piaw@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Na Choon Piaw) (10/23/89)
Well, I got back from AmiExpo. I was there only Saturday (21st) and left
this morning in spite of having bought a 2-day ticket because I had
homework... :-( Here's my report...
The turnout was fairly good, considering the Earthquake and all that. The
first thing I saw as I approached the pre-registration counter was the
T-shirt "I made it to AmiExpo, California, Santa Clara", in letters that
were breaking and shaking up (for obvious reason) It was funny and
appropriate.
Once I got in, the first booth I saw was NewTek's. They were demoing the
video toaster (to be released early next year, price is $1599), and version
4.0 (software upgrade) of DigiView gold. The video toaster was *very*
interesting. They hooked up a camera to it, and had the toaster performing
a shrink of the picture and spiralled the picture around leaving a trail
behind it. IN REAL TIME. I stood in front of the camera, and waved as the
spiral started, and all the trails of my hand waved as I was doing so.
Seeing that toaster was worth the price of admission alone. (My broadcast
engineer friend, Robert Gutierrez said that he wanted one.... :-) )
DigiView Gold 4.0 was to incoorporate New-Tek's new "Hi-Res 4096" mode.
Apparently, they managed to stretch the Amiga's hardware to do that. The
demo reel that they had looked incredible (as good as a MAC II in terms of
resolution, sez one of the people there). I couldn't get the technical
specs (or the file format) but was told by NewTek's people that the
displayer for that format will be PD-distributed by them. This 4.0 is
shipping first week of November. Price: $199. Hi-Res 4096 can be edited by
Digi-Paint 3.0 in "super-bitmap" mode.
I also saw the transputer (housed in a Tower (YECH) case), and it looked
good. It can handle 16.7 million colors, and all of them on display at
once. (Not true, since you don't have 16 million pixels on screen) I picked
up a copy of their brochure and I can type it in if there are enough people
who wants the specs. The catch: $5500 for the graphics board, and $6000 for
the transputer. Cheaper than a Mac, I supposed...
Talked to Lattice, and they said that they've already shipped 5.04, but the
Bay Area will not be getting it as soon since the Postal Service is still
uh.. a little slow in reponse. Price: $0.00 if you already bought it. My
friends bought Lattice 5.04 direct from them at the booth at $150 with
educational discount (good work, PT and CT!!).
Another interesting thing was distant suns (remember that names
competition??), which told me that they were supposed to have the product at
the booth, but the manual was at a printer during the earthquake... Price:
I forgot, but they had a $20 discount for people at the Expo.
Saw "Shadow of the beast". It knocked my eye-balls off, as my brother
said... Anyone wants to sell their copy can contact me, though I'd like to
know if it'll work with expanded memory and a 2000HD first. (I know ALL
'bout Psychnosis games --- even my arcade happy brothers don't like them.)
Various dealers were there, as was WordPerfect with their M&M classes :-).
Of the seminars there, I only attended one about Amiga Graphics. It was
fascinating, with Rick Park (an Amiga artist) giving a great discussion
about DeluxePaint III. It was amazing --- this guy actually paints
pixel-by-pixel (Ok, I know that it's possible, but didn't realize how hard
it was, til this guy demonstrated some of the effects... Anyone got any of
his pictures that he could mail me??).
Well, that was about it... All in all, I'm glad I went, but I think it
would have been much more crowded and exciting w/o the Earthquake.. Oh yes,
I heard Jay Miner's name paged while I was there.. Did anyone here on USENET
get to meet him there?? I wish I could have...
On to other stuff:
I just bought A.M.A.S. (at AmiExpo), and I'm having trouble with the
software --- it only samples 200K banks at a time. Questions:
1) I've got 8 banks lit up with a decimal point -- why can't
I access anything except "B" bank? (I've got 3 meg on an
A2000HD) I can copy fine, but not switch banks..
2) What's the latest version of the software? I have 1.1.
3) Is there anyway I can get it to cascade the recording
automatically (from B to 1, 1 to 2, and so on..) I want
to digitize long tracks.
4) Is it advisable for me to get another sampling software
package? I've heard good things about Audio Master, but
I'm wary about spending more money...
5) What sources can I look up for programming my own audio
sampler software? If no commercial product exists that
meets my needs, I'll just have to roll my own --- and <sigh>
figure out the IFF format, and stuff like that.
