Fresh Fish 2/FFMCD02.bin/useful/reviews/hardware/graphics/colorburst

Internet Message Format | 1992-05-06 | 16KB

From: Donald Richard Tillery Jr <[e-mail]>
Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Jason L. Tibbitts III
Subject: REVIEW: ColorBurst
Keywords: hardware, graphics, 24 bit
Path: menudo.uh.edu
Distribution: world
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.graphics
Reply-To: Donald Richard Tillery Jr <[e-mail]>

Much maligned, and often doubted, M.A.S.T. (Memory And Storage
Technology) has delivered what appears to be a solid leader in the
24 bit display device race.  This device will connect to ANY Amiga
model, and display a rock steady, video compatible, 24 bit image in
any of the standard Amiga resolutions.


      ColorBurst 24-Bit Display Device for the Amiga Computer


                             My Story

     I've been waiting since last November when I read a M.A.S.T.
advertisement in Amiga World about the ColorBurst 24 bit display
device.  Armed with an inordinate amount of blind faith, I have
been in constant contact with M.A.S.T. since then.  I was the
first person on their domestic list of interested parties, and
all the patience, understanding, and assistance I could muster is
beginning to pay off.
     The completed PAL ColorBursts (the European video standard)
have been shipping for a couple of months now.  The NTSC
(American standard) units have one large obstacle to overcome
that the PAL units do not -> the F.C.C. (Federal Communications
Commission).  All American electronics devices must be tested to
be sure that they do not interfere with other devices.  Like all
dealings with the federal government, this often takes much more
time than seems reasonable.  Currently ColorBurst has passed FCC
Class A (this took 6 months), which allows its distribution on a
commercial level and to developers.  FCC Class B (which will
allow sales to private individuals) will surely follow, but who
knows how long (complain to the FCC, not MAST).
     On Monday July 15, 1991, the UPS man delivered one of three
NTSC units available for developers (more units go into production
at the end of August).  After paying the COD, I unpacked the
unit, which includes the ColorBurst itself (approximately 5" x 2"
x 8", with power and active indicators on the front panel), a 16
V AC adapter power supply, video cable, 65 page notebook style
manual (nice for future updates), and two 3.5" disks of software.
I carefully hooked up the device to my Amiga 2000 (with extras)
in accordance to the short but adequate installation instructions
(although they really should be closer to the beginning of the
manual).  I then ran the test/alignment programs on the included
disk, and failed.  The software seemed to be functioning, but
the unit's active light never lit, and no 24 bit images showed on
my screen.  On the way to deliver the unit to UPS for return to
M.A.S.T., I opted to test the unit on my girlfriend's A500.  I
was dumbfounded when the unit performed flawlessly!  The
ColorBurst unit uses the digital signals present on the video
port to receive the 24 bits of digital data (this is similar to
the way the HAM-E and DCTV devices function).  However, in the
ultimate turn of irony, my particular Amiga was missing these
digital signals and did not work with the ColorBurst (I had never
tried the HAM-E or DCTV on my machine, but they don't work with
it either).  I was eventually able to swap mother boards with a
friend (for a nominal fee - he doesn't plan on using an external
24 bit device ;-), and I have been able to test the unit since
then.


                              Hardware

     The hardware of the ColorBurst is a high quality piece of
workmanship that includes an internal fan for cooling.  The video
cable is a bit of a mess with 4 external wires as well as the
shielded cable.  M.A.S.T. assures me that they are working on a
source for better cables, but they didn't want to hold up
shipping ColorBurst while a contract is solidified.
     ColorBurst will work with ANY Amiga model from the A1000 to
the A3000.  It plugs into the 23 pin video port and you plug your
monitor into it.  When not displaying 24 bit images, it passes
through the normal Amiga video.
     Those functions that I can attribute to the hardware itself
indicate it is a fine piece of work.  When displaying a 24 bit
image as a backdrop for Amiga screens, it effortlessly switches
between non-interlace and interlace as the Amiga screen changes.
    Output of the ColorBurst is RGB analog and is comparable to
the standard Amiga video signal (sorry, no de-interlaced version
here).  It will display up to 24 bitplanes and has provisions for
a 24 bit image with a 24 bit overlay (the purported 48 bit mode).
The actual image produced by the ColorBurst unit is a very clean
(albeit brighter than standard Amiga video - hand on the
brightness knob) and fantastic picture as viewed on 1084 and 1950
monitors.  I have not had the opportunity to dump the image to
video tape as of yet (I don't have that kind of hardware), but I
can safely assume that it would record as well as the Amiga
signal it emulates.
    The unit is compatible with my Commodore de-interlacer and
M.A.S.T. says the Microway Flicker-Fixer is compatible as well.
The manual mentions that the NewTek Video Toaster and ColorBurst
have problems and mention a board level modification for the
Toaster to allow compatibility.  Some internal genlocks also
evidently have problems (according to the manual), but the remedy
will most likely have to be on a model by model basis.


                               Software

     The software definitely could use some improvement.  In its
current version, it all works well, but it has some inherent
flaws.
     All programs will load standard IFF files (including IFF 24,
but excluding HAM and Extra Half-Brite) as well as the ColorBurst
fast-load format (a non-compressed format).  My system consists
of an A2000 with GVP A3001 at 30Mhz (that's a 68030 & 68882) with
4 Megs of RAM, a HardFrame 2000 and a Quantum 210 hard drive.
The conversion of a 768 x 480 image from the hard drive to
viewing takes about 18 seconds, while the ColorBurst format file
takes less than 4 seconds to show.
     Accompanying programs include Show24 - shows images until
left mouse key pressed, Convert24 - converts IFF to ColorBurst
fast-load format while viewing the process, BackDrop24 (This
program was mentioned in the manual, but was not included on the
actual distribution disks I received.  It is, however available
from the M.A.S.T. support BBS for the cost of the long distance
call to download it.) - "genlocks" a 24 bit image behind the
standard Amiga screen, Kill24 - turns off any currently displayed
image, SlideShow24 - utilizes a script file to sequentially view
images, Color_Cycle - demonstrates the 24 bit color cycling
ability of the ColorBurst, Sound_Cycle - color cycles in sync
with audio provided through a parallel port audio digitizer,
Scroll24 - allows real-time scrolling of an image using the
mouse, Mouse24 - functionally the same as Scroll24, and CBPaint -
the real-time 24 bit paint program (integer and floating point
versions included).
     Chip memory is a limiting factor for all of these programs.
A 512 K chip RAM machine tested was able to display about the
first 380 lines of a 768x480x24 image.  My 1 Meg chip RAM machine
had no problem with any display size except within the paint
program (see below).
     The source is freely available (with the exception of the
paint program, source code is included with the package), and I
am working on re-writing some of the routines before a promised
shared library is released.  Each program opens the ColorBurst
screen before checking the image file's validity or even whether
the user just wants the program's usage.  Many of the subroutines
make blanket assumptions about the image, the computer and the
system configuration, and at least the Show24 program hits the
hardware directly while looking for a mouse click.  Other
examples: one of the test routines malfunctions with an
interlace