Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!udel!mmdf
From: BARRETT@owl.ecil.iastate.edu (Marc Barrett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Amiga Video Mess (was RE: More Marc...)
Message-ID: <30633@nigel.ee.udel.edu>
Date: 16 Sep 90 22:56:22 GMT
Sender: mmdf@ee.udel.edu
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In message <30574@nigel.ee.udel.edu> Brian Wright
<S36666%ETSUACAD.BITNET@ricevm1.rice.edu> writes:

>How is it that WE as Amiga users have to RELY on Commodore for GRAPHICS? There
>are products that will essentially give the Amiga NATIVE 24 bit color in
>Hi Res.  Namely DCTV.  Yes this will be an external device.  But quite an in-
>genius one.  It's cost will be fairly low too.  Try $495 List.  Much lower
>than that in the store and mail order I am sure.  It is also a 24 bit digitzer/
>framegrabber.  It will also allow FULL NTSC (24 bit equivilent) animations with
>whatever limitations that standard Hi Res has.  The Animations being REAL-TIME
>too.  Even if Amiga does get a 32 bit graphics chipset, will the machine be
>fast enough for 24 bitplane 24 bit color REAL-TIME animations.  Possibly not.
>Such a CHIPSET would most likely not work in the 500/1000/2000/2500s.  But
>will most likely work on the 3000 on up.  DCTV will work on ALL Amigas.

   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.  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.

   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.  

   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.

   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.

   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.

                                   -MB-