Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Just picked up a copy of  thew October Amiga World. They have an "Exclusive"
toaster review.

I haven't read it yet, but it looks good.

john

    I just called NewTek to discuss what the best source for input was
    and asked if the Toaster was shipping.  His reply was "no".  He
    said it would ship in a "few" months.  These people keep delaying
    this product over and over!
    
    Ray
    

    I read the Toaster review in AW and not once did I see the magical
    "IFF" word.  IFF (Interchange File Format) is what makes the Amiga so
    atractive, this means pictures, sounds, text... in IFF cand be
    exchanged between different softwares, like a TV picture grabbed with
    my frame grabber can be edited with Digi Paint (for HAM) or DPaint for
    other formats, displayed with Diskmaster or Elan and be made part of a
    presentation done with DVideo.
    
    Now it seems the Toaster is nice, does all kinds of things comes with
    super software (paint 3D render...) but is it all alone? could the same
    interface be used on a PC?  remember the article said the
    Toaster/software takes over the Amiga so you can't do anything else
    when it is active altough it does return to workbench uppon exit.
    
    So anyone still want toast?
    
    Jean
    

     re: .4
     I don't think the Toaster really is for everyone. It is for
     people who are into broadcasting and video tape production
     primarily. The Amiga community, including those not doing 
     pro work, are excited because the toaster runs only on the
     Amiga. New Tek is promoting the Amiga along with an amazing
     pro video board. This gives the Amiga visibility and increased
     sales. New Tek says it will not make the Toaster for the Mac
     or PC, thus the video folks dump those inferior ;-) machines.
     
     >is it all alone?  
     Not to the video folks. Their standard is NTSC (in the US at 
     least).
     
     Actually the Toaster offers feature for regular animation crazy
     Amiga owners, I just don't think that is the mn target of NewTek
     
     Dave

    I heard that Newtek was sending out 6 beta units this month. I should
    have limited access to one of them(whatever time I can escape work for
    a week)if all goes well. Even at that I am not sure what will be
    available for external video equiptment. re .4 I think that the Toaster
    will sell well enough in the pro video market to keep Newtek
    backordered for a long time. The folks in the video market won't be
    bothered by the fact that it ties up the Amiga,and after exposure may
    opt for a 500 for their homes. The toaster should sell many 2500
    systems,and will make the word Amiga a household word in the video
    world. 
    BTW The front cover of Video Magazine has a 2500 center stage. The
    articles center on the Amiga being used by four different people in a
    variety of multimedia rolls. Thier is also a sidebar on the Toaster.
    								bill

    RE: .4
    Toaster can save and use IFF files.  Talked to a person in Phoenix
    who is supposed to be the Amiga guru in AZ.  He was refered to me
    by NewTek.  He indicated there is no problem in dealing with any
    format.
    
    Ray

    RE: .6 
    I haven't bought a system yet, but I am in the process.  The
    configuration that I want is:
    
    A2000   GVP3001/33 w/4Meg 32 bit RAM   Supra2000 w/2Meg 16bit RAM
    fickerFixer  Deb2000  Toaster  1084S (to be used as composite monitor)
    Mitsubishi Dimond Scan or NEC 3D monitor
    
    I was informed by NewTek that the performance of the A2000 with
    the GVP3001 accelerator was much better than the A2500 setup.  
    Also I was told that the minimum of RAM for the Toaser to work was
    3 meg, to get full capibilities of the toaster you need 7 meg.
    
    I told NewTek that I was using there product for advertising, they
    told me I could get a preliminary board in 10 days.  But, I've heard
    that alot of them were dieing in the field.  The vendor I'm dealing
    with will have the Toasters for his clients by next Tuesday and
    set up for demo by Friday.
    
    Ray

The october issue of Computer Graphics World had some good things
to say about the toaster.  Also there is an article on Multimedia
and Education which has several quotes from Howard Diamond
(director of CBM's educational marketing program).

-steve

    
    re .8
    
    	Why are you getting a 2 Meg 16bit RAM board to use on a system
    that has a GVP 68030 with 4 Meg ???  It is cheaper, runs faster,
    uses less slots, ... if you just get 8Meg in the GVP card and
    forget the extra 2 meg 16 RAM card.
    
