Video Toaster...misleading?
David Waters
: Well, after 5 years of waiting, I finally bought a Video Toaster for my
: Amiga 2000. but I have slowly become shocked that I need to spend
: almost another $5000.00 for a Time Base Corrector, a Sync for two video
: souces, and a single frame recorder.
How could you, after 5 years, not know what's required?
Brian Wolters (AFM...@prodigy.com) wrote:
: anyone have any suggestions on how to obtain the items I need for a
: fully fuctional Toaster in the cheapest route possible?
1. Use a video camera and a Video Distribution Amplifier (VDA - signal
splitter) for your sync signal.
Cost: Used cameras $50-$150; VDA (1-in, 4-out) about $75
2. I'd recommend the DPS TBC-IV for each Video Tape Player (VTR) that you
will use as an input source.
Cost: About $799 per TBC
3. Forget a single frame VTR!!! Get a DPS Personal Animation Recorder
(PAR) or any other Non-Linear Editing (NLE) device.
Cost: About $1500 (?)
The PAR is extremely versatile for a number of reasons, assuming that you
can't afford a Flyer.
1. You can render to the PAR from LightWave, AdPro, MorphPlus, or any
software that can output 24-bit images (they should be standalone
images and not in an animation format). This is great for
playing-back *any* animations at 30 fps!!!
2. You can use the PAR to store images and you can backup the PAR on
tape using Quarterback or any other backup software.
3. Best of all, you can use the PAR to playback single frames for
compositing in LightWave. What this means is that you can create
an object in LightWave and render dynamic video to its surfaces.
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Brian Wolters
the many demo videos of the Toaster, but I have slowly become shocked
toaster is used for high end productions like Babylon 5, but I expected
more for "us" low end users...anyone have any suggestions on how to
route possible?
Thanks!
Brian Wolters
my
>: Amiga 2000. but I have slowly become shocked that I need to spend
video
>: souces, and a single frame recorder.
>1. Use a video camera and a Video Distribution Amplifier (VDA - signal
> splitter) for your sync signal.
>
>Cost: Used cameras $50-$150; VDA (1-in, 4-out) about $75
>
>2. I'd recommend the DPS TBC-IV for each Video Tape Player (VTR) that
you
> will use as an input source.
>
>Cost: About $799 per TBC
>
>3. Forget a single frame VTR!!! Get a DPS Personal Animation Recorder
> (PAR) or any other Non-Linear Editing (NLE) device.
>
>Cost: About $1500 (?)
Well, I knew about the TBC but I went to render an animation yesterday
and found out (after a few hours of rendering) that I need a "special
VCR" to play the rendered animation.....really, there isn't much I can do
with my toaster...I might as well put my A2300 Genlock back in and use
Scala!
Kevin Allan Donald Carter
BW> Well, I knew about the TBC but I went to render an animation yesterday
BW> and found out (after a few hours of rendering) that I need a "special
BW> VCR" to play the rendered animation.....really, there isn't much I can do
BW> with my toaster...I might as well put my A2300 Genlock back in and use
BW> Scala!
If you keep the deltas small you should be able to play most 32bit format 8bit
or HAM8 animations at 30fps onto any record deck. For everything else, you
either live with a slower frame rate (modifying your animation accordingly) or
get a PAR, Toaster Flyer, or a single frame recorder. This is fairly common
knowledge easily obtained from a variety of sources. You can hardly blame the
Toaster for not doing something it wasn't designed to do.
Kevin
joc...@utdallas.edu
system once. I quickly found out that 18mb's of ram was not going to play
back alot of video. The CFO would not let me get a PAR so I boasted the
system up to 50mb of ram. I was able to play about 30 seconds of video to
tape.
Good luck.
Brian Wolters (AFM...@prodigy.com) wrote:
> Well, after 5 years of waiting, I finally bought a Video Toaster for my
> Amiga 2000. I have enjoyed exploring the features of it, having watched
> the many demo videos of the Toaster, but I have slowly become shocked
> that I need to spend almost another $5000.00 for a Time Base Corrector, a
> Sync for two video souces, and a single frame recorder. I know the
> toaster is used for high end productions like Babylon 5, but I expected
> more for "us" low end users...anyone have any suggestions on how to
> obtain the items I need for a fully fuctional Toaster in the cheapest
> route possible?
> Thanks!
--
/\___/\ Peace. | Yes, an A1200, A1000, and an
( o o ) | OS/2 machine DO live peacefully side
=== v === | by side. :) Coming soon: A Blizzard III
)---( joc...@utdallas.edu | Let's all make her welcome.
