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CHAPTER 3:
DCTV TIPS and TRICKS!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
© copyright 1996 Joey McDonald


If you have any Tips or Tricks of your own to share with DCTV owners send
them to:

joey.mcdonald@209-254-8.genesplicer.org
joey.mcdonald@icon.genesplicer.org

You will be given full credit for your tips/tricks.

Tip #1: Solving the DCTV "wipe" problem.... By Joey McDonald
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, you have a program such as TV-SHOW that has a huge number of
wipes at your disposal.. but they don't work with your DCTV images.
WRONG! get the program Dswitch (it should be available on any good
BBS) and run it in RGB mode ("dswitch R") and almost every wipe will now
work properly with your DCTV images. The dswitch program was not designed
for this purpose.. but I discovered that it has a very nice effect on
wipes. I'm really not sure why.. perhaps a programmer can come up with an
even better solution. You will EVEN be able to use wipes that scroll from
the BOTTOM > UP or MIDDLE > OUT! as long as there is a prior DCTV image on
screen (one DCTV image wiping to the next). This tip opens up a HUGE
assortment of effects to DCTV owners! You can find Dswitch on my local
BBS "ICON" (702) 646-3631. Just issue an "FI" command and search
for "DC".


Tip #2: Quick Titles!.... By Joey McDonald
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If all you need are one or two color titles (white/black/grey/etc)
over million color backdrops.. try this little trick.

This Tip will show you how to save time and create quick
titles for your DCTV productions. The titles created can be
used as a quick preview to get an idea of what your finished
product will look like, or perhaps as low-budget titling!

Load your DCTV picture into DeluxePaint or similar paint program. try a
3-bitplane image.. Some 4-bitplane images seem to have a few problems
handling this trick. De-select the menu bar to see the picture. Go to a
spare page (j) and use one of the available colors to create a title.

Now cut-out the title as a brush and hit the J key to return to
the DCTV image. If you check your DCTV output.. you'll see that you
are now actually displaying an RGB brush OVER the dctv composite output.
two of the colors available in the color selector will cause severe
distortion so you'll need to select the correct colors. Try selecting
the "color" option and browsing through the available colors to see
how it appears on the composite output. (you may have problems with
distortion when using very large fonts). From here on.... just create your
title as if you were working with a standard IFF pic.

You can use the move requester to flip, rotate, spin... and animate
your title OVER the DCTV backdrop. Because the text is RGB it will
be much more crisp than the text created within the DCTV paint
program. (ALWAYS BE SURE NOT TO LET THE TITLE BLOCK OUT THE TOP Line
or left "zipper" lines.. that will distort the image or cause DCTV to not
display it at all).

With a little practice you can get great results. The title cannot have
many colors... usually 2 or 3... (Black and White are always available).
You should use the outline option to outline your titles with a different
color so they'll appear more detailed. (white text outlined by black, black
outlined by white.. and if your really tricky you can add a grey in there
somewhere :) Also as noted above, some 4-bitplane images seem to distort
when titles are placed this way...especially when using large fonts. But
remember, you're doing something you're really not supposed to be able to
do (mixing RGB with DCTV) so experiment to see the different results.

With this approach, you can quickly add RGB titles over a DCTV
image without the use of a genlock or the DCTV RGB converter.
The end result is not perfect, but for many low-budget purposes
it may be just the trick! It's also a good way to preview an idea
you may be working on.

Also, if you CUT a portion of the DCTV image and shrink it down ("-" key in
Dpaint) .. you can create neat "rainbow" brushes that you can FILL your
title with! It gives kind of a "sparkly" rainbow effect.

You can also add 2 color (black and white outlined) RGB animations
(cartoons) over the DCTV million color display.


TIP#3: Color Cycling with DCTV...(sort of).. By Joey McDonald
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Load a DCTV image into a program that can alter the color cycling
information of a picture. Because a DCTV image is really an 8 or 16
color IFF.... you can adjust the cycling info. However, since the
DCTV image data is much different than an ordinary IFF you'll get
a BIG HORRIBLE LOOKING MESS..... unless you experiment. By the way,
it seems that 16 color (4-bitplane images) work best for this... but
you should try it with both formats to see which you prefer.

