Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Ral-Clan on January 17, 2008, 03:16:54 PM
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For me, in the 1980s early 90s, making funny movies with my friends, an Amiga equiped with a Genlock was always the holy grail of gear. However, back then Genlocks were always out of my price range.
Now everyone is getting rid of their genlocks for $35, etc. I can finally afford one! Tempting, but probably only for nostalgic reasons, I think.
So...is there any reason, in today's age of digital video, to purchase a Genlock? Does it still have its uses, or is it just a waste of money (i.e. I should just do all my video titling, effects overlays, etc. in a modern PC editing program)?
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Does it still have its uses, or is it just a waste of money (i.e. I should just do all my video titling, effects overlays, etc. in a modern PC editing program)?
It still has a use, for starters its easier to title a video using a genlock than it is to digitalise it and then analog-ise :) it
You can also do some cool shots mixing 3D lightware stuff with real life vids (an x-fighter flying over the croud at a fair) but people just dont like them any more and now most Amiga's are RTG most cant use Genlocks so the price is bound to go down.
I have to say although I own a Genlock I never found a cool program to make use of it, they were all just so grown up. :)
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Not really much use unless you have some old media you want to deal with. Genlocks are so last century....
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Is your video feed live-to-air? It's about the only time I'd even think of using a genlock. My advice, spend the $35 on something better ....like playing EVE-Online or smoking grass. :-D
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Yeah, that's what I thought. Good for overlaying graphics in a live situation, but for doing video effects for DVD, etc., software has killed real-time-analogue.
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I use a Hama 292 as an S-video converter (for WinTV input or a beamer), just 8€ on ebay.
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Hi,
I don't like the output of titling made on pc these day, so I use my miga with Scala ;-)
And also, I use my A1230+Genlock with DVD so I can add any comment or banner on any video played without recompilation.
Can you do this on a PeCee ?? :lol:
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I supose live broadcasting :-?
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ral-clan wrote:
So...is there any reason, in today's age of digital video, to purchase a Genlock?
Well, does 'fun' count anymore in today's stuffy world of digital standards? I even have a genlock for my CDTV, and it's one heck of a blast using it compared to anything running on a clone.
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I think someone have the same idea:
Use it as an "A520" with S-VHS output...
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I remember having a borrowed genlock to make a wedding tape, the people I did it for still watch it :-D
When I get me an Amiga again, I'll be sure to get a genlock too. Remember, Amiga's are the match made in heaven for video purposes :-P
I only wish the Toaster was PAL compatible.
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@ral-clan
Are TurnTables Useful in today's world of Comapact Discs??????
Ask a DJ that question and he will SMACK YOU across the face and say: Are You nuts? of course they are........try DJing with a CD Mixer......or PC software.....it ant the same!
(ral-clan...im not trying to be rude here towards you)
The same goes with an Amiga Genlock.......especially the SuperGenSX (Probably one of the Best Genlocks ever made)
Genlocks are absolutely esential for anyone wanting to do Video.......with Amiga or not.............Digitalizing sucks! and takes wayyyyy more time.........with a genlock you just fade it on instantly....and you can do things live! like Amiga Karaoke if you have MP3 karaoke songs or a CD32 with an SX-1 or SX32 pro and a genlock.....where you can charge people to do a Karaoke Video of them at a Bar or some club.......add to that a ChromaKey+ and your hooked up as good as any Mac or PC today.
My Mac and PC owning friends are scrambling to be able to do Video as easy and instantly with their Machines as I do it with my Amiga.
Continually I learn here on Amiga.Org that you can't listen to everyones opinion all the time...........many times their opinions are based on lack of usage or non experience or perhaps not having creative tendencies with Video (wich is ok...not everyone can have the same talents)
but trust me............with SCALA MM300 and a genlock and preferably alot of RAM (128mb or more) you cant do Cool wipes and animation overlays and you can even Jam LIVE with Music Videos and mix them on the Fly at clubs with the SuperGen SX's Video Faders...Just like a DJ uses his mixer to Jam and mix songs quickly! This is what I do by the way!
I will be posting Videos on YouTUBE soon then you will know why you need a genlock. On top of that it gives you S-Video Out and converts Composite to S-Video as well as S-Video to composite.
@Oli-HD
I have to say although I own a Genlock I never found a cool program to make use of it, they were all just so grown up. :)
Dude! SCALA, SCALA, SCALA............subtitles, Credit Overlays........credits and gfx overlays for your YouTUBE videos................Song Lyrics at church (fade halfway with an animated background to have the lyrics overlayed on Motionbacks/jumpbacks. and most importantly VeeJaying.
Amigas are still one of the Best machines to VJ live with...today in 2008!
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Wow you got me convinced, I have never used a genlock but I dj in japan so this sounds like it might be something worthwhile with my amiga at events! Scala and a genlock you say? Might have to ask you some more about that mate.
