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EnigmA Amiga Run 1995 November
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EnigmA AMIGA RUN 02 (1995)(G.R. Edizioni)(IT)[!][issue 1995-11][Skylink CD].iso
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MB_17.txt
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MB_17.txt
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1995-08-27
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135 lines
Vidi-Amiga 12RT from Rombo Productions Ltd
==========================================
Price: Search about for the best price but expect it to be around £145.
Tested on: A1200 with 2meg chip and 4meg fast and hard drive.
The Vidi-Amiga 12RT is a complete high resolution true colour 'real time'
video digitizer in one unit for use with the following Amiga computers -
A500+, A600, A1200, A1500, A2000, A3000, A4000/030/040.
It will automatically detect which television format (PAL, NTSC or SECAM)
is being used and adapt accordingly. The digitiser supports S-VHS, Hi8
and the usual Composite video signals.
Before starting this review I will point out that though Rombo do
Vide-Amiga 12 and Vide-Amiga 12RT you should not get these two digitisers
mixed as the Vidi-Amiga 12RT is far superior to the basic Vide-Amiga 12.
The package consists of the main digitiser unit, software, two manuals
and a phono video cable. One major bit that is not supplied is the PSU
required to power the digitiser. Though this is no major loss as most
people will have a PSU that will be compatible, I adapted an old
ZX-Spectrum PSU saving myself about eight pounds.
The digitiser unit plugs into the Parallel Port on the rear of the Amiga
and also blocks the use of the Serial Port. So any units plugged into
the serial port need to be unplugged, or you could use an extension cable
from the Amiga to the digitiser to avoid this.
The software consists of one floppy disk that is self booting and which
can be installed to your hard drive. The software on its own has some
options that would make some graphics packages blush.
Here are just a few of the options:
Image Processing:>
Edge: Preforms a simple edge detection function.
Emboss: Produces an embossed looking image.
Flip X/Y: Flips the image on its horizontal/vertical axis.
Gamma: Preforms gamma correction on the image (for printing).
Pixelize: Produces an image with enlarged pixels of a desired with and
height.
Sharpen: Sharpens the image to improve the quality of the image.
Threshold: Gives graduated colour blending creating a water colour
effect.
Save file formats:>
ILBM: Saves the image as a standard IFF file.
12 BIT: Saves the image as an IFF 12 BIT file.
24 BIT: Saves the image as an IFF 24 BIT file.
BMP: Saves the image as a 24-bit Bit Mapped file, as used on the PC.
TIP: Saves the image as a uncompressed 24-bit Taged Image File (PC).
JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group file format.
As well as manipulating still pictures the software also allows you to
have full control over emanations. The software also has full AREX
control, more about this later.
So whats it like to use?
So after I installed the software, plugged in the digitizer and connected
a video. I thought right lets go!
My first attempt at grabbing a frame was, erm a disaster to put it
mildly. The most important thing you need for a good grab is a good well
lit and clear picture. So there I am trying to grab an image from Aliens
the video, with as you can guess not much success. This isn't to say it
can't be done but believe me to get good quality images that you would
love to shove in a PC users face and say 'beat that, I did it on a bit of
kit costing 150', you really need good well lit images.
So on attempt two I tried on another favourite video, 'Terminator 2'. I
picked the part in the film where Arnold is siting on his Harley and the
kid is also sitting there. First grab attempt was not good but miles
better than the Aliens grab. So to improve the grab I fiddled with the
grab options, put resolution up to Super Hi-Res and colour to Ham-8.
Changed the brightness control a bit and grabbed the same part of the
film again. This time the result was amazing, a grab from a video tape
(not the best of sources) with near perfect colour and crystal clear and
all this done on my second attempt.
Now although the colour was Ham-8 it looked just as good as a true 24-Bit
image being displayed with the aid of a 24-Bit graphics card. I had seen
worse images grabbed with equipment costing far more in price, and
requiring far higher specs in hardware.
Next up I borrowed a colour video camera and grabbed some live images
through that. What I mean by live is the image grabbed was the same as
the image the video camera was viewing at that time (not from a video
tape). I thought the video grabs were good but now pointing the camera
out into the garden I was grabbing images that just looked just amazing.
This is the best way to grab images, as the result is by far better than
a signal sent from a video recorder. Not to say the video grabs weren't
good because they were but live images grabbed through the video camera
were just amazing.
So now it was time to grab an animation, after all the RT in the name is
spose to refer to Real Time. So again I set the video camera up in the
garden again and threw my cat in front of it. Then set the Vidi software
to grab frames until the memory was full. The resulting animation,
lasting about ten seconds showed my cat strolling across the garden lawn.
The animation was slightly jerky so again I played around with the
settings reducing the resolution and the number of colours and tried
again. This resulted in a far smoother animation and a slightly longer
length of animation. All in all you could produce some very good simple
animations with in seconds and with a bit of time you could produce some
top class stop motion anims too.
About AREX control.
The VidiAmiga12RT has full AREX support and is fairly easy to use, all
the options that are available in the software can be called from an AREX
script etc. So the uses for the VidiAmiga12RT is all most limit less. I
could set it up on my BBS so when a user selected an option on the BBS
the VidiAMiga would take a live picture of my fish tank and send them the
image. Not the best use but I think you get the idea?
Finally.
Well if your in the market for a digitizer then I would recommend the
VidiAmiga12RT as its so good and easy to use. If your a games producer
and need to grab images or make animation for your games then again I
would recommend the VidiAmiga12RT.
All in all its a great bit of hardware at a great price.
Madness
END
===