CompuServe Thread

James, The Mediator LC is a low-cost, high-quality 24-bit VGA to NTSC video converter. It converts up to 640x480x16.7million color graphics into recordable video signals to your TV and\or VCR, VHS and SVHS formats. It costs about $500, which is still considered low-cost when it comes to quality scan-converters. The only drawbacks that it has are these: 1) Maximum output is 640×480 resolution, not the correct aspect of something like 740×512.(I can never remember the exact numbers for that) 2) The video output cannot be resized, so you lose a bit of the upper and lower parts of the image due to the shape of the TV monitor. 3) It requires you to load a driver in order to put any other resolution lower than 640×480 on the video screen. 4) You cannot overlay graphics onto existing video with the unit.(which is no big deal if you have no need for it) I've tried others units in this price range, and I've been disappointed each and every time except for this one. By the way, it is made by VideoLogic, in conjunction with IBM. Hope this was of some help to you. Scott Douglas 73540,3432

Hi James, I can concur with Scott's summary of the Mediator LC, I've had one for a few weeks and it does a very respectable job of scan conversion compared to similarly priced units. I like the external unit for two reasons: a. You aren't limited to a certain color depth (i.e. 8-bit vs. 16 or 24 bit) b. The output speed is only limited by your graphics adapter speed. I've been playing some flics from a ramdisk through my VLB Tseng 4000 W32i card and man they really *SCREAM*! Way faster from ramdisk than using a flic player that loads the flic into EMS. I don't know why, but I'm pretty excited about it. <g> Just my $0.019 cents… -Heinz Schuller Fly By Nite Studios