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The Amigoids with Genlocks will be the only ones able to reach the populace when the digital social controls go into effect. The "Trusted Computing Platform" will ensure that only sanctioned activities can be performed on "your" computer, and the AT&T Alliance will ensure that only authorized transmissions are able to cross the Internet. No dissent will be tolerated.
But the lone Amigan, whose computer will by then have been deemed illegal because it cannot be guaranteed to be "safe," with his or her Genlock will have the ability to create new and inventive communications to stimulate the mind and return society to a free-will empowered, free thinking world which it once was.
This is the story as told by Jones. Only Amiga makes it possible.
:crazy:
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LoadWB wrote:
The Amigoids with Genlocks will be the only ones able to reach the populace when the digital social controls go into effect. The "Trusted Computing Platform" will ensure that only sanctioned activities can be performed on "your" computer, and the AT&T Alliance will ensure that only authorized transmissions are able to cross the Internet. No dissent will be tolerated.
But the lone Amigan, whose computer will by then have been deemed illegal because it cannot be guaranteed to be "safe," with his or her Genlock will have the ability to create new and inventive communications to stimulate the mind and return society to a free-will empowered, free thinking world which it once was.
This is the story as told by Jones. Only Amiga makes it possible.
:crazy:
AHMEN !!!!!! :laughing: :roflmao:
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leirbag28 wrote:
@ral-clan
Genlocks are absolutely esential for anyone wanting to do Video.......with Amiga or not
MEH!! RU on Crack??? A genlock is far from essential!!
.............Digitalizing sucks! and takes wayyyyy more time.........
ROFL, I think perhaps you've not worked with the right people. Faster then realtime digitizing has been around for some years now.
with a genlock you just fade it on instantly....and you can do things live! like Amiga Karaoke if you have MP3 karaoke songs or a CD32 with an SX-1 or SX32 pro and a genlock.....where you can charge people to do a Karaoke Video of them at a Bar or some club.......add to that a ChromaKey+ and your hooked up as good as any Mac or PC today.
I agree with this bit to a point. A genlock can work in this situation but once again this is a live-feed we're talking about.
My Mac and PC owning friends are scrambling to be able to do Video as easy and instantly with their Machines as I do it with my Amiga.
Then they need more training!! The Amiga, much as it is my fave platform is now well behind on the video stakes.
Continually I learn here on Amiga.Org that you can't listen to everyones opinion all the time...........many times their opinions are based on lack of usage or non experience or perhaps not having creative tendencies with Video (wich is ok...not everyone can have the same talents)
>choke< Now that's just insulting! Being truly creative with video becomes far MORE plausable after digitizing. Why do you think NON-LINEAR editing took off in the first place?
but trust me............with SCALA MM300 and a genlock and preferably alot of RAM (128mb or more) you cant do Cool wipes and animation overlays and you can even Jam LIVE with Music Videos and mix them on the Fly at clubs with the SuperGen SX's Video Faders...Just like a DJ uses his mixer to Jam and mix songs quickly! This is what I do by the way!
Great, you do about the only job were a genlock is actually useful, a live-feed situation!
I will be posting Videos on YouTUBE soon then you will know why you need a genlock.
Need? No. It is however a cheap solution for live video and can still be usefull in your field of work but for anything that isn't live your still better off digitizing. Non-linear video allows so much more freedom to the whole creative process.
Geesh ...I've done plenty of work with digital video and the thought of doing even a fraction of that work with analogue makes me feel sick! I do see your point for your line of work but for the rest of us, unless cash is a major issue or live video is involved there is very little point buying a genlock.
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A Question :
Do you know any good Software (open Source for Linux)
to play Video and overlay Text and Graphics in Realtime ?
I really need this and cant use Amiga & Genlock for that Project
- simply because they are not mass-produced anymore
and way too slow for (Software)MPEG decoding.
I have to run all this from a small, embedded System.
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I don't, try a decent Linux forum. Like this one:
linuxquestions.org (http://www.linuxquestions.org) :-D
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Thanks. I hope my Question was not offtopic.
If i understood correctly, overlay of Text and Graphics
is a simple Application for a Genlock.
A new Solution must be somewhere.
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Ohforf wrote:
A Question :
Do you know any good Software (open Source for Linux)
to play Video and overlay Text and Graphics in Realtime ?
I really need this and cant use Amiga & Genlock for that Project
- simply because they are not mass-produced anymore
and way too slow for (Software)MPEG decoding.
I have to run all this from a small, embedded System.
Blender is good for 3d effects and has alot of pluggins that can be used for such a thing
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I think i know Blender, but i dont think its good for
Realtime Overlay. The only Realtime thing in Blender is
the Game Engine Thingy.
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I don't get the issue with digitising, all video sources nowadays are digital, my video camera, my TV, movies I rent (and rip occasionally ...). Where are the analogue sources?
