Compatible Hard Disk Drives -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Any hard disk for use with the Personal Animation Recorder must be IDE type. SCSI interfaces are not supported. Manufacturer: Seagate Model: 3600A Capacity: 540 Mbytes Recommended Block Limit: 154 Manufacturer: Seagate Model: 3655A Capacity: 540 Mbytes Recommended Block Limit: 170 Manufacturer: Seagate Model: ST5660A Capacity: 540 Mbytes Recommended Block Limit: 200 Manufacturer: Seagate Model: ST31220A Capacity: 1 Gbytes Recommended Block Limit: 200 Manufacturer: Micropolis Model: 2205A Capacity: 542 Mbytes Recommended Block Limit: 240 Manufacturer: Micropolis Model: 2210A Capacity: 976 Mbytes Recommended Block Limit: 240 Manufacturer: Micropolis Model: 2217A Capacity: 1.6 Gbytes Recommended Block Limit: 240 Manufacturer: Conner Model: CFA540A Capacity: 540 Mbytes Recommended Block Limit: 200 Manufacturer: Conner Model: CFA1080A Capacity: 1.0 Gbyte Recommended Block Limit: 200 Manufacturer: Conner Model: CFA1275A Capacity: 1.275 Gbyte Recommended Block Limit: 240 Special Drive Notes: -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Micropolis 2200A series drives work -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Micropolis 2205A, 2210A and 2217A harddisks are now supported. The 2205A is a 500 megabyte IDE drive, the 2210A is a one gigabyte IDE drive and the 2217A is a 1.6 gigabyte drive. These drives are 20% faster than the Seagate models and have no thermal recal problems. Using the Micropolis Drives with PAR -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Locate the jumper block labeled J6 on the component side of the Micropolis drive. If only one drive is being installed, J6 should not have any jumpers installed in the W1 and W2 positions. (The W1 position is the position furthest from the power connector J3.) If two drives are being installed, you will require a ribbon cable that supports this configuration. (Any standard IDE interface cable, available from most computer dealers will do) Follow the procedure outlined in Chapter 1, for instructions on installing this cable.On the drive intended to be the master, remove jumper W2 and check that jumper W1 is installed. On the drive intended to be the slave, check that jumper W2 is installed and jumper W1 is removed. Install the hard drive(s) into your computer according to the instructions outlined in Chapter 1.Note: If a Micropolis and Seagate drive are installed on the same PAR card, both drives need to be set as master. Conner CFA1275A drive supported -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Conner CFA1275A is now supported. This drive now outpreforms the Micropolis 2200A series drives. Conner CFA540A & CFA1080A drives supported -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Conner model CFA540A & CFA1080A harddisks are now supported. These drives are just slightly slower than the Micropolis drives, and also performs without any thermal recal problems. Conner CFA540A, CFA1080A, CFA1275A. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pins: Signal Description 1 and 2 C/D Open: Drive will act as slave. Closed: Drive will act as master 3 and 4 A/C Open: Conner master/slave mode Closed: ATA/CAM master slave mode Seagate 3655A support -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Because the 3655A recalabrates every two minutes the longest segment of video that can be played back is 120 seconds. Using the Drives Efficiently -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The DPS Personal Animation Recorder software permits the adjustment of both the block limit and the Q-Factor. The block limit represents the number of 512 byte blocks that comprise each animation frame. Increasing the block limit increases the amount of data stored for each animation frame. This improves the image quality at the expense of playback time. If too large a block limit is specified, the disk drive will not be able to transfer the required data in time and the animation playback will break up. By testing a few frames of your animation at various block limit values, you can establish the most appropriate block size for your needs. See above for maximum block sizes for the supported drives. Smaller block sizes are typically required when storing animations on the inner tracks of the hard drive. The Q factor is a relative measurement of image quality which is inversely related to compression. The Q factor will automatically change as frames are converted from IFF or Video Toaster Framestore files. The PAR hardware performs a number of automatic tests during the file conversion process to select the highest possible Q factor for a given block size and image complexity. By watching this level you assure the maximum preformance of the product. When using a DPS Personal TBC IV card to perform realtime hard drive recording, the Q factor and block limit values will differ from those used in single frame recording. This is because the 30 Hz frame rate of realtime recording provides insufficient time for the PAR hardware to automatically scale the Q factor and perform filtering. Rather, one must manually set the Q factor to a setting where the whole scene can be grabbed without generating any error messages. Feel free to experiment with values yourself. Also be sure to check the README file on all PAR software and upgrade disks for other hints or late breaking news.