From: messina@netcom.com (Tony Porczyk)
Subject: Summary: Saving presentations to video tape
Organization: Messina Software
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 04:15:59 GMT


Since I have received several requests for summary of replies to my
question, here it is:

Original post:

> I was wondering if there are some either software or hardware products
> (or combination) that would allow saving animation or presentations
> (such as from Power Point) directly to video tape.  Platform would be
> PC (but I would be curious also about Mac).
> I understand that it can be achieved easily on the Amiga using Video
> Toaster.  Any equivalents on the PC side?

Replies, in alphabetical order:

Mr. Alan Braggins, alanb@sdl.mdcbbs.com:

The Toaster allows you to do much more, but if that is all you want,
there are much cheaper ways of doing this on an Amiga - indeed the
A600 has a built in modulator for use with a TV instead of a monitor.
You probably want better quality than that though - genlocks and
encoders are available over a wide price range (genlock will allow you
to overlay your computer graphics on live video). The PC equivalent of
a Toaster is a Toaster - the PC version of this is an Amiga with the
badge covered by a Toaster badge and a serial cable and a front end
running on the PC to control it. The Mac version is similar.

Mr. John M. Jackson, jmj5g@galen.med.Virginia.EDU:

We just bought a Videologic Mediator for abour $2000 for that purpose.
It is a box that plugs in to any VGA card (which must be running at
640x480) OR any Mac video source and outputs NTSC or PAL video.  It
will genlock, has SVHS output as well as composite, will under or
overscan, and has several other useful adjustments.  It is a nice
multi-purpose box that gives a very good picture for the price.

Mr. James D. McIninch, gt1619a@hydra.gatech.edu:

For such a simple task, it is VERY simple on the Amiga, and a Toaster
would be overkill. For $35, you can have an adapter which allows you
to connect the Amiga to an NTSC video device, such as a VCR.

IBMs and Macs need special conversion cards which can read from the
display card an translate the signal into as close as possible NTSC.
There are various cards, starting around $400, at about $600 you start
getting pretty good quality (both Mac and PC). The higher the
resolution, the greater the cost.

The video toaster is too much for such a task. The video toaster
includes a 7-way video switcher, dual realtime frame grabbers, an
unlimited number of fades and transitions, luminance keying, a 35ns
character generator, 24-bit raytracer/modeler/animator/paint package,
an AREXX port, it allows mapping the video signals around 3d objects,
etc. I think what you are interested in doing is a little more
mundane.

Ms. Andrea Peach, andreap@ms.uky.edu:

I do this all the time.  The device that we use is very expensive, but
there is a device called the Translator TR-1500 that is supposedly
about $2500 that will do it.  The company is RGS Dynamics and the
place that we were told to get it is from a company called TV One,
13050 West Highway 42, Prospect, KY  40059 (502) 228-6420.

Mr. Marcelo Vasquez, atreyus@lascar.puc.cl:

Hi, In the Mac World what you need is an RGB-Composite signal
converter RasterOps sells one (it is a small box that conects the
monitor to the video) I don't remember the price. In the PC world I
don't remember the name but surely TrueVision builds something for
that.


Thanks to everyone who replied!

t.