How To Bend Video With A Bendable Target

Transcription

1 Video Circuit Bending Workshop : I ve just started writing this document, so it s still a bit rough around the edges. I will add to it over time, and spice it up with pictures, etc. please bear with me here... Introduction Circuit bending video gear principally works the same way as it does with audio. Whatever produces or processes a signal bears the potential of being creatively confused. The initial process of opening up the box and poking around on the circuit board is essentially the same. However, there s a few things that are different with video. You can t mess up video signals in the same way as sound. At least not when you want to show it on a digital monitor or project it. With composite video, there is a signal embedded that determins the position of the picture on the screen. If you distort the picture too much, this sync signal gets messed up as well. Analogue CRT screens can usually handle dirty video signals just fine, they just show a wandering picture. But with LCD screens or projectors, you are very likely to end up with a blue or black picture with a little blurb somewhere saying 'no input, which is always good fun, but can get a bit boring after a while. There are techniques to deal with this but explaining them in depth would stretch this text a bit too far, so I am not going to go any further into this issue for now. In the following document, I will try to give an overview of what possible bending targets can be and what kinds of effects can be expected with them. Being based only on my personal experience or stuff I ve seen done by others, this list will of course not be complete. Also, how far you get with a certain type of machine depends a great deal on where you want to go with it. Whatever you work on can most of the time be taken from a few switches and pots for one or two funky glitches to a ridiculously elaborate modular system, depending on your time, energy and ambition. Sometimes the possibilities you get can be overwhelming, sometimes it takes ages to find one good effect. Patience is a virtue in both cases. A rule for beginners with circuit bending to keep in mind is: the older the better. There are exceptions, but it s safe to say that older gear usually comes with bigger chips that are easier to solder to. Also, with consumer video editing, there have been quite a few obscure small companies that only built this type of hardware. They are always worth having a look at.

2 Find yourself To make the whole thing at least a bit more comprehensible, I have decided to categorise what I regard entry levels of skill for certain types of machines. I am not introducing these categories to patronise, belittle, or intimidate, but rather to give you a rough guideline of where might be a good place for you to start depending on how experienced you are. beginner : You ve seen a soldering iron before and roughly comprehend its function. For you, parts should be big enough and relatively robust. Be careful and patient and prepared to make lots of mistakes and you re likely to end up with a fun peace of gear. Intermediate : You ve soldered before, have built a few circuits or bent some audio stuff and know your hand to be relatively steady. You might still be afraid of soldering surface mount parts, but are willing to overcome that fear for a greater good. advanced : You smoothly wield your tool. You like small things and don t even mind them being a bit smaller. You have the patience of a patient person. nightmare : You eat, shit and bleed solder. nuff said. Of course, these categories are vague and a bit arbitrary. I ve seen absolute beginners handle flimsy SMD (Surface Mount Technology: tiny stuff) parts like they ve done it for years and even seasoned craftspeople mess up every once in a while. In my opinion, technology is there to be messed with. The anxiety of being on the verge of destroying something is part of the process and needs to be embraced. As much as the pain in your stomach when it actually happens. No one is perfect. It s just things. You fucked up? Get another thing and try again.

3 Bending Targets Like music instruments, video equipment comes in all shapes and sizes. To give you an idea what might be worth trying A word of caution: Some video hardware connects directly to mains power. This means that these devices have parts inside which are potentially harmful when touched. These sections can usually be recognised and avoided easily, so the risk is minimal, but if you re not comfortable with this, get something that runs with an external power adaptor. 1. Gaming Consoles 2. Video Recorders / Players 3. Processing / Editing Gear 4. Camcorders 1. Gaming Consoles Consoles are fun bending targets. You can play games and stuff on them. They produce pictures on their own, and used in the right way, can be both highly controllable and interactive visual tools. They have an entirely digital signal path right until the end, where they produce their own sync signal. This means that regardless how much you mess up the picture, they still produce a stable output that can be understood by projectors or digital monitors. Especially with older systems, both hardware and software are abundant in charity shops, at carboot sales or on your favourite internet auction site. Although some are getting a bit rarer, there s still tons of them around for next to nothing. So it at least doesn t hurt too much financially when you permabend (break) them. For most systems, there are some obscure games around, that, while being horrible to play, might have great graphics for visuals. If you re into coding, there are several helpful communities and tools around the internet for homebrew software, porting Linux to specific platforms, romhacking, databending, or randomly learning obscure assembler dialects for obsolete hardware. For a few platforms, there s even already existing VJ software that only waits to be taken further. 8Bit Systems b

