CompuServe Messages

Umm… I'm fairly certain that the answer to most of your questions is "Yes". I know that the Caligari system has some method of controling one of the higher end Beta recorders for something like single frame recording, and I believe Microillusions has a product called "Video Transport Controller" which sounds an awful lot like what you're looking for. Microillusions is one of the vendors in the AmigaVendor forum, BTW, so you can ask them direct. SMPTE is a Time Code format which the Society of Motion Pictures created (the "SMP"), which has spread into all kinds of uses. One of them is doing video edits something like what you're suggesting. As I recall, you lay a SMPTE code track on one of the audio channels, and as it plays back, you can accurately tell where you are on the tape for doing edits and the like.