CompuServe Messages

Andrew, I haven't seen the Video Spigot hands on so I can't really comment on its performance. It makes use of Quicktime, for which there is no system-level equivalent as yet on the Amiga. Although individual Amiga packages that can outperform QT in terms of sheer quality, C= hasn't yet offered up something quite as transparent to the Amiga operating system as QT is on the Mac; expect something in the coming year, however. As for video digitizers, there are a number of reasonably priced models for the Amiga, most of which save imagery in the standard Amiga IFF-ANIM format. The overall system price you quoted seems reasonable for a Mac, given retail pricing these days. I would guess that with Commodore educational pricing, you could get a comparably equipped A4000 for somewhat less. The A4000 would offer better graphics out of the box and probably run faster in many respects. A barebones A4000 with half the RAM of that Centris 650, half the HD and no CD-ROM drive retails now for around $1500 with keyboard and mouse but without monitor. An Emplant board to run Mac II stuff very speedily on the 4000 will set you back less than $400. But the real question is what you need to do with your computer and what you plan to do with it. From there you can begin to judge the value (not just the price) of the gear you're looking at. Are you going to do multimedia? Desktop video? (there's a difference in those two categories). General productivity stuff? Games? What's your focus likely to be? — Ron Legro, Milwaukee via AUTOPILOT (the only way to fly)