SCALA MM400 Still usable today?

[fatboy]

Not being a fan of Microsoft's Powerpoint (just too clinical and corporate looking), I was wondering if SCALA could produce something a little different for a promo vid I'm thinking of doing for my new business?

Can it stand the test of time and produce professional looking results, in the right hands

What I've seen so far, it still looks pretty good today....or am I just 'fantasizing' that I could use such an old piece of software to produce anything near that of Powerpoint etc.

[gulliver]

I still use Scala Infochannel 500 (Amiga version) for some presentations. I find it really simple and straightforward to use. There is always a workaround for unsupported features (due to age of the software).

In the end it always comes down to the tool that you feel more comfortable with, because it is not the tools, but how you use them which makes the difference.

[Leandro Jardim]

Originally Posted by fatboy

Not being a fan of Microsoft's Powerpoint (just too clinical and corporate looking), I was wondering if SCALA could produce something a little different for a promo vid I'm thinking of doing for my new business?

Can it stand the test of time and produce professional looking results, in the right hands

What I've seen so far, it still looks pretty good today....or am I just 'fantasizing' that I could use such an old piece of software to produce anything near that of Powerpoint etc.

Well... If you are using WinUAE you could record a video file with the output of the WinUAE screen. WinUAE is able to do this with the Output panel. I have seen some users of this forum saying that have done this already and that works.

More interesting would be if WinUAE could be used like a frame server or could be plugged to one, like is AVISynth used for (http://avisynth.nl/index.php/Main_Page). This way, anyone could make a color-key of the WinUAE video output over a video playing in background.

Then WinUAE could be used for things like movie subtitling, or together with small programs like VirtualDub (http://www.virtualdub.org/) and Avanti/ffmpeg (http://avanti.arrozcru.com/, and http://www.ffmpeg.org/) to make home videos for YouTube, for example. Or even with big programs like Adobe Premiere for feeding it with titles or hand-drawn ANIM animations.

[fatboy]

Originally Posted by gulliver

I still use Scala Infochannel 500 (Amiga version) for some presentations. I find it really simple and straightforward to use. There is always a workaround for unsupported features (due to age of the software).

In the end it always comes down to the tool that you feel more comfortable with, because it is not the tools, but how you use them which makes the difference.

Not quite sure what the difference is between IC500 and MM400, is it an upgrade?
Also is there anywhere I can get pre-made scripts that I could modify (apart from those included)

[gulliver]

Originally Posted by fatboy

Not quite sure what the difference is between IC500 and MM400, is it an upgrade?
Also is there anywhere I can get pre-made scripts that I could modify (apart from those included)

IC500 between many other features, supports networking (client-server for multimedia deployment with TCP-IP support) and has also a nice invoice/billing system that integrates pretty well with Scala.

[fatboy]

Just put together my first SCALA presentation.
Trying to figure out the best video setting via winuae to transfer to DVD?

Any tips...so far it ranges from blocky low res output but good sound, to excellent output (uncompressed), but with 'choppy' sound???

Cheers

[VJagentONE]

@fatboy
Boy this is a 5 year? late response LOL, just got logged into EAB after like 12 or 13 years or more absence.

SCALA MM400 Is Awespme...InfoChannel 500 has a few more features you may not need..

Anyhow here is my recommendation.

Put it to output NTSC HiRes Interlaced 736 x 480 or 720 x 480 or 704 x 480, in 128 Colors and make sure there is white to darker white to darker white to gray to black in the color palette...When selecting fonts put a 3 range Anialiasing and they should look good.....if not satisfied, open up Personal Paint 6.1 or higher.......Type the words in the font size and outline you want in the same 720x480 resolution...save the Words or text lines as Brushes, and if you can export them in 8 Colors Dithered Floyd Steinberg...... now go to SCALA and import the Text Brushes which will appear as sentences or whatever you are trying to write........You wont be able to edit the words of course...but to the Onlooker, they will look like High Quality fonts.....Neat eh?

its a trick you can use to make up for the Age of SCALA to output higher quality.

Look here for a Video I did using SCALA for the Backgrounds and the Dancers on a Bluescreen with ChromeKey:

[ Show youtube player ]

And a Game I was creating using SCALA MM300 and fully run inside it!

[ Show youtube player ]

You can also use Broadcast Titler 2 for Excellent Text CHaracter Generation...the interface is extremely Odd, and also limited but the Demo shows what it can do:

[ Show youtube player ]

[Mrz]

The Amiga version is obsolete nowdays, you can do a better work
with the PC version is called "Scala infochannel designer"
the last version was done in 2004


is the same program with more options and effects, is far better than the Amiga version
of course it works in 32 bit colors

it can load JPG images,PNG images,gifs,animgifs etc
for videos it can load avis,MPEG,movs files etc


you are not limited to amiga ilbm images or amiga anim dapaint videos

[Daedalus]

Originally Posted by Mrz

The Amiga version is obsolete nowdays, you can do a better work
with the PC version is called "Scala infochannel designer"
the last version was done in 2004

I'm pretty sure Scala is still updated and maintained, with much newer versions of the designer and player than a 2004 release. I know I've occasionally seen it in use recently on Windows 7 systems digital signage.

is the same program with more options and effects, is far better than the Amiga version
of course it works in 32 bit colors

Indeed, and the same can be said for almost any software. Games on the PC are much more advanced than the Amiga for example, word processors, web browsers, programming environments... People use Amiga software because it's nice to use Amiga software and because they like to do things within the bounds of the Amiga hardware or software. I have used Scala for making a few presentations recently, knowing full well that much newer PC versions exist, and that it would be so much easier to do it in PowerPoint. Because that made the experience much more interesting.

[gulliver]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

I'm pretty sure Scala is still updated and maintained, with much newer versions of the designer and player than a 2004 release. I know I've occasionally seen it in use recently on Windows 7 systems digital signage.

Last version of Scala is "Scala Enterprise" released in 2013 and last updated only 4 days ago.

Scala Infochannel Designer is regarded as an old product. It was a product full of flaws which got fixed only in later versions: no x64 support, not possible to run in windows 10, no parallel wipes (even the amiga version supported simultaneous wipes).

The advantage of the Amiga version is that it is portable and requires little resources, so it can be used in any platform that has a UAE port.

I often see the Amiga version still being used in several studios as a teleprompter, and in many commercial retail stores as a digital signage solution to showcase their product offerings.

I believe I still have many of the old PC versions when I worked at getting those solutions up and running.

[Firestone]

Lately I have been doing some investigation on modern digital signage software solutions... both payed and open source variants...
My main problem is that I'm stuck with the Scala way of doing things and thinking, and I want the software to act like Scala.
It would have been nice to design each screen with text, wipes, brushes and all sorts of effects to make it come more "alive".

A lot of modern software gives you the opportunity to make those screens, import webpages and whatever, but not in a simple way I think.
I would like to do a combination of static screens, some animations, pulling some data via APIs from external resources and so on.....

I've come to a point that I'm really considering just using the Amiga-version of Scala, then structuring the external data in a way that I can handle it with the Arexx-functions in Scala for example....

A lot of Amiga-users were Scala Infochannel/Multimedia users back in the day, and I would really like some comments on what solutions you went to after Scala on the Amiga?

[Pyromania]

Scalars the bees knees on any platform. Their focus lately has been on the Linux version.

[coldacid]

I just wish that I could use Scala with 3.2!

[Firestone]

Originally Posted by coldacid

I just wish that I could use Scala with 3.2!

I guess you can now. Tested it with 3.2.1 now, it seems to work.

[Daedalus]

Yep, can confirm Scala MM400 now works with the 3.2.1 update.