ScuzzBlog: Diaries July 2019
Entry 6th July 2019: Post 03: Video Capture - Bouncy Letters
Video Capture - Bouncy Letters
What should have been a simple process turned into a marathon. I
accept that the £25 capture device I bought is a little cheap, but
it started to flag up an issue that just could have been an problem
with the Amiga 600.
What I discovered is that whilst the general image and text on the
Workbench screen appears stable, the active text in boxes and the
like bounce all over the place. In the Amiga there are different
capacitors for sound and the RF, Composite and main video output.
So if the capacitor for the composite had leaked and was playing
up this may indicate a problem. I also had issue with the sound.
Anyway I tried several disks and recorded all my findings. The
worse was the Assassins disks main menu which was bouncing badly.
I even recorded the Amiga playing same on an Amiga monitor.
Anyway three A600s later, two 1200s, A500 and Plus I concluded
it was the little black box. I couldn't be so unlucky to have
the very same issue on all my Amigas.
The sound was also breaking up and I was struggling like mad
with PacMania and having issues with sound breaking up and fading
away. Again another symptom of capacitor failure. However here
the same sound outputs are used when using both composite and main
video output so with the sound being just perfect through speakers
and Amiga monitors I couldn't see how it was the Amiga that was
at fault.
In the end I decided I didn't have a capacitor issue but have
concluded the little black capture device is crap. Interestingly
I watched a very long video today on YouTube showing a guy recapping
an Amiga 1200. He was so confident that an issue with the machine
was due to the capacitors. When he checked the capacitors having
removed them he found them all to be functioning perfectly. Also
the problem wasn't a capacitor in the end, and he managed to blow
up a chip and short out another component in the process.
I also recorded three of my favourite games, Uridium, SWOS and
Arcade Snooker. I apologise for the quality, but hey.
Just a comment on the emulator. I don't use one. Never will. I do
appreciate I could use a capture device on the emulator. But what
would be the point of that. My activities here are hinged around
machine and software. The two work together. When I show what I do
during the day it's more about how the kit is doing. Showing a
piece of software running on a PC isn't really relevant. There are
plenty of YouTube videos showing games and software used on the
Amiga. Whether they are captured on a true Amiga, I know not. So
for now I will struggle with my crude attempts and maybe I'll find
a better way of creating videos.
Anyway here is an assembled bunch of videos I created whilst checking
out the various Amigas. One point of interest is that the featured
Workbench screen shows a 3.1 ROM and OS running off an XT-Drive in
a 590 off an A500. That's just 20MB drive that is the size of a
small brick. It really shouldn't be working. Just think about that.
V I D E O S
PacMania is a problem captured but not on the Amiga monitor
Uridium and Arcade Snooker
SWOS and 3.1 on a 500 with a 590
The letters in the left main menu particularly in the
Assassins videos show the active lettering bouncing badly.
Yet they are static on the video on the Amiga monitor.
The poor video on the left show the imitations of the
capture device. The video on the right wasn't recorded
with a tripod so that is my hands shaking. Sorry for that.
Video Capture - Bouncy Letters
|