4 Sega 2600, Nintendo Entertainment System (Famicon), Sega Master System, etc... With console bending, these are pretty much the simplest entry point. I m pretty sure this is the reason why there are quite a few videos of bent NESes around on Youtube. Not quite as many Sega Master Systems, but they re pretty much on par when it comes to internal complexity. If you re into retrogaming, vj at chiptune parties, or generally like the aesthetics of 2D Pixelstorms, these are for you. They come with chips in DIL Packages, so they are relatively easy to work with, even if your coffee consume is above average. 16Bit Systems i Super Nintendo (Super Famicon), Sega Mega drive (Genesis), etc... The first video things I bent were a pair of Super Nintendos. I have also tried Sega Mega Drives. The Segas are probably a bit easier to work with. Actually, they d probably still fit into the ' b category, because they don t use as many SMDs. These Systems are still mainly 2D, but obviously more powerful than their 8 Bit percursors. They already are capable of some nifty tricks to produce semi- or sortof-3d graphics. Of course, we are still knee-deep in retro territory. Big pixels all over the place Bit Systems a n Sony Playstation 1 + 2, Nintendo Gamecube, Sega Saturn, Sega Jaguar, Sega Dreamcast, etc... In contrast to what I was thinking a few years ago, next-gen consoles are now proven to be bendable and seem to produce absolutely awesome visuals. However, this stuff is strictly for adults. Very powerful systems, highly integrated, teensy tiny chips. Please don t think of touching one of these if the only thing you know about soldering is which end of the iron you d burn your fingers with. Otherwise it s pretty much guaranteed to end in tears, especially considering quite a few of these still come for proper money. Then again, if you re confident with your skills, and put a bit of time and effort in it, chances are you re gonna end up with an incredibly versatile tool. I ve recently been given a PS2 to take apart and mess with and after a few days of half-assed research, my head is already spinning thinking of the possibilities... If you have an N64, you can pretty much leave it at home. I ve tried it, it just crashes. 2. Recorders / Players VCRs b i Neither have I tried bending a VCR, nor have I seen one on the internet so far, so if you plan on bending one, consider yourself some sort of pioneer. The reason for this might be that they are un-bendable. Which I think is unlikely. It s probably more to do with the fact that video recorders are so hopelessly outdated, they have already mostly been thrown away by everyone apart from enthusiasts who consider them too

5 precious to mess with. There are VCRs that contain digital circuitry for picture stabilisation etc. Those might be preferrable to pure analogue ones, but less likely to turn up in your attic. Still, if you happen to have whichever kind sitting around, bring it along and we can see if it s capable of anything extraordinary. Almost all VCRs run on mains. DVD Players a I ve tried tinkering around with DVD players and so far, haven t had much luck with them. Which is not to say they don t have any potential. I can imagine bent DVD players to produce wonderful glitches, it just might be that I haven t been lucky enough to find one like this, yet. Here again, older is probably better, most recent DVD players just contain one small circuit board with a few chips sporting a gazillion pins that crash the system, regardless which one you touch. Older ones are probably less integrated and therefore more accessible. A lot of DVD players run on mains. Digital Video players a n In the last few years, lots of boxes came on the market that play video from SD cards, USB drives, or internal hard drives. I have tried a few of those and have found them to be rather unpleasant to deal with. Not only are the parts inside ridiculously small, they also crash all the time while poking around. You are still invited to try one (here again s a chance to be a pioneer), but generally I wouldn t recommend it. 3. Processing / Editing Gear In the nineties, video editing became a thing anyone could do at home and for an affordable price. For a while, there were lots of different devices of varying quality being produced for the hobbyist video enthusiast market. For overlaying titles, correcting colours, mixing, effects, etc. Zip to 2013: Computers have mostly taken over all of these tasks for good, nobody needs that stuff anymore. Even a lot of semi-professional gear is hopelessly outdated by now, and therefore can be found for reasonable prices. In some countries, this culture has been more Titlers - b These usually look like more or less well designed computer keyboards with video plugs in the back. They let you overlay pixelated and brightly coloured letters and numbers, symbols and stuff over a video signal. Their boards are usually not too hard to navigate, they produce fun glitches and work nicely in a feedback chain.

6 Video Graphic Tablets b i Vtech video painter, Sony T33F family studio, etc Graphic tablets that output analogue video. Some of these look like toys, some have a more professional exterior. The Sony family studio has a [Superimpose] function that lets you draw on top of a video, Instead of a keyboard, they come with a touchpad and a few options for choosing colours and tools. If you re into drawing video live, and would like to take this idea a bit further, these might be of interest to you. Video Enhancers / Processors / Effects b i These are boxes of varying sizes with some dials and sliders, made for enhancing an analogue video signal while you copy it from one VCR to another. Most of them also sport simple audio mixers. Usually, they have controls for colour and sharpness, bigger ones also come with all sorts of more advanced effects such as inverting, wipes, fades, switching video channels, etc. These are very nice and usually quite accessible bending targets, giving you a big range of messed up video. As they process signals, they can also be used in a feedback loop. Also, with a bit of tinkering, a lot of the effects can be made audio reactive. Scan converters, Norm converters a n There are lots of very cheap VGA-composite and NTSC-PAL converters being sold on the internet. They work well and are highly bendable. These make sense e.g. if you want to add effects to the output of your computer. While being highly bendable, these come with tiny ram chips, though, and therefore I only recommend them for advanced solderers. Video Mixers i a Panasonic ave-5, Hama DVM-1000, etc. Video mixers used to be the heartpieces of VJ setups for quite a while and still can be seen frequently in places where the laptop hasn t taken over completely. Especially newer ones still tend to be very pricey, which is why I wouldn t recommend them for bending, at least not if you haven t got a whole lot of money to burn. I got a few video mixers for very cheap because they were of relatively unknown brands, so I recommend keeping your eyes peeled for those. But before you buy something, take some time to ask around and do some research, a lot of people confuse video enhancers incorporating audio mixers, or video editing controllers with video mixers. Some are very stable for bending, others need some extra care. For example the Panasonic ave-5 produces absolutely gorgeous and colourful glitches, but it is also prone to fail permanently very easily. Others aren t quite as picky

7 4. Camcorders Video cameras can be rewarding bending targets, and especially old ones come for very cheap. Some of them allow you to record your glitches so you can use them for something else later on. The downside is that they tend to be quite messy to take apart (and put back together again). Also, to my experience, some of them break easily, so if you think about bending one, you should be prepared to be extra careful. I m gonna add some info about camcorders soon...