Macintosh AV: Large Screen Video Capture Unsupported (11/95)


I have a Macintosh AV Series computer connected to a Macintosh 21-inch Color Display. I'm unable to display or capture color video from a VCR or camera. I can only get black and white. Is there any way to do so?

The Macintosh AV Series computers, including the Power Macintosh AV models, cannot display or capture 8-bit color video on displays using a resolution greater than 832x624 (17-inch, 19-inch, 20-inch, and 21-inch).

The reason is both VRAM and other on-board video circuitry are not fast enough to transfer the 8-bit color video data to the screen on larger monitors and the CPUs are only fast enough to dump the luminance data, so only 8-bit monochrome (grayscale) video can be displayed or recorded.


Article Change History:
13 Nov 1995 - Clarified type of video and Macintosh models.
24 May 1995 - Clarified black and white, not color capture.
18 Jul 1994 - Added other monitor sizes and reference to Power Macintosh.

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Published Date: Feb 19, 2012