Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!walt.cc.utexas.edu!greg From: greg@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Greg Harp) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Amiga Video Mess (was RE: More Marc...) Message-ID: <37262@ut-emx> Date: 17 Sep 90 03:30:10 GMT References: <30633@nigel.ee.udel.edu> Sender: news@ut-emx Reply-To: greg@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Greg Harp) Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas Lines: 90 In article <30633@nigel.ee.udel.edu> BARRETT@owl.ecil.iastate.edu (Marc Barrett) writes: > When a company has to resort to hacks to stay alive, that company is >in dire straits. Most of the products you mentioned (DCTV and HAM-E, >among others) are video hacks, and totally incompatible with most Amiga >software. Hacks?! Where do you get off calling an expansion device a hack? The reason these are not integral parts of the Amiga is that they would drive the price up to that of the Macs... > All of these products require their own software, and software >written for one of these products will NOT run on one of the other products. Hmmm....sounds like a trend that has existed for some time in the PC/Mac market to me, Marc. > They are all totally useless for anything other than video applications. >Not all of us are use our computers for video applications. Actually, very >very few of us use our systems for video applications. So, how do any of >these products help applications like CAD, DTP, scientific, or multimedia >applications that require a high-resolution non-interlaced display with >lots of colors? They answer is that they don't. Marc, you fool, a person interested in high resolution, many colored graphics buys these products. I'm not and I don't. You can't go around saying that they are only good for one purpose when _that's_ the purpose they're designed for. For example, you claim that the boards are useless since only a few packages of software exist for them..... Well, may I remind you that people didn't buy Macs before there was software for them either. > Absolutely none of these products offer a non-interlaced display (which >is important for most real-world applications), absolutely none of them >will work with standard Amiga applications, like the few DTP and CAD >programs that are available for the Amiga. To make matters much worse, >none of them will so much as even work with the Amiga's O.S. at all. Howw much do you actually know about video? Are you aware that the NTSC standard uses interlace for more vertical resolution? A de-interlaced display would have to be converted _back_ to NTSC before it could be used for video. (Seen the prices on the PC and Mac products that do this? The cheapest I've seen, and I've been watching, was $1000) > Commodore is responsible for this rut they've gotten themselves >into. I started calling for standards in the market for third-party >video products over two years ago, when such products first started >coming out for the Amiga, but nobody listened. I forsaw the mess >of incompatible video products coming, and I wanted Commodore to >set some standards that third-parties could follow to make sure their >products would be at least somewhat compatible. Unfortunately, >Commodore has done absolutely nothing in this area. They have just >let third parties design whatever hardware they want, however they >wanted to, with no regard to compatibility with existing software >or other video products. The current mess of numerous, incompatible >video products with no standards in sight is the result. I can tell you why they don't listen to you, Marc. :-) I'd like to see two PC or Mac 24-bit boards from different manufacturers that work with the same software (unless that software was written to work with both -- i.e. different code for different boards). > To solve this situation, Commodore absolutely must do one of two thing. >They have to either produce an improved chipset with competitive color >capabilities, or they have to improve the O.S. so that it incorporates >device-independent video similar to the MAC. Unfortunately, I don't see >either of these two solutions materializing for a long, long, long time. Hmmm....you mean like monitor drivers? Seen 2.0? No I figure you've spent too much time flaming Amigas to know anything about them... > -MB- Milton Bradley strikes again... Greg [NET: Excuse the public flame, but I didn't want those not "in the know" to actually believe this fool.] Claimer: "Who me? Surely you must be mistaken!" _ _ "The lunatic is in the hall. The lunatics are in my hall. AMIGA! //// The paper holds their folded faces to the floor, //// And every day the paperboy brings more." -- Pink Floyd _ _ //// \\\\//// Greg Harp greg@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu \\XX// Stolen from an idea by es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu [Ethan Solomita]: execute (Saddam_Hussein); oil_prices++;