CompuServe Thread

Tim, DCTV is a great product – I use it often and like it very much. However, because of the way it performs its magic, it has limitations. Primarily, ALL manipulations of the data have to occur within the DCTV software. External programs can only playback what has been created in DCTV. This is because the DCTV hardware relies on encoded information at the top of the picture file to figure out how to properly color its NTSC output. I would think that the preferred way to do your layered presentations would be to keep the elements as discrete data and use a presentation program to combine them however you like. The advantages of this is in fine tuning & changing your presentation. For example lets say that one of your layers is a company logo in 2 colors (Black & White?) and it slides onto the screen at a certain point in the presentation. Now the presentation is finished and you decide you would rather have the full color version of the logo instead. To insert the new logo you will only have to change the name of the file that the presentation program is loading – simple and fast. To do the same thing using DCTV would require that you know ahead of time EXACTLY how the presentation will look. You would then create all of the artwork in DCTV and show the series of stills one after the other. I've left some things out here, but this is a start. I also made some assumptions: presentations include animation, and ease of modification. Most presentation programs will take a lot of the work in generating animated sequences out of your hands and automate it. When you use the native amiga graphics modes it is fairly easy for a program to manipulate various graphic elements and move them around for you. However, if you want/need photo-like pictures and are willing to do all your manipulations with 24-bit files, the DCTV makes a great lowcost display alternative. Just remember that the 24-bit files take a lot of storage space and each frame has to be converted into DCTV format before viewing. Patrick

Tim… DCTV works on the same basic principle of HAM-E, as far as the magic cookie goes. By this I mean, you cannot display a DCTV image without having a certain portion of the unseen picture on the screen. This eliminates the ability to do any transitions using AmigaVision. AmigaVision, at that point, would be a simple slideshow controller. You would have no trouble playing anims or showing pix, but you wouldn't be able to use any of the transitions on it. I haven't tried this myself, but I'm pretty sure this is how the cards would fall. Perhaps it's time that Digitial Creations came out with a modest presentation program for the DCTV that allowed transitions? I am pretty sure that you would not be able to drop brushes on top of DCTV screens, either. The palette for DCTV is computed in a fairly unique way, and the chances of making your brush use that palette is, slim, methinks. You should probably hook a DCTV up and try the simplest of things, first. You might be shocked as to what you might expect to work, but won't. Jim

Tim, Our company does both video and MM work. We have been working with DCTV for three months now, and we are very impressed with it's graphic output… say that twice… *graphic*. DCTV is the best add on for anybody who wants to put real time animations of 3d renderings or 2 1/2D anims and *dump* them to video. Why? Because DCTV works and thinks in video terms. If your final output is an RGB monitor (MM slide shows, training and kiosks) and wouldn't recommend DCTV for anything. Best way (and my clients do not complain about the quality) is to go in 16 color Hi-res for titles and HAM interlace for pictures and digitized graphics. HAM can do a very good job, once you know it well. And the new AGA chips in the 4000 will be just what you are looking for, if you want better quality. SO rule of thumb for me… DCTV—>video HAM,Hires—>RGB. My opinions, of course (and experience) Jorge Escobar/MEGABYTE PRODUCTIONS (..and AutoPilot, of course!)