NewTek Video Toaster General Overview Demo on Commodore Amiga

[@performa9523]

My father built his video production empire on the Toaster 4K and the Toaster Flyer. He shot and edited video depositions for lawyers who wanted to show off in court, and that work bought our house back in the 90's. It all dried up when DVD replaced VHS and LaserDisc, but for a few brief years, the NewTek Video Toaster system was the best in the world. Good times! Great video, very informative- many thanks for helping keep the working knowledge, and thereby the magic of these great old things alive. Rock on!

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Cheers Performa. Thank you so much for sharing your story and thoughtful comment. I really appreciate it. Ironically the exact VHS camera I was using in this video was also used to shoot legal depositions back in the late 1990's! My buddy had a small video deposition business and he would borrow it to shoot them!

[@performa9523]

@@TheGuruMeditation Very nice! It looks like a Panasonic Reporter, at least from the nose- we had a couple of them and they were tanks! Battery hungry, but shot (for the time at least) great video. Rock on!

[@TheGuruMeditation]

@@performa9523 you are right! it is a "VHS Reporter" AG-188

[@wintergardenaivideos]

We had a Video Toaster at our little public access tv station back in the mid-90s. We were putting out graphics that rivaled the local broadcast company. I think there's a market today for something similar to use in podcasts and other live streaming events.

[@MauroGuerreiro]

I'm from Rio de Janeiro. I had an Amiga 500 in 1992 and another Amiga T-4000 with Video Toaster in 1996. I created transitions and effects in real time. There was also a program called Scene Generator, which created scenarios. You could also create your own moves. Editing system far ahead of its time. TV broadcasters used the Amiga with the Video Toaster. I gave it all as a gift to an enthusiastic friend in Amiga about 7 years ago. I still have the AG-DS540 and 550 videos. The player (540) is working perfectly. The rec needs to change capacitors. But it's whole too.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Nice!

[@houstonhelicoptertours1006]

Nice, love it! Worked with Lightwave since 1.0. I used LW while working on Sea Quest(at Amblin) and later Voyager (at Foundation Imaging). The Toasters served me well in those years. I retired my own A4000 with Toaster/Flyer combo in late 1996.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Oh wow that is super cool! 2 classic shows. I think you are in my Discord channel?

[@agranero6]

At last a video about the iconic Video Toaster. thanks.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Cheers! Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the comment

[@10MARC]

Great stuff, Bill! The Toaster is such a wonderful product. I was thinking the other day about the transitions we use in modern editors - and the fact we have to render and wait for them. Then I think about what transitions the Toaster can do in a fraction of a second on tech that is 35 years old and I am amazed all over again.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Thanks Doug! That is an excellent point. It really is remarkable what the Toaster was capable of doing. Here in 2020 it is easy to loose perspective on how revolutionary and ahead of its time this technology was. Man, I wanted a Toaster so badly back then. Especially for the 24 bit graphics capabilities and Lightwave. What a killer piece of gear

[@jimsteele9261]

I remember there being 3rd party programs that let you convert a simple animation into a toaster transition. So you could make custom wipes.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

@@jimsteele9261 Yes you are correct. I actually have that software, but haven't learned how to use it yet. This would be a good thing to follow up with

[@AndyTanguay]

I owe my entire career/livelihood to the VT. I learned Lightwave 1.0 from the horrendous manual at a nasty home 'studio' in a bad part of Detroit. Took years to learn it back then because of the speed of the machine and the lack of reference, but from there moved in to CG and FX since. Thank you Newtek

[@retrogameroom9019]

I worked in tv production right when the toaster took over the control room....what a giant leap for tech

[@TheGuruMeditation]

I will never forget when it was demoed at WAUG in December 1990. Our jaws were on the ground including my friend who worked at ABC

[@retrogameroom9019]

@@TheGuruMeditation i remember the vhs instruction tapes i still have. Half of us engineers had to goto a weekend crashcourse and life was never the same. If you want the vhs tapes theres bout 20 of them ill send em your way

[@retrogameroom9019]

I remember meeting penn and teller at the toaster launch event

[@CantankerousDave]

I volunteered at the local community cable TV studio (remember those?) in the eighties, so I was right at home with the control interface. Replacing a room full of "big iron" with a single machine was such a game changer.

