------------------------- 3]FLICKERFIXER Review 3]Getting Rid of the Shakes 3]By Tom Krotchko ------------------------- Manufacturer: Microway, Inc. PO Box 79 Kingston, MA 02364 U.S.A. (617) 746-7341 MicroWay, Europe Ltd. 32 High Street, Kingston-Upon-Thames Surrey, England KT1 1HL 01-541-5466 Product: Video board for the A2000 to eliminate interlace flicker Price: $595 Advantages: Excellent customer support, board transparent to all software. Disadvantages: Expensive, requires expensive monitor, no software switch to eliminate effect, dark border around screen, doesn't work with a genlock. Special Requirements: Usable on an Amiga 2000 only, uses the video slot. Requires an IBM VGA compatible monitor. The interlace flicker of the Amiga is perhaps the most serious flaw to an otherwise excellent personal computer. In any resolution that requires more than 200 lines of vertical resolution, the Amiga is forced to produce the output in the "interlaced" mode. Interlace was originally chosen for the Amiga for two reasons. First, an ordinary television could be used for a video display instead of an expensive RGB monitor. Second, an interlaced screen doesn't require the speed of the Amiga's internal circuitry to be as fast. Although originally done as a cost-saving measure, the interlace mode has been both a bane and a boon to the Amiga. The limitations become obvious when any sort of CAD work in attempted in the high resolution mode. The flicker makes the mode very difficult to use. On the other hand, the desktop video phenomenon the Amiga started requires the interlaced output. As you may know, a television set also uses an interlaced output to produce a picture, so any sort of video work requires an interlaced output. flickerFixer offers a way to effectively use the interlace mode on an Amiga 2000, removing one of the strongest objections of the Amiga as a professional work station. 3]HOW DOES IT DO IT? Interlace creates a flickering effect because the time between screen updates is slow enough for the human eye to notice. The effect is similar to watching an old silent movie on a modern projector. Many people report the flickering effect reduced or eliminated using a variety of tricks, including reducing screen contrast, working in a darkened room, or placing a smoked filter in front of the monitor. The flickerFixer takes the brute force approach to eliminating the interlace flicker. It captures two video frames at the normal, slower update speed, combines them, and sends them out at a higher screen rate. This approach allows the board to be completely transparent to any software running on the Amiga. One of the problems with the flickerFixer is that it requires a monitor that is either compatible with an IBM VGA monitor, or is multi-scanning monitor (compatible with many different video standards). These monitors are more expensive than a standard Commodore monitor, ranging from $400 to several thousand dollars, so the cost of using the flickerFixer is quite expensive. 3]INSTALLATION Installing the flickerFixer is easy, requiring you to remove the cover of the A2000 and insert the board in the video slot on the far right hand side of the Amiga. The back of the board is positioned so a standard nine-pin connector protrudes from the rear of the Amiga. Once this is done, the cover is re-installed and a monitor is connected. A new cable is also required as the Amiga video cable is not compatible with the flickerFixer. After power up, the instructions ask you to insert a supplied disk and open a picture containing a test pattern. For certain monitors, a simple adjustment is necessary for a steady picture. After the hardware is set up properly, the Workbench may be modified to take advantage of the increased resolution now available. Two utilities are supplied by Microway to help you use the flickerFixer to full effect. These utilities, morerows and WBLace, allow you to extend the resolution of the Workbench screen to 704x470. A warning to hard drive owners: Certain hard drives may not operate properly when the screens are in this mode. In particular, the first driver used by Commodore with its A2090 controller experienced difficulties when accessing data while in the video overscan mode. This has been corrected by Commodore in an update to the driver software. 3]LIVING WITH THE FLICKERFIXER Using flickerFixer has produced some surprises and relatively few disappointments. The biggest surprise is the improvement in the standard 640x200 Workbench screen. The black scan lines that are present in every Amiga screen are filled in, and so text becomes more readable. This unexpected benefit has turned out to be my favorite feature of the flickerFixer. I no longer experience as much eyestrain when using a word processor or text editor. The Bridgeboard software takes on new life with the flickerFixer. Since the scan lines are now eliminated, the CGA screen now appears to have the same resolution (if not the same colors) as an EGA screen. Use of the 640x400 resolution is now not only possible, but is actually enjoyable. Using DeluxePaint II at the new high resolution showed how good a picture can look when the resolution of the screen is increased. Most applications look improved when used with the flickerFixer. Its hard to describe just how good things look in the new non-interlaced mode. The closest thing to it that I've seen is the new IBM VGA graphics standard. I experienced no software incompatibilities with a wide variety of software from paint programs to games. This is to be expected since flickerFixer doesn't change anything about the way the Amiga operates. There are a few disappointments. Two items that should be improved are the ability to turn off the flickerFixer using software. This would be good because of the second disappointment: a black border of approximately 1/2 inch which appears around the Amiga screen. This was a major irritant at first, but I seem to have adjusted to it. Some monitors may have an "Overscan" switch to make the border disappear, but this is by no means standard. The other disappointments when using flickerFixer are not the fault of the product but point out some shortcomings of the Amiga at the interlaced resolution. The first is that text is tiny at 640x400. That's because text size is not independent of screen resolution. Commodore is addressing this problem in version 1.4 of the operating system. Another shortcoming is that applications tend to work more slowly in the 640x400 resolution. Whether this is an Amiga or an application problem is unclear. Some people have reported difficulties using the flickerFixer with games. Specifically, there are complaints of image "ghosting". In my experience, fast motion games may produce a ghost image (Arkanoid, for example) but the problem never seemed severe. Other games, such as F/A-18 Interceptor had no problems, and on the contrary looked good. 3]THE BOTTOM LINE flickerFixer is a terrific product. Aside from its cost, I would recommend this product to anyone who uses the interlaced mode frequently. Microway is a company that cares about its product and customers. One caution: If possible, try to see the flickerFixer connected to the monitor you intend to use. Expensive monitors vary greatly in their ability to accurately produce text and graphics. 3]A STORY WITH A HAPPY ENDING When I first received the flickerFixer and my new Princeton Graphic Systems monitor, the image produced was poor. A call to Microway produced immediate results with the promise to wire a new board to be compatible with the Princeton monitor. After a few phone calls, Princeton Graphic Systems (PGS) decided that the monitor, not the flickerFixer was at fault. After a return of the monitor to the mail order establishment, the second monitor also proved to be defective. I returned the monitor this time to PGS. Within a week, the monitor was returned working perfectly. At the same time, Microway determined the flickerFixer I had received (also from a mail order establishment) was not properly FCC certified. They immediately sent a new board with the proper FCC class B certification. I mention this only to let you know that Microway (as well as PGS) is a company that seems to care about making its customers happy, something that seems rare sometimes. 4]END OF TEXT