What's so difficult about copying the video file out of your video camera and loading it in Final Cut? Where in that process can a genlock be useful?
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return society to a free-will empowered, free thinking world which it once was.
What planet are you on and can I have a ticket?
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persia wrote:
I don't get the issue with digitising, all video sources nowadays are digital, my video camera, my TV, movies I rent (and rip occasionally ...). Where are the analogue sources?
What's so difficult about copying the video file out of your video camera and loading it in Final Cut? Where in that process can a genlock be useful?
>> all video sources nowadays are digital
Huh????
>> my video camera
My video camera is a Panasonic AG-450 SHVS Reporter
>> my TV
I don't have a TV, but I have a 1084s I can feed comp/s-video to.
>> movies I rent
I don't rent movies.
>> What's so difficult about copying the video file out of your video camera
It's not; I 'copy' the s-video clip/file out of my video camera and 'load' it through my Genlock.
>> in Final Cut
Is that related to Final Writer or Final Calc? I thought I had all the Softwood programs, but I don't seem to have that on my Amiga.
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Could someone elaborate on why RTG can not genlock?
Is it the 31.5 khz frequency?
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Is your video feed live-to-air? It's about the only time I'd even think of using a genlock. My advice, spend the $35 on something better ....like playing EVE-Online or smoking grass. :-D
For $35.00?! what, one toke of rag weed.....
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NLE is great for editing, of course unrivaled for that particular purpose.
But then on realtime live performances, when a subtitling or bug/logo insert, latest newsfeed is required at an affordable cost, I still find I have to go back to my trusty Amiga and its genlock with Scala InfoChannel 500, Broadcast titler 2 or even Monument Designer.
An Amiga and a good genlock still has some use, specifically in adding flexibility for realtime titling purposes, for everything else, it is insane not to be using NLE equipment.
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Could someone elaborate on why RTG can not genlock?
Is it the 31.5 khz frequency?
Genlocking requires that the syncs/video of the input and source align, so .. the GENerated video is LOCKed to in the input video.
The amiga has extra singals on it's RGB & Video connector (#XCLK & #PIXELSW) to specifically handle this.
Any RTG card would need these extra signals as well so it can be controlled externally, and yes, your source and generated video (RTG) would also have to be the same frequency (NTSC/PAL/VGA etc..) if the two aren't the same, they can't align properly
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Is your video feed live-to-air? It's about the only time I'd even think of using a genlock. My advice, spend the $35 on something better ....like playing EVE-Online or smoking grass. :-D
Subscribe to the EVE-online one :-) been playing since 2004 and still fascinates me - probably because it reminds me of Elite - and that is a game I really loved playing on my A500
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As other people stated:
- for video titling your videos, for effects, etc., use a non-linear video editing suite on your PC/Mac.
You get precise and correct results, and you can make a DVD directly out of it, without further digitalization (if you use a digital camera).
(BTW @hardlink: Final Cut is not related to Final Writer and other Softwood programs: I don't know if it was sarcastic; but anyway, it's the most popular video editing application on Macs).
- if you plan to do some live video, like VJing, karaoke or similar, Amiga + genlock solution is still a good way forward (I own a Hama 292 genlock).
The bad thing about Amiga for live video is that you cannot have a control screen for choosing effect options, prepare next title, etc.
You must prepare what you need in advance, and have it on hand, maybe by pressing some keys to trigger the desired title/effect.
I thought a partial solution to this problem could come from Indivision ECS (not AGA sadly): as I read, if a proper driver will be made, there could be different contents for Indivision ECS output and Amiga output, providing the control panel I spoke about.
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Genlocks are such an important part of video production that even the Video Toaster has it built in. But, you have to understand that there are two types of genlocks, those for non-professional use and those for professional use. Genlocks like the Super-Gen produce broadcast quality signals and are a must have item for making videos. I never use a PC for making videos, it was never designed for that. I use the Amiga, a computer that was actually designed for video. For producing very nice movies and videos, nothing beats an Amiga with a professional genlock or a Video Toaster. But, you also need a professional camera and recording equipment. Do not use a camcorder, use a video camera ( yes, there is a difference ). 3-gun tube cameras actually produce a much nicer picture, at the same resolution, then a digital camera. In the same way that a CRT monitor produces a much nicer image then a flat-panel monitor. So, if you can find a professional genlock for only $35.00 buy it. :)
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I have an idea that I think could use this kind of technology. Basically, it's a light gun game that takes any video signal and superimposes effects on top of it, creating a primitive sort of augmented reality.
You could, for example, program it to recognize flesh tones and use it to shoot at anyone you see on your tv screen, and the computer would apply blood splatters and bullet wounds and whatnot. It would make CNN tolerable, at the very least.
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Anyone got a genlock for sale?