CompuServe Thread

Stan, PMJI but I think I can offer you some good advice. First of all I wouldn't invest in the VGA-NTSC thing for $450. Although it is enexpensive and I haven't seen the output I think you'd be happier spending the money it seems you have put aside for this. For around $1500 you could get a Targa+ 16/32 which would work pretty well as it does have a very good NTSC signal. It comes with drivers for Animator Pro which is where you'd record your 3DS animations to tape. It does support S-VHS directly you just need the cable – which you can build yourself. The output to S-VHS would be acceptable for non-broadcast (in home) use and actually can look very nice. The problem now though is that you'll be limited to 256 color animations. Recording .FLC's. You will also most likely have problems with video tear as the T+ isn't the fastest card in the world. I have the Targa+ and have been pretty happy with the results. It is pretty easy to use and recording direct to VHS looks pretty ok. IMHO. But, what I think you should do is have a carwash (school right) and raise about another $1000 and get a DPS PAR. Base price is $1995 (you could get a break here being a school – you'll have to see) and the dedicated IDE Hard Drive _you need this_ is about $700 That's the 500Mb one and I think it can hold 5 minutes of full color (24 bit) 60 field per second video! Also at a higher resolution than Targa. The Targa is 512×486 (minimum NTSC standards) and the PAR is something like 720×486. There are quite a few people who have them and are very happy with them. Your students would have unlimited 1st generation broadcast quality output. And, it can also do standard VHS for students to take home – not everyone has S-VHS. This is probably the best desktop video solution around right now especially for $2700. I would talk to Greg Pyros to get more info on it. There is also a text file with a bunch of info on the PAR I believe it's called PAR_INFO.TXT [>> Continued in next msg]