Uncreative Labs

Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Posts: 261 Location: WisConSin

Well I finally got a QLT Bios system in the flesh, a big heavy industrial case housing an "upgraded" Pentium 233mhz mmx processor a old
Willow PV1027 / PV1026-QLT VGA-CTV graphics card with 2 RCA inputs and 1 svideo with SVGA out

Video card has a
QLT bios
Tseng ET4000/v33 graphics chip (for vga)
Chrontel CH8398A NTSC decoder/vid capture and
Philips SAA 7110A NTSC decoder/vid capture chips

Sadly I didn't get the disks I was supposed to and this unit has a kludged copy of windows 98 on it (its date 2001) so it is one of the last they made. There are some minor registry issues on the machine and some software missing, so I have the feeling that Windows 98 doesn't work 100% with the software or QLT hacked it on.

Otherwise pretty typical heavy industrial locking case computer, keyboard lock and locking front panel (so kids can't hit buttons) It has 3 LPT ports some kingmax PC150 128mb ram (a pair) overkill me thinks for a PC66 system.
Soundblaster 128 which is screwed up so my video control box doesn't work as it goes through the joystick port.

This unit also appears to have the PCMCIA cardslot ripped out, the 4th LPT is missing and the built in 5 1/4" snapshot scanner is also removed (it was in a drive bay for scanning snapshots, rather unique)

Anyway $235 later I am feeling the buyers remorse the software is kludgy the features were poorly implimented (blurry NTSC overlays when the system could do high res ones) and the graphics card lacks the BNC input I saw on the 1995 model (must have cheaped out)

To boot the blasted thing has a dongle.

I plan on using this machine for business purposes as our old Futura 100 which is technically superior video wise is nearing the EOL because of our aging shinko. It won't be long and supplies will dissappear so I will have to live with this unit printing the photos my futura takes. Unless I can find a programmer to breath new life into our box, Motorolla 68k machine language is a mystery to me and Innovion IDOS language is even more confusing

I will eventually take photos and post them for anyone interested. I should make a site for it like my futura, it is not nearly as interesting though, mainly the wierd video card and the strange software make the box. Although the case feels like it was made to be bulletproof (and a pain to take apart, 26 screws later the top comes off)

The video card is mentioned with photo kiosks and face recognition crapola, can't find out anything else about it.
http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?IA=WO1999066448&DISPLAY=DESC

Cheers
Ryan

Joined: 22 Apr 2007 Posts: 264 Location: Ohio/USA

I would be interested in pictures.

Didn't some companies use the ISA Truevision Targa Plus cards for doing things like that?

I have a bunch of old cards that take still pictures and/or do overlays, but most are for the Mac except for a couple truevision ISA cards (and my Targa 2000 Mac/PC cards).

Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Posts: 261 Location: WisConSin

My futura has an Innovion video card which sports Targa RGB+Sync separated NTSC video 512x483

I still haven't figured out what pallet my futura uses to save the image, the targa pictures I extract end up in rainbow colors (although I can tell who and what they are)

I have never found software or systems that used a real targa branded graphics card but I have a feeling the VERY old QLT/CASI colortron machine may well have had a vintage Targa card from the 80's.

The photo machines were so expensive that they are almost completely non-existant, you never can find them and if you do they always cost way more than an outdated piece of tech should. Heck try to figure out what companies make the photo machines for the amusement parks, I bought a Kodak Flashsync camera for my futura that came off an amusement park ride (thats effectively where every flashsync ended up) but I couldn't find out what type of system, video capture cards or software would have coupled up.

Ah well.

Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Posts: 261 Location: WisConSin

After only a couple months of true use my QLT bios system has blown the vid card, the unit was always hard to get to post, BLEH.

That vid card is what made the unit unique, no parts to be had, I wonder if it could be fixed?

Joined: 22 Apr 2007 Posts: 264 Location: Ohio/USA

How do you know its the video card?

Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Posts: 261 Location: WisConSin

Unknown_K wrote:

How do you know its the video card?

Same way I always troubleshoot, I removed the vid card, fitting another, system posts.

Tried the PCI card in another box, no post, no beeps nada. I know the card to be very timing specific (originally for a 486 PCI box) so I tried it in several low speed systems and a 486 PCI, no post in any.

One thing that might be possible is that the unit had a flash EEPROM on the vid card labled QLT BIOS, If I could get another flash chip for it maybe its just the flash, but I doubt it. It may have required special bios settings but again, I think it would at least post.

Cheers
Ryan