Videos Exploring MovieShop On My A4000

[jaesonk]

It's been a while in coming, but my Amiga 4000 restoration project is done. I've built it up into a nonlinear video edit system using MacroSystem VLab-Motion and Toccata boards, plus a Retina BLT Z3. The processor is a GVP T-REX-II 50MHz 68060 with 128MB. I also have a GottaGoFaZt3r 256MB RAM card. Running AmigaOS 3.2.2.1 and P96.

Since the VLab-Motion system is the predecessor to the DraCo (which I have and will make some videos about at some point), I've dubbed my NLE workstation Daenerys: Mother of Dragons.

Here's my YouTube playlist:


The MovieShop videos so far:

• MovieShop Audio Test
• Project Daenerys: Importing Files with MovieShop 4.3 & CoolIO
• Project Daenerys: Field Orders with VLab-Motion NLE
• Project Daenerys: PanCanvas Motion Control, Image FX & More On MovieShop Input
• Project Daenerys: MovieShop Timelines 101

Jaeson

 

[qz3fwd]

Really cool. But oh the flickering horror onscreen!

 

[ElectroBlaster]

Do you have a build log please?

I have a silly amount of A4000D hardware and could replicate a system like this. I have a Tocatta and Videotoaster that I have always wanted to use in anger.

 

[jaesonk]

I've done a few more videos. The most recent one is about the basic hardware needed to build a nonlinear video edit system for using MovieShop.



If you already have a working A4000 and Toccata, then you've got two big pieces of the puzzle. You need to look for a Rev1.2 or Rev1.3 VLab-Motion card.

For media storage, you can share an existing hard drive, but I prefer to have a separate media drive from my system and software. MovieShop needs two volumes, one for video and one for audio.

The volumes can not be bigger than 4GB, and must be within the first 4GB of any drive, even if your AmigaOS supports larger, MovieShop accesses the volumes directly and uses its own formatting. Breaking this rule will result in MovieShop overwriting the RDB (with all your drive definitions), as it goes beyond the 4GB, it wraps around at the start of the drive.

If your MovieShop video and audio partitions are on the same drive, you need to share that first 4GB between to the partitions. This is how I started out. First defined two partitions with the AmigaOS hard drive tools. I made one for video with about 3.5GB and one with audio for 512MB. When you start inside MovieShop, you tell it which volumes to use and select those partitions. MovieShop warns you if you are about to overwrite an existing AmigaDOS parition. Again, MovieShop doesn't its own format and access.

If you want full 4GB for both audio and video, you need to separate drives, so you can use the first 4GB of each. I'm currently using 2 CF cards in a dual slot SCSI drive. I do want to try a BlueSCSI sometime, because it lets you set up a single card to appear as multiple drives. I like a removable media option, it makes working on different projects easier. You can just swap project cards.

If you can get an 060 turbo card, use it. If you can attached your media drives to a controller on the turbo card, even better. A faster processor with RAM and controller on the board, will spend up render times.

 

[JHanna]

Very cool

 

[YouKnowWho]

Awesome! Toaster was the toast of town, and most popular, but there were other solutions available on the Amiga. OpalVision, GVP IV24, and now I learn about this setup. I didn't even know MovieShop existed until you posted this. Thanks for sharing.

Did Apple lift all this video stuff form the Amiga? It sure smells like it. iMovie and of course FinalCut with FireWire and DV Video is what made Apple lift-off into what it is today. The rest, is history. Maybe it's time Apple built a AmigaOS appearance skin into MacOS as a tribute to all Amiga has done for them?