Software implementation of VCRs on personal computing systems

The author presents a window-based editor for manipulating digital video and audio. The editor supports real-time recording, playback, and editing of several multimedia objects. Using the X-Windows system, the editor was implemented on an environment of Sun SPARC stations and PC-ATs equipped with video compression hardware. The user interface of the multimedia editor consists of a main editing window for each display device, and rope windows, which represent synchronized sequences of digital video and audio being processed, called ropes. Experience showed that the editor provides a simple powerful system for multimedia document preparation, and can act as a basis for supporting various multimedia applications