#3DS stars
Martin and J. Murphy:
Feature for feature the complete Bandit system and the complete Max
system is about the same price. We're looking at $8-$10 thousand
when all the hidden extras are added. The quality of the Max was
very good to a Mitsubishi 30 inch monitor. The Bandit was aborting
animation after about 20 frames. Its frame capture and playback
quality was hampered by a 60 cycle hum bar visible on the playback
but not on live camera. Needless to say The Bandit was not working
properly so the REP said he would be glad to give me an in house demo
after the new year.
The DPS-PAR was putting out excellent playback of about 2 minutes of
different animation pieces and didn't miss a beat. Mixed in was some
live video frame grabbed with the TBC4 accessory. Its quality was
variable because the demos being shown were all rendered at different
parameters. Some were at 512×486, some at 640×480, some at 768×482
and some at 24 FPS film speed. There was one peculiar artifact I saw
on a starfield and associated vertical lines on one animation. The
faster the movement of the image the more the image lag across the
screen. As the image moved slower the image came together. Still
frame observation showed very sharp edges, unlike field rendering
gives you. I only saw this on one animation piece so I will assume
it had to do with how it was rendered rather than the playback
method. Most of the other animations were rendered to fields as
evidenced by the look of a still frame. I may try to duplicate the
effect with frame rendering and no motion blur. The monitor was a
1944Q. The big problem I see with the PAR is its IDE interface as
opposed to SCSI II. As such the IDE standard will limit the top end
of this device due to a 500 meg limit per partition and the high
compression ratios that will be required as compared with the MAX.
The MAX uses far less compression ratio and should be capable of a
higher quality image. What you have to ask is "what price am I
willing to pay for just a bit more quality." Prices quoted to me
last week were under 3,000 for a complete 2-board PAR system and
$10,000 for the equal feature Max setup based on me converting from
my present targa+ & Diaquest system, and what I would have to buy to
get up and running. Since 99% of my clients see their stuff on VHS
tape and no higher I think it $ foolish to consider the $10,000 Max
system. If your clients view the animation on a Sony 1910 monitor
and the distribution is Beta SP or better then it would be foolish to
spend for the PAR if you plan to output from these devices.
Understand that I did not SEE a difference in the Max quality vs. the
PAR but then I wasn't comparing apples with apples either. In theory
the Max should have the lesser lossy compression than the PAR.
I see the PAR as a device that is going to set the standard for true color
animation recording for the masses the way the Snap cards and magni Pro's did
for 256 color recording and the