Re: Great GS Stuff CHEAP!

[jeff.blakeney@canrem.com (Jeff Blakeney)]

Subject: Re: Great GS Stuff CHEAP!!

 DA> : Apple Video Overlay Card  $89
: >>> What is it supposed to do?

 DA> I've got one.
   > It is effectively a gen-lock board for *any* Apple ][.  It has
   > on-board a duplicate of the ][gs video circuitry, with composite
   > video inputs and outputs, and analog (][gs-compatible) RGB outputs.
   > This thing allows you to synchronize the Apple video display to an
   > external video input, blend the two via either keying or mixing or a
   > combination of both, and send the result out the composite and RGB
   > outputs.

One minor point, it only works in a //e or IIgs (possibly the //e
compatibles as well).

It can also allow a //e to view SHR graphics and also allows viewing using
a 320x400 or 640x400 mode.  This can only be done with software written to
do so.  I do this all the time with SuperConvert because it has an option
to view interlaced on the VOC.

I used it recently to put various titles (about 40 of them) on a video I
sent to my brother for christmas.  It turned out really nice.

 DA> Which leads me to another question...
   > Those PhotoCD players:  Just how much control over the image does one
   > get with those things via serial control?  It seems to me that one
   > could use the VOC, HyperCard IIGS or HyperStudio, and a PhotoCD
   > player to do multimedia presentations with far better image quality
   > than those so-called multimedia computers can, simply because such a
   > setup would allow for TRUE multimedia.

Shortly after the VOC was released I saw a demonstration of it at a user
group meeting.  An Apple Canada representative had set up HyperStudio
with the VOC and a laser disc player.  He had a laser disc about the
chateaus of the Lorimar (not sure how to spell that) valley wine region in
France.  He used HyperStudio to show a still image off a map of the region
with the chateaus labelled by the computer.  Once you picked a chateau,
you could view stills images of the chateau or watch and listen to a
guided tour.  All the while, the HyperStudio controls were overlaid on the
video from the laser disc.  It was incredible.

 DA> It's a neat board.  Apple should have introduced it when the ][gs
   > was first released...it could have kept the Amiga from taking over in
   > the cheap video market.

I still have to get the Developer's Kit from the Byteworks for this card
so that I can do some more fun stuff with it.  Like allowing the use of
640x400 for the desktop in all IIgs applications, using 640x400 for
titling my videos and possibly making it so I can display 256 colour
graphics with it.  The last one requires adjusting the exact overlay
location but should on be a pot adjustment.

I'm also very interested in what you can do with the feature connector on
the card.

 * 2qwk! 2.01 * Install Aborted.  Insufficient space in brain.  Run from flopp