Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!pacbell!sactoh0!hrlaser
From: hrlaser@sactoh0 (Harv R. Laser)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: LIVE! digitizer
Message-ID: <1699@sactoh0>
Date: 9 Aug 89 18:40:02 GMT
References: <18592@gryphon.COM> <1989Aug8.164559.578@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu>
Reply-To: hrlaser@sactoh0.UUCP (Harv R. Laser)
Organization: SAC-UNIX, Sacramento, Ca.
Lines: 68

In article <1989Aug8.164559.578@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu> bartle@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu (Aron Bartle) writes:
>In article <18592@gryphon.COM> victori@pnet02.gryphon.com (Victor Issa) writes:
>
>[deleted problems with LIVE!]
>>I expected the quality to be better.  My advice to people wanting a real time
>>color digitizer is to save the extra money and get the frame grabber.
>
>Is the frame grabber compatible with all amiga models? (I know LIVE! comes in
>three flavours) I want a real time digitizer I can use now, and if I ever expand
>(I currently have a 1000). What exactly can it do?
>
The same model FrameGrabber (made by Progressive Peripherals &
Software) will work with any model Amiga. It doesn't attach to the
bus.  The FG is a freestanding black box that takes monitor output
from your Amiga and feeds it back into your monitor. Then with
another cable it attaches to your parallel port. It sits in the
monitor "loop" so you can toggle between real-time live incoming
imagery and your normal Amiga display instaneously with the tap of
one key. It talks to the parallel port so it can "download"
captured imagery from the FG's own RAM (96K in the box I think) to
your Amiga for processing by the FG's software. 

On the front of the FG is an NTSC input jack, standard RCA female
type plug. Into this you can cable any device which outputs good ol
color NTSC signal - like a VCR. Like a TV-tuner. Like a color
camcorder. Like a Canon Xap Shot camera. Like a security-type b&w
camera used with DigiView. Like a laserdisc player. etc. etc.

You run the FG's software. you watch the imagery on your Amiga
monitor coming from your NTSC source via the FG. You see something
you want to grab you hit ONE KEY. Whammo. FG grabs that frame of
imagery (1/30th sec for color, 1/60th sec for B&W) and downloads it
to the Amiga via the parallel port. The FG software then massages
it into whatver resolution/color/size you had previously selected,
and displays it on your screen.  You can then save it to disk as an
IFF file for import into any dozens of graphic-oriented programs -
paint programs, ray-tracers, desktop publishing, word processors,
animation, whatever you have.

FG's software can also create animations in standard .ANIM format
by capturing consecutive frames either manually or via a built in
variable timer in the FG software. 

Due to the amount of RAM in the FG box itself the only mode in
which you can capture overscan is low-resolution. But the FG
software works in low/med/interlace/high res and from 2 color to
4096 HAM or 16 shades of gray. Besides IFF it can also save files
as 24 bit RGB which will make life rather interesting when Rhett
Anderson of Compute's Amiga Resource gets his SHAMview program
reading 24 bit files. :-)

I just finished testing the new FG-II software for PP&S which will
be a separate optional purchase above and beyond the cost of the FG
(which will continue to ship with the original software). FG-II
does so many nifty things I wouldn't even know where to start
describing it. Justin McCormick (the author) is a genius.  His
software is incredibly solid. And fast.  So if you've got NTSC
sources to tap into and you want to grab them in the most realistic
possible way in the most econimically-viable way (with an Amiga)
then the FrameGrabber is what you want. (IMHO :)

Have fun.


-- 
| Harv Laser                  |  SAC-UNIX, Sacramento, Ca.  |  
| Plink: CBM*HARV             |  UUCP=...pacbell!sactoh0    |
|   "The human brain is the only computer made of meat"     |