[@retrogameroom9019]

@@CantankerousDave i started as a volunteer too...the after school cable club.....soon i had no life and became an av nerd....glad to see i wasnt alone

[@jeraldjoyce2995]

Prior to this video, i didnt even know what a video toaster was, let alone what it looked like. Thanks so much for producing this and filling me in.

[@MirekFe]

This was NewTek's demo of the system, if you're wondering. (For version 2.0) It was epic! kzbin.info/www/bejne/nGS8l6N5rZaKbdE

[@loufernandez8516]

Wow. I wanted a Video Toaster for YEARS and now realize I had no idea what it really was. Still, it did so much! Amiga was so ahead of the game in so many ways...

[@serpentza]

That was a fantastically fun vid, love the toaster!

[@summerWTFE]

Very interesting! Always only heard stories about the toaster. Never actually saw it in action.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Thanks Phero, glad you enjoyed!

[@LaBargeMedia1]

Wow, this brings back memories! I was 20 years old when we bought a Toaster for our family business. I was working on traditional video switchers with an old Kyron character generator. When we got the Toaster it completely changed our business and allowed us to be so much more creative. Now we're an Adobe house but we probably wouldn't be here today if it weren't for the VIdeo Toaster.

[@CTRIX64]

Wow - this is so so so on point Bill! Thanks for making this video :-) I love that Newtek are still making waves.... NDI, Tricaster, etc

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Cheers Chris, thank you so much. I am so glad you enjoyed it. I loved your tracker video as well. Keep up the great work!

[@bradhansen2065]

Bill, Nothing on KZbin gives me more pleasure than watching you having fun with an Amiga, Great!

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Aw, thank you Brad. This is the perfect way to end my day. Thanks for the super kind comment! I really appreciate it. Thank you

[@OrdinaryFilmmaker]

Bill, I loved this video for several reasons. It sounded very much like a documentary style video than the couple of amiga friends discussing the good old days. I got started with the A500, went to the A2000 then A3000 before being blessed with a Toaster 4000 in college that I had to myself. I used Lightwave and edited college videos. I never got into video as I was warned away from it. But I never lost my appreciation for the Amiga. My five year old wanted to watch airplanes today. I connected my FS UAE mac to the TV through air play and brought up FA/18 Interceptor, then I saw your video juts an hour ago. I started my own channel about five months ago. For man of those earlier videos, I wore an Amiga sweater. I don't wear it so much now as my wife forced me to wear better cloths for the videos... ;) Always appreciate your videos. The only complaint I have to your channel is that there are not enough videos. All the best my friend from across the lake!

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Thanks for the kind words. I really appreciate it. Makes me feel great and thanks for sharing your story. I agree with your complaint. I wish I had time to make more videos, but I do live stream on Twitch once per week if you are interested. No editing, yay! ;-) www.twitch.tv/amigabill

[@Petsublak]

Those Amiga days where the best days ! I remember Newtek Video Toaster coming out, very clearly. I had nearly all the models of Amiga A500, A1500, A1200, A4000/040. Yep in that order. Loved that computer. Great video, always happy see anything with regards to the Amiga.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Thank you! Yeah Amiga brings back so many great memories for me as well. I still feel magic when I sit down at mine.

[@Petsublak]

@@TheGuruMeditation I think of the Amiga, as the computer with a soul. An amazing computer, for those days.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

@@Petsublak Totally agree. It absolutely has a soul

[@KenV62]

Wow! I'm very late to this vid post. Paul Montgomery was my brother-in-law, and VP of NewTek with CEO Tim Jenison. Met Kiki once. Will Wheaton also worked there for a time, and he has a bit on YT, talking about the Toaster back in the day. Brad Carvey (Dana's brother) also worked there I think. I was over at Paul's home back in '86 when the Amiga bug really bit him, and attended a few of his F.A.U.G metings up in Palo Alto Hyatt. I'm sure Paul would have been happy to know that there are people still having fun with this vintage product, and his later Play Inc product, Trinity. But he was a really a great guy, and we still miss him a lot. Love your video!

