CompuServe Messages

Peter, you're correct that DCTV is composite, but I'd weigh that against: 1) that excludes S-VHS, since you couldn't use any S-VHS genlock or encoder with it. 2) you are stuck with DCTV's video encoding. A video guy I dealt with purchased a DCTV cause he liked the 'look', but found that the signal wasn't up to his 'specs' (whatever that meant). He returned it and got a HAM-E, which he ran through his Niricki (?) genlock and was very happy with the results. (no, I didn't show or talk him into the HAM-E; he did this before I knew him) Finally, you cannot use the DCTV as the RGB with other a genlock (ie to put the DCTV over the top of live video) since it doesn't have RGB. You can with HAM-E (at least I've seen it done). Re speed of anims, etc…. I'll grant you that the 3bitplane DCTV's can get pretty fast, but so are the 256color HAM-E's. All depends on the frame changes and such, of course. I use PageFlipper too, and it works just great with HAM-E images (all types). I'd grant that DCTV seems to get faster throughput given the same anim, but not that much more. Last, you can mix HAM-E imagery and regular Amiga hires graphics/text on the same screen (in horizontal segments). Early on I did a demo using HAM-E graphics/animations on the top 3/4 of the screen, with regular Amiga hires text, etc on the bottom (the interface to the application). Very flexible. BTW, by no means to do mean to bash DCTV. Just wanted to pose an alternative and mention some of it's strengths. I really respect your views, given the work I've seen out of you, so I'm sure that DCTV must be a knockout at times. And, as has been mentioned, you cannot even purchase HAM-E any more, so it's a moot point. 🙁 See you. –jp–seattle–