Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!sun-barr!decwrl!vixie!avsd!tra
From: tra@avsd.UUCP (Ted Asocks)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga-like PS/2 with MS-Windows multimedia software
Keywords: HDTV
Message-ID: <2148@avsd.UUCP>
Date: 12 Oct 89 20:23:05 GMT
References: <20405@usc.edu> <2571@dciem.dciem.dnd.ca>
Reply-To: tra@avsd.UUCP (Ted Asocks)
Organization: AMPEX Corporation, Redwood City, CA
Lines: 45

In article <2571@dciem.dciem.dnd.ca> king@dretor.dciem.dnd.ca (Stephen King) writes:
>
>I would rather see an Amiga 3000 that supported HDTV, 32 bit DMA, etc.

         stuff deleted

>the case may be), so come on Commodore, look at what's going on and get
>with it! 

         more stuff deleted

>     ...{utzoo|mnetor}!dciem!dretor!king        king@dretor.dciem.dnd.ca

Please let's be realistic about HDTV and the Amiga 3000, I for one would
like to afford a 3000. By doing some rough calculations using some SMPTE
information on production HDTV standard:

		Sampling rate: 74.25 Mhz  
		Active pixels: 1920 x 1035
		Bits per pixel: 24

Using the above specifications the memory required to store one frame of
HDTV would be over 5.96 megabytes, one field would be half of that (HDTV
is 2:1 interlaced). That might make animations a little tough :-). Then 
add the special HDTV monitor with a 16:9 aspect ratio (the wider aspect 
ratio is responsible for much of the impact of HDTV) which cost about
$6000 at the low end, you have got yourself an expensive system.

I did see a HDTV framestore for the Mac at NAB in April, the price with
12 megs of memory as of June 2, 1989 was $45,000. It should be available
early 1990. The manufacturer is Rebo Research, NY, NY. It may be a little
cheaper now that the price of memory is going down :-).

All the above does not take into account the inevitable data compression
that will be used with HDTV, that will reduce memory requirements, but
it still will be expensive. I haven't mentioned the bus bandwidth required
to update the screen yet... but I think I've made my point.



-- 
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|	Ted Asocks	  |  POST: AMPEX Corp, Redwood City, CA 94063
---------------------------  PHONE: (415) 367-2853
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