CompuServe Thread

Don, DCTV can do pretty fast animation, but interms of quality / accuracy and quantity, it is far away from single-frame recorded animation. But its a great way to preview what ever you have created before going single-frame recording. Quality out of DCTV is not bad, especially when ran in fast animation, details are lost anyway. To answer your question: 1. Yes DCTV files are smaller probably around 30K to 100K depending on each image. But remember, there is a definite quality loss, definitely more than JPEG. 2. As long as you watch in on TV(NTSC Monitor) quality loss is not that evident. BUT when you watch on 24bit graphic board in RGB, it looks very bad. 3. DCTV output is NTSC composite with RCA OUTPUT. No need of extra converter, just plug it in to you monitor with RCA Video cables. 4. There are no software(converter) that directly supports FrameStore image. But as long as its save in IFF24 from ToasterPaint or LightWave, it could be batch converted to DCTV using SHAREWARE such as REND24 or ADAM. I would not use the DCTV animation as a final product (especially if its for Broadcasting). But its definitely good as a test, sample, or show off to your friends. DCTV animation only runs at moderate rate when in 640×200 in 3bit mode.(+30frames/sec) <-300 frames of this will roughly be 7meg->8meg animation, so you also need tons a RAM. BTW OVERSCAN INTERLACED 4bit animation runs roughly at 5->7 frames/second on A3000. – THANX R.SATOH ->via Whap!

Don, I have some experience in this arena; I think that DCTV would make a great proofing device, and perhaps, even a decent low-end way to do Lightwave Anims. Answers: 1. DCTV format files are pretty small, usually well under 100k…and they tend to compress relatively well using either ANIM or PFX format. 2. Quality loss: you are basically getting something that is at least as good as VHS quality; I believe that the technical specs claim that it is roughly equal to 3/4" U-matic (NOT SP). 3. DCTV does composite out, via a RCA port. A trip through a TBC would probably help things a tad. 4. I have gotten very fast playback from DCTV several ways. First of all, ANIM is your worst bet. DCTV allows for either 4-bit or 3-bit format, interlaced or not. An anim running in 4-bit, interlaced mode is bound to be on the slow slide (probably never better than 10fps), while a 3-bit interlaced will usually exceed 15fps, and 3-bit non-interlaced can probably approach "real-time". You take a quality hit, though, when you give up the extra bitplane and/or interlacing…which is why the quality of the animations range from VHS to 3/4". There are two ways to optimize DCTV anims. First, for best speed and quality, is to use GOBS of RAM and something like the Director2 to page flip IFF's from memory. My pal Steve can usually do up to 5 seconds this way, using his 9 meg system. The quality is high, and the frame rate is also very high. The other tool worth mentioning is PF/X, or Page Flipper Plus F/X. It is an "oldish" animation tool from Mindscape International (I think that's the name of the publisher). It will format your IFF's into their proprietary PFX format, which is *MUCH* faster than ANIM, especially using their TURBO mode. This is, to my mind, the best way to go…you will get good to excellent quality, an a frame rate of at least 15fps, which should be smooth enough for many uses. P.S…Steve wrote a CanDo script that will do the DCTV conversions to [ MORE ]

[ continuation ] batched graphic files, and either compile them into an ANIM, or write the needed Director2 script to play them….he's thinking of releasing it for a modest Shareware fee ($10). Jonathan – via Whap!