Pictures provided, and a disk has been sent via snailmail.
FRAMEMACHINE
It's a video digitiser and it comes from Germany, but it's not VLab and it's not only a video digitiser. John Kennedy investigates.
Yet another video digitiser? Aren't there enough in the world? OK, to be honest that was my initial reaction, but that was also before I started using Electronic Designs' FrameMachine card. A glance at the specifications promised something really special, and so without further ado I reached for the screwdriver. Sorry Amiga, but your lid is coming off again...
FITTING
In order to use the FrameMachine you will need to be in possession of an Amiga with Zorro slots: in other words, an A1500,2000,3000 or 4000. I used the card in an A4000, and installation was - to put it mildly - terrifying. Tolerances in the design of either the Amiga or the FrameMachine card meant it wouldn't slot into place easily, and in the end I had to disassemble the entire computer, take out the daughterboard and plug in the FrameMachine before putting everything back together. I also needed to insert a sheet of plastic between the SIMMs and the card to prevent any cross-connections. Quite frankly I was amazed that nothing went pop the first time I powered up.
A1500, A2000 and A3000 owners won't have such a bad time installing the hardware, as there is more room available in the case (no nasty SIMMs to get in the way), although A1500 and A2000s will need an extra connection to the Denise video chip in order to provide access to the necessary video signals.
The manual helps with lots of explanatory photographs, but the appalling writing style can be more of a hindrance: it's obvious that nothing more than a German to English dictionary has been used to produce it.
I was close to giving up on the FrameMachine, and if I hadn't seen what I saw next, I would have said the effort required fitting the card wasn't worth it.
GRABBING
Full-screen, monochrome 25 frames a second video on the Amiga's monitor. It looked good, but there was so much more yet to come.
Definitely the most fun part of the FrameMachine are its picture digitising capabilities. Its specification is almost identical to that of the VLab system, because in both the incoming video signal is digitised as a YC waveform. In practice this means the grabbing can be done in real time, but converting the image to RGB will take a few seconds.
Grabbing is a matter of watching the preview until the correct second, and then hitting a key. Instant the preview stops, and the grabbed image is held on the FrameMachine's own memory. As it is stored in YC form, it's as close to 24bit as makes no odds and of course this means the quality is excellent. Whether you want the image in 4 dithered colours, normal HAM or even super-duper AGA HAM8 more you need only select an option and the picture will be converted to your desired format in seconds.
If this sounds too complicated, a useful addition is the inclusion of a 'LOADER' for Art Department Professional. From within AdPro, the images can be previewed and then grabbed and immediately processed before saving. In this situation the AdPro JPEG saver is particularly useful as it can squash the huge raw 24bit images into something a little more manageable.
PRISM
The second part of the FrameMachine is an optional extra that's so good it's an essential extra. FM-Prism24 is a full 24 bit colour framestore that connects directly to the FrameMachine card without using any extra Zorro slots.
The preview digitising mode now uses the Prism display, which means that images are in real-time and full-colour on the Prism display. Again, AdPro users are catered for with a Prism saver, which means any image can be sent to the display card for a virtually instantaneous true colour display.
Prism has some extra capabilities up it's digital sleeve - something that lifts it above being a mere framestore and will earn it a place in every desktop video studio. As I've already stated, the Prism can effortless combine Amiga video with incoming video but the full implications of this are amazing.
For starters, with on-board custom silicon trickery, Prism can instantly re-scale the video to one of six sizes, from 88 by 70 pixels to 720 by 560 pixels. The scaled video can then be overlaid onto the Amiga screen to provide a full-colour 'Picture in picture' window. No matter what your Amiga screen mode, you can watch real TV on a window anywhere on the screen - it has to be seen to be believed.
Prism doesn't stop there, for the output connector at the back of the card is fully capable of supporting a Genlock, so now we're really getting into the realm of the video professional.
Here's one application - an electronic newsroom. The camera is pointing at a newsreader, and this video signal is sent to the genlock input. Meanwhile, the live footage from a video recorder is sent through the FrameMachine system and is scaled and positioned over the shoulder of the newsreader. Finally the Amiga is used to general subtitles or even animations in the foreground. The complete graphic sandwich can be recorded directly to video tape, and depending on the genlock used, you can master the entire project in S-VHS for near broadcast quality results.
As with any 24 bit framestore, there is always the possibility of a 16million colour paint package, and although none are available at present the FrameMachine is so good someone is bound to convert TV Paint or similar eventually.
MONITORING YOUR PROGRESS
As Prism has it's own video output proving both framestore and the Amiga output, you can get by fine with only your existing computer monitor. However, if you are lucky enough to have an extra monitor (or TV with SCART input), you can become an 'advanced' FrameMachine user.
With the correct menu options, the Prism and Amiga displays can be separated, so that each is show on an individual screen. As you grab frames, the full-colour image is shown for comparison and timing. Animations can be previewed in 24bit colour... oops, did I say the magic word?
