From: rjc@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Ray)
Subject: Re: Video Machine - Toaster Sales Killer?
Organization: /etc/organization
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 05:04:32 GMT

Advocacy Alert:

    This post is bound to spark a lot of heated arguement. Amiga users
will claim that this is vapor and is not as good as the Toaster, 
IBM/Mac users will claim "hahah, we have a toaster now!".

In article <kdarling.702859259@garfield.catt.ncsu.edu> kdarling@garfield.catt.ncsu.edu (Kevin Darling) writes:
>
> 
>   "The Video Machine can best be understood as a high-end Video Toaster.
> It takes standard video inputs and allows for full frame-by-frame editing.
>   "Unlike the Toaster, which runs only on the Commodore Amiga and requires
> the NTSC video found in the US, the Video Machine is an add-in board
> for PCs and Macintoshes that also handles European PAL or SECAM inputs,
> allowing the editor to mix-and-match them."  

Note: It is possible that this board will work in an Amiga, since 
the Amiga bridge slots can handle IBM cards. There are a few video 
cards from the PC that work on the Amiga (the Personal TBC is an IBM card)
I'm speculating that this board doesn't have a direct memory-mapped 
pixel buffer, but has registers or an i/o chip that allows commands to be
sent across the bus from the host just like the Mac/IBM Toaster's send commands
to the Amiga's serial/parallel port.
  My reasoning for this is, that it is much easier to build a card and software
using this technique than it is to deal with the byte-ordering/different 
cpu types. 

   My comments are about as vapourous as this product thought. I'd like to
see how it looks when it comes to market. I haven't seen any justification
of how it's quality will be better than the toaster.

   The PAL/SECAM handling will be a big plus! NewTek screwed up royally
by not offering PAL. Many PAL owners have been screaming for a PAL toaster,
now the Toaster might lose the European TV market. However, this announcement
could be a boost for Amiga users (and video engineers in general) as it
will drive the quality of desktop video toasters up and the price down.

>So says Newsbytes about the COMDEX debut of Munich-based FAST Electronic's
>"Video Machine", an addon video editing, titling and special effects board.
>The system is based on a new Philips video controller chip.  Other quotes:

  I'm willing to bet that some Amiga 3rd party licenses this chip and does
a Toaster clone. Probably GVP.

>The Video Machine is able to cut and mix live video.  It requires no extra
>hardware such as TBCs or editing decks.  The video output and both inputs
>accommodate FBAS and S-Video signals.  It can mix PAL and NTSC sources.

    Built in TBC is a definite plus.  I wonder how many inputs it has?
How do you sync them?

>It includes an library of over 100 digital video effects, such as slides,
>curtain effects, panning, scrolling, fades, splits, strobes, continuously
>adjustable zoom and shrink, and negative and blue box effects.

[ditto for toaster]
>Video Machine runs on any Mac II with the Apple 13" color monitor and at
>least 4 MB main memory. It also runs on IBM/AT and compatibles with 16-bit
>slot or PS/2 systems with MCA/640KB memory under DOS 3.3+ or Windows 3.0+.

Hmm, I'm interested if this will run in Amiga Bridge slots. Infinitely
more interesting is this "video controller chip". Sounds like we will see
multiple toasters this year.

>Availability is slated for this December at $4000, with the price predicted
>to drop dramatically as sales take off.

   I need more information than this to make any judgement. Some people
think the Toaster is just an expensive dongle for LightWave. The only
problem with the Toaster is its DVE's, everything else is broadcast quality
on it. If the NewTek software crew could add in anti-aliasing to the
Toaster DVE's and still have them run in real-time, and add PAL/SECAM and
Y/C inputs, then the toaster wouldn't have much of problem competing with
these higher end decks. 

I keep hearing rumors about the Next Generation Toaster, about how it
will support D1/D2, Y/C, how it will have more inputs, built in tbc, etc
I wonder how many are true? I also heard that it will be for the A3000
only, sounds like a ZorroIII/Video Slot combo?


----------------------------------------

The interesting thing about this announcement is the word "Toaster" being
used to refer to a general piece of desktop-video equip. It looks like
NewTek and the Toaster have become household words in the video business.
-----------------------------------------

  I wonder if we can shut Justin "toaster sucks, even though I haven't
seen one. Mac video rules" Sullivan up after this post or will he take
a vapourous announcement and start screaming "the toaster is obsolete,
long live the video-machine, it is much better, blah blah"?

  Let's wait and see what NewTek does this summer.


If this turns into a full fledged flame war, I'm putting it in my kill
file. I have a feeling the Mac/IBM users are going to get ugly. Amigan's
have been holding the Toaster like a sword of damocles over their heads
for a long time. :-)

(frankly, I'm sick of seeing the Mac DTP arguement being held over Amigan's
heads though!, If any Adobe/Microsoft products are ported to the Amiga,
I'm going to get real ugly! heh)

If any wants to intelligently discuss the ramifications of Toaster
clones, cheap mass-produced toaster chipsets, and competition in the toaster
market, we can do it in email.