[@SteveHartmanVideos]

My school had one in 1993, I got to use it, it was awesome. It sparked my interest in video production / editing for the rest of my life.

[@maxsmarts8210]

Always loved the Toaster, enjoy it Bill , and do more videos with that amazing piece of hardware.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Cheers Max! Thank you. OK I plan on doing a couple of more videos about it. Hopefully I will be able to make the time

[@recursiveidentity]

i remember seeing an A1200 at the Indiana Jones stunt show at Disney back in the day. I had the toaster demo vhs tape and watched it over and over lol

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Oh wow, that's awesome! Ha ha!

[@recursiveidentity]

@@TheGuruMeditation Yeah i even went up to the tech and asked him about it - they were just using it for lighting somehow if I remember. This would have been 1996

[@TheGuruMeditation]

@@recursiveidentity Wow that's cool!

[@friedpicklezzz]

So much fun - thanks for showing this. Finally a complete overview over what I thought was science fiction as a kid.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Cheers Jeroen, thanks so much for the kind words an glad you enjoyed the video!

[@CaptainNow2]

Fantastic!! That was so much fun to watch! I just spotted a dislike; must be an Atari ST fan ;)

[@roartjrhom4932]

Hahahah..must be! ;-)

[@TheGuruMeditation]

I feel a little bad about my slanderous ST hate speech. I just made that up on the fly and was doing my Amiga duty, ha ha. The Falcon is a really cool machine.

[@CTRIX64]

@@TheGuruMeditation The Falcon didn't have the Video Toaster tho ;-)

[@TheGuruMeditation]

@@CTRIX64 True that!

[@BoldBreak]

The book "The history of Motion graphics" brought me to your channel. Love the detailed demo. Some serious effort went into setting this up. Great Video!!!

[@vulgarhero]

I always wondered what a video toaster did. Looks fun to mess around with. Great video. Yes please do something in more depth. I remember the awesome pictures people produced in Lightwave.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Thanks Jonathan! Will do!

[@ryanfantus6258]

This was great! I never knew how any of this stuff worked, I appreciate you showing all of this. Sub'd.

[@lasersurplus]

awsome video! it's been 30 years since I've seen one in action! takes me back to the 90s in community college...was in awe then and still am today of thier power-price point compared to pro broadcast broadcast equipment, quantel ,chyron paintbox, ,SGI,etc.

[@aztockdog]

Great vid! Nice to see what the Toaster is like- ofcourse the Amiga is what got me into video art and editing... we used an A4000 back in High School but before that it was vhs editing in class. Much love for NLE tho... so stoked with today’s tech tho... wish Amiga was still involved... I believe the future is ARM.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Love your work bud! Congrats on your awesome entry at Revision! Oh man The Flyer blew away Adobe Premiere back then, but eventually Premiere prevailed and that is what I am on now

[@thelostunderground]

Thanks for the support! You can bet on some *real* Amiga and C64 (among a few other platforms!) demo releases...

[@slashgg1501]

I always wanted to have it but unfortunately a PAL version was never made, and at the time no one in Italy sold it in the shop. Thanks for showing it to me in action

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Cheers, glad you enjoyed slashgg1!

[@keith8346]

I did special even video back when this was THE HOT THING used them for close to 12 years OMG I so loved the WHOLE system.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

It was mind blowing and so far ahead of its time!

