Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!swbatl!texbell!sugar!karl
From: karl@sugar.hackercorp.com (Karl Lehenbauer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Apple eating our lunch
Keywords: MultiMedia/Desktop Media you know that thing that Macs do.
Message-ID: <4251@sugar.hackercorp.com>
Date: 30 Sep 89 06:35:23 GMT
References: <125384@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Reply-To: karl@sugar.hackercorp.com (Karl Lehenbauer)
Organization: Sugar Land Unix - Houston
Lines: 52

In article <125384@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) writes:
>The key things to note here are :
>	a) *APPLE* is doing the development work, they aren't waiting for
>	   some underpaid and undermotivated third party developer to beat
>	   the odds ...

>	   Commodore did that with IFF at first and it spawned a wide 
>	   variety of paint programs that could and did interact ...

>This is not a flame so much as it is a warning. ...

I agree 100% with your sentiments.  And ironically, the Amiga is a far better
platform for doing this stuff.  Trying to do multimedia with a single tasking
(or polled task-switching) machine means they'll be having to jump through
all sorts of gross technical hoops that Amiga DTV developers wouldn't have
to do.  

Plus we've got the blitter and we're NTSC (which makes it a natural), I mean, 
Jesus, just look at some of the anims people have done.

Oh yeah, cost is a factor, too.  An Apple DTV platform is going to based on
a Mac IIcx or somesuch.  We're talking $6000+ here guys, while the NewTek
demo runs in a meg on a 500.

The answer for doing the syncrhonization, I'm almost sure, is to use a SMPTE-
based cue sheet-type thing.  The Amiga would have no problem generating
SMPTE internally when it wasn't necessary to sync to external equipment
(just use video blank interrupts or synchronize one of the programmable
timers to the VBI (with software) for higher timing resolution)

I've already written code that can read MIDI time code (a MIDI translation
of SMPTE time) from an Opcode Timecode Machine (An under-$200 SMPTE to MIDI
converter) and display the time, run forwards or backwards, fast or slow,
etc, etc.  I also can play and record MIDI files from MIDI file formats of all 
three types, plus play sounds to the speaker as well as note commands to the
MIDI port.

With the additional abilities to create cues for ILBM flipping and ANIM
playing, and way better user interfaces, etc, a viable, even in some ways
state-of-the-art, tool for DTV could be created.  But like Chuck said, they'd
better not wait for me or anybody else, I'm just one guy, and it's a daunting
task, I have a day job, etc, etc.

I just really hate to see this opportunity slip through our collective
fingers, while a better-capitalized, less capable machine takes it.

You know Intel bought all GE's DVI stuff, right?  Another opportunity lost,
sigh...
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