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Motto: Everyone who has a video recorder needs an AMIGA, the person with a video camera even more!
Every Amiga comes standard with the ability to work with graphics modes and deflection frequencies that are identical to those of TV. Other computers need special add-on hardware to achieve this. On the Amiga, it follows that also every normal Amiga software is able to work in these modes, while you again need special software versions on other platforms.
Overscan is a feature of the Amiga video hardware which lets you fill the whole screen area as seen on a video recording with Amiga-generated graphics or at least the background color, i.e. there's no black border around the image like with some older systems. As Overscan implies more load on the Amiga's internal processing, you can choose the amount of Overscan freely to have a trade-off between display quality and performance.
When working together with other video equipment, it's important that these devices are tightly synchronized with each other. Every Amiga offers the capability to get synchronized to an external video clock. An external Interface, called Genlock, generates this clock for the Amiga and additionally takes the Amiga-generated graphics signal and overlays it on another video signal. This way you can e.g. create a film title on the Amiga that can be blended over an introduction scene of your last holiday video.
In the most simple step with an AMIGA 1200, you don't need any
additional hardware, just a video cable from the "CVBS"
or "Composite" output
of the A1200 to the video recorder, plus cinch cables for the
audio connection. On the AMIGA, you can then choose among very
different sorts of software:
- A simple drawing program helps you in creating nice backgrounds
with texts put in front of them.
- Better drawing programs offer also animation generation, so that
you can have title lines flying and rotating into the picture.
- With so-called title generators you can create professional
scroll texts or otherwise designed text pages.
- With presentation programs like e.g. Scala you can create similar
effects and produce whole shows.
You can record all these video data directly to any video recorder.
For a second step you probably will want the title texts to appear not simply in front of some computer image, but you want to overlay them on live video images. For this you need additionally a Genlock (see above). The software will be the same as for the first step above. You can connect Genlocks to every AMIGA, especially also to the A4000T.
When you want to create a video out of several original cassettes, or you want to reorder scenes from one cassette, a video editing system is appropriate. You can plan and test the order of your scenes, and finally save this sequence plan. Finally the program lets the playback recorder proceed to the right places, and lets the recording recorder start or pause, until all scenes have been recorded in the planned order. You don't necessarily need expensive special recorders, as these editing systems simply use the infrared remote control feature of the recorders.
For high-end demands there are also options for digital storing, processing and playing of videos. Such non-linear editing systems normally use Motion-JPEG or MPEG compression cards and therefore need a bigger AMIGA, like e.g. the A4000T.
If you live in a country with the NTSC video standard, you can also use the VideoToaster, a special hardware which allows to create live video effects on the fly, e.g. blending from one sequence into the following or 3-dimensional transforms of pictures.
The above dicussed video compatibility builds the hardware base. As these capabilities exist since the very first Amiga days of 1985, a broad palette of software evolved, covering all aspects of video applications. An equally rich offer for hardware add-ons got developed, from cheap devices for the video amateur up to professional equipment for TV studios. Thus many TV stations today use Amigas and often deliver all the graphics for the show. When speaking of "graphics" here, not only still images are meant: Especially animations, graphics in motion, is one of the strengths of the Amiga. There is a wide range of animation software packages available. But besides graphics, the Amiga also has its strengths in sound. Its 4-channel 8-bit DMA sound offers good quality for all entertainment or semiprofessional applications.
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