Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!samsung!emory!gatech!ncsuvx!news From: hgm@ccvr1.ncsu.edu (Hal G. Meeks) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Micro TV??? Message-ID: <1990Nov13.135237.8574@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> Date: 13 Nov 90 13:52:37 GMT References: <6992@suns201.cel.co.uk> Reply-To: hgm@ccvr1.ncsu.edu (Hal G. Meeks) Organization: NCSU Computing Center Lines: 40 In article <6992@suns201.cel.co.uk> jc@cel.co.uk (jerry cullingford) writes: >Can anyone come up with a useful application for a "micro TV" system? I suspect >macs don't genlock too easily, so maybe that's why this was developed.. or is >it basically just a fast framegrabber? surely nobody would use something like >this just for watching TV? !!!!!? > Actually, I've given a bit more thought, and have come up with one good use for a software controllable "picture in a picture" system. If you are designing a interactive learning system, using Amigavision or what-have-you, having such a device could have some neat uses. Instead of layering your buttons on top of incoming video using a genlock, the incoming video could be shrunk to a window integrated inside your system. It would be movable, and resizable. It would be a simple matter to replay segments at a user definable frame rate (although a laser disk, to some extent, can do this) by buffering the incoming video. This would also allow for hardcopy output. Users could cut and paste elements in the window. For that matter, a small paint application would allow users to paint inside the window, to accentuate elements. Output could be either IFF's or ANIM format files, for later study. A big hard disk and fast SCSI controller would be very useful. There are single products, that combined, would give you some of these capabilites. The nice thing about this is it is combined into one application, and is fully software controllable. I realise that all of this is pretty nebulous, and will most likely be shot through of holes. I offer it only as idle speculation. My understanding of the MicroTV system is that it is a TV tuner on a card, that overlays itself on top on the normal Mac signal via a passthru arrangement of some sort. This is not quite what I have in mind. --hal -- hgm@ccvr1.cc.ncsu.edu "..now that Mac way of doing things has taken hold, netoprhm@ncsuvm.bitnet will we ever be able to get rid of it?" Alan McKay "User Interface, A personal view"