CompuServe Messages

Ralph, you are right in many areas. Imagine/PC _is_ an excellent purchase; it offers a much wider and deeper set of functions than similarly-priced PC "toy" renderers. And yes, video on the PC is moving forward at an impressive speed. Consider that when the Amiga first came out, in 1985, it offered multitasking, 4-channel sound, real-time animation and 4096 simultaneous colors; most PCs didn't have color graphics _at all_, or a mice. Heck, many PCs only had a monochrome text display! Nowadays, PCs have fast processors, sound cards, accelerated high-color video cards, a windowing environment and much development work. You're still not there: witness the compatibility nightmares which only get worse as your equipment approaches the "gee-whiz" systems glowingly touted on magazine covers, with little coverage of their unstability; in the meantime, the Amiga tends to perform like a champ for those leading-edge applications. But, as you say, it's nothing that time can't fix. In a year or two, the Video Toaster will be even more advanced than it is now, but inferior-yet-similar products will satisfy PC owners who'll say "I don't need all that; I'm happy with my VideoMonger board". The main thing about the PC is its huge user base, and the fact that this user base has many more businesses and professionals which aren't afraid of paying for performance. Ergo, lots of R & D, lots of improvement all the time. Blaq!