🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <2377@unsvax.NEVADA.EDU> woolard@uns-helios.nevada.edu (MIKE WOOLARD)
writes:
>I went to Comdex this year and was amazed at the "next generation"
>of multimedia tech that will be coming and some that IS as I type.
>
>The company that most impressed me with their wares was VideoLogic,
>Inc.  They had a device driver for Windows 3.0 that had a window
>(scaleable just like any normal Windows window) that had *real time*
>output on the screen...like a mini TV screen...dictated by the card.
>...

Heh... when video multimedia solutions were first appearing on the Mac
platform, Apple endorsed a "two-screen" solution--your control stuff,
graphic overlays and so on showed up on one screen (typically the little
one :-) and your video went on another. A kludgey solution but I guess it
saved the trouble of making a true overlay card or something. Trouble is,
it became obvious that the two-screen solution was a flop with users--
something about having to swivel back and forth, no cues that "now it's
time to look at the OTHER screen," and so on...

So anyway, the NEXT solution was to implement video on the same screen,
but in a teeny tiny window. At last winter's San Francisco MacWorld Expo,
there were any number of vendors showing products that would let you see
video on a screen 2 x 3", or 3 x 4.5" or whatever... some of them even
did neat effects realtime in those windows, like flipping the picture, or
doing irises, or whatever. But the fact of the matter is, there was only
ONE exhibitor at that show (at least, only one I could find) who was able
to show a full screen of video with graphics overlays. (Whoops, I take it
back, there were two, but the second one required two boards plus software.)
I had to laugh to see all these people cooing over the "cute little video
window," when to me it was a bug, not a feature.

Oh well. I work for a video production company, so I'm prejudiced towards
being able to see the video in all its glory, not having it squeezed into
a teensy window. :-)

Advantages of video-inna-window: it's cheap! The Mac cards sell in the
$400-$999 range, whereas the full-video-with-overlay card (NuVista+) is
gonna set you back a couple thou at least. it's cute. Uhh... that's about it.

Disadvantages: Most of the ones I saw were 256-color cards, which doesn't
quite cut it. Notice that the demos they show on these puppies are mostly
very colorful--actually the right approach for a 256-color board, because
then you notice the riot of color. But try this: watch any scene you please
from, say, "Lawrence of Arabia"--what you'll see is that in pictures where
there are subtle gradations of tone, like the umptey-ump shades of "sand"
in Lawrence, there is a lot of posterization (sharp breaks in color rather
than blends).  Also, many of the less expensive cards ran at 15fps rather
than 30. NOBODY at a booth showing one of these cards volunteered this
information, though they would state it when asked.

Does anyone reading this group have a DigiTV or DigiColor card, the one for
the Mac that does vid-inna-window for something like $395 B&W or $695 color?
Even though they're sorta limited, I CAN think of a couple of really neat
things one could do with them, and the price is certainly right!

--K




-- 
...........................................................................
:   Kathy Strong               :  "Try our Hubble-Rita: just one shot,     :
:  (Clouds moving slowly)      :   and everything's blurry"                :
:   clouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu  :                           --El Arroyo     :
:..........................................................................: