Major Changes

Posted on September 26, 2011 by

It’s been a crazy year so far!

It just started and now it’s already the end of September … We’ve had a beautiful spring and then a horrible summer. No chance to do some relaxing outdoor bow carving work :(

Anyway, the summer wasn’t boring at all! Together with Kulabyte, MontiVison has been taken over by a Canadian company called Haivision (where Hai is German and translates to Shark).

To be honest, I hadn’t heard of them before, so I was pretty amazed about the stuff I saw when visiting them in Montreal in early June! Their core product is a hardware h.264 encoder/decoder couple, which allows extremely low delay HD video transmission (down to 70ms). Not very long ago, they aquired two other companies to add digital signage and a cool multi platform software player.

By taking over Kulabyte, Haivison adds the missing piece in the puzzle, internet video distribution.

At MontiVision, we are very much looking forward to an exciting future, now being part of an extremely dynamic, creative and successful team! And by the way, the guys are pretty cool as well :)

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

New Szalóky Arrows

Posted on June 13, 2011 by

When you are an Archer, you frequently need new Arrows. Things just happen. In the optimal case, you learned and find the time to make your own. No doubt. If not, as we me so far, you need to find your sources.

I tried a lot of arrows, cheap ones from eBay, real medieval original style handcrafted Arrows from the Viking Market in Schleswig or Haithabu (Hedeby) for 25 Euros a piece and mid-priced Arrows from other markets. To make this clear first, the original style handcrafted in Germany ones totally rock. But I don’t want to use them for my everyday training, as every breaking Arrow makes you cry …

Aside of my Longbows, I built a couple of Bows for Kids. Mathis has his own collection of Arrows and most of them are relatively new. There is a single one though, which we have for a lot of years now and it just won’t die. On the Shaft, there is an Inscription saying “Szalóky Kelemen“.

Yesterday on the Medieval Festival in Hohenwestedt I found a Booth with a Guy from Hungary, selling Szalóky Arrows. I had a quick look and the quality is the same awesome quality of the old one we got. I grabbed five for me and one for Mathis. I paid 35 Euros all together!

Coming home and shooting them a couple of times, I slapped myself not to have taken two dozen of them home …

No, it’s not the 25 Euros Viking Arrow quality we are talking about, but we are talking about 80% of the quality for 6 Euros! I’ll try to collect more of the high end ones over time for the days when I dress up and go to Viking events, but for my daily training, I’ll go for Szalóky from now on.

Ok, ‘nuff said, here are some pictures (Click on them for High Res):

Old_Szaloky_Arrow_for_KidsSzaloky_logo

The Kids Arrow in the top left picture is the old one we used for quite a couple of years. The one below is one of the new Adult Arrows with self-nock.

New_Szaloky_Arrow_for_AdultsNew_Szaloky_Arrow_Head

Getting Ready to try them with the English Longbow Smile

New_Arrows_with_English_LongbowGetting_Ready_for_a_Shot

Posted in Traditional Archery | Tagged , | Leave a comment

DirectShow Video Capture Device Virtualization

Posted on September 24, 2010 by

We created a simple C# sample application for our Video Pipe DirectShow Filters, which captures video from a DirectShow compatible video source, adds a delay and a text overlay and makes the output available for video capture or encoding application like Microsoft Expression Encoder.

Video_Capture_Device_Virtualization_Preview

This sample application utilizes the MontiVision Smart ActiveX Control to load a MontiVision Project File (DirectShow Filter Graph) created using the MontiVision Development Kit.

The DirectShow Filter Graph that is used in the above application shown in our MontiVision Workbench:

Virtual_Video_Capture_Device_DirectShow_Filter_Graph_Preview

The Video Pipe Renderer sends the preprocessed video to one or more instances of our MV Video Pipe Source DirectShow Filter, which appears as Video Capture Source in Video Capture and Encoding Applications.

The following image shows the Pipe Source being accessed by the Expression Encoder:

Expression_Encoder_Preview

If you’d like to try our DirectShow Pipe Filters and the Virtual Video Capture C# Sample Application, please download and install first the MontiVision Development Kit (Video Processing SDK) and then the latest version of our Audio/Video Pipe DirectShow Filters.

Posted in Digital Video Processing, DirectShow, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Individual Maple Longbow

Posted on June 30, 2010 by

I just put linseed oil and beeswax on my individual version of a longbow, made from maple wood.

The wood is far from perfect, but that’s the fun when it comes to bow building :-)

Maple_Longbow_small

The tiller is a bit too stiff on the right side, but I had doubts to weaken the knot regions more.

Longbow_Knots_Right_small

A lot of knots on the right side.

Longbow_Maple_Colors_small

And some nice color transitions.

Longbow_Knots_Left_small

Some knots on the left arm.

Longbow_Hold_small

I am using a hold without leather here.

Related Articles
Posted in Traditional Archery | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

MontiVision MPEG-4/AVC DirectShow Filter Codec Pack adds support for AAC

Posted on June 9, 2010 by

An updated MontiVision MPEG-4 DirectShow Filter Codec Pack is available for download from:

http://www.montivision.com/download/updates/MVMpeg4Codec.zip

The package includes:

- MV Video Encoder (DV, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, MJPEG, h.264/AVC)
- MV Video Decoder (DV, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, MJPEG, h.264/AVC)
- MV Audio Encoder (MPEG-4 Audio/AAC)
- MV Audio Decoder (MPEG-4 Audio/AAC)
- MV MPEG-4 Multiplexer
- MV MPEG-4 Splitter
- MV Advanced Deinterlacer
- MV Color Space Converter

Related Articles
Posted in Digital Video Processing, DirectShow, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

RTSP/RTP DirectShow Filter supports h.264 and AAC

Posted on May 12, 2010 by

The preliminary MontiVision Streaming Add-On, an add-on for the MontiVision Development Kit, contains an updated MV Stream Source DirectShow Filter for RTSP/RTP reception from e.g. surveillance cameras or network video encoders. The filter supports MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and h.264 video, as well as PCM/µLaw/aLaw and AAC audio.

Posted in Digital Video Processing, Surveillance, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

MontiVision Digital Video Processing SDK supports Lumenera Surveillance Cameras

Posted on May 10, 2010 by

We added support for Lumenera Surveillance Cameras to our MV IP Camera Source DirectShow Filter, which is part of the MontiVision Development Kit, a DirectShow SDK for Digital Video Processing in languages such as Microsoft Visual C++, Visual C#, Visual Basic and Borland Delphi or C-Builder.

The MV IP Camera Source can be used to capture video from all network cameras delivering a standard MJPEG stream over HTTP. Among others, this includes cameras from AXIS, Sony, Panasonic, Bosch, Basler and Sanyo Video.

The following DirectShow Filter Graph captures a PAL live video stream from a network camera, writes the compressed Motion-JPEG data into an AVI file and shows the uncompressed stream in a video window.

Lumenera_IP_Camera_Surveillance_DirectShow_Preview

You can download the latest version of the MontiVision Development Kit from http://www.MontiVision.com/download/MVDevKit31.exe

Posted in Digital Video Processing, Surveillance, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment