walter_J64bit Posted July 1, 2012 Share Posted July 1, 2012 Did the ComputerEyes come with a video camera or was it optional and does anyone have the copies of the softwear? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+wood_jl Posted July 1, 2012 Share Posted July 1, 2012 No camera. You had to use your own [huge] 1980's video camera, in all of its terrible-unless-the-light-is-blindingly-bright glory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walter_J64bit Posted July 2, 2012 Author Share Posted July 2, 2012 (edited) No camera. You had to use your own [huge] 1980's video camera, in all of its terrible-unless-the-light-is-blindingly-bright glory. Do you have ComputerEyes? Can you tell me more like what kind pictures files are made from ComputerEyes and can M$ Windows use the files? As for the video camera, I know you can use any video camera that have a video out. Edited July 2, 2012 by walter_J64bit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+wood_jl Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 (edited) Hi walter. I used to have one back when they first came out, and I haven't seen one, since. So I'm sorry I'm not any help to you. I remember having fun with it (and the A8 version, prior). I found this disk image and I loaded it in the emulator and it appears to work, but of course says I don't have Computereyes hooked up. There's a "PICs" subdirectory and it is Degas picture files. I loaded one and was successful. Unzip the disk image and give it a try. Computereyes v1.12 (1987)(Digital Vision).zip Edited July 2, 2012 by wood_jl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+wood_jl Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 (edited) edit: duplicate post. Edited July 2, 2012 by wood_jl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walter_J64bit Posted July 3, 2012 Author Share Posted July 3, 2012 WOW, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 If I remember correctly, you could make Degas Elite and Spectrum 512 pics. The ST version looks really good for it's day. I bought one new in 1988? and a used one on ebay earlier this year... Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
griz Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 I still have one. You plugged it into the cartridge port of the ST and then plugged in a composite video source. Preferably one that could display a steady image like a video camera capturing a still scene. It's been years since I've used it but remember that It was easy to do claymation style full screen animation this way. I don't believe it supported Spectrum 512, at least mine doesn't out of the box. However, there is a RAW mode supported that allows it to capture far more color than the ST can display onscreen. Perhaps someone wrote a raw->spectrum conversion utility for this format? Why would you want to use this today though? Wouldn't it be more convenient to use more modern video capture hardware and convert down to the ST? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 For clarification look at this page near the bottom and read about DigiSpec... http://www.asterius.com/atari/spectrum.html Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DarkLord Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 Thanks for that link - some really cool stuff there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lp060 Posted December 30, 2016 Share Posted December 30, 2016 I just acquired one from evilbay and it looks practically brand new, however the software disk was missing. Cheers for the upload. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Android8675 Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 I had one back in the day, it was shit, back then getting a stable video image to capture was difficult, the device captures line by line, so if your video changed the capture would change. Ideally you need a live still video source, back then LaserDiscs and high quality Hi8 cams/tape sources worked well. These days a nice DSLR with video out preview will probably work awesome. Also with the Spectrum 512 capture the capture will scan the first 1/4 of the image then switch the ST to 512 color mode to preview the results, but in this mode the ST scans REALLY slow. Once you think the colors are OK, press Space and it'll resume capture at a higher speed. Took me a year to stumble across that option. I had more fun with the STReplay (Audio capture). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lp060 Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 (edited) I seen on the ST Graphics Wiki that the software could output raw CE1/CE2 files. The hardware is capable of scanning well beyond what the original ST was able to display and save the raw images. I made some home brewed raw files based on the wiki docs, but for the life of me I could not get the software (downloaded in this thread) to load the raw files. After some time in the dis-assembler I discovered that holding the Alternate key down while clicking Load/Save changed the behavior and it would load/save these raw files. I also discovered a CE3 raw format that seems to be undocumented. I bought the ComputerEyes mainly to get the manual and much to my surprise the raw files are never mentioned. It's like an undocumented hidden feature. Edited January 1, 2017 by lp060 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Android8675 Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 See, that makes me want to try that module again sometime in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lp060 Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 Another strange discovery. I found PicSwitch v1.0.1 and it's able to load these ComputerEyes raw files and it's also not mentioned in the PicSwitch documentation at all. In this case, you don't have to hold down any special keys. I'm a bit surprised this stuff was all undocumented as ComputerEyes users back in the day could have gotten far better results post-processing these simple raw files to GIF, TIFF, TGA, etc. Both apps are written by John Brochu. I cannot find a later version of PicSwitch and it's not quite finished. Far as I can tell around that time frame John Brochu ported his ProCalc to macOS and left the scene. I have been unsuccessful locating him. The CE3 raw files appear to be 640x400 with 6-bits of grayscale. Still trying to sort it out in the dis-assembler. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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