Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!decwrl!labrea!polya!ali
From: ali@polya.STANFORD.EDU (Ali T. Ozer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Computer to VCR?
Message-ID: <2738@polya.STANFORD.EDU>
Date: 1 May 88 05:29:57 GMT
References: <880501030428.625908@HIS-PHOENIX-MULTICS.ARPA>
Reply-To: ali@polya.UUCP (Ali T. Ozer)
Organization: Stanford University
Lines: 25

In article <880501030428.625908@HIS-PHOENIX-MULTICS.ARPA> 
Friesen%PCO@BCO-MULTICS.ARPA writes:
>
>I am wondering if it is possible to hook up your computer to a VCR or
>camcorder and superimpose graphics or text with a picture you are taking
>without videodigitizing the picture.  I know there are character
>generaters out there, for camcorders, but is it possible to hook up the
>Atari as one of those?
>This is something I've been waiting for it to come out, and now I see
>Electronic Arts has done it on the Amiga.  I think the colloquial term
>is genlock.

It's not Electronic Arts's doing; Amiga comes genlock-ready, and there
are several companies making genlock units for the Amiga, priced from
$150 (Mimetics "Amigen") to several thousand dollars. Electronic Arts
and other companies do manufacture programs that let you do animations
& titling suitable for superimposing on videos. Of course, the Amiga
also provides some other features that make it desirable for video,
such as full overscan output that prevents solid borders around images
when recorded on video tape.

This is not to say genlocking isn't possible on the Atari; I remember
seeing an article in an German computer magazine for a genlock unit for the
1040ST.  I remember it costing a bundle (> 1000DM), and I do not
remember any details...

Ali Ozer, ali@polya.stanford.edu