From: cstuckless@kean.ucs.mun.ca
Subject: Re: Video Machine - Toaster Sales Killer?
Organization: Memorial University. St.John's Nfld, Canada
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 15:28:23 GMT

In article <1992Apr10.012555.9013@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu>, rjc@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Ray) writes:
> 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)
                                                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
     Maybe I'm nit-picking a bit, but shouldn't that be "The Personal 
TBC is *also* an IBM card. The Personal TBC seems to have been made as 
a direct result of the Video Toaster, therefore I don't think it would 
qualify as 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 softwar
> 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?
      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  Nobody said it had a built in TBC. I can't see how it could do what 
it claims to be able to do and have TBC's on it's inputs for the price 
the article quoted.

> 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
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
   The Toaster's DVEs *are* broadcast quality. All of the organic and 
"2D" effects are perfectly clean, it's only the few "compressed video" 
effects such as the mapping of the video onto a sphere which you see 
some "jaggies", and these effects are still good enough for most 
"industrial" level videos.

[Stuff Deleted]

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

    Indeed - It should be interesting.

-- 
  
Colin Stuckless          \  The bottleneck for every computer 
FutureVision Ltd          \  platform is the mind's ability to invent 
CStuckless@kean.ucs.mun.ca \  creative new applications for the system 
Xref: sparky comp.sys.amiga.advocacy:12482 comp.sys.amiga.games:6860