Anyone got an A4000 with working PAR card?

[KillaByte]

If anyone wants another go at this, Bart and the awesome team of the HomeComputerMuseum took another stab at imaging the PAR drive and this time they got most of it (just a couple of unreadable sectors here and there which according to the table of contents should entirely sit in unused space).

Grab it while it's hot:
https://archive.org/details/titanic-...rive-recovered

If you want to restore this onto a hard disk to check it out with a NTSC PAR card, you might have to use the same model (or at least something with the same number of sectors). The original drive was a Quantum Fireball 1080A with 2,128,896 usable sectors and a geometry of 2112/16/63 (C/H/S).

The project directories start at offset 0x3EEFBE00 and are 0x20000 apart. There can be 256 of them but only the first 7 contain valid data. The root directory (which contains the project names) is at offset 0x40EFBE00. Each directory entry is 0x40 in size. Looks like everything is stored in little endian 16 bit chunks (even the strings). So if you byte swap the data, you can treat it as big endian after.

I tried to decode individual images using the well known default Huffman tables and the quantization tables from the firmware hex file but something's still off - the image comes out way too bright no matter which table I choose (there are 24 tables corresponding to the quality factors 0-23).

If anyone wants to discuss the on disk format further or manages to get this working with their own PAR card, feel free to get in touch with me.

Here's the table of contents:

hitachi
  30fps-field-hand-hitachi
  30fps-field-hitachi
  30fps-frame
  30fps-frame-finger
  30fps-frame-hand
ms01
  mattA
  mattB
  ms1a-37g
  ms1a-v4.fnl
  ms1a-v6.fnl
ms159
  ms159-09
ms5
  ms05-v4.fnl
  ms05-v5.fnl
  ms05-v6.fnl
  ms5ref
ms7
  ms07-21
  ms07-25
  ms07-35
  ms07-37
  ms07-38
  ms6-7seq
  ms7blowout
  ms7ref
test patterns
  PAR_TP_EIA_Bars
  PAR_TP_FF_Bars
  PAR_TP_Luma_Sweep
  PAR_TP_MBurst_100
  PAR_TP_SMPTE_Bars
vc1
  vc1plate

[Ami_GFX]

This is an interesting thread filled with useful information. I finally got a PAR/TBCIV combo installed and working in my A2500. I gave up on it the last time I tried when I couldn't get a CF or SD to IDE converter working with the PAR and the TBCIV was outputing a white screen. I got the TBCIV working by pushing up a dip switch and just checking out the components. Old video cards need a massage now and then, it seems. I've accumulated some IDE laptop drives since then so I tried several. The size limit looks like 12gb. 6 and 12gb drives worked but 15 and 20 gave me a block size error message. I also have a bunch of 6gb CF micro drives and that's what I ended up using with a rear bracket CF to IDE converter so I don't have to open the chassis to get to the PAR drive.

And once installed, I have to say, it rocks. It's the fastest Amiga frame grabber by far and the quality is excellent. I have a Toaster/Flyer system and a GVP IV24 to compare it to. I love it's simplicity compared to the Toaster/Flyer. Its workflow reminds me of an old sampler for video. Short bits of video and looping playback just like an Emax or 12 bit Akai would handle audio. It has component video out which tops the Toaster in output video quality. The TBCIV also has component video in but I'd have to find the right connector and make a special cable to use it. Composite and s-video are enough for now. Composite is the more accurate input. S-video makes for super saturated colors which could easily be tamed by tweaking the TBCIV.