[@sullivanradley]

Hoping you keep this channel rolling forever. I loved my Amiga 500 system. And I still believe that, even with its flaws, it was the best computer ever made. We just need a modern version of that hardware, the operating system, and the software you could buy for it. And not just some crappy substitute, which is (at best) what we have today. The Amiga experience generated an amazing vibe that has never been matched.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

The 500 really is the classic Amiga. And I have no intention of stopping the channel. Slow and steady wins the test of time, ha ha

[@epromenator]

Dope!!!! Looking forward for next episodes!!!

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Thanks! i look forward to making them

[@milliondollar2981]

I paid $5,000 with everything!!!,,,and it still works!!! AMIGA Forever!

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Nice!!!

[@holoflat1662]

What was everything? I have some A4000's, 1 with a video toaster and kitchen sych and a A3000 thinking of selling. Keeping my A1200 with a1230 40mhz.

[@milliondollar2981]

@@holoflat1662 , I got the one that the company was using that created video software games "doom" ect,,funny because the characters in the game were all created from there enployees!! haha

[@TravisHalfman]

I love the enthusiasm! Let's see the rendered animation.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Thanks Travis! Yeah I never finished the render because I was trying to finish the video. I should have and I will post it! Thanks for the motivation to do that

[@jimsteele9261]

Nice to see a Toaster again. I still have one buried in the pile around here somewhere. :) One thing to mention, the camera sources if using more than one, must be genlockable for the switcher to work. Same with VCRs. Most consumer or prosumer VCRs needed a Time Base Corrector to work with the toaster. Fortunately, the demand for cheap TBCs drover the market to produce them. They plugged into the PC style expansion slots, but just got power from them. They were controlled by the Amiga over the serial bus. Fun Times. :)

[@TheGuruMeditation]

It is a great point Jim. I almost went into this in the video, but decided it needed to be it's own video if I make it in the future. Here I was using a Digital Processing Systems TBC IV to sync my 2 cameras. The VHS "webcam" camera and the Canon XL-1 I had as camera #2. They wouldn't work without the TBC.

[@jimsteele9261]

@@TheGuruMeditation Yeah, I thought some of those issues might be covered in more depth later. There are a lot of possibilities for future vids. I was more interested in Lightwave than the rest of the Toaster. I remember using rend24 to take 24bit lightwave renders and converting them to HAM animations. These could look pretty good in Ham-8 on an AGA machine.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

@@jimsteele9261 I am very excited for more lightwave. The only issue is that I don't know it inside and out so it makes it more difficult to make a video. But I have friends who are pros with it, so I might have one of them on as a guest.

[@monocore]

I am fascinated by early post production hardware. Awesome video!!

[@roartjrhom4932]

And the Video Toaster still gives me goosebumps! :-D :-D

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Me as well bud!

[@roartjrhom4932]

@@TheGuruMeditation I am abit envious...but in a VERY GOOD WAY. So happy for you my friend! ;-)

[@quartetkebab]

Finally I see how it works. Those days it was absolutely stunning.

[@animaToy]

I love the music in the back ^^

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Thanks! There are so many talented musicians who compose with Amiga

[@Thought-Forms]

Super cool overview!

[@kanepeterson9775]

Great video. Just shared with my colleagues at NewTek!

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Oh that is awesome! I have always wanted to come pay you guys a visit. I met some of the NewTek folks at Able Cine in NY where you have a TriCaster setup and did a demo of it. Here is my regular website billwinters.net

[@rtype4930]

More Video Toaster please !!! We need more fun with this hot stuff !!! Thanks

[@TheGuruMeditation]

OK noted. Thanks R Type. I will do my best. Sadly time in my enemy, but I will try to do a couple of more

[@Raketenclub]

awesome :d ... and so much fun to see you have fun :D ... i just repaired an a1k, got a genlock and scanner et all... such fun.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Awesome! Have fun!

[@ClarenceHW]

As always, your enthusiasm is catching, great job.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Thank you so much Clarence. I appreciate it. I love this stuff and want to share my passion

[@Checkmate1500]

Excellent Video Bill much less waffling than me, I hope to do my A3000/Toaster video soon with my A2000 Macro System video editing setup :-)

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Thanks so much Stephen! I love your Toaster video and look forward to seeing more. I never worked with an A2000 Macro system. That will be great to see!

