[rec.video] InfoWord on Video Toaster

jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) (09/08/90)

w/o permission, from InfoWorld, 3 Sep 90.  page 17.  Spelling/grammar
errors are probably mine.

TOASTER HEATS UP PROFESSIONAL VIDEO PRODUCTION.
by PAUL WORTHINGTON

Commodore's Amiga computer platform may have found the application it's
been looking for with the $1,595 Video Toaster.

The Video Toaster is a VLSI board that attaches to a Commodore Amiga
and transforms it into a miniature television production studio.
The resulting device is a video switcher, effects generator, dual
frame buffer, and character generator.

According to Mark Randall, Newtek's marketing director, the video
output of Video Toaster is the first to meet professional standards,
despite the number of PC video products that offer composite NTSC
signals.

The Toater's video output (16.8 million colors with NTSC RS-170A
resolution) does not come from teh Amiga:  all images are generated
on the four-VLSI chip card.

With an Amiga and teh Toaster, a user can perform numerous functions
at a professional level for less than $5,000.  As such, the machine
brings high-quality production into a price range that teh average consumer
or corporate communications department can afford, Randall said.

Ease of use is a key feature.  The Toaster's many prudction tools
work behind a point-and-click interface that is accessible
to users who lack video training, Randall said.  Newtek
chose to use the Amiga because it already uses standard TV timing
signals.

Newtek plans to bundle its Light Wave software with the Toaster.  This
package allows users to do 3-D rendering, animation, object modeling,
and video paint effects.
Newtek Inc., 115 W. Crane, Topeka, KS 66603; (800) 843-8934.

[Includes screenshot of Video Toaster's top level menu.]


--
J. Eric Townsend -- University of Houston Dept. of Mathematics (713) 749-2120
Internet: jet@uh.edu
Bitnet: jet@UHOU
Skate UNIX(r)

elec137@canterbury.ac.nz (09/11/90)

In article <1990Sep7.225208.5385@lavaca.uh.edu>, jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) writes:
> 
> The Toater's video output (16.8 million colors with NTSC RS-170A
> resolution) does not come from teh Amiga:  all images are generated
> on the four-VLSI chip card.
> 
Is there a PAL version ?
 DAve.

tell@oscar.cs.unc.edu (Stephen Tell) (09/11/90)

In article <1990Sep10.141224.9132@canterbury.ac.nz> elec137@canterbury.ac.nz writes:
>In article <1990Sep7.225208.5385@lavaca.uh.edu>, jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) writes:
>> 
>> The Toater's video output (16.8 million colors with NTSC RS-170A
>> resolution) does not come from teh Amiga:  all images are generated
>> on the four-VLSI chip card.
>> 
>Is there a PAL version ?
> DAve.

This seemed to be a frequent question at their NAB booth, but unfortunatly
no one there admitted to the existence or planning of a PAL version.

This is particularly unfortunate because from what I hear there are a
lot of Amigas in Europe, Australia, and other PAL areas.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Tell					tell@wsmail.cs.unc.edu
CS Grad Student, UNC Chapel Hill.
Former chief engineer, Duke Union Community Television, Durham, NC.