Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!decwrl!sun!imagen!atari!portal!cup.portal.com!Classic_-_Concepts
From: Classic_-_Concepts@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Video from workstations
Message-ID: <14618@cup.portal.com>
Date: 13 Feb 89 02:40:49 GMT
References: <15822@mimsy.UUCP>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 49

> Any suggestions out there for low cost, relatively low quality video
  production?

        Consider this as one option:
            Amiga 2500 with 40 meg drive   $3500 
              (up to 9 meg of addressable RAM possible)
            Flicker Fixer (not necessary, but nice)   $500
            
        The Amiga outputs an NTSC signal, so an interface between the
        genlock and the VCR or between the computer and the genlock is
        not necessary.
        For what you describe you have 2 options in Genlocks:
              Midrange - good clean signal, almost broadcast quality
                     Pro-Gen  $400
                     SuperGen $750
                     GenLock  $895 (Y/C for Super-VHS also included)
              Professional - excellent signal, flexible, broadcast quality
                      Niriki  ca $2500 - $3000
                      Magni   ca $3000 (blanking, sync, color framing, etc.)
        Recommended software:
              The Director (Right Answers Group)  $60  (good, flexible,
                                    requires some programming skills)
              Silver or Sculpt-Animate 4d for your 3d needs  ca. $120
              Lots of other video software such as Deluxe Video/Productions
              Deluxe Paint III (recommended) is an excellent paint program
                   that also supports some animation   $120
        Amiga resolution supports overscan up to 704 x 464.
        The Amiga's coprocessing chips, the blitter and copper take over
        many graphics tasks, leaving the 68020 free for processing tasks.
        This makes a very suitable hardware design for graphics and anima-
        tion.
               For video, I would recommend also purchasing both still and
        live digitizers:
               Still -  Digi-View from Newtek    ca $175  (great colors)
                  (uses a black and white or color camera/camcorder and
                   RCA composite input RS170 I believe)
               Live!  from a-squared with InnoVision software (Broadcast
                  Titler boasts an 'effective' resolution 2160 x 1440 and
                  overscan up to 736 x 480 pixels) or
               FrameGrabber (sorry, haven't used this one, don't know how
                  good it is.  Claims to be better than Live!)
    To use an Amiga for video you only need an Amiga, a genlock, a VCR and
some software.  You can add a receiver, sound software and a CD player and
still spend under $10,000, depending on your configuration.  Most of the 
best animation software I have seen runs on the Amiga (excluding $60,000
systems and some of the software for those systems have rather unintuitive
user interfaces) and there are lots of choices. 
Good luck with whatever you select; low-end video is an exciting field!
.