#Need Light 3D compressor
2 messages in this thread
<<If you can't find anything else DCTV is inexpensive (about $200) and for some
animations will give fairly decent results at 30 fps.>>
What exactly is DCTV? I've heard about it, but never looked into it. Does
it require a Zorro slot or is it external? Will it hook directly to a standard
VCR or even through the Toaster itself? Tell me more, please.
1 month till I upgrade to the DKB Wildfire 060/50.
Chris Shepard: 030/50 A2000 with Toaster 4000 & MacIIfx via Emplant.
Chris,
DCTV is an external hardware-software device with two cables. One goes to the
parallel port and is needed only for digitizing (which you will not use very
often since you have a toaster). The other cable offers a feed through plug to
your monitor. The box has an RCA video input and output.
It's compression system transforms the information into a form that Paint
programs (DPaint, Brilliance, etc.) treat as if the info was a 16 color hi-res
picture. It can also read and save pix as 24 bit.
It has its limitations, which I will leave aside for the moment, but the bottom
line is that share-ware programs such as Rend-24 or ADPro, Imagemaster etc.
will batch process the 24bit output of Light-wave and yield an animation in
DCTV form that can be handled by virtually any paint program.
The quality is not quite that of the 24 bit output of Lightwave but, depending
on the animation, is at least as good as Ham-8. However, the main point is
that 1 meg renders become 100K and except for very color heavy anims with great
changes from frame to frame you should have no trouble running at 30 fps.
I have seen DCTV systems (software and hardware) offered for $200 or less. If
you have any specific questions, let me know.
Good Luck.
Al Berman, A.C.E.S.
Amiga Computer Enthusiasts Southwest Ct.