Re: The Lisa - It Works the Way You Do

On 04/21/18 19:58, Tom Stepleton wrote:
> Thanks for sharing this video, Ray! Kudos on having a VCR in working
> order :-)
Yeah, I kept a pair of VCRs for just this sort of thing.  I actually had digitized all my VHS tapes a few years back, and of course never watched them again... 

I have an old Archos PMA430 which is a 2003 era Linux PDA that I used as an mp3 player/ebook reader, etc. before I had an android phone - that little beastie can also act like a little DVR.

I also picked up an S-VIDEO to HDMI converter and an HDMI game recorder just for this tape, but the output of those two was terrible.  The SVID->HDMI adapter stretched the square SD video to 16:9 or 4:3 or such, and also it seemed to have inserted interlacing and amplified the video noise!  (It only has an input switch for RCA vs S-Video and 720p/1080p - no other options.)  Meh!  My trusty old Archos did a much better job.  Even so there's a few drop outs here and there. 

Apparently there's devices called Time Base Encoders that I could have bought for $400-$500 to fix most of the dropouts, but that's a lot of money for something I'd use maybe less than a handful of times.  Besides, the dropouts give it that classic VHS charm that some people pay a lot of money to put back in via plugins to video editors.

> 2. This is what happens when you move it to the right-hand side of the
> screen: https://photos.app.goo.gl/hnTu1ZCieGDHYTs22
>
Oh yeah, you're right.  I did notice a bit of rock and roll on my actual Lisas and like you thought that it must be the power supply - but I too recapped mine a few years ago.  James helped with that. :)

Perhaps it's some sort of beam reflection or deflection issue.  Or maybe it's the alternating 50% gray pattern in the scrollbar?  Or maybe the electro magnets that aim the electrons lose some of their accuracy at the right edge for some reason, possibly the gun is still turned on and painting the rightmost pixel when on the horizontal retrace back to the left happens?  Maybe they needed to add a bit of extra padding on the sides to prevent it?  Wonder if this also happens on old B&W toaster Macs?

> It kinda looks like the 1983 Lisa has the same scroll bar striping
> that you see in my second picture. Maybe this was always a problem?
> Their Lisa: it distorts video the way mine do.
Yeah, looks like it is.

>
> Do other people's Lisas do this?
>
> Anyway, pretty classic "there's got to be a better way!!' style ad
> video. Kinda looked to me like Mark was the junior partner, though!
> Hang in there, Mark, someday you'll get an office with a window too...
Yeah, she should totally have been the boss in that video.

I bet later on that Mark was dumb enough to have upgraded the Lisa 1 to a Lisa 2 instead of keeping it as is!  And he probably left the NiCad's leak on his I/O board too, what a goof! :-D

I kinda love the 80isms in that vid, the ugly clunky office furniture, the ridiculous vest Mark was wearing, the lame muzak, the lack of clean transitions between scenes, etc.  It's kinda the same thing I get when I watch a cheesy horror movie where it's more funny than scary, only instead of being cheesy B-Movie horror, it's the cheesy B-informercial 80s.

Compare that to a high end production like Game of Thrones or Westworld and be amazed at and appreciate how far we've come!

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