Article-I.D.: ukma.5141
Posted: Wed Nov 19 22:50:09 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 20-Nov-86 10:59:54 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: The Leaning Tower of Patterson Office @ The Univ. of KY
Lines: 11


OK, I'm ignorant.  What is "Genlock" and "Amiga Live!".  I've
seen them mentioned in Amiga World magazine, and Genlock gets
repeatedly mentioned on the net.  Could someone send be a brief
mail telling me what they are?

Sean
-- 
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Sean Casey      UUCP:  cbosgd!ukma!sean           CSNET:  sean@ms.uky.csnet
		ARPA:  ukma!sean@anl-mcs.arpa    BITNET:  sean@UKMA.BITNET

Article-I.D.: garfield.3046
Posted: Fri Nov 21 07:42:47 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 22-Nov-86 02:49:10 EST
References: <5141@ukma.uky.csnet>
Sender: perry@garfield.UUCP
Reply-To: john13@garfield.UUCP (John Russell)
Distribution: net
Organization: Memorial U. of Nfld. C.S. Dept., St. John's
Lines: 53
Keywords: Genlock sighted over New Jersey
Summary: 

In article <5141@ukma.uky.csnet> sean@ukma.uky.csnet (Sean Casey) writes:
 > 
 > OK, I'm ignorant.  What is "Genlock" and "Amiga Live!".  I've
 > seen them mentioned in Amiga World magazine, and Genlock gets
 > repeatedly mentioned on the net.  Could someone send be a brief
 > mail telling me what they are?

I'm posting this hoping to reassure all of those eagerly awaiting the
Genlock (Live! I haven't seen, but I've seen its results: images digitized
from a videotape).

About 3 months ago, I used a Genlock. The real McCoy, although I gather it
was officially classified as a test/demo unit. This was not deep within the
catacombs of a Commodore R&D site, but way up here in Canada, where I gather
our approval boards are quicker (Sidecar is, I think, approved for a while,
but can't be released because people would drive up from the States to buy
them, and then operate them illegally (by FCC standards) at home).

At the time, it functioned perfectly, no interference of any kind that I
could see, only possible drawback was that it tended to heat up after
being used for awhile. It was originally in use at Expo, then came here for
a couple of days to show to a TV station, then went back. So take heart, all
you people waiting - they are ready to go if only someone will put stickers
on them to say so.

What does the Genlock do? It fits underneath the Amiga at the back and 
processes an external video signal in conjunction with the Amiga video in 
order to let you overlay Amiga created graphics onto a videotape. There is
a switch selecting Amiga video, external video, or both. When the two
video signals are mixed, wherever colour 0 appeared on the Amiga screen
(ie the background with no bit image data on it) the external picture is
shown instead. One of the great things is that you can actually tailor a
painted picture while seeing the picture it will appear on top of, for
perfect results. Everything drawn by the Amiga comes through, even the
mouse pointer, so you can easily create a videotape on which you point things
out, either real-time or record back out to another tape.

Picture was great, you could finally see how a computer generated display
matched up against a regular TV/VCR picture (the Amiga's picture wins
hands down in a one-on-one test).

Now for professional quality text to use with the Genlock, we'll need some
professional quality text software to go with it, right???

Stay tuned, the Pro Video Character Generator is out now, and when I've had
a bit of sleep I'll let everyone know what it's like.

Capsule summary: matches display quality of $17,000 dedicated machine, holds
12 times as much text (100 pages in memory vs 8).

Now an Amiga owner as opposed to an Amiga user,

John