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From: stevew@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Steven L Wootton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Amiga coverage in Byte
Message-ID: <1991Mar2.134314.9492@en.ecn.purdue.edu>
Date: 2 Mar 91 13:43:14 GMT
References: <91059.184958CXW148@psuvm.psu.edu> <1991Mar1.024207.29305@en.ecn.purdue.edu> <1991Mar2.013632.24056@comspec.uucp>
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network
Lines: 54

In article <1991Mar2.013632.24056@comspec.uucp> darrell@comspec.uucp (Darrell Grainger) writes:
>In article <1991Mar1.024207.29305@en.ecn.purdue.edu>, stevew@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Steven L Wootton) writes:
>> - What you'll dislike
>>     It's not the Toaster's fault, but it'll cost you to really put it to
>>     full use.  Around $25,000 for a starter setup (including the Amiga) is
>>     reasonable.
>> 
>  I was a little shocked to see the price tag Byte has put to the Toaster. My
>figuring for the  Toaster would be the following:
>
>- Amiga 2500 (or equivalent)
>- Add 2 meg to the accelerator
>- Add 2 meg to the A2091
>- Toaster
>- 1084 monitor
>- Time Based Corrector (TBC)
>- video deck
>- camera with video deck capibilities
 
The BYTE Multimedia Lab (according to a sidebar) contains:

Sony PVM-1342Q professional video monitors
     EVO-9800 Hi-8 VTRs (built-in time-base correction)
     EVO-9100 Hi-8 camcorder
     BVU-950 U-matic SP editing/animation VTR

Lyon-Lamb Mini-VAS stand-alone single-frame animation controller

Amiga 2500/30 with 7MB memory, 40MB internal HD
Micropolis 300MB HD

Useful quotes:
  Unfortunately, most Amiga users don't have what they need to make the
  best use of the Toaster.  This isn't a video toy; Newtek's goal was to
  create an affordable *professional* video production tool.  That brings
  with it certain equipment requirements and assumes you're interested in a
  high level of quality.  As a result, if your video setup amounts to a
  VHS VCR and a camcorder, you can't use them together with the Toaster.

  A significant part of the cost of implementing the Toaster relates to its
  requirement that all the incoming video signals be synchronized to one
  another.  This is called *frame synchronization*, and it certainly isn't
  cheap.  An external time-base corrector/frame synchronizer, such as the
  Sony MPU-F100, goes for around $4000, and that's just to synchronize one
  video signal (although it performs other duties, too).

  The Toaster documentation laments those users who have "only 5 megabytes
  of memory" and recommends 7 MB or more.  It's not kidding; don't even
  bother trying to run the Toaster software in a 3-MB machine.

Steve Wootton
stevew@ecn.purdue.edu
stevew@pur-ee.uucp
stevew%ecn.purdue.edu@purccvm.bitnet