rmr@mimsy.UUCP (Randy M. Rohrer) (02/06/89)
Any suggestions out there for low cost, relatively low quality
video production?
Our environment includes a variety of workstations such as
Sun, Apollo, SGI, etc. We are looking for a good way of making
our own videotapes directly from these workstations. We think
that VHS-quality is sufficient (although we may be disappointed).
We are currently perusing the market place for real-time
digital scan converters that convert RGB signals to video output.
Offerings have been found from Lyon-Lamb, RGB Technologies,
and YEM (Yamashita Engineering Manufacture, distributed in US by
Grunder and Associates). In general, they run about
$12,000 - $20,000 depending on features and quality.
This project is currently a research project so initially
low quality might be ok. We may eventually like to go to
higher quality recording devices and formats.
Has anybody had any experience with these products or
or other products which you would like to share? Are there
better methods available? Will we be sorely disappointed in quality
going from 1024 scan lines to ~512 ?
Any help, comments, or re-direction would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Randy Rohrerewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) (02/09/89)
In article <15822@mimsy.UUCP> rmr@mimsy.umd.edu (Randy M. Rohrer) writes: > Any suggestions out there for low cost, relatively low quality >video production? > Go visit comp.sys.amiga and ask that same question. Make room in your mailbox; you'll need it. Depending on the applications running on your big workstations, you could either port the raw data, or the software itself if you feel up to it, over to the Amiga, which does B&W video out of the box. Stick on a $200 genlock, and you've got a nice inexpensive video workstation. Total cost: Under $3000. _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ Leo L. Schwab -- The Guy in The Cape INET: well!ewhac@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU \_ -_ Recumbent Bikes: UUCP: pacbell > !{well,unicom}!ewhac O----^o The Only Way To Fly. hplabs / (pronounced "AE-wack") "Work FOR? I don't work FOR anybody! I'm just having fun." -- The Doctor
Classic_-_Concepts@cup.portal.com (02/13/89)
> Any suggestions out there for low cost, relatively low quality video
production?
Consider this as one option:
Amiga 2500 with 40 meg drive $3500
(up to 9 meg of addressable RAM possible)
Flicker Fixer (not necessary, but nice) $500
The Amiga outputs an NTSC signal, so an interface between the
genlock and the VCR or between the computer and the genlock is
not necessary.
For what you describe you have 2 options in Genlocks:
Midrange - good clean signal, almost broadcast quality
Pro-Gen $400
SuperGen $750
GenLock $895 (Y/C for Super-VHS also included)
Professional - excellent signal, flexible, broadcast quality
Niriki ca $2500 - $3000
Magni ca $3000 (blanking, sync, color framing, etc.)
Recommended software:
The Director (Right Answers Group) $60 (good, flexible,
requires some programming skills)
Silver or Sculpt-Animate 4d for your 3d needs ca. $120
Lots of other video software such as Deluxe Video/Productions
Deluxe Paint III (recommended) is an excellent paint program
that also supports some animation $120
Amiga resolution supports overscan up to 704 x 464.
The Amiga's coprocessing chips, the blitter and copper take over
many graphics tasks, leaving the 68020 free for processing tasks.
This makes a very suitable hardware design for graphics and anima-
tion.
For video, I would recommend also purchasing both still and
live digitizers:
Still - Digi-View from Newtek ca $175 (great colors)
(uses a black and white or color camera/camcorder and
RCA composite input RS170 I believe)
Live! from a-squared with InnoVision software (Broadcast
Titler boasts an 'effective' resolution 2160 x 1440 and
overscan up to 736 x 480 pixels) or
FrameGrabber (sorry, haven't used this one, don't know how
good it is. Claims to be better than Live!)
To use an Amiga for video you only need an Amiga, a genlock, a VCR and
some software. You can add a receiver, sound software and a CD player and
still spend under $10,000, depending on your configuration. Most of the
best animation software I have seen runs on the Amiga (excluding $60,000
systems and some of the software for those systems have rather unintuitive
user interfaces) and there are lots of choices.
Good luck with whatever you select; low-end video is an exciting field!
.