Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

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1
I you digitise images in colour to
non-computing F
friends, you may have
stared y at a few disbelieving faces.
o "What", they say, "you hold up
pieces u of coloured plastic in front of
the h camera? Are you serious?"
a "Erm....yes", you say, "and it works
really v well!"
e
But it's too late. You have lost their
respect. e No longer are you a
computing
v
genius, you have become a
crank,
e
a mad professor, a nutter in an
anorak.
r
If you are afraid of this happening to
d
you then rest easy: Modem technology
has
e
come to your rescue. In actual fact,
the s solution was always there, it was
just c that it was too expensive to
consider. r But first things first,
i As we have said on many occasions,
to b grab a picture in colour you must
grab e the red, green and blue portions
of d the image separately. Once the
computer h knows the amount of each
primary o colour in each picture, it
knows w just the amount of colour to
add to each pixel in the display.
Result: A full colour image.
The sensible way to split the image
into its RGB components is to use
some electronics. What is needed is a
Black Box with a video signal bunged
in at one end, a switch on the top to
choose the colour, and a separated
signal out the other.
:
i Although mentioned in passing as
t,part
of last month's digitising
'spectacular,
we reckon it deserves a
s !bit more recognition. Frankly, a
bsplitter
this cheap is something that
1 AviII l
This cause is what several VIDI people RGB does. to perform And a
adouble-take
anyway.
c
Assuming you have the MI Frame
, grabber,
k
colour digitising is a fully
1 111It t
u o
o
.
In
Decodct
Circuit
/1'
VW! RGB block diagram
Digital
lc
switcheN
1
•
Sick of pieces of
coloured plastic?
Yearning for a
hi-tech video
solution? Rombo
could have just what
you're looking for,
as John Kennedy
discovers
automatic process. Just hit a key, and
the three images are grabbed,
processed and displayed in a few
seconds. With decent lighting and a
cheap camcorder the results are pretty
darn good. Marginally better than with
coloured plastic, but without all the
hassle.
With any other digitiser - frame
grabbing or not - you must use the
splitter in manual mode. A multicoloured
LED on top of the box
indicates which colour is currently
being let through.
If it's white, then no colours are
being filtered out - the image is the
untouched original. A press on the
button and the LED turns i!erl. Now
only the red component is being let
through. Another press and the LED
turns green. One more press and it's
yellow. Yellow? Well, it would be blue
but blue LEDs are a bit tricky to get
hold of. Rest assured that the video
signal component is totally blue.
Expansion-minded folk will be
interested in the special "feature
• SHORTIES •
connector", As well as various control
signals and power lines, there is full
support for the S-VHS (or "super
VHS" - an improved quality video
standard) system. This should ensure
some degree of future-proofing VIDI
RGB.
Furthermore, there are some things
which simply can't be done without a
video splitter. For example, the new
Still Video machines are very exciting,
but at the moment getting the image
on to an Amiga is a bit tricky.
With a splitter it is possible to
digitise the image in colour at a
resolution only limited by your
grabbing hardware. The same goes for
grabbing a video taped image. in
colour. Unless you can electronically
split the signal, you're stuck with a
mono image.
If you need a splitter for a specific
purpose, then you can't go wrong
VIDI RGB. Even if you think you
would like a splitter, just to do away
with the coloured plastic, you would
still be making a wise move.
REPORT CARD
V1D1RGB
Rambo Productions Tel: 0506 414631
E69.95
Ittii I 1 IIIIITE
EASE OF USE
Simply press a button to choose the
image colour. When using VIM, even
this arduous task is removed.
VALUE0111111111111
Video splitters are rare. Affordable ones
rarer still.
OVERALL B O %
A useful - sometimes essential -
addition to your digitising setup, at a
price which isn't prohibitive.