alb@cognos.UUCP (Al Belyea) (01/14/91)
I was just looking thru the Video Overlay Card Developers manual last night and there's an interesting section on possible add-on cards that could be made to work with the VOC by connecting to its video bus. Apple provided a 14-pin connector to allow for future possible connections. One of the suggestions is an inexpensive frame-grabber. Apparently it could make use of a lot of the VOC's circuitry in order to keep costs down. They make a comment that a real-time frame grabber would be more expensive, but the added cost would mostly be due to more RAM being required. So can any hardware engineer types out there comment on this? What would it take to produce one of these add-on cards and how would it compare to the current video digitizers on the market? (ie. Visionary GS & ComputerEyes GS). They also mention that a special effects video card could be added in. Given that the GS is well suited to interactive video/multi-media types of apps (read Roger Wagners letter in the latest InCider), would not a F/X card like this really help to legitimize the GS in this arena? It seems that after Dec's AppleFest, that this area is something where the GS could really shine. (I.E. inexpensive low-end interactive/multi-media applications). Compared to Macs or PCs the cost of setting up a video workstation is quite reasonable. Amigas are another story tho. Seems like we're only missing some critical pieces of H/W and S/W. Although HyperCard GS certainly helps to fill in one of the holes. Any comments? -- Allan Belyea UUCP: 3755 Riverside Dr. Cognos Incorporated alb@cognos P.O. Box 9707 (613) 738-1338 x3822 uunet!mitel!cunews!cognos!alb Ottawa, Ontario "... when in a Desparate situation, challenge." Sun Tzu CANADA K1G 3Z4