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From: midkiff@portia.Stanford.EDU (Neil Midkiff)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: digitizing with a video camera
Message-ID: <1990Aug27.195126.4899@portia.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 27 Aug 90 19:51:26 GMT
References: <5368@ptsfa.PacBell.COM>
Organization: AIR, Stanford University
Lines: 19

In article <5368@ptsfa.PacBell.COM> rkm@PacBell.COM (Richard Mossman) writes:
[regarding getting a good "freeze frame" for digitizing]
>I would also like to know what you mean by "digital VCR".  I didn't know these
>existed.  What manufacturer?  Model?  Is it performing a digital recording of
>both video and audio?

A more accurate term would be "VCR with digital special effects."
These have a digital frame buffer (usually only one frame's worth of
memory).  The recording and playback on the tape is exactly the same
as in ordinary VCRs, but to do slow-motion, freeze frame, and so
forth, they use the frame memory rather than stopping the tape and
continually reading the same bit of tape directly from the spinning
video heads.

(By the way, the old-fashioned way CAN give excellent results on a
4-head, well-designed machine, but it's mechanically tricky and not
all VCRs do it well.)

-Neil