Xref: utzoo comp.sys.mac:43106 comp.sys.ibm.pc:38944 rec.video:8956 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!sun-barr!lll-winken!arisia!sgi!shinobu!odin!odin.corp.sgi.com!portuesi From: portuesi@tweezers.esd.sgi.com (Michael Portuesi) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.ibm.pc,rec.video Subject: Re: Can someone recommend video software/hardware Message-ID: Date: 28 Nov 89 14:44:54 GMT Sender: news@odin.SGI.COM Reply-To: portuesi@sgi.com (Michael Portuesi) Distribution: na Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mtn. View, CA Lines: 66 In-reply-to: peter@aucs.uucp's message of 27 Nov 89 19:43:57 GMT I'm posting this to the net because sending to .UUCP sites usually barfs on me, and this could prove educational for a few people. >>>>> On 27 Nov 89 19:43:57 GMT, peter@aucs.uucp (Peter Steele) said: peter> The Audio/Visual department is thinking of getting into computerized peter> video editing and that sort of stuff. They realize that the Amiga is peter> probably the best out there for this purpose, but they would rather peter> not be the *only* department on campus with such a machine. I think this fear is a bit irrational. When you purchase a particular piece of video gear, say a tape deck, do you worry about being the "only" department on campus with such a machine? If you look upon the Amiga as being a piece of video hardware instead of a computer system, suddenly being the only computer of its kind isn't so much of a problem. If you need compatibility with PC's and Macs, the Amiga 2000 provides PC/AT emulation on a plug-in card along with an AT-compatible expansion bus in the box. With the AT-on-a-card, a PC Clone runs in an Amiga window. Many dealers provide this card free as incentive to get you to buy the system. Even without the AT-on-a-card, the Amiga can read MS-DOS media directly on its own drives, and even mount an MS-DOS compatible filesystem. Inexpensive products exist to allow you to directly read and write Macintosh-format floppy disks. Regarding its performance as a low-cost video workstation, the Amiga currently has the biggest selection of video hardware and software available, including paint programs, several types of animation programs, 3D rendering and animation, character generators, presentation programs, video special effects packages, frame grabbers, genlocks, etc. Deluxe Paint III, for example, was designed for video applications and offers built-in cel animation capabilities and many Paintbox-like features. Products for the Amiga tend to be much less expensive than similar products for the Mac and PC markets. The Amiga's graphics chipset is oriented towards video, with many features aimed at creating special effects such as double-buffered animation, smooth pixel-level scrolling, and the ability to synchronize operations to specific points of the raster scan. It can support multiple display buffers and video modes on the screen at once. It has direct support for genlocks. It offers support for overscanned borderless displays via software control. The upcoming revision of the Amiga chipset will provide even more direct hardware support for video/genlock effects, 35 ns pixel resolution for professional-quality graphics and titling, as well the ability to control the frame rate of the display via software. The new chipset will drop into current models and will be compatible with current software. The Amiga is really worth checking out. You'll be lucky to find these features as options for the Mac or PC, let alone find them as standard features with wide software support. --M -- __ \/ Michael Portuesi Silicon Graphics Computer Systems, Inc. portuesi@SGI.COM Entry Systems Division -- Engineering He says, "Take me to your leader" -- and I say, "Do you mean....George?" "I just want to meet him" -- and I say, "Come on, I don't even _know_ George!"