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Cyclone III, Nios II evaluation KIt & analog video

Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Hi all, 

 

I'm planning to connect an analog camera (PAL/NTSC) to the composite video input. I know the capabilities of ALTERA above video&image processing. I'm thinking of use Deinterlacer, chroma and color space converter. 

 

I'm not sure about how interfacing with the analog front-end intalled in the multimedia Terasic board. 

 

Thanks in advance.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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--- Quote Start ---  

I'm not sure about how interfacing with the analog front-end intalled in the multimedia Terasic board. 

--- Quote End ---  

 

The multimedia-daughtercard has a RCA cinch input for composite video, that's all. Or did I misunderstand the question?
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Hi FvM, 

 

I know about the composite video input in the multimedia board of the cyclone III NiosII embedded evaluation kit. My request was for any reference design to capture analog video by using this input. I know about how to use deinterlacer, chroma resampler and color space converter from the video & image processing library, althought I don't know anything about the controller for the chip front end analog video. 

 

thanks in advance
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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So you're asking for the software. Terasic DE2 uses a similar video decoder (ADV7181) and has a demonstration design, e. g. including the initialisation of controller through I2C. The DE2 cd content is available at Terasic website.

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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Hi FvM, 

 

Thanks a lot for your information, I've downloaded the demos software called "IMAGEM_Technology_Demo" and I'll try to load in Cyclone III, Nios II evaluation KIt. 

 

I feel that the luck is with me!!!
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Definitely I didn't found any application to be able to connect any analog camera to the composite analog input in this kit

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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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At leat the Terasic Multimedia Touch Panel Daughter Board (MTDB) has example files using analog video input. http://www.terasic.com.tw/attachment/archive/240/mtdb_vga_tv.rar 

 

According to the MTDB documentation, it is configured as NTSC, but the decoder basically supports PAL or SECAM also. 

http://www.terasic.com.tw/attachment/archive/240/mtdb_usermanual_v102.pdf 

 

I didn't check the project in detail.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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hi fvm, 

 

first all, thanks a lot!!! your feedback as always is very appreciated. I'll examine this information!!!.  

 

I'm working in a project involving inspection by processing of thermal images using cameras based in infrared thermography .  

 

I've developped the main algorithm using Matlab and after I've ported the code to Simulink-DSP Builder in order to simulate the behaviour of its hardware implementation. 

 

I'm thinking of use Cyclone III embedded evaluation kit as main platform to work this algorithm, in order to doing that, I can connect an OEM camera using some of these interfaces, 

 

*Analog video input. Video decoder in this board has only 8 bit, I think it's a little poor. 

*video over LVDS. I can't see any conector for general purpose available in this board to be able to implement LVDS channels. 

 

*video over Ethernet. NIOS+Niche_stack+Phy+Opencore. Fast enough to 320x240x12bit x 30fps real time video capture??? 

 

Any suggestion will be appreciated. Thanks in advance
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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As a preliminary remark, I'm not involved in digital video processing and have only some basic knowledge. Other forum members may give you more profound and detailed suggestions. 

 

The ADV7180 used at multimedia daughtercard transports 10-bit digital video trough 8-bit interface, as far as I understand. It should be able to reproduce full quality with standard framed analog video. Alternatively, other daughthercards, e. g. Bitec digital video prodcts could be used at the HSMC expansion connector of cyclone III starter board or 3c120 dev kit. 

 

I unfortunately can't report any experience regarding NIOS and IP stack performance.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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I have to use the analog video input port on the Nios II Embedded Evaluation Kit, but I am having trouble knowing the IC ADV7180 (video decoder) which handles this port. Can someone experienced guide me about it? 

 

Thanks in advance...:)
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Hi prakhar, 

 

I'm trying to do the same thing as you. I have checked a simple demonstration to see video either in LCD or in VGA using the analog composite video input. You can download it, and another advanced demonstration (all of them in VHDL code) from this link http://www.terasic.com/downloads/cd-rom/mtdb/  

 

This demonstration is working well using NTSC video system, but I must use PAL system video input and by the moment I haven't been able to do.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Hi Alberto, 

 

The demo example provided by MTDB is actually in HDL. I am supposed to work in the nios environment. So, that is actually no good to me... :do you have any experience in the nios ide?
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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I have some experience with NIOS IDE. I have also thought to do the capture video using NIOS because I usedn't to program in HDL. You can rescue the configuration of the paremeters about audio and video from the file I2C_AV_Config.v.  

 

They must be transfered after powering up the video codec chip by using i2c controller. I know there is a free i2c IP from opencores.org, that you can use. This is only for hardware. 

 

You should need to implement a deinterlacer block and chroma resampler using either Simulink or SOPC Builder in order to get the incoming pixels. 

 

You can reach me by mail or private message if you want.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Hi, 

 

Could you please explain the procedure to display a video on to the LCD panel of the Nios II Cyclone III evaluation board . 

 

I have verilog code ready with me , and i generated .sof file from that, I am confused on how to assign the pins to the LCD panel ?  

 

If possible could you please send me the document mentioning the pins of the LCD panel ?  

Is there any procedure to display our video code on to the screen ? 

 

Eagerly waiting for a reply. 

 

Thanks, 

Srinath.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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I've checked video application using my cyclone II evaluation kit, using a project verilog based downloaded from the TERASIC web page. 

 

You must keep in mind that this application only works for NTSC analog video input, but not using PAL video. In this case you should change some parameters
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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this demo it's not working

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