Radagast@cup.portal.com (sullivan - segall) (09/29/90)
> > The toaster is NOT shipping. I called NewTek and they >denied it, saying that shipment would be sometime this quarter. > -- Ethan > I've heard that before.... Meanwhile, I just got my HAM-E from BlackBelt systems today. It only took them a week to get it to me after an initial estimate of 4 weeks. All in all I'm rather impressed with BlackBelt. They at least know how to get a product out the door. And inexpensively as well... Here is my gut level reaction (after about four hours of playing around.) First the good parts: It performs easily as well as expected, producing very impressive B/W, and very smooth color shading. Most of the samples on the DATA disk seem to be in the 256 color register mode, so shading isn't as complex as it could be. The package comes with two disks. The first is full of utilities including a paint package, and various translation and display utilities. The paint package is somewhat slower than is really useful, but BlackBelt has made the software freely available on their bulletin board. I've only rarely gotten more than a page or two of documentation with any new hardware, and never free source code to play with. Despite its limitations, the paint program is quite powerful, and no doubt has many tricks to reveal. All utilities strongly support ARexx control. Workbench support is somewhat meager, but then I only rarely wander into those waters. Then the tricky parts: Installation wasn't very straight forward for me. The HAM-E has a number of turn-pots that need to be adjusted for system installation. The reason for this lies in the variety of different signal levels that can be found at the Amiga RGB port. Since the HAM-E interprets these levels on the fly, it needs to be adjusted to recognize them correctly. The first step is to get the HAM-E to recognize the fortune cookie. There is a good wide leeway built into the device, but it took a couple of turns of one turnpot before any images appeared for me. The next step is to match the grey level of the HAM-E to the grey level of your computer. This involves adjusting three turn-pots simulataneously to maintain a neutral level of grey, while increasing or decreasing the the total brightness. Unfortunately for me at this point, when I had adjusted the lower end to my satisfaction, the whites were completely blown out. and when the high end was okay, the whole greyscale disappeared at about the middle. Obviously the contrast was far too high, but nowhere did the manual mention anything about adjusting the contrast. Luckily (and again BlackBelt earns my praise here), the manual does include descriptions of three other factory adjusted potentiometers. Taking my warrantee into my own hands, I gently twiddled with the last completely undocumented turn-pot, and much to my delight, found that it was exactly what I was looking for. So now I'm the happy owner of a working HAM-E... My only worries are that not everyone will have sufficient technical background to adjust their devices, and that BlackBelt won't make enough money on the machine to keep selling it. Parting Shots: There are one or two things I could wish for. The input and output connectors should both be on the same side. An LED to tell me when the thing is plugged in correctly. And a shape which is appropriate to place over or under something else on my desk. (Maybe the fan.) Well I'd better get back to cleaning my desk. All in all BlackBelt rates an A- A+ Following through on shipping dates and not preannouncing by years. A Customer support. For a hardware purchase, I find the product exceptionally well supported by documentation and software C Complexity of installation A Value -Sullivan_-_Segall (a.k.a. Radagast) _______________________________________________________________ /V\ "I regret to say that we of the FBI are powerless to act in ' cases of oral-genital intimacy, unless it has in some way obstructed interstate commerce." -- J. Edgar Hoover _______________________________________________________________ Mail to: ...sun!portal!cup.portal.com!radagast or radagast@cup.portal.com
seanc@pro-party.cts.com (Sean Cunningham) (10/02/90)
In-Reply-To: message from Radagast@cup.portal.com I don't know how many of you are interested in Digital Creation's DCTV, but I've already placed my order for mine, and should receive it in the next couple of weeks. You can bet that I'll be up VERY late the day it arrives... I'll post a review of the hardware and software to the net...that is, unless you tell me not to ;') Sean >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> .SIG v2.0 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< UUCP: ...!crash!pnet01!pro-party!seanc | B^) VISION GRAPHICS B^) ARPA: !crash!pnet01!pro-party!seanc@nosc.mil | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ INET: seanc@pro-party.cts.com | Dual A3000 based, custom Help keep the | computer graphics, RealWorld: Sean Cunningham competition // | animation, presentation, Voice: (512) 994-1602 under \X/ | simulation, accident- | scene re-creation, and ...better life through creative computing... | recreation...(whew!) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<