This column was first published in the MUGOO Newsletter
in September 2000.
Don't touch that mouse! It's My Performa at the Movies, Take No. 2.
Movie camera. Action. Take 3!
Hey, where's the popcorn! It's time for the
movies with my Performa!
That's right. My Performa,
with the QuickCam and the Apple TV Tuner/Video hardware and associated
software installed, is a virtual recording studio. Digital movie making
and recording was possible on Macs for many years prior to iMovies on
iMacs and iBooks. Yes, movies, with a small "m," compared to an iMovie.
Movies nonetheless; QuickTime movies to boot.
Mix together some creativity, patience, practice, and the necessary
hardware and software, and a movie can be created and captured on your
Mac, and then transferred to video tape before your eyes. Several items
are required to create a movie on your Mac: digitizing hardware, a
source to capture video to and from, software players, and software
editors.
- (Before I start, there is a secret of mine to share. The reason why
I bought my Performa was Apple's marketing campaign promoting the
Quadra 630 series multimedia prowess. I thought neat, the this could be
a lot of fun. Well, I can say Apple delivered with my Performa!)
Back to the story: to make a movie you have to have the hardware to
digitize video and then the source to capture video. The Mac for your
digital studio either must have built-in circuitry, an optional Apple
TV Tuner/Video Card, a third party digitizing video card, and/or a
peripheral that connects through your Mac's modem or printer port.
If you have an Audio/Visual (AV) Mac, whether 68K or Power PC, your
Mac has built-in digitizing circuitry. The Quadra 660AV or 840AV Macs come to mind immediately as
Macs with digitizing circuitry built-in. Other AV models include the
Power Mac 6100, 7100, and 8100 AV models. There are other
Power PC models, such as the 8500, that came equipped with
built-in digitizing circuitry as well.
Other Macs however come with digitizing circuitry, but require
installation of an optional Apple TV Tuner/Video card. Macs in this
category are the Quadra 630 series, such as my Performa, or the
6200 and 6300 series Power Macs.
If you don't have a Mac with digitizing circuitry, digitizing
capability can be added by installing a video card into an expansion
slot. By the way, this is the only way to get video capability for some
68K through G3 Macs. Last, but not least, is to add a third party
peripheral such as Connectix QuickCam camera. This device provides
digital movie making capability by connecting to your Macs motherboard
through the Macs modem or printer serial ports.
The other half of the hardware equation is the source from which to
capture video. The source of video can be TV, which can be captured
built-in your computer if you have a Apple TV Tuner or third party
video card installed. Another source is connecting your TV, VCR, video
camera or other video devices that have video out put jacks to the RCA
port or video input port on your Mac. The last source for video is
through a third party peripheral device, such as a Connectix QuickCam
that connects through the Macs serial port.
Next week: Act 02. Software and Movies.
