From: tyager@maxx.UUCP (Tom Yager)
Newsgroups: rec.video
Subject: Re: Anyone have any experience with a Video Blaster
Date: 1 Oct 92 03:56:02 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: New Hampshire Public Access UNIX

In article <27SEP199220065755@mars.lerc.nasa.gov>, tidedu@mars.lerc.nasa.gov (William T. Dedula) writes:
> Hello All;
> Does anyone own, or know anything about a video blaster. This
> is a plug-in PC board for the IBM PC which they claim can 
> capture video from any video source as well as overlay computer
> data over live video. 

The Video Blaster works just fine. It's got dual video inputs (composite
only), a stereo audio pass-through with volume adjustment, and puts up
video from an external source in a window on your VGA monitor.

> I need a board that does this for some on-going video production
> I'm doing but I need to know how good and reliable this system is?
> Can anyone tell me about its advantages, and its drawbacks ? 

I don't know what kind of video production you could do with the Video
Blaster since it doesn't have video output. I suppose you could use it to
replace a video monitor, but I expect you've thought your application
through.

The board and its drivers are reliable enough. To use it, you must have a VGA 
board with a feature connector. That's drawback #1: no on-board VGA. Other
boards, like the Truevision Bravado and some boards I know are coming but
can't discuss here, are combination VGA and video-in-a-window cards.

Like all other such boards, the VB can freeze, save and load frames stored on
disk. The upcoming AVI software from Microsoft may work with the Video
Blaster to capture full-motion video that you can play back later.

> What are all of its features ? Also ... what software is provided?
> Does it provide software for video titling? Does it require 
> M. S. Windows, and finally, will it work in an 8 bit 8088 system?

I won't list all of its features here; I'm sure Creative Labs will send you
a brochure on it if you call them. The standard software bundle is a collection
of DOS and Windows programs for configuring (done entirely through software--
very nice) and testing the board, and for saving and loading captured frames.
No titling software is included. You do get a "multimedia player" that lets
you combine animation, still images and video, but the material has to be
created elsewhere.

This is a 16-bit board, so it will not work on an 8088. Windows is not
required, but that's where the Video Blaster is really most powerful.

The quality of the video in the window produced by this board is almost
identical to that of the more expensive Super Video Windows board from
New Media Graphics. The people from New Media claim they had some hand in
designing the chips used to build VB and some other video-in-a-window
boards.
> W. Tim Dedula                        Internet: 
> N.A.S.A. Lewis Research Center       tdedula@nasamail.nasa.gov

-- 
Tom Yager, BYTE Multimedia Lab Director
           Author, Addison-Wesley UNIX programming book (Summer, 1991)
           Author, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich multimedia book (Fall, 1992)
           decvax!maxx!tyager, maxx!tyager@bytepb.byte.com
Xref: sparky rec.video:11898 sci.electronics:16453