    
    		Steve Peters
    
    P.S. I currently use a GVP3001/33 w/4Meg
    

    re.8
    	I was reading the Manual for the toaster(gamma .90), and it had the 
    memory minimum requirement as 5meg. The software came on 7 disks,and
    the manual stated that you needed 5meg of space on the hard drive. The
    target system (GVP 030 50mhz,8meg 32 bit nibble mode,200 meg drive)
    has not yet arrived,and the 2000 available did not have 5 meg so the
    Toaster was not installed. On installation you can select to set up as
    a dedicated Video Studio(don't see amigados at all),or boot under
    amigados,and run the toaster from icons. The manual was a very large 3
    ring binder with a section on each of the software products included.
    	Like the JX 100 scanner the Toaster is an expensive dongle. You
    cannot install the software until you have the Toaster installed. Of
    course this could be due to the fact that it looks for the frame
    buffers. The actual toaster consisted of the Main Video board,and two
    smaller piggy back boards.
    							bill

    RE: .10
    I was under the impression that to upgrade the GVP 030 to 8 meg
    it would cost about $150 per meg.  Thats why I decided to with
    the 16 bit RAM because the system had 1 meg and all I would need
    is 2 more meg to give me the 7 meg required.  Do you know how much
    1 meg of 32 bit RAM goes for?
    
    RE: .11
    It takes 3 meg min. for the swithcher to work and 5 meg to use the
    paint program according to NewTek.  You compared to the scanner
    and said it's and "expensive dongle", can you elaborate on that?
    
    Thx,
    Ray

    I'm told by a fellow worker who is in to video, that Diversified Video
    Services of Norwood MA. has a video toaster.
    
    Roger
    

    Well I got to install,and play with a toaster last weekend. It
    surpasses any of my expectations. I saw transistions that we haven't
    seen on network TV yet. I did not get to try the other software aside
    from loading it to see what it looked like. The CG is very powerful.
    Another guy spent several days playing with it ,and has done quit a bit
    of stuff using the CG,but nothing in paint,or modeling. It works best
    with 3 monitors(program,preview,control) and once you get the hang of
    things seems as easy to use as say Pro Video Post. I had a hard time
    sleeping that night. However the video overhead needed to use the
    toaster will exceed the cost of the toaster. For people that are
    already set in video the toaster will become a must have item. Well 
    I hope to get another crack at it before it is shipped away,and would
    like to try it with a video source.
    								bill

    I was wondering what kind of video input the toaster takes.  For
    example, if I have two cameras and I want to transition between
    the two signals, do they both have to have external sync or just
    one that can sync to the other?
    
    If the input is a VCR, I've read that it require a TBC.  Do TBCs
    normally provide the external sync capability as part of the device?
    I was thinking about the VCR that Panasonic advertises as having
    a TBC built in?  Would something like that work?  My Panasonic rep
    said it's not a full blown TBC but I'm not sure what he meant.
    

    
    re .15
    
    	Maybe this should go into the Video notes file but ...
    
    
    1. The video toaster is looking for a very stable, syncronized signal.
       This means each input device needs an external sync. You could use
       one video signal as the master sync for the Toaster and the other
       sources. This needs to be a very stable source. The toaster seems
       to work by assuming the input signal is perfect and using internal
       timers and clocks to blindly trigger events.
    
    2. TBC - what do they do ?  They take an input reference sync and
       make the incomming video match this. They do this by bufferring a 
       frame and then clocking out the data in sync with the reference.
       Some TBCs can supply their own reference signal.
    
    3. built-in TBCs - what are they ?  VCRs and Camorders read video
       tape by spinning the head on a drum. Each revolution of the head
       is a scan line. This system introduces timing errors in the video
       signal. When video is copied ( edited, new generation ) these timing
       errors build up. TBCs are used to fix these timing errors. Some
       video equipment has added circuts to their products to correct
       the timing problems. These are called built-in TBCs. They correct
       the signal but don't do all a real TBC can do.
    
    
    
    		Steve Peters
    

The March 1991 issue of Amazing/Amiga (Vol 6, No. 3) has a detailed review of
the Video Toaster. The author, Frank McMahon, tested it in "home" and 
"TV studio" setups, and the review is, as far as I can tell, very thorough.

The author concludes that the Toaster was "without question worth the years of
wait. A round of applause to NewTek, they have created a new Amiga era."

    
    BYTE magazine gave the Toaster absolute rave reviews.
    
    Ed.