[@reyesvisuals8533]

I have a friend that I worked with in the early 90's by Pete Benson from Philadelphia, Pa. He was a video geek and Newtek user. He introduced me to video and the flyer back then. Always wanted to get into it but was more involved with Pc's and early NLE's at the time. Haven't been able to locate the guy since.

[@CantankerousDave]

I was in video production starting in the eighties through the analog to digital transition, so I love this stuff (I had a Toaster 2000). The funny thing about the Toaster Flyer is that although it was an NLE, it didn't use a timeline interface for editing. It still used the A/B, preview/program metaphor of the "big iron" days. Your system's hard drives were even set up that way - drives 1 and 2 were your A and B sources, and drive C was your audio. You would set up a sort of storyboard sequence, with each element called a "Crouton" (because Toaster, get it?). That basic timeline you showed was an add-on developed and sold by a third party. You can follow the development of the interface in the issues of Video Toaster User they have on archive.org. And for the kids out there: when you rendered CGI in that era, you didn't simply create a video file and email it to your client. You'd have a honking big video deck hooked up to your computer via serial cable. Every time an interlaced frame finished rendering, the deck would wake up, move the tape to the timecode of the new frame, rewind a bit, go into record mode and record that single frame, and then go back to sleep until the next frame was ready. It took freaking forever, and was murder on the innards of the recorder. They were built like tanks, and cost as much.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Oh wow, thanks for the insight. I used the Flyer once way back when and I barely remember how it worked. I can't wait to get this one set up. That Octopus cable gives me anxiety though, ha ha! I never rendered CGI to tape before, only to my Amiga's HD. That is wild. I also got a PAR board in this haul and I want to make a video about too - as soon as I learn how to use it!

[@RetroDawn]

So true! Back in early 1994 I had a rack Onyx RE2 (size of a large refrigerator) for my workstation, and even though the animations that we modeled and animated 100% in C code ran in real-time on that machine, to get production recordings that the film director could use, I recorded the animations in real-time to an Abekas Rec. 601 digital video recorder and then, using Betacam SP VTR control software I also wrote in C on the SGI, each frame was written from the Abekas to Betacam SP tape which I then mailed to the director. Sure, it was a lot faster than having to wait for each frame to render on an Amiga, but method for getting onto tape was 100% the same (along with the need to deliver animations via tape as the lingua franca to begin with).

[@michaelwallen738]

This was so cool! Great job Bill!

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Thanks Mike! It was so great sharing this special day with you going to Chris' house to get this awesome stuff.

[@DAIadvisor]

Brings back memories. Thank you for a wonderful video.

[@CptJonathanArcher]

THAT was awesome! Never seen the Toaster in action. Thanks a lot!

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Cheers Captain! Glad you enjoyed bud!

[@SindreLausund]

Congrats with the toaster !!!

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Thanks Sin-Lau!!! I am so excited

[@datashed]

Can't wait to get my A4000 back from repairs! It's got a Video Toaster 4000. Now I just need some good NTSC cameras, some VTRs, and a timebase corrector.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Sweet! enjoy!

[@MrNickatimmons]

Bill, I'm a Steadicam operator based in NYC, and I love vintage computing, as well! Had no idea you were a DP here!

[@TheGuruMeditation]

No way! That's awesome. I have worked with Alec Jarnagin, Parris Mayhew, Maceo Bishop, George Bianchi, Dave Ellis, Scott Sans, and many great folks here. I would love to hook up. send me a note to my work email billATbillwintersDOTnet

[@TopSecretVid]

Best News Flash...I’ve heard in a very long time.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Ahhhh ha ha ha!

[@SonnyBone]

Wow this video ruled. Randomly stumbled on it. Good work, dude! If I had one of these as a kid... holy crap...

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Thanks so much Phantom! This made my day. Glad you enjoyed! It was my dream as a kid too. I finally got this one this year. Never too late!

