HDTV (especially larger ones) not offer a matted actual 576 lines inset into the 1080 native "lines" for say VHS or other poorer quality SD? Even with best resampling some source material doesn't want to be "Upscaled" to fill a 37" to 65" screen. They offer various "Zoom in" options but no "Zoom out". :(

 
Posted : 31/12/2012 3:15 pm
Anonymous
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Actually there is a lot of nonsense in the Wikipedia article.

... this gives 576 lines, which is also the nearest mod(16) value to 575. To maintain the same picture aspect ratio, the number of active pixels could be increased to 703.2, which can be rounded up to 704

If you assume square pixels (which analogue doesn't do).
NTSC derived 480 line 4:3 is 640 (i.e. VGA is Progressive "NTSC"). Non-Anamorphic WS is then about 1138 x 480. 720 is almost 14:9 aspect for NTSC derived 480 line
PAL derived 576 line 4:3 is 768, not 704! Non-anamorphic WS 16:9 would be 1024 x 576 (oddly DELL did do one netbook with this "PAL" WS friendly resolution).

The article also confuses safe areas for various reasons. Some degree of overscan was needed on Analogue because:
1) To make the picture seem bigger on very small sets. They overscan more.
2) Non-linearity near edges
3) Hiding VI signals
4) ensure with drift one or more edges doesn't develop a black border

None of these apply on digital fed sets except perhaps (1). The coding / decoding process might add edge artefacts I suppose. But in over 10 years of underscanned full frame digital video images I can't say I ever noticed.

I can feed HDTV via Digital Sat box, or internal tuner, or on external HDMI from PC set up TV and PC timing and Satellite & DTT receive for NO overscan OR receiver cropping. If I do that I get a sharper image without the edges trimmed. The image is only much sharper if source is 1920 x 1080. Many HD source appear to be 1400 x 1088 and thus no easily discernible quality difference (which is cropped to 1080 and 1400 resampled to 1920 by PC or Sat receiver or DTT tuner anyway). It makes no discernible difference to SD content sharpness, just small loss of image,

 
Posted : 31/12/2012 3:43 pm
Anonymous
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Increasingly broadcast uses anamorphic HD, not square pixels.

The analogue active line is 52us between the 50% points of blanking. This corresponds to 702 pixels.

Only for the sample rate you earlier mentioned I presume. Many SD output DACs are designed for content resampled to 1440 pixels per active line (on 25i or 30i or DVD). Then a simpler low pass filter on the Analogue gives 720 (per active portion)of lines and 480 or 576 lines.

DVD is interesting as Film is stored 24fps progressive but 576 line and altered pitch audio (usually) for simply playing 25fps interlaced 50Hz OR stored 24fps and 480 lines and the PLAYER does the 3:2 pull down for 30i60Hz or more usually now 24p to 60p conversion and output on HDMI or RCA Component Progressive.

I got a DVD for my wife sold as "Region 2" (Crossing Delancy). It says "Region 1" on box but a typed page claims it's also "encoded" for "Region 2". I'm sceptical that it's any more than the "region" Flag has both. Unless there are two copies of the film how can it be "really" Region 1 (24 fps 480 line and no audio correction) and "Region 2" (or 4) (24 FPS 576 line designed to be played at 25fps with pitch corrected audio).

However adding insult to injury it's not Anamorphic WS, but "letterboxed" with Matte to Cinema OAR according to sleeve blurb. Is there a magic format that can really do 576 AND 480 Matte to Letterbox from a single source encoding on the video files?

TV source DVD can of course be 30i 60 480 or 25i 50 576. Unlike DTT, DVD doesn't officially support 544 x 576 but most players seem to play it. Many channels on UK Satellite and all SD DTT here is 544 x 576. Which is mad for Widescreen, but not too bad for 4:3 I suppose.

Later I'll pop this mysterious DVD into the laptop and find out how the video is "really" encoded.

Anyway... If you have your own DTT modulator or using a DVD player you want 720 x 576 25i for eventual PAL composite. If you are using analogue TV out on Laptop or PC experiment with 800 x 600 and varying size of blank border. If using HDMI use 1920 x 1080 50p (only good direct PC to HDTV in), but you need a DTT or DVB-S modulator for a Set-box to downsample to SD. I have never seen a Blu Ray player with SD out on SCART etc so making a BD to play standalone is of limited value.

As mentioned before there are a set of 4:3 and WS SD testcards and sound tests on most THX logo DVDs. Look for a THX logo on main menu or on Language set up. Most DVD players seriously outclass "TV out" on Lap top for Composite.

 
Posted : 31/12/2012 5:22 pm
Anonymous
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No, I know there is "standard" sampling.

There is also other sampling when source is not SD or it's not a Broadcast Analogue to Digital for SD.

 
Posted : 31/12/2012 8:47 pm
TVJON74
(@tvjon74)
Posts: 680
Honorable Member Registered
 

Hi all,

I downloaded this program over the Christmas break and came up with my own test card in a few hours.
Once you get used to the controls its seems quite easy to use and I like it.

Here is my first completed test card.
Unfortunately I did not save the file that makes up the test card :(
(NOT TO SELF: WHEN ASKED IF YOU WANT TO SAVE CLICK YES!!)
I did save the Bitmap file so here it is :D

Jon
BVWS Member

 
Posted : 07/01/2013 4:29 pm
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