6) AMAS claims a hardware potential of digitizing at 90kHz
(mono) and 40kHz (stereo). Is there any possibility of
writing software that can take advantage of that potential?
Does it exist? Is it PD? Can anyone mail it to me? Does
it work with AMAS? (most important..)
7) Can anyone send me that 8svx IFF specs? Well, no, can
someone send me all the IFF specs ('cept ILBM).
8) The SAVE and LOAD options don't seem to work. Why?
9) What is MicroDeal's phone? I want to call them and flame
them for the software..
I can't believe this is the same package reviewed as "a winning
package" by AmigaWorld.
Thanks to all for replies received.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Na Choon Piaw P.O Box, 4067, Berkeley, CA 94704-0067
piaw@cory.berkeley.edu Disclaimer: I'm speaking only for myself!
piaw@ocf.berkeley.edu "Still on honeymoon with his Amiga...."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------nschultz@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Ned W. Schultz) (10/23/89)
I had a good day at AmiExpo too, though it was disappointing to see who failed to show up: Microillusions was not there, not demoing Music-X (which is ironic since they demoed it so many times when it wasn't available), but Music-X for $144 was one of the nice bargains I found from the 4 retailers competing there. Aegis was nowhere to be seen. Jay Miner bravely sat at the Intuitive Tech. table, but he was alone...no sign of UltraCard. Imtronics was wowing people with graphics demos from their Hurricane cards. Quasar Sound from Centaur was also attracting attention for its ability to dump extremely large sound samples to floppies, without regard to how much RAM you have. I heard a lot of "voice mail" talk from people who saw that. The word processor battles were limited to ProWrite (2.5?), PenPal and WordPerfect. Dr. T's had an active booth. Elan Design was doing some creative demoing of Performer and InVision Plus. The Newtek booth was showy but weak on substance. The standard answer on the Toaster was "this year" at $1595. One of their showmen was waving around a board that was supposedly the Toaster. I've seen this performance now at three different AmiExpos (over 3 years) so I'm a little cynical about it. I also couldn't get a clear answer about the DigiView 4.0 upgrade policy. The hires 4096 pictures looked very nice. Distant Suns looked very well done. A new structured drawing program called ProVector was available from Taliesin. It looked like a decent competitor to ProDraw. Overall the show was appropriately subdued and pleasantly uncrowded. I was surprised at the lack of new programs other than games. As usual there were lots of good bargains...I went home with my arms full. Look for the new Allen Hastings animations. Newtek was running those and frankly, they were the best part of their exhibit. I don't know if these were entered in the BADGE contest, but anything that could top their realism and professional look would be most impressive. I especially liked Chrome Teapots...there was also a slick moving sports car and a nice sequence of a UFO flooding a house with a spotlight... Ned Schultz nschultz@polyslo.calpoly.edu
laba-2ac@web-2b.berkeley.edu (Na Choon Piaw) (10/26/89)
In article <18679@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> piaw@cory.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Na Choon Piaw) writes: [can you say, quote myself. Actually, I'm borrowing the same account Choon Piaw uses until I start my own job at NASA-Ames this Mondasy....] [...] >Once I got in, the first booth I saw was NewTek's. They were demoing the >video toaster (to be released early next year, price is $1599), and version >4.0 (software upgrade) of DigiView gold. The video toaster was *very* >interesting. They hooked up a camera to it, and had the toaster performing >a shrink of the picture and spiralled the picture around leaving a trail >behind it. IN REAL TIME. I stood in front of the camera, and waved as the >spiral started, and all the trails of my hand waved as I was doing so. >Seeing that toaster was worth the price of admission alone. (My broadcast >engineer friend, Robert Gutierrez said that he wanted one.... :-) ) ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^ [thats me :-)] Anyway, yes, I intend to get a toaster when they are available. The ADO effects (as they are called) is not what I am intrested in.....the character generator is what I am intrested in. For those of you who dont know, character generator resolution is measured in nanoseconds (refresh time). Plain DP-II fonts would be equavelent to, say 120ns, and Broadcast Titler is 70ns (so-called cable-TV quality). Well, Newtek says the toaster will do 35 NANOSECONDS!!! That is considered broadcast quality, and for $1.6k!!! This is a HELL of a lot better than getting a For-A, Quantel, or other broadcast character generators, with prices of $5k (for 70ns) and $10k (for 35ns) on up. You're damn right I'll be putting in my advanced order for my toaster, since my need is right up it's alley.....(subtitling Japanese animated TV shows). Robert Gutierrez (from a borrowed acct.)