[@ldandco]

So many memories, this is amazing, thanks

[@123DarkG123]

Awesome video Bill......... Video Toaster was an amazing board in the 90s and NewTek killed the video solution. I guess it was hard to put all the stuff that you can do with Toaster in just 16 mins video but you did a great job here. Congrats !!!. Lightwaveeeeeeeee is the next one :) Lets do it.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

It was so difficult to cut it down to 16min. I wanted it even shorter, but this was the best I could do. Thanks for the rad 3D logo :-) You are the best!

[@roartjrhom4932]

@@TheGuruMeditation I think we could even handle 20min pr episode! ;-) :-P

[@TheGuruMeditation]

@@roartjrhom4932 Fair play my man :-)

[@RetroGamesRediscovered]

Great video, I've always wondered what the Video Toaster was! Great explanation, thank you

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

That Video Toaster gives you the capabilities of the QUANTEL PAINTBOX without the price and without having to purchase licence keys to enable certain features.

[@juniorjr.]

I've always wanted to try out a Video Toaster and re-create those early CG idents and animations like you'd see on TV in the 90's. I'm guessing it's easier to do it with today's 3D software like Autodesk and Blender, or there's a digital version of Video Toaster out there.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

You can get a standalone version of Lightwave 3D 5 for the Amiga. And later versions are available on the PC

[@Ben-eo5vd]

This was such a joyfull watch, thanks!

[@MichaelJantzen42]

I actually edited video with Amilink long before the Flyer came out - and before that we used regular edit controllers.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

NICE! Oh wow Amilink. I vaguely remember that and never used it.

[@MichaelJantzen42]

@@TheGuruMeditation Yeah it was basically an Amiga based EDL - it was quite fun to hit the go button (q!) and watch the vcr's spin back and forth and the video toaster do all the transitions and titles programmatically.

[@Wallygjs]

I was hoping you would show us the finished fully rendered Amiga logo flyby!?

[@Esico6]

Graham Sivill Yes me too 🤨

[@TheGuruMeditation]

I actually never finished rendering it because I was so busy trying to make the video, but you are 100% right, I should have. I will render it out and upload it. Thanks for the motivation to do that.

[@Wallygjs]

@@TheGuruMeditation Cheers Bill, will look forward to seeing that!

[@paule6101]

This was so joyful to watch, thanks!

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Thanks for the kind words Paul!

[@manuel-xax]

Thank you so much ! Quite unbelievable to see a VT demo in 2020 ! Cannot but wonder how many of actual HW & SW will still work ok in 20+ years ! The ST fans are now two, according to the dislike... Lamers ;-) !

[@TheGuruMeditation]

That was a spontaneous thought. I actually feel bad about my slanderous Atari ST hate speech, ha ha! Just doing my duty ans an Amiga guy ;-) Yes, you are correct. The fact that so much of this stuff still works is remarkable. Get those VARTAs out!

[@williammanganaro9070]

Great video !! Very entertaining. Funny stuff there with the Amiga LOVE and the Atari SUCKS bit !! Love the demo also.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Ha ha, thanks. I am silly sometimes. I actually don't hare Atari, just doing my Amiga duty ;-)

[@Biter]

Beautiful thing, huge possibilities for those days! :)

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Yes indeed!

[@brother_bill]

More Video Toaster videos!!!!!!!! Great Video Bill!!!!!

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Roger that. Thanks Brother Bill!

[@stefanobriccolani3407]

Absolutely stunning Bill!! Video Toaster is still impressive today! Why Commodore didn't bring the Toaster to PAL countries is still a mistery to me..

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Thanks so much Stefano! It would have been great if it was PAL also. However they did choose the Amiga to host The Toaster specifically because it's internal timing worked with the NTSC video signal. So, I am not sure if it was possible to have a PAL version. But I guess anything is possible if you want it bad enough.