The techniques in this tip are really not very practical, but you
never know, you may want to add a bizarre touch to one of your DCTV
video projects.

When adjusting the cycling RANGE do not use the first two colors or
any black colors in a range (this will cause the image to blank-out).

Adjust the ranges carefully, experiment a bit and you'll see that
you can get some really weird results.


Tip #4: Pre-DCTV... By Joey McDonald
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ever need to find a DCTV image on disk and you're not sure of the name,
and you don't have your DCTV connected. Displaying the image with
a viewer just gives you a giant mess of grey pixels. Using my program;
"Pre-DCTV" will allow you to view the contents of any DCTV image through
a rough "preview" display. It is VERY rough and only a palette trick,
but it should allow you to check the contents of a DCTV picture without
the need for a time consuming conversion... or connecting your DCTV. If
you can't find it on your local BBS.. it's available on my local BBS
"ICON" (702) 646-3631, or e-mail me for it!



Tip #5: A DCTV workbench backdrop!... By Joey McDonald
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Converting a DCTV image into 2-bit mode (as described in Chapter 1) will
allow you to actually use the image as a workbench backdrop with such
programs as "simgen". It is a very bizarre effect, but with the backdrop
in place, your workbench is piped through your DCTV! Experiment with
the effect and you never know what you may come up with.
 
Tip #6: DC-WB... By Joey Mcdonald
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect a cable from your Video out (mono-out for A2000 and A500 owners)
to the "Video in" on your DCTV (or run the out to a video in on whatever
device you have connected to your DCTV video in). Now whenever you
issue the command "Dswitch V" using the Dswitch program... you're
workbench will be channeled through your DCTV. However you would still
need to first switch to RGB mode to use the CLI.. to issue the command..
which is why I created the program "DC-WB".

If you don't want to switch between RGB and composite using your monitor
switch.. get my DC-WB program. It works in conjunction with the Dswitch
program. Simply click a button or hit a function key to bring up your Amiga
display through your composite DCTV output. NO MORE switching between RGB
and composite with your monitor switch! If you can't find my DC-WB program
on your local BBS.. it's available on my local BBS.. ICON (702) 646-3631
ore-mail me for it!


Tip #7: DCTV brushes and ANIM BRUSHES! by Joey McDonald
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you load a DCTV animation into dpaint.. you can pick up a quarter-screen
anim brush from the top left corner of a picture. As long as you pick up
the top line and the side zipper, you should end up with a million color
DCTV anim-brush! You use the brush in such programs as TV-SHOW and
Deluxe Video and actually move it across the screen while it's playing!
There may be some "jitter" during playing. You can also use the same
process to pick up standard brushes and move them around the screen. If
you plan ahead when creating DCTV anims or pictures.. you can re-size
screens within DCTV paint to fill only the top left section.. so when
you are clipping in deluxe paint.. you'll have a complete picture as
an anim-brush or brush.

Tip #8: A simple use for the DCTV 2bit mode: By Joey McDonald
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is a simple example of how the mode in its current form can be used
on a very basic level to achieve excellent results.

So, you have always wanted to animate in Hi-Res 16 color mode on
your ECS Amiga, but the animations always play "choppy". Well,
the DCTV 2-bit mode will allow you to play just about any 16 color
Hi-Res animation at 2 or 4 color speeds and chop your old DCTV
file sizes in half!

Take a 4096 color HAM (or better) animation and re-render it
to dithered 16 color hi-res. Convert the animation to DCTV 2-bit
mode and there will ussually be NO LOSS in detail between the dithered
16 bit anim and the DCTV 2-bit anim. You can also convert existing 16
color hi-res anims and chances are they will convert without losing detail.

The DCTV 2-bit mode allows you to animate DITHERED 16 color hi-res
animations without the "choppy" playback that ussually accompanies
such animations, while offering incredible savings in storage space
and memory use.

Once software appears that will allow you to convert anims automatically,
then there will be much less grunt work involved.

I have not tested how well this aproach works on dithered 32, 64
or 4096 color ham animations.. but there may be some loss in the
conversion. We will have to wait for new software to see if there
are ways to get the most out of the DCTV 2-bitplane pallette.