CompuServe Messages

Jim, The saga of getting good quality video output out of the Amiga 500 and 2000 series has led me to spend much time and gnashing of teeth to try and find a good solution. In answer to your question, neither the Amiga 500 or 2000 as an NTSC encoder built into the unit. There is a monochrome output on the 2000, but this is not NTSC composite. To my knowledge, the 500 has no direct NTSC composite out. Your options at this point are varied. There are third party encoders on the market that are realtively inexpensive. The CMI was reported to be the best of the lot, so I purchased one. I was not impressed, but for a small amount of money, you can get NYSC out. I would suggest looking at a genlock as opposed to a straight encoder. The time will come if you are working a a professional capacity that you will want to lock the Amiga to some other source. The NTSC encoders will not allow you to do this, although I suppose you could run the output into a frame sync with good results. In my opinion, the video quality of the Genlocks on the market has been superior to that of the NTSC encoders. I have used the Progen (around $400) with good results, although if you have the money, the Omnigen ($1595) looks very good. I hope this helped. I have just finished some animation efx for an opening for a program that will air on cable this November. The Amiga saved up a bunch of time, and in many cases can be very useful in a professional production facility.