Brian Wolters
to save it frame by frame?
Brian Wolters
my toaster will collect dust!
John Crookshank
> Well, I knew about the TBC but I went to render an animation yesterday
> and found out (after a few hours of rendering) that I need a "special
> VCR" to play the rendered animation.....really, there isn't much I can
> do with my toaster...I might as well put my A2300 Genlock back in and
> use Scala!
If you want full broadcast-quality, yes, you will have to single-frame
record your animations to tape or use a disk-based recorder like the
Personal Animation Recorder.
There's nothing stopping you from rendering your frames and then building
them into a standard Amiga animation file and playing them through the
Toaster's genlock, though. These will record just fine on any VCR.
There's quite a few utilities that will do this, ImageFX, AdPro, MainActor,
etc.
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Terry Palfrey
(Brian Wolters) writes:
>
> Msg-ID: <40ifdp$2f...@usenetp1.news.prodigy.com>
> References: <40h0k5$7...@utdallas.edu>
> Posted: 12 Aug 1995 14:55:53 GMT
>
> Org. : Prodigy Services Company 1-800-PRODIGY
>
> Well, until I get a Loan to open up my video production company, I guess
> my toaster will collect dust!
>
>
>
I'm sorry but hadn't you ever used a Toaster up until this point?
For any kind of investment in my machine I read everything on the
subject that I can find, bother my friends and search out several
working examples and try things out.
Terry
Kevin Allan Donald Carter
j> I know what you mean. I was in charge of setting up a Video Toaster
j> system once. I quickly found out that 18mb's of ram was not going to play
j> back alot of video. The CFO would not let me get a PAR so I boasted the
j> system up to 50mb of ram. I was able to play about 30 seconds of video to
j> tape.
What I do is simply record short sections of an animation that end at a "cut"
then edit it together when using a client's Toaster equiped A4000 who only has
14Mb RAM. Of course this requires an edit deck for best results which I get
the impression the original poster may not have.
Kevin
Glenn Saunders
: I am not blaming the toaster....how can I play the animations? Do I have
DCTV DCTV DCTV!!!
With Zorro 2 you can get DCTV3 at 30fps with moderate deltas on a fast
SCSI2 DMA'd drive. (that's what I can get). If you drop to 15fps (which
is still acceptable) you can probably use DCTV4 which is a lot better
looking than DCTV3. DCTV is okay for logo animation but DCTV4 is really
necessary for photorealistic animation. With enough memory you could
playback from it instead of disk although I haven't tried that yet. THe
bottleneck in this case is more due to slow ECS chipram. AGA machines
fare better in this regard but how many people have the cash for A4000s
even today?
Neither are really suitable as a final professional output format, but
you need to be able to see realtime playback to learn lightwave. Then
you can always farm out animations you are proud of to some guy with a
PAR or Flyer or what not and get yourself an S-VHS or HI8 tape back.
If all you really wanted to do was play with Lightwave, you should have
bought the standalone LW 3.5. Otherwise it's worth your while to go all
out with a Flyer.
Brian Wolters
choose to run my rendered animation?
Thanks!
Glenn Saunders
: What I do is simply record short sections of an animation that end at a "cut"
: then edit it together when using a client's Toaster equiped A4000 who only has
: 14Mb RAM. Of course this requires an edit deck for best results which I get
: the impression the original poster may not have.
This can be done with any VCR with a flying erase head, but your timing
has to be good to start the animation on cue.
Kevin Allan Donald Carter
BW> How can I run an animation? Where is the menu function that will let me
BW> choose to run my rendered animation?
In all sincerity, if the three or four serious replies haven't helped you,
perhaps you should consider buying some Amiga and Toaster specific magazines,
talking to your dealer, joining some Amiga video and graphic related
newsgroups, and reading your manuals.
If you've (apparently) never played or created an animation before you've got
quite a ways to go before you get to the point of doing it professionally.
It's not that difficult, but you can hardly expect to jump right into it. I
dare say you're going to encounter problems in the area of legal video
broadcast limits at the very least.
Kevin
Nicolai Grut
Af> How can I run an animation? Where is the menu function that will let me
Af> choose to run my rendered animation?
I suspect that you have an Amiga 2000. In that case, you are out of luck.
There is no such "menu function". If you don't have an Amiga 4000, you
have to Single Frame Record to an appropriate vcr or buy a Personal
Animation Recorder.
Af> Thanks!
-Nicolai Grut
FeedBack Video & Animation
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