bobl@pro-graphics.cts.com (Bob Lindabury) (10/30/89)
In-Reply-To: message from laba-2ac@web-2b.berkeley.edu > Anyway, yes, I intend to get a toaster when they are available. The ADO > effects (as they are called) is not what I am intrested in.....the character > generator is what I am intrested in. > > For those of you who dont know, character generator resolution is measured > in nanoseconds (refresh time). Plain DP-II fonts would be equavelent to, > say 120ns, and Broadcast Titler is 70ns (so-called cable-TV quality). Well, > Newtek says the toaster will do 35 NANOSECONDS!!! That is considered broadcast > quality, and for $1.6k!!! This is a HELL of a lot better than getting a For-A, > Quantel, or other broadcast character generators, with prices of $5k (for 70ns) > and $10k (for 35ns) on up. > > You're damn right I'll be putting in my advanced order for my toaster, since > my need is right up it's alley.....(subtitling Japanese animated TV shows). > > Robert Gutierrez > (from a borrowed acct.) I think your estimates of nanosecond quality is a bit off. According to the people at Innovision (Broadcast Titler), their claims are actuall 27 nanosecond resolution with their aliased fonts. Pro-Video Gold will match that. I don't think they are 27 nanosecond at all, but they certainly beat the heck out of 70 nanosecond resolution! I would say that the Pro-Video Gold and the Broadcast Titler fonts come in around 35 nanoseconds (don't have a scope) which is just fine. Big deal if the Toaster boasts 35 nanosecond resolution, it better have it! Besides, just because their board can *DO* 35 nanoseconds doesn't mean they are going to have a good CG. In fact, Broadcast Titler is almost unusable because of the poorly designed interface and the problems associated with the program which makes Pro-Video Gold the best titling package available for anywhere near online charater generation. I wouldn't go running out to lay my $1600 down on a product that's been 4 years in the making with no software support to speak of especially when you want to use for something it wasn't even designed to do. It was designed to do real-time video effects, not be a titler. Save yourself some money and hassle, go out and drop $300 on Pro-Video Gold or you can go out and get yourself at Chyron Scribe for $15,000. -- Bob _________________________ Pro-Graphics 201/469-0049 __________________________ InterNet: bobl@pro-graphics.cts.com | ProLine: bobl@pro-graphics UUCP: ..crash!pro-graphics!bobl | CServe: 70347,2344 ARPA/DDN: ..crash!pro-graphics!bobl@nosc.mil | Amer. Online: Graphics3D ___________ ____________ Raven Enterprises - 25 Raven Ave. Piscataway, NJ 08854
Doug_B_Erdely@cup.portal.com (10/31/89)
Bob, I am curious why you say the Broadcast Titler is no good? What makes you say this? - Doug - Doug_B_Erdely@Cup.Portal.Com
gutierre@NSIPO.ARC.NASA.GOV (Robert Michael Gutierrez) (11/01/89)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: AmiExpo report (1 day only) && stuff Summary: Expires: References: <618@crash.cts.com> <23541@cup.portal.com> Sender: Reply-To: gutierre@nsipo.arc.nasa.gov.UUCP (Robert Michael Gutierrez) Followup-To: Distribution: na Organization: NASA Science Internet Project Office Keywords: In article <23541@cup.portal.com> Doug_B_Erdely@cup.portal.com writes: >Bob, > I am curious why you say the Broadcast Titler is no good? What makes you >say this? > > - Doug - > >Doug_B_Erdely@Cup.Portal.Com Actually, I blew it. I wanted to say that the graphics chip (Denise??) is slow, Broadcast Titler is actually pretty good in what it does. In doing "bangs" (changes inbetween titles), It is extremly slow (oops, I mean, the graphics chip is slow....). If I can get around this limitation, then I would buy the program TODAY!!! It really is'nt the fault of the program.....or is it??? I have to do title changes as little as 1/2 second apart, and up to 260 titles per 1/2 hour (yes, that's 30 minutes). B.T. can handle that amount, but...... Robert Gutierrez -- Internet Network Operations Center, NASA Ames Research Center, Mountian View, Calif.