#AmiExpo Chicago Report
16 messages in this thread
*** Report from AmiExpo Chicago ***
AmiExpo Chicago is under way as of today. The show seems to be smaller
than normal, and the crowd was rather sparse today. The size is
understandable with DevCon going on at the same time in Atlanta. There is
still plenty of interesting hardware and software being demoed.
Two different hardware vendors have made claims at this show that each is
the only one with a hard disk controller which is fast enough to display
full video at real time (30 frames / second). The companies are ICD and
IVS. ICD had a very impressive demo showing 4.5 minutes of the Star Wars
movie where the Millenium Falcon escapes from the death star. IVS showed an
animated Gulliver's Travels and also had Digital Creations showing a
sail-surfing video using the IVS TrumpCard with DCTV.
Another popular hardware add-on seems to be an internal memory board for
expanding the Amiga 500, which a number of vendors announced today. These
boards will allow anywhere from 8 to 11 megabytes of memory to be added to
an A500. This is going to make for a hard choice for A500 owners, but
certainly shows that the machine is expandable. It should also mean lower
prices for the user.
[continued]
[continued]
Black Belt Systems is here at AmiExpo showing off the new HAM-E adapter
hardware which allows the Amiga to display over 256,000 colors or 256
colors out of a palette of 16 million. The HAM-E outputs standard RGB (I
assume analog). The demo very effectively showed how much the graphics
capabilities of the machine can be improved (and at a very low cost). We
did notice that some of the pictures in the demo seemed to change color
substantially when put into HAM-E mode. This may just be an artifact of
the demo. The HAM-E should start shipping on July 3.
NewTek is at AmiExpo in full force with a small booth at the front of the
convention floor and a booth taking up one whole side of an aisle at the
far end of the hall. They are demoing DigiPaint 3.0, DigiView 4.0, Elan
Design's Performer 2.0 and Chroma F/X.
Overall, if I had to describe this AmiExpo in one word it would be "VIDEO."
— Mike Roth
Newtek's not demoing toaster?
Ron
Yes, they are. They have a number of them set up in their aisle. Sorry if
I didn't make that clear.
— Mike Roth
Hmm.. hey, Mike… maybe now that they can put 8-11 meg aboard an A500,
they should start making the A500 with a 68020? –Eet–
Director of Mayhem
Extra Terrestrial Imports, Ltd.
Mike,
I would guess that the color changes in HAM-E images are due to the fact
that none of the digitizing/scanning software currently available renders
directly in HAM-E format. Ben provides software to convert 21-bit DigiView
and 24-bit Art Department data to HAM-E format, but that conversion is done
(I believe) on the "raw" data. No brightness, contrast, RGB, etc.
adjustments are made, unless Ben's software is capable of them. Thus, if
Black Belt's demo is comparing a HAM image to a HAM-E version of the same
image, the HAM version is probably "balanced" while the HAM-E version is
not. Then again, I could be totally wrong. 8^)
-Dave
Hmmm, I was thinking more along the lines that the HAM images have to
replace a good number of true colors with close matches and dither
patterns, wich the HAM-E doesn't have to. That fact could definately affect
the color looks of an image.
Ben
Ben,
Yes, HAM-E images will certainly be more accurate color-wise than
standard HAM pics. I think the most noticeable improvements with HAM-E
will be improved resolution (less dithering required) and virtually no
color banding. To say that I'm "looking forward" to getting mine would be a
massive understatement. 8^)
-Dave
I talked to Ben Saturday about the HAM-E color changes. He explained that
the images were directly taken from DigiView without any post-processing.
There is no reason why you can't work with the image to to display
differently with the HAM-E. All in all, a very nice product, IMHO.
— Mike Roth
Dave,
TAD, from what I understand, writes the "balancing" information to it's
24 bit file save format. So it is raw plus data. If Ham-E can read this
properly, it should display just fine.
Then again, I could be totally wrong. <===(stolen disclaimer)
Jim
Jim,
I'm not sure whether the HAM-E software can read the balancing
information DigiView and TAD save with 24-bit data or not. I suspect not
since the HAM-E software would then have to replicate DV's and TAD's
balancing and dithering algorithms to get an accurate image. Perhaps Ben
or Perry will chime in and clear things up….
-Dave
Did you mention that NewTek was also showing the Toaster? That seemed to be
the whole focus of the large booth. It was good to see them there after not
being at D. C. at all. I'm not involved with graphics much so the Toaster
didn't make as big an impression with me as did the way they presented it,
very professional in my opinion. I did buy a Toaster T-shirt though.
My impression of the show overall was similar. There seemed to be fewer
developers and more retailers, but then I was looking for cheap software
anyway. Some of the booths are getting bigger too, like Supra, Digital
Creations, and Applied Engineering, besides the overwhelming NewTek Toaster
booth. Other than that, since I'm living in Columbus, it was nic to get to
the big city for a day.
Sorry I didn't get to see you. I did get to see alittle of your area. Books
and Bytes was good but didn't have the book I'm looking for. Naperville
looks like it is growing like a bat out of h*ll, particularly the west and
around Fox Valley. I really liked Wheaton also. Good luck in the future.
Are you still going to be around here?
—Mike
Mike,
I tried to call you Friday night, but you weren't in, and then the Hyatt
didn't seem to be answering the phones. 🙁 The Toaster displays were very
well done, but I'm also not that heavily into video and my interest quickly
waned. I did really like some of the animations and graphics displays at
the different booths, though.
I also found out that the GVP 3050 50Mhz 68030 board is supposedly
shipping now. A3000s were readily available as were AmigaVision packages.
I was really disappointed in that the software dealers didn't seem to have
a very good variety of software in stock at the show. I was looking for a
number of titles which noone seemed to have brought to the show.
— Mike Roth
I stood and watched the ICD demo for quite a while. Couple this capability
with NewTek's Vidio Toster, and, if the TV producers can get around the
fact that there are no real computers except for IBM and Mac, TV won't be
the same in five years. We may begin to see real animation on Saturday
Morning cartoons. The IVS sail-surfing show was very impressive.
I agree. I can imagine some really impressive videos coming out in the
not-too-distant future. And from the same type of people who have brought
us the neat screen hacks and demos on the Amiga.
— Mike Roth