>  I'm looking at creating a PIC 84 project to control a VCR for a Home
> Security System.
> I would like to add a OSD of time and date to the recorded image. Not
> knowing anything
> about video signals I looked into OSD Ic's. I found a SGS-Thompson
> STV-5730 IC that
> looks good, but cannot find anyone to supply it locally.
> Does anyone know where I can buy this in small retail?
> Alternative suggestions welcome.

Given that PICs have gotten very cheap, you could probably use a PIC to do
the time/date stamp; you'd want to use a chip dedicated to that purpose,
independent of other system activity (so glitches in your video don't wreak
havoc on everything else) but I would suggest that a low-resolution display
may be quite practical using "just" a 5484, sync detector, and video mux.
The key would be to run the PIC on an RC oscillator, and to put it to sleep
just before the end of each scan line.  Then use "wake-on-interrupt"  at
the start of the next scan line and the clock will be in a fixed phase rel-
ationship with HSYNC.  You'll of course have to put up with variations in
clock rate with the RC, but for time/date stamping that shouldn't be too
much of a problem.