CompuServe Thread

May as well give MartinF and GregP a bit of a break here, Mark, and let you know what the fuss is all about. Digital Processing Systems' Personal Animation Recorder is a reasonably priced proprietary/hardware-based JPEG compression recording and playback system that takes your rendered TGAs, and transforms them to a digital video format while loading them onto a dedicated hard drive, playing 'em back at full 24-bit color/high(er) video resolution/30 frames per second to composite, S-VHS, or component video. The PAR itself is a single-slot ISA board which controls the dedicated HD, and should handle from 3-5 minutes worth of compressed video from the standard 500MB hard drive. An optional TBC daughterboard will allow real-time capture from any video source. The thing has been available for the Amiga for some time now and all seem to agree that it will be a fine way to quickly preview your broadcast video-bound animation, if not be actually good enough to record to an industrial-level VTR for clients requiring that video quality level. I have been asked to review the thing for 3D Artist, and hope to get an evaluation/beta unit when available. The original shipping date was mid-November, but has been pushed back to early/mid December. The PAR/HD setup will *retail* for 3k, while the TBC board will be another 1k. After seeing the thing work a few times, many of us see it as a major (affordable) addition to the smaller animation house, as well as a great preview tool for all.