REWING@TRINCC.BITNET (04/12/89)
Before I start, all disclaimers apply since I work for Apple. Then again, does anyone really read the bloody things anyway? The Apple III Video Overlay board is designed to bring the magic of Genlock to the Apple IIe and IIgs. Those of you who have seen this done with Amigas and Mac IIs equipped with Mass Micro ColorSpace boards (or something like it) know what I mean. Slap the board in the machine, (a surface-mount beauty, if I must say so), for the IIe, any slot will do, for the IIgs, slot 3 required, (fortunetely Transwarp GS can live in slot 4), hook the video cables from the input device (camera, VCR, videodisk, light of the moon), reconnect the monitor to the output plug in the back of the machine and turn the machine back on. Did I just say Apple III Video Board????? Sheeesh! Your Apple II will operate normally as if nothing was different. Only if the board is receiving video input from your device will things change. Then the screen looks like an Amiga on a bad day, but not bad for interlaced video. For IIgs owners, software installation is comprised of adding an NDA and a new tool (TOOL033). IIgs owners get to run a seperate program. Both programs will allow you to set which color will be the key color, and how will the video show through (or not) that selected color. Once the video is going, your jaw will drop to the floor. The board literally turns your computer into a RGB television with computer graphics laid over. The NDA controls just how much video shows through where, using two sliding controls (graphics and video). The ends of the controls read KEY and NONKEY respectively. Think of it this way: if the selected key color is biased for video, and nonkey are biased for graphics, then the video image will show through everywhere that has that key color, leaving the other colors alone. So, if you assigned the purple Finder background color as key, then the video show replace the purple, while the menu bar, and various icons would all remain. If you had a Multiscribe document on screen, and the key color was white, then the video would show only where there was white on screen, namely the writing window, and the menu bar. Of course, you can do the exact opposite, or any combination of the above (including just pure video, no graphics, and vice-versa). truly neat stuff here. What's even better is the amateur video hobbyist potential, or the multimedia classroom with videodisk lessons. And of course, while all those Mac users have there color background screens (Colordesks). you can have "thirtysomething"on your screen. A few caveats: No RGB output, but the board has a socket for this, and I doubt if most people would need this. Wait, I'm confused in my writing. Of course there's RGB out...to drive the monitor. Duhhhhh.... No video capture: Maybe a third party can do this? Graphics and video actually look better on an NTSC device (like an external TV, than on screen, and the video overlay effects are slightly different between the two, so if you are recording to tape, make sure you see it on a real TV first. Text looks really lousy in 10 or 12 point. Make sure you use at least 16 point or better, as the manual describes. Well, that's about all I can think off. Please, no flames on grammar. I'll be happy to answer all further questions that you can throw at me. --Rick Ewing Apple Atlanta
jordan%lvvm6.span@SDS.SDSC.EDU (RICH) (04/13/89)
>Slap the board in the machine, >(a surface-mount beauty, if I must say so), for the IIe, any slot >will do, for the IIgs, slot 3 required, (fortunetely Transwarp GS can >live in slot 4)... . . . >--Rick Ewing > Apple Atlanta Is the slot 3 requirement bypassable in any way on a GS? My Transwarp is going in slot 4 (if it ever gets here... sigh... 5 weeks and waiting) because I have an F.P.E. (68881 Floating Point) in slot 3 (the only slot where it can live invisibly, without changing control panel settings...). And anywhere I move it to will cause problems by disabling something else, or requiring me to actually physically switch cards. Ideas? Thanks. Rich
REWING@TRINCC.BITNET (04/15/89)
Just the clarify something about the video overlay card. In the GS, it *must* go in slot 3. This is because the video signal pin is only connected to slot 3 or the IIgs. On the IIe, the card can go anywhere. I've heard that the Transwarp GS card can no longer live in slot 4. COmbined with the conflicts of the F.P.E. fighting over the same slot, some people may have some tough decisions to make. --Rick Ewing Apple Computer