mesard@bbn.com (Wayne Mesard) (07/18/89)
I am interested in purchasing a board for the Mac II which will allow me to project graphics on top of video images which would (of course) be fed in from an external NTSC device such as a videodisc player, VCR, video camera, etc. The brochures I have from various video board companies are less than clear [to me at least] about whether they can do what I want. Any pointers, references to products, or other information would be appreciated. * The overlayed image can be displayed on the Mac monitor or on an external video monitor, but on-the-Mac would preferred (subject to the concerns listed below). (Some boards export Mac graphics while others import video images (the so-called "frame grabbers").) * Real-time (30 frames per second) or near-real-time image display is not necessary, but would be preferred. However, I must be able to grab an image and display it in < 5 seconds. (I gather that a number of the less expensive frame grabber boards fail this test.) * It's unclear how significantly the image degrades when going from video to Mac. (Here, I'm more concerned with the different pixel density than the loss of color information (which is subject to the pixel depth being used).) -- unsigned *Wayne_Mesard(); "A thousand pounds?! That's almost a ton!" Mesard@BBN.COM BBN, Cambridge, MA -MS
thschulz@iraul1.ira.uka.de (Thomas Schulz) (07/20/89)
For PAL - video signals there is a brand-new card which digitizes video in real-time and puts it into the 256-color-video card from Apple. It is a NuBUS card, it works with the Mac II, IIx and IIcx (!). Write to: Fa. Hermstedt Technologiezentrum 6800 Mannheim West Germany The card is available from this week on. Tom Schulz. Newsgroups: comp.ivideodisk Subject: Re: Video overlay for the Mac Ii Expires: References: Sender: Reply-To: thschulz@iraul1.ira.uka.de (Thomas Schulz) Followup-To: Distribution: world Organization: Karlsruhe University, West-Germany Keywords: for PAL - video signals there is a brand-new card which digitizes video in real-time and puts it into the 256-color-video card from Apple. It is a NuBUS card, it works with the Mac II, IIx and IIcx (!). Write to: Fa. Hermstedt Technologiezentrum 6800 Mannheim West Germany The card is available from this week on. Tom Schulz. Newsgroups: comp.ivideodisc Subject: Re: Video overlay for the Mac II Expires: References: Sender: Reply-To: thschulz@iraul1.ira.uka.de (Thomas Schulz) Followup-To: Distribution: world Organization: Karlsruhe University, West-Germany Keywords: Newsgroups: comp.idiveodisc Subject: Re: Video overlay for the Mac II Summary: Expires: References: <42838@bbn.COM> Sender: Reply-To: thschulz@iraul1.UUCP (Thomas Schulz) Followup-To: Distribution: Organization: Karlsruhe University, West-Germany Keywords: For PAL - video signals there is a brand-new card which digitizes video in real-time and puts it into the 256-color-video card from Apple. It is a NuBUS card, it works with the Mac II, IIx and IIcx (!). Write to: Fa. Hermstedt Technologiezentrum 6800 Mannheim West Germany The card is available from this week on. Tom Schulz. Newsgroups: comp.ivideodisk Subject: Re: Video overlay for the Mac Ii Expires: References: Sender: Reply-To: thschulz@iraul1.ira.uka.de (Thomas Schulz) Followup-To: Distribution: world Organization: Karlsruhe University, West-Germany Keywords: for PAL - video signals there is a brand-new card which digitizes video in real-time and puts it into the 256-color-video card from Apple. It is a NuBUS card, it works with the Mac II, IIx and IIcx (!). Write to: Fa. Hermstedt Technologiezentrum 6800 Mannheim West Germany The card is available from this week on. tom Schulz.
jmt@apple.com (Michael Tindell) (07/25/89)
There are several options for video overlay with Mac II's. It basically comes down to how much money you have to spend. The bottom end is covered by the Mass Micro Colorspace II card, which does an overlay of Mac graphics and video based on a key color technique and displays the result in NTSC 30 Hz interlaced video on a standard monitor. A problem is the flicker of horizontal line caused by the interlaced scan. The Colorspace II can digitize still frames in a couple (< 5) of seconds. I believe cost is around $1200; check with a dealer. Another product worth looking at is the Orange Micro (formerly AST) NuView card. This card digitizes an RGB video signal in real-time and writes it into the Mac II graphics frame buffer. This is not an overlay perse, but it does provide video-in-a-window on a standard Mac color display. The problem is that the NuBus in the Mac will run fast enough to allow display of only about 15 frames/s. Cost around $1300 plus an NTSC to RGB converter. Truevision has the NuVista card. This is a real-time frame grabber with its own frame buffer that is Quickdraw compatible. It also has a TI 34010 graphics/DSP processor on-board and requires a multisync monitor. Cost is > $6500, I think. Prices are VERY uncertain, and there is no implied endorsement or criticism of any of these products. products. p.s. Apple has recently started shipping an overlay card for the Apple IIGS that sells for less than $1000. You can never tell...