You've probably read endless articles about desktop video in other publications, but few seem to have addressed the subject article then. Is to discuss the possibility of DTV for the masses (and that means youI - Ed). What is lt that makes the Amiga so spécial? Why aren't machines such as the PC and Macintosh stealing the iimelight? After ail, the Amiga s graphies capabllities are now no longer regorded as state of the art. Both the PC and Macintosh offer higher screen réso lutions and larger coiour palettes, so lt wouid seem only natural that they're better quotified for the job. As always though. tooks can be deceptive. Hidden oway within the Amiga hardware Is a iittie piece of cfrcultry that makes the Amiga a natural for video work. lt doesn't matter how flash your video hardware is. without this iittie slither of Silicon your computer will be something of a none starter. Without gettlng too technlcai. this bit of circuitry allows the Amiga ta synchronise itself with an external video source - in the case of desktop video, a genlock. And as you'ii Iearn iater on, synchronislng is the all-important tactor. o case of sync or swim (I) Even today the Getting into desktop video needn't be expensive. OK. if you're intending to use your Amiga for professional applica tions then expeef to write out some pretty hefty chèques, but otherwise you need Iittie more equipment than that which you already own. A typicaI Amiga DTV setup The diagram on the right shows a typicol home DTV setup - it's about as simple as things get. so don't expect fo produce the kind of results that you see on the opening crédits of Wogan. The heart of the System is obviously the Amiga. but the genlock is the device that does ail the hard work. Note that you actually need two videos - one to piay the source tape, and another to record the compiete genlocked output. As on option, there's also an audio mixer in there. One of these will set you back as Iittie as $40. so it's weii worth investing in one just so it's there if you need it. The Amiga supplies the sound in this setup. but it's also perfectly possible to connect up MIDI devices such as synthesisers and sampters to get truly pro fessionai sounding resuits.