CompuServe Messages

No you don't need to buy the converter to get 24-bit iff files. the DCTV box plugs into the normal 23 pin monitor jack output of the amiga. It also plugs into the parallel port where the printer is usually hooked up. The DCTV unit has to video jacks on it. one in, one out. Thes jacks are what they call "phono" jacks and all VCR's and camcorders have them. the video camera would be connect to DCTV's input video jack, and the output video jack would be connected to a "composite" monitor.. that is a monitor that has an video phono jack input. Most new tv's have this capability but if you have a VCR you can plug into it's phono jacks run an older tv on channel 3,4(usuallt there's a button like "video/ant" or something.) The paint program or the digitize program when run will put up a greyish picture on the computer's monitor, but put up a nice display on the Composite monitor (or tv). This is the monitor you use to do everything on (you could shut off the amiga's monitor at that point, if you so desire). The converter is a beast that allows the display to come up on your normal amiga's monitor, you don't need another monitor, or tv, and because your monitor is better than an off the shelf tv, it looks better! When you run the digitize program, video from the video-camera will be displayed on the composite moniter. when you grab the photo, you can change parameters (brightness,sharpness,color,etc.) and save the picture in DCTV's format,OR 24 IFF format.. ADPRO or equivalent can the convert the 24-iff format and translate it to GIF…. The DCTV does not really capture a 24-bit image.. A video camera puts out only about 3900 colors and has a resolution of approx 640ish by 300 lines (NOT talking about Hi-8 or S-VHS, but a normal "composite" camera. This resolution is what DCTV captures and does a decent job. It cannot really capture stuff of pre-recorded tape though, if you have a really decent pause feature on the tape sometimes it will work.. All video capture boards, including the ones on the PC, using the composite video input will limit you to this reslution. (TV's composite is called NTSC in the usa, and PAl in Europe). if you need finer resolution, an photograph of the object can be scanned in using an "scanner" (good name, huh!) The scanner usually has about 300 x 300 reslution per INCH and will give a much sharper image than any video capture device. A slow scan TV can be much finer than NTSC composite video as that's what they used for all those NASA pics on mars, the the voyager probes. Boy what a long msg! You might whant to pic up the mag "desktop video" as it covers IBM,MAC, and still AMIGA video cards! Hope this helps more than it confuses! -Tom-