Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu From: clouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Kathy Strong) Newsgroups: comp.ivideodisc Subject: Re: Questions Message-ID: <39907@ut-emx.uucp> Date: 18 Nov 90 16:44:39 GMT References: <9676@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> Sender: news@ut-emx.uucp Reply-To: clouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Kathy Strong) Lines: 84 In article <9676@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> tfeliz@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Tom Feliz) writes: > > 1) What are some good books and magazines to read? > 2) What computer is most popular for multi-media? > 3) What is used more, Video tapes or laser disks? > 4) What would be a good setup for a beginner? > 5) Who makes the cards that display both computer > and video data on the same screen? > 6) What is the usual procedure to record video images on > a laser disk or a video tape? > 7) What programs are good for animation? > 8) How is the educational market? Is it saturated? > > I hope no one will mind my posting--I don't think this group suffers from an overuse of bandwidth! I can fill in a few gaps for Tom; hope someone else will come forth with answers for others. Books? beats me. The magazines I see on a regular basis are Computer Based Training Directions (CBT Directions) and Instructional Delivery Systems. These mags both have a fairly low signal-to-noise ratio, but occasionally I find something good in one or the other. What's your favorite computer? :-) Depending on who you ask, you'll find that THE best computer for multimedia is Mac, DOS, Amiga... etc. I work with a company doing video production with a significant fraction of its work being delivered as Interactive Videodisc. We use a DOS platform, largely because it has the largest choice of "authoring" (gawd, how I hate that word) software, broadest assortment of peripherals, and biggest installed based. I myself am a Mac person at heart, and am pleased to discover that we may soon be working on a Mac-based product. I've read a lot of interesting stuff about the low cost and high performance of Amiga's multimedia stuff, but I've never had a chance to put my hands on it. And so it goes. Laserdiscs are the default for interactive video because of the access time problem. An interactive program, as opposed to a linear one, presumably does not flow in an A-B-C sequence but rather allows the user to pick and choose... A-D-C-X-F-F-B ... what he/she wants to see. So, it becomes very important to have a delivery system that can move from point A to point X in an amount of time that won't cause your user to get bored and walk away. Videotapes, in their current form at least, can't provide random access. A few weeks ago I copied a posting from c.s.m.hardware about the NEC Cowboy, a VCR unit reputed to be able to FF a 120-minute tape in under 60 seconds. With careful editing, such a player MIGHT be acceptable for low-end multi- media, which is why I cross-posted, hoping that someone might have one and report on it to us! :-) Questions 4 and 5 (best beginner system and info on overlay cards) are too individual to answer. Some important overall criteria are: speedy processor, speedy hard disk, speedy video card... oh yeah, lots of disk space if you're going to be doing much with graphic overlays. Laserdiscs are usually made from 1/2" tapes. Even though laserdisc access is fast, there are still editing considerations in that you want to try to keep segments that will logically be accessed close together, physically close together on the disc. Problem is that tape is linear and laserdiscs are not... The education market is definitely NOT oversaturated. Schools are just now starting to get laserdiscs into their budgets. If you're really interested in targeting the education market, some of your other questions may be answered for you: determine what hardware your schools are using for delivery, and there you have it--your authoring hardware is at least narrowed down to an single operating system! Course, I haven't touched on next year's developments, like video compression for digital video.... Truly, my best recommendation would be to try to find a company who's doing multimedia now and get a position with them--it's an awfully big and new field to have to make your own purchasing decisions without the benefit of some prior experience. --Kathy > -- ........................................................................... : Kathy Strong : "Try our Hubble-Rita: just one shot, : : (Clouds moving slowly) : and everything's blurry" : : clouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu : --El Arroyo : :..........................................................................: