Mastodawn

Fred Feb 1

New release of MacFlim, the Vintage Mac Video Player, now in version 2.0.18 ! #macflim

Get it from https://github.com/fstark/macflim (in the releases on the right).

As usual, demos are on the page https://www.macflim.com/macflim2

Changes:

* Now ships both a ``.dsk`` and a ``.sit`` containing the MacOS 1-7 Application.

No need to compile the ``flimmaker`` utility yourself anymore (unless on linux, of course :-) ), as you get:

* Binaries for both Windows x86_64 and arm

* Flimmaker for OSX (both x86 and arm) can be installed with ``brew install fstark/macflim/flimmaker``

* I fixed the ``--duration`` option of ``flimmaker``. Why nobody reported to me that it was broken?! Baaad.

So, for a better support, I created a discord server, that you can join here https://discord.gg/9rVDSw2D4N . Macflim things, discussions, help, suggestions, etc...

* Added support for accelerated macs plus with MicroMac Performer upgrade (and clones).

Last and most important, there is also a new dithering option, 'blue' that is as efficient as ordered dithering in low bandwidth and approaches the 'error' dithering look. Attached is a comparison in low bit rate between 'blue' dithering, 'error' dithering (the classic "mac look"), and ordered dithering.

Fred Apr 21, 2024

I learnt assembly on a TRS-80 model 100 back in the day, so I started collecting slabtops. One thing lead to another, and I may have gone a bit overboard…

Anyway, I finally got a Kyotronic 85 (the one that the model 100, the m10 and the pc-8201 were derived from) today, so I pulled them out of a family picture!

So, what is *your* favorite? Bonus: can you spot the intruder?

#vintagecomputing #retrocomputing #80s

Fred Feb 27, 2024

#nextflix 6th update: the good news is that the sound is now perfect and the encoding is okayinsh. Pro-tip: don’t expect callbacks to be real-time on a non real-time OS : getting the video to sync to sound using SNDStartPlaying callbacks is just not going to work. Ideas welcome :-) #retrocomputing

Fred Feb 26, 2024

5th NeXTflix update: first time getting disk streaming, video and sound! This is the very first time it works, there are *many* glitches in the matrix! (advice: keep sound low). And yes, the vertical stripes is an endianess issue, x86 encoder vs 68k player… #nextflix, #retrocomputing

Fred Feb 10, 2024

Progress on NeXTflix was about going 68Hz in display to try to sync with the MegaPixel monitor, but I can’t film at this framerate, so instead I give you a close up of our cat, Wanda. #nextflix

Fred Feb 7, 2024

Daily (4th!) #nextflix update! Had to lower to 12 fps, tried ordered dithering but it is less nice, ordered screen updates and added ML-based image detection to help prioritize important visual elements… Lack of double buffering hardware + interferences from SCSI makes it difficult to get much better with the current approach. So I’d say it is good enough for now! #retrocomputing

Fred Feb 6, 2024

Daily #nextflix progress report: now with macflim-like time-stable error dithering. Quite a few artifacts but nice image quality. #retrocomputing
I did quite like the 4 color poster style of previous prototypes, so stay tuned for a nasty idea from the kid…

Fred Feb 5, 2024

Another day, and with some help from my second son I got smooth playback! #nextflix

Fred Feb 4, 2024

First bits of success with my next project: NeXTflix!
I so wanted to do this since I started https://www.macflim.com/macflim2 …

Fred Jan 29, 2024

I assume everbody already knows that the Macintosh LC with its 12 inches monitor #fitsinakallax too? (the monitor needs some repair before turning into another macflim bench test computer)