ANIMATION
You can't have escaped the fact that Animation is really starting to take off on the Amiga. Digital video is now the 'next big thing' and with cards such as the FrameMachine and Macrosystems' VLab it's all happening on the Amiga.
Both of these cards feature facilities for grabbing sequences of video in real-time, although it has to be said that the FrameMachine is sadly lacking. Electronic Designs have opted for a brute force method of video capture. After selecting the number of frames and resolution you require, you play the video and hit start. The frames are all stored in memory (or on disk if you are not working at 25 FPS), and so you need a fantastically large amount of memory to grab any decent length of footage. I thought my A4000 has fairly well endowed with 10Mbs, until I used FrameMachine. I only just managed to grab the first half of the opening to Red Dwarf in 1/3 of a screen sized images - about 300 frames - before the software barffed up an 'out of memory' message. It was like owning a ZX81 without a Rampack again.
By comparison, Macrosystems realise that frame grabbing takes time, so with cunning software they use several passes of the video to grab the frames. As long as you gave the hard disk space, you could set the system to digitised an entire film overnight.
Until the FrameMachine software is upgraded to provide this facility, the sequencing grabbing option is mostly for amusement only. If you do like working with postage sized images, there a cutting room screen will allow you to assemble the images into a new order before the entire sequence is converted to HAM8 or whatever.
CONCLUSION
OK, so the FrameMachine was well worth the effort of installation. The software is easy to use, and although it requires WB2 or above, AGA users gain support for the new graphics modes.
Although a fast processor isn't essential as most of the work is done by custom hardware, it certainly helps when it comes to image rendering. Likewise you'll need a hard-drive and at least 3Mbs of RAM before you can even start tinkering with this beast. For serious use, swap your house for some SIMMs.
When I come to remove this beast from my Amiga, I'll miss it immediately. The 24bit display, the instant access to great digitised graphics and most of all the promise of a terrific animation system. Guess I'll just have to start saving...
Flannel Panel
Works with A1500,A2000,A3000,A4000
Needs Kickstart 2
AGA Support
Ease of use: 84%
Installation is a pain. Software is a dream.
Value for money: 98%
With so many features in one Zorro slot, it's a genuine bargain.
Effectiveness: 96%
Image quality is excellent, and picture in picture mode stunning.
Flexibility: 94%
It can grab, display and manipulate. It will do it in S-VHS too!
Innovation: 95%
A complete video studio on a card. Add a genlock and set up
business.
Overall: 93%
It's a framestore, a frame-grabber, an animation tool,
a digital genlock - it's bloody marvelous!
Alternatively...
The FrameMachine system has a startling resemblance to Macrosystems' VLab digitiser and Retina display card. Both deal with YC video, both produce excellent quality results.
The VLab software currently has the edge because of it's cunning interleaved animation grabbing system, but the FrameMachine has the more cunning hardware.
As the digitiser and Prism display card are so tightly coupled - the display card is plugged into the digitiser and therefore doesn't use another Zorro slot - the speed is incredible. You can watch overscan video being digitised in full colour in real time (25 frames per second) on the Prism output, whilst running the Amiga normally.
Even better, the FrameMachine gets around the Workbench emulation which Retina requires by superimposing the Amiga and Prism video signals
together, with optional scaling. The downside is that you can't run Amiga programs using the 24bit framestore display.
Other systems which must be mentioned are the Opalvision card - now at a very reasonable sub-£600 price - and the GVP IV24.
Jargon Busters
YC
A video signal protocol which keeps the luninance (black and white) information separate from the chrominance (colour) information. The result is a much crisper image than normal composite or RGB video.
S-VHS
A home-based video standard, downwardly compatable with VHS but using YC signals.
FPS
Frames Per Second - a measurement of the speed of a moving image. PAL television works at 25 FPS.
Digitising
Converting the information in an analogue signal (such as sound) into a digital form a computer can process.
Frame Store
A piece of hardware that can keep an image in its own memory, and display it on a monitor. To be useful, they are usually provide 24bit colour.
24Bit or Real Colour
When colour is stored using 24bits of memory for each pixel, there are 16million possible shades - more than enough to display every perceivable colour.
Captions
Please use as many of the grabs on the disk which you'll get tomorrow as possible - they look quite nice, and there is only one Star Trek picture.
fourcut.iff
In the 'cutting room' you can reassemble the sequence and even preview a miniature monochrome mockup. MMmmm.
wb.jpeg
Now you can really watch TV and computer at the same time. Just remember to pipe the sound through as well. Note that the live video image is independant of the Amiga's screen mode - it's always 24bit.
fm_ex.jpeg
Using an external Genlock, you can combine three separate layers of video. The VCR source re-scaled by the FrameMachine automatically, and is indistinguishable from the Camera source in quality.
ColourSelect.iff
Even if your Amiga doesn't support AGA modes, you can still create files for viewing on machines that do. You will need Kickstart 2 and above through, and a machine with lots of memory and a hard drive.
