Talk:Video Toaster

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is within the scope of the WikiProject Amiga, a collaborative effort to improve the depth of quality and coverage of the Amiga computing platform and related topics in Wikpedia. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.

"a relabeled Amiga 2000 or Amiga 4000 containing a plug-in board, along with software to make it communicate with a PC or Apple Macintosh."? As far as I remember the only thing the Mac or PC was used for was to prop up the monitor. Any source to this? // Liftarn

"As I recall, the PC\Apple connection was used to provide a secure backup system, were the Amigas not bad for crashing\over heating?

I'm sure it was as a back up drone, they were used. Axel "

wouldn't some simple case mods and adding some fans (uncommon as that would have been at the time) been a heck of a lot cheaper and more failsafe? :) I can't see why they would be any more or less reliable than a reasonably solid 680x0-based Mac or Atari system otherwise, probably similar or better than a contemporary PC... Mind you i wasn't there :D 82.46.180.56 (talk) 00:05, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

The best source would be old Video Toaster-specific magazines from the early 90s, none of which I have. I specifically remember Macintosh users bragging that they could "now get a Video Toaster too." Exactly what role the "host" computer played when "connected" to a Video Toaster, I can't say. Being an Amiga zealot myself, I didn't want to come out and say something quite that strong. If you want to reword it, go ahead. --Dave Farquhar

Are you sure about the delay in the first version of the toaster? A delay of 100-200 ms would have required you to store somewhere around 10 fields or 5 frames. That would have been _extremely_ expensive back then. --132.199.230.178 17:18, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

To whit, about 5mb of high speed random access memory... even high end PC video cards capable of TV-standard output didn't commonly break 4mb for a few more years. Mind you, it might still have been cost effective compared to the professional studio equipment equivalents i'd imagine as even more exhorbitant! (and not entirely worth it if you're only after making a title screen and putting a few name subtitles on anchors, reporters and guests for your local news reports, regardless of it's more famous use on e.g. Babylon 5) 82.46.180.56 (talk) 00:05, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

	It is requested that a photograph or photographs be included in this article to improve its quality.
	The Free Image Search Tool (FIST) may be able to locate suitable images on Flickr and other web sites.

[edit] More clarity needed

This entry needs more info about a typical Toaster setup. There's no mention that a user still required two or more video tape units to perform edits. The entry does not make it clear that the Toast was *not* an NLE. --24.249.108.133 23:27, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] wording?

Though it was admittedly one of the better graphically specified computers of the 80s (and particularly in terms of bang-for-buck), I can't see much justification in the Amiga being "unique amongst personal computers in it's ability to run at NTSC TV frequency (15.75khz)"... unique but for almost everything else except the IBM PC (and then, excepting those using a CGA or compatible video card) and certain low-end machines that typically had a built-in or bespoke monochrome monitor, then? Practically all non-IBM home computers I can name would be quite happy plugging directly into a standard television (NTSC or PAL), albeit some needing a seperate RF modulator if the television lacked a composite or RGB (component/SCART) input.

Most particularly, the Atari ST (& extended family covering STe, Mega ST/e, TT and Falcon), arguably the Amiga (family)'s main direct rival - even the early model I personally own having both composite and RGB SCART output capabilities to regular televisions (and tunerless TV-circuitry based monitors) at PAL 15625/50 and NTSC 15750/60 frequencies.

Now I think about it some more, did you maybe mean that the Amiga had a built-in GenLock, and otherwise specialist and typically expensive item that could match the machine's output frequency and H/V sync/blanking to that of an input, allowing for much easier production of graphics overlays? With the ST/etc obviously requiring a seperate, and necessarily even more complicated external box to carry out the same feature (of which I only saw one or two ever featured in an ST magazine, alongside much more basic video editing or titling software, for excessive prices). 82.46.180.56 (talk) 23:57, 8 December 2007 (UTC)