the NTSC issue
Question from E-mail
I use six-hour video tapes to record long radio programs; the problem was, without a video signal the audio tended to glitch (this is a not uncommon problem I’m told). So I needed a video source. I immediately thought of doing a simple display on the computer — program title and an elapsed-time clock — but hey! Macs and PCs don’t do NTSC video without an expensive peripheral card! Rats!
At which point I turned to the Apple II I thought I had put away for good* and whipped up a lores graphics character generator. Problem solved.
Woz
This is a surprising and amusing story. The best ones are often the true ones.
I, myself, use a PowerBook. Recent PowerBook models, including the one I’m using right now, have NTSC out (U.S. version). Look how many marketing folks have to make presentations. Some are probably still done on TV’s. Also, TV’s are very popular for the teacher to present in classrooms, costing much less than computer quality monitors (which are smaller physically) and projectors.