Classic_-_Concepts@cup.portal.com (03/03/90)
GOOD NEWS:
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VIDEOMAKER Magazine, February 1990 Videomaker Inc., 1166 East Lassen Ave.
Chico, CA 95926 Shelf price $2.50 US
Article on Desktop Video by Michael DiSpezio with a product
directory on pages 53-57 for Video-related products (incl. Amiga).
BAD NEWS:
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(Get out your word processors/text editors; I've already fired off a
letter to the Editor. Read the article and let them know your views.)
Computer Graphics Review, February 1990 Intertec Publishing Corporation,
9221 Quivira Rd., Overland Park
KS 66215 Shelf price $5.00 US
Article on Presentation Graphics with long product list. PC and Mac (and
some mention of DEC) all the way. Not a word about the Amiga.
Author: Paul Kinnucan
Article on Multimedia with inset of Setup Costs (Macintosh). PC and Mac
all the way. Not even a breath of Amiga news. Author: Bruce Anderson
Some excerpts:
"...the Apple Macintosh has taken the lead in the multimedia race
..." Says who? By what objective standards? In terms of
advertising dollars? What does this have to do with suitability
to a purpose? In my opinion, biased reporting.
"Because the company has staked a major portion of its future on
multimedia and is farther along in this technology ..." Not so.
The Mac is not off-the-shelf NTSC-compatible. It's not multi-
tasking. Only the highest-end system has color (all Amigas have
color) and it lacks the Amiga's 4-voice 16-channel stereo sound.
There is an inset including the cost of a Mac "Video System". I
checked Amiga ads for comparison prices and sent the magazine a
comparison table based on the categories in their article:
Macintosh Video System Amiga Video System
(from the article) (based on Amiga ads)
Mac IIci, 80 Mbyte hard disk Amiga 2000, 80 Mbyte hard disk
8 Mbyte RAM $10,700 8 Mbyte RAM, 68030/6882 $5,700
19-inch color monitor & board 6,500 Multisync & flicker-fixer 1,000
Color video camera 1,500 Color video camera 1,500
Videotape player 1,000 Videotape player 1,000
Video recorder 3,000+ Video recorder 3,000+
Video digitizer board 2,500 Digi-View & live frame-grabber 800
Animation/Video software 4,000 Animation/Video software 1,500
(To which I added, in my letter, capabilities important to multimedia)
4 channel (16 voice) stereo sound no yes
Direct NTSC compatibility no yes
Multitasking no yes
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Total about $29,200 Total about $14,500
(It wasn't clear if they intended the digitizer board to include a genlock.
If so, add another $700 - $1200 to the Amiga price. Still under $16,000.)
\_
Julie Petersen (LadyHawke@cup.portal.com) )\_ _/
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patrinos@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Anthony J. Patrinos) (03/04/90)
More bad news: In this morning's Computer Chronicles on my local PBS station they had a presentation of educational SW. Not a word about the Amiga! :-( Later Anthony Patrinos patrinos@suvm.bitnet