Det. Bart Lasiter Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 I thought I'd create an Ahto version of the Computer Science/Programming Thread from the Swamp. Discuss programming languages, IDEs, APIs, ask for help with a section of code, non-programming areas of computer science like filesystems, hardware (hardware-software interaction only please). I only ask that this thread doesn't turn into "zOMG <insert tech-related product here> is teh pwnz0r and <insert other tech-related product here> sux0rz" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingerhs Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 hehe, this thread might come in handy next semester. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevanA4 Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 I might actually get back into programming because of this thread. does this also include like talking about Databasing? I might use this for help with teaching myself perl XDDD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tk102 Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 Has anyone ever used their COM port as digital I/O? This was something I was tinkering with a couple years back but never put it into use. The way it appears to me, you have the possibility of 4 inputs (Pin 1: CD, Pin 6: DSR, Pin 8: CTS, and Pin 9: RING) and 2 outputs (Pin 4: DTR, Pin 7: RTS). Pin 2 and 3 may also be able to provide additional In and Out. My tests inolved driving an optically-isolated relay with the outputs and triggering the inputs with a 9 Volt battery. The test application is written in VB6 using APIs if anyone cares. Here's one of the old reference materials I remember finding on the web: http://www.arcelect.com/rs232.htm CommViaAPI.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Det. Bart Lasiter Posted April 21, 2006 Author Share Posted April 21, 2006 Has anyone ever used their COM port as digital I/O? This was something I was tinkering with a couple years back but never put it into use. The way it appears to me, you have the possibility of 4 inputs (Pin 1: CD, Pin 6: DSR, Pin 8: CTS, and Pin 9: RING) and 2 outputs (Pin 4: DTR, Pin 7: RTS). Pin 2 and 3 may also be able to provide additional In and Out. My tests inolved driving an optically-isolated relay with the outputs and triggering the inputs with a 9 Volt battery. The test application is written in VB6 using APIs if anyone cares. Here's one of the old reference materials I remember finding on the web: http://www.arcelect.com/rs232.htm I'd be interested in seeing that test application if you don't mind posting a link At any rate, I found a way to sucessfully convert XviD-encoded AVI files into DivX files without a loss of quality or any video corruption (before I had trouble converting them without the picture darkening, flickering, or having a bright green line appear at the top of the video). I used VirtualDub 1.3c (10740), XviD codec v2.1, and the DivX codec v6.2 codec. Apparently, the green line(s) were caused by not using the right resize filter. I tried using the Bicubic and Bilinear filters (which caused the green line). It turns out that when I used the Lanczos4 filter it disappeared everytime I converted the files! Anyways, here's the configuration I had to use to get the damn thing to work: 780 kbps bitrate, 1-pass "Insane Quality" codec performance NO ENHANCED MULTITHREADING, IT CORRUPTS THE RESULTANT AVI FILE ASC Bidirectional coding Max Keyframe Interval of 300 frames 50% keyframe interval Custom size of 720x480 (you could probably use whatever size you want though) Resize filter: Lanczos4 Crop 2 from the top Psychovisual texture enhancement to get rid of picture corruption (it looks s*** without this) H.263 Optimized quantization I don't care what anyone else says, full stream processing *has* to be used to maintain picture quality The only drawback is that the video isn't resized, I've yet to figure out why, but I just ran them through Premiere Pro 1.5 to render them so they conform to the NTSC standard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HerbieZ Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 Reminds me of computing class last year. In that we did ASCII, quick and visual basic, binary, c++ etc etc. I thought it'd be a good step onto the ladder of the computer gaming industry and possibly a job therin. I failed the course miserably. So much for that idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tk102 Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 I'd be interested in seeing that test application if you don't mind posting a link I added an attachment to my previous post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrotoy7 Posted April 22, 2006 Share Posted April 22, 2006 great, we had to further geekify AHTO with one of these too Im more of a hardware type of guy hopefully the discussion will be helpful and accessible to everyone mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheOssusKeeper Posted April 23, 2006 Share Posted April 23, 2006 wow, this makes me wish i had never gotten out programming... I took basic computer science and Basic Programming when i was in school way back in the day... I got to were i was a really good programmer... er... on the Commadore 64... but never went any further then that... I thought about taking classes in .Net Basic and C+/C++ but those were just fleeting thoughts... Like Astrotoy7, now I'm more of a hardware type of guy, building and repairing mine and others computers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevanA4 Posted April 23, 2006 Share Posted April 23, 2006 I've taken .net classes actually. Its really easy but pretty annoying because what works in say VB 6 won't necessarily work in VB.Net. that and both Java and J++ both have the same file extension but aren't transposable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pavlos Posted April 25, 2006 Share Posted April 25, 2006 I'd be interested in seeing that test application if you don't mind posting a link At any rate, I found a way to sucessfully convert XviD-encoded AVI files into DivX files without a loss of quality or any video corruption (before I had trouble converting them without the picture darkening, flickering, or having a bright green line appear at the top of the video). I used VirtualDub 1.3c (10740), XviD codec v2.1, and the DivX codec v6.2 codec. Apparently, the green line(s) were caused by not using the right resize filter. I tried using the Bicubic and Bilinear filters (which caused the green line). It turns out that when I used the Lanczos4 filter it disappeared everytime I converted the files! Anyways, here's the configuration I had to use to get the damn thing to work: * 780 kbps bitrate, 1-pass * "Insane Quality" codec performance * NO ENHANCED MULTITHREADING, IT CORRUPTS THE RESULTANT AVI FILE * ASC Bidirectional coding * Max Keyframe Interval of 300 frames * 50% keyframe interval * Custom size of 720x480 (you could probably use whatever size you want though) * Resize filter: Lanczos4 * Crop 2 from the top * Psychovisual texture enhancement to get rid of picture corruption (it looks s*** without this) * H.263 Optimized quantization * I don't care what anyone else says, full stream processing *has* to be used to maintain picture quality The only drawback is that the video isn't resized, I've yet to figure out why, but I just ran them through Premiere Pro 1.5 to render them so they conform to the NTSC standard. Ooh! Interesting... how long did it take you to figure out all that? I've been researching C++ and so forth recently (And have decided after six months of faffing about that I hate Visual Basic, completely and utterly) - So compared to a lot of you guys I am probably something of a programming novice . Good idea on the thread! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Det. Bart Lasiter Posted April 26, 2006 Author Share Posted April 26, 2006 Ooh! Interesting... how long did it take you to figure out all that? I've been researching C++ and so forth recently (And have decided after six months of faffing about that I hate Visual Basic, completely and utterly) - So compared to a lot of you guys I am probably something of a programming novice . Good idea on the thread! I lost track of time after a few hours. It was basically process of elimination. I'm just glad I burned the test clip I had without a lead-out at the end of the DVD-R (that way my DVD player would read the last clip on the disc), I still managed to ruin a few of them however. I burned some fansubbed anime I had to disk, but the audio on the last clip from about 16 minutes in to the end didn't get copied Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.