SONY HBI-V1

About

This pioneer accessory offered creators the opportunity to work with real video images: transform them, color them and reuse them as a graphic basis for multimedia drawings or experiments.

A veritable precursor to domestic digital imaging, HBI-V1 is today a rare collection object, appreciated both for its historical role and for its unique technical possibilities.

Detailed technical specifications

• Video compatibility :

  • Original version: NTSC 60 Hz (525 lines)

  • Amended version: PAL 50 Hz (625 lines)

• Entry/exit :

  • Composite video IN (RCA)

  • OUT video composer (RCA) with termination switch 75

• Conversion :

  • Separation of the composite signal into R, G, B via a standard TV circuit

  • Conversion A/N on 6 bits per channel

  • Storage in 64 Ko of VRAM After conversion to YJK

  • Controlled by the graphic processor OKI/Sony MSM79V023

Supported modes

• MSX2 : digitalisation possible only in SCREEN 8 (256 colors)

• MSX2+ / Turbo R : Mode support SCREEN 10, 11, 12 (up to 19268 colors with YJK)

• Maximum resolution : 256 × 424 pixels interlaced (non-real time)

Special features PAL / NTSC

• Oscillator: NTSC = 3.579545 MHz, PAL = 4.433619 MHz

• Modified resistors for adaptation to standard

• On the PAL version, only the First 525 lines are digitised (as in NTSC), the 100 additional PAL lines are not operated.

Content sold on the site

• HBI-V1 cartridge

• Depending on the batches: demonstration software / diskette with graphic routines

• Diskette HBI-V1 Video Digitizer
• HBS-G070D Animation Tool

Anecdote & Programming

• A specific BASIC command, _AD, allowed to launch image capture.

• The speed of digitization remained limited: it was not real-time video but fixed images.

• The HBI-V1 was often used by graphic designers to create sprites or sets by reproducing filmed silhouettes.

The Sony HBI-V1 was not delivered alone: Sony also provided an extension for BASIC called SonyVideo2 BASIC.
The latter added new commands to control the digitalization process and to exploit images captured directly from the BASIC environment of the MSX.

⚙️ New BASIC instructions

• CALL AD : automatic digitization of an image from the video input → VRAM storage of the HBI-V1.

• FMD CALL Manual digitalization with simultaneous VRAM copy of MSX and HBI-V1.

• CALL MD : manual digitalisation with storage only in HBI-V1.

• CALL DCOPY : transfer of VRAM data from HBI-V1 to MSX VRAM.

• CALL DCLS : erase the internal video memory of HBI-V1.

️ Display functions

• CALL DFONT Direct text writing on a bitmap screen (SCREEN 5-8, 10-12) without going through OPEN.

• CALL YJK : Fine fit of YJK colors (MSX2+ only), to change the brightness or colour in relation to RGB values.

System functions

• CALL DG : Launch of the internal digitalization software integrated with HBI-V1.

• CALL TOBAS Direct return to BASIC (reboot of the system).

In all, 8 new instructions Made the MSX capable of manipulating real digitalized images, paving the way for new experiments in the late 1980s.