CompuServe Thread

#Video Toaster (again)

3 messages in this thread
#33232From: Steven KosterMay 11, 1990 3:48 PM
Gee Mark, since you asked, I'll tell you my long and sorry story. I work in a small liberal arts college in Michigan as a video producer. Last year, the college purchased an Amiga 2000 with a 2090 Hard drive and a Super Gen gen lock for use by our (as of yet only) video production class. We also purchased Pro Video Gold, Dpaint II, and Turbo Silver. The system was integrated with a cuts only VHS editor. Unfortunately, no one ever took the time to make the system work properly. Since my division is not directly involved with the class, I never bothered with the Amiga. The only program that was ever used on the machine was PVG, and it (in my opinion) did not compare favorably to my Chyron VP-2 (at least not enough that I would fight to have the Amiga integrated with my U-matic/S-VHS system). Furthermore, while the graphics it did produce looked great on the RGB monitor, it picture was fairly fuzzy and washed out after bveing recorded and displayed on a regular NTSC monitor. Nevertheless, about a month ago, I decided that the Amiga was famous enough to warrant some serious exploration. I knew that we had other programs, but had no idea what TS and DPaint could do. So I sat down at the keyboard to see what I could learn. And boy was I surprised. What a great little machine! I was impressed with its capabilities for video graphics (and cheap too!), but I had a lot of trouble with the hardware. Every time I tried to do something slightly complex, I got a software failure. My friendly Amiga vendor told me my graphics chip was an early version, and the Fatter ANGUS would solve my problems. It is currently on order. I also ordered updates of all the programs and Workbench 1.3. Another problem was the hard disk kept returning errors–at first read/write and then validation errors. We reformated the HD but the problems have returned. Currently, we are unable to boot on the HD. I hope to have this fixed when we install the new chip.
#33251From: Pete GouldMay 12, 1990 12:33 AM
>> … while the graphics it did produce looked great on the RGB monitor, >> its picture was fairly fuzzy and washed out after being recorded and >> displayed on a regular NTSC monitor. Sounds like you had a lousy encoder (or genlock). The Amiga produces an RGB analog signal at NTSC timing frequencies. With an appropriate genlock, it can produce excellent NTSC output. Unfortunately, all genlocks are NOT alike, and many of them take that nice RGB signal and turn it into an obscene parody of NTSC. Just out of curiosity, what was the genlock in question? Pete
#33545From: don wilsonMay 17, 1990 10:41 PM
Which college? I live in Ann Arbor and am active with the Amiga and Super VHS video production. -|- Don Wilson -|