Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!sco!allanh
From: allanh@sco.COM (Boy Howdy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Cheesy Amiga Video
Summary: moderately long Amiga diatribe
Message-ID: <9714@scorn.sco.COM>
Date: 4 Sep 90 03:18:15 GMT
Sender: news@sco.COM
Reply-To: allanh@sco.COM (Boy Howdy)
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Organization: SCO Confuser Services
Lines: 53


...So I was pawing through the June 1990 issue of AmigaWorld, trying to
find out what the A3000's built-in video capabilities are, when I
happened upon this quote on page 22:

   "The Super Denise provides four new screen-display modes:
   Productivity (640x480), Interlaced Productivity (640x960),
   SuperHi-res (1280x200), and Interlaced SuperHi-res (1280x400).  All
   have severe color limitations, however, supporting a maximum of four
   colors (two bitplanes)."

And, later on page 32:

   "The new higher-resolution ECS modes actually have fewer colors than
   standard modes.  Because only a limited amount of display information
   can be sent out the video port, a noninterlaced screen can be
   achieved only by dropping the maximum number of colors to four from a
   palette of 64.  Even at four colors, these modes put such a large
   burden on system resources that they may cause problems for some
   programs.  For everyday use, you will probably want to run the
   640x480 noninterlaced mode on a black-and-white screen."

So if I understand this correctly, this means that the A3000--which
otherwise sounds like a wonderful machine, 16- or 25-Mhz 68030 and
all--can't do something even the most basic PS/1 or PC with a cheap VGA
card can do: decent, high-resolution noninterlaced video with a real
selection of colors.  (Since when does 640x480x16 colors constitute
"a large burden on system resources" for a 68030?)

No, I don't consider NTSC- or PAL-compatible video to be "decent video,"
nor is 1280x400 _interlaced_, non-square-pixel video "decent."  Come
on, folks--not everybody's a video or multimedia producer.

I'm not saying that an Amiga should have workstation-quality video out
of the box, nor am I saying that the Amiga should become "IBM-
compatible," but something as expensive and as powerful as an A3000
_should_ come with video that's at least as good as what's standard in
the IBM and Macintosh worlds.  I believe that the weird video modes are
what's really keeping the Amiga out of the mainstream.  Interlaced NTSC
(hell, interlaced _anything_) is fine for video games, but it won't cut
the mustard when an engineer wants a cheap X-Windows machine or when a
DTP person needs to do serious prepress work.

In fact, I'd bet that if Commodore were to introduce a new A3000 that
was identical to the original _except that Super Denise was replaced
with VGA and Super-VGA-like capabilities_, the new one would easily
outsell the original, simply because of the better standard video.  Such
a machine would appeal to the mainstream crowd, a crowd that doesn't
have software that uses weird video and that wants a cheap '030 box.
Hell, I'd buy one over a Mac any day.
-- 
Allan J. Heim / ...!uunet!sco!allanh / allanh@sco.COM
voice: +1 408 425 7222 x6343 / fax: +1 408 429 1887