Quadra630 Tv Video Review

Date: Thu, 15 Sep 1994 20:36:58 -0400 (EDT)
From: Andrew Sinclair-Day <sinclair@pcnet.com>
Subject: Quadra 630 TV/Video review

  I recently purchased the Apple TV/Video System for the Quadra 630 
and thought I'd share my experiences with it, this should also apply 
to the Preforma and LC models. Before buying the Quadra 630 and the 
video system, I owned a Quadra 660av and will make some comparisons 
between the two.

  WHAT YOU GET for $249.
           A Manual (clear and well written).
           1 Disk with the Apple Video Player extension & application.
           1 CD-ROM with Avid VideoShop 2.0 and upgrade coupon to 3.0 
           1 Screw.
           1 Remote control w/ battery (cool!).
           1 Cable/Antenna Tuner Card.
           1 AV Card w/S-Video IN, Composite Video IN,Stereo Sound IN 
           1 Warranty Card.
 
   INSTALLATION was very simple and took about 5 minutes and involved 
removing the back plate on the Q630, removing 2 screws, and sliding 
the motherboard out. The AV card goes in the Video slot on the mother 
board and installs in seconds, it is secured by the screw that came in
the box. The motherboard is slid back in the case and fastened by the
2 screws. Next to the monitor port are 2 screws on a rectangular 
plate which must be removed, the plate comes off and inside is a 
ribbon cable that attaches to the Tuner card. The card is slid in the 
hole and secured by the 2 screws. At this point you attach your cable 
TV or antenna cable to to the card and put the back plate on.  Now 
hook up all the other cables and install the software. If you have a 
VCR or Camcorder you can hook it up to the AV card.

   THE REMOTE CONTROL will turn the Qaudra 630 on/off, mute the sound,
change channels, adjust the volume, turn the video software on/off, 
toggle the video display size, and has controls for the internal 
CD-ROM allowing you to play, stop, eject, pause, forward and reverse 
tracks on audio CD's.  It's very small and light, about 2"x3"x 1/4", 
and is a Sony remote (model RMC-A1). If you have a Sony TV w/ remote 
in the same room as the Quadra 630, you may run into problems as it 
emits the same infrared signals as the Apple remote. If you turn off 
your TV, you can also turn off  your Mac or if you use the remote to 
turn the Mac on you will also turn your TV on.  However there is an 
option to disable the Apple remote, and you can always use the 
keyboard or mouse to do everything.

   SOUND from the Tuner or AV card is passed through the Q630, like it
is with the CD-ROM, so it's not limited to 22MHz 8bit stereo unless 
you are recording the sound or are using the internal speaker on the 
Q630. I recommend getting external stereo speakers or hooking the Q630
up to your stereo system.  What I really like about the sound on the 
Q630 is the ability to have 3 different sound levels, one for the CD 
Audio, one for the TV/AV cards, one for all system sounds.  Setting 
these sound levels is done through the sound control panel under 
volumes. So if you are listening to a CD  at a loud volume and the Mac
makes a system sound it won't blast you out of your seat. All three 
sound levels can  be active at the same time, meaning a CD can be 
playing, the Mac can be making noise,  and watch TV. I have the TV and
CD volumes set high and the system volume kept low.  When I had the 
Quadra 660av there was no control over this, so if  you were listening
to a CD at a loud volume and the system beeped you were blasted by 
that beep. No More. ;-)

   APPLE VIDEO PLAYER software allows you to watch TV, view video from
a VCR or camcorder , capture still frames and record QuickTime 
movies. 
  The Channel Setup option is very straight forward. Here you choose 
what type of signal you are going to be using (antenna, cable, HRC 
cable), then choose the auto add option, this will scan your cable and
add all channels that have a signal, including scrambled channels. 
You can then go and remove any scrambled channels if  you want.  A 
nice feature is the ability to give each channel a name, for instance 
channel 31 can be named CNN. Channels can also be assigned passwords 
to eliminate children (or adults) from watching stuff they shouldn't, 
but removing the channel preferences file circumvents this.
  TV Reminders allows the Video Player software to remind you when 
certain programs are on. It will even turn the the TV tuner on , or 
give you a reminder 5 minutes before the program is due to air. 
  The Control Window is where everything can be fine tuned. The video 
source can be selected (TV, Video, S-Video). Brightness, sharpness and
tint adjusted. Sound sources selected (Mono, SAP, Stereo) as well as 
balance, bass and treble. Closed captioning is also supported (Off, 
CC1, CC2, Text1, Text2) in windows 320x240 and larger. 
Capture options include freeze frame, save still image, and movie 
capture. If using the Apple Video software to capture QuickTime 
movies, there are only three compression settings (None, Normal, and 
Most). Also the video input standard can be set (NTSC, PAL, SECAM). 

  The video viewing size can be anywhere from 160x120  to 640x480, and
is always in 16bit color regardless of what bit depth your monitor is
set to. With the Quadra 660av, the monitor had to be set to a depth 
of 256 colors or less in order to view video, while with the Quadra 
630 you can be in thousands of colors and still view video. The 
quality of the video display is also better on the Quadra 630. The 
Quadra 660av displayed it's video on the monitor in an RGB signal, 
while on the Quadra 630 it is displayed in a YUV signal which is what 
your TV uses. The result is a crisper, cleaner image with less color 
bleading. The quality of the image once it is above 320x240 in size, 
employes a scheme called pixel doubling, meaning that every 1x1 pixel 
now becomes a 2x2 pixel area. The result is a coarser image, but it's 
really not that bad, especially if you are a few feet away from the 
monitor. The Pixel doubling scheme is much better on the Quadra 630 
than it was the Quadra 660av. 

 Video capture frame rates using the Apple Video Player are 17fps at 
160x120 and 12fps at 320x240 with sound (there is no option to disable
the sound, you can mute it though) and it is caputered to the 
hardrive with no option to capture to RAM. I haven't used VideoShop 
for capturing yet, but it should be about the same rates for capturing
to the hardrive, though it does allow capturing to RAM and the 
ability to disable sound thereby increasing the frame rate.  
  When I use Premiere 4.0 to capture video, I set the image size to 
320x240 and the capture frame rate to 5fps with no sound. My VCR (JVC 
HR-D820U) can play back video in slow motion at 5 frames per second 
and this is what I capture. I then set the playback rate to 600% and 
make the movie and it comes out to 30fps. Then I go back and record 
the sound and insert it and re-record the movie. This is the only way 
I know of to capture 30fps quicktime in a decient size window without 
investing an arm and leg in additional hardware.

   I am very pleased with the Quadra 630 and the Apple TV/Video 
System, much more so than I was with the Quadra 660av. I would 
recomend the TV/Video System to anyone who wants to get started in 
Quicktime, or likes to watch TV, especially while getting work done. 
;-)


Andrew Sinclair-Day  |  The Rock Garden      |  Between the brain that plans
Sinclair@PCNET.COM   |  982 State Street     |  and the hand that builds,
AndrewSD@EWORLD.COM  |  New Haven, CT. 06511 |  there must be a mediator.