Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cwjcc!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ukma!jgary
From: jgary@ms.uky.edu (James E. Gary)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: LIVE! digitizer
Message-ID: <12325@s.ms.uky.edu>
Date: 1 Aug 89 15:59:49 GMT
References: <4810@ncrcae.Columbia.NCR.COM> <5660048@hpcvca.CV.HP.COM>
Reply-To: jgary@ms.uky.edu (James E. Gary)
Organization: U of Kentucky, Mathematical Sciences
Lines: 33

In article <5660048@hpcvca.CV.HP.COM> charles@hpcvca.CV.HP.COM (Charles Brown) writes:
>
>I had a LIVE.  In my opinion it is worthless.  It never produced a
>stable image.  HAM did not work at all.  The colors were exceptionally
>bad in all modes.  The software FREQUENTLY caused gurus.  Save your money.
>--
>	Charles Brown	charles@cv.hp.com or charles%hpcvca@hplabs.hp.com
>			or hplabs!hpcvca!charles or "Hey you!"
>	Definitely not representing my employer.
>	"The guy sure looks like plant food to me." Little Shop of Horrors

It largely depends on what you want it to do and what version of the 
software you have. HAM captures did not work with the first release of
the software, but they do now. Given a stable image and good lighting they
produce pictures almost as good as the very early digi-view stuff. I have
very little problem with guruing, but keep in mind that the live! software
is a process control program and must disable intuition interrupts, etc.
When I considered that I could grab video from any source (camera, vcr,
cable tv, etc.) and do interactive video special effects with it, I 
figured it was worth my money. If you want to digitize high quality color
photographs, then no, the live! isn't the best tool for it. Get a Digi-view,
but be prepared to spend lots of effort on proper lighting, etc.

The library that comes with live! is very good also. I have done a couple
of special effects programs with it. And don't forget that you can capture
multiple sequential frames to make an animation and are given tools for
splitting and rebuilding the animation for touch ups.

-- 
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| James Gary   jgary@ms.uky.edu | Yeah, I have a light,     |
|    University of Kentucky     |  my face and your butt!   |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+