[@stefanobriccolani3407]

@@TheGuruMeditation yes, maybe Newtek considered a PAL version not so profitable or difficult to build. But Commodore should have financed it anyway. Hope you are healthy Bill! Stay at home with your AMIGAS.. here in Italy we're experiencing a real nightmare..

[@jameswebb5080]

@@TheGuruMeditation I read that they had started work on a PAL Toaster, but it was a major redesign and by this time Commodore was starting to get into financial trouble and they decided to invest elsewhere.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

@@jameswebb5080 Ah, that makes sense. It is too bad, but I don't blame NewTek for that

[@animaze86]

A love Amgia Bill! You are awesome dude!

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Aw, thanks Rarefaction! I really appreciate that 🙏🏼💙

[@Ichinin]

Always wanted a toaster, but 1) It was expensive for a home user and 2) NTSC only. I remember that it was a converter card from NTSC to PAL, as well as 3'rd party cards to controll VCR's so you could edit video with it (non-digital). I remember that there was a magazine for it called Video Toaster User, i used to visit an international magazine chain that sold it and was amazed with all the stuff you could do with it, especially the Flyer that was ahead of it's time, but in the later 90s Adobe Premiere came out an suddenly i could edit digital video on my PC. Newtech really pushed the Amigas capabilities.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

NewTek sure did push the boundaries. I feel your frustration. Ironically I was here in NY where I could have had it, but it was out of my reach. I made due with a RocGen, DPaint, Imagine, and SCALA though. They were great as well

[@CantankerousDave]

Archive.org has scans of every issue of Video Toaster User. Pay attention to the prices of RAM and hard drives in the ads. It's a hoot.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

@@CantankerousDave Oh, thanks for the head's up. I was looking for some issues for this video, but couldn't find them. Thanks for the head's up!

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

Amazing how much things have advanced since then, especially when it comes to 3D modeling capability. Nowadays, those animation frames would render in realtime with full effects even on the crappiest video card. Still, I totally WANTED to get one of these back in the day but just couldn't afford it. :( Good times!

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Lightwave was my dream back then. And great point about the advancement in technology. I need to pick up some modern 3D programs. I would like to use them for pre-visualization for some of my jobs.

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

@@TheGuruMeditation Blender3D is very powerful and is also free, but some people say it's got a steep learning curve. To be honest, they all do in one way or another, but there are hundreds of tutorials on KZbin on how to use it. Here's a quick example of what you can do with it: - Big Buck Bunny: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j3aah62igdmjY5Y - Agent 327: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r3nMoIqCmcyhg6s And this shows its compositing abilities with live action: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iGewnYiZorSoopo Blender includes things such as fluid dynamics (water, oil, smoke, fire, etc very realistically) and compositing, motion capture, camera and object tracking etc. Everything you need to make your own movie. Check it out!

[@bil4x467]

I miss the Amiga! Great video

[@tony92506]

Hahaha... totally loved this video. You definitely need to do more videos like this. I had a 3000 tower with my toaster

[@DavePoo]

The video toaster is OBS from the 90's. I never knew that.

[@spencerworld3167]

Was there a show called The TV8 kid Fun Fest animated in this software

[@TheGuruMeditation]

I am not sure, but it is very possible

[@greydef]

Always wanted to get one the Tees like the one in the first Wayne's World movie. Hard to find in the UK. I used to work on Amiga Format back in the day and it was, unsurprisingly, my favourite thing in the office. I also started my 3D adventures in Imagine and it's a shame to see Lightwave slowly disappearing from the scene. Cinema 4D is still going strong, although it's a little more expensive...

[@TheGuruMeditation]

I would love one of those shirts too

[@thepatriotsfan7127]

Can this work on an emulated machine using WinUAE

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Great question, but unfortunately not because it needs the hardware. You can Run Lightwave 3D though

[@MirekFe]

@@TheGuruMeditation Just wondering. Does VT only accept 480i input, or can I connect a 480p camera too? _Sorry for entering this comment section_

[@iamnothale]

This looks pretty cool actually. I might try one if I have the chance.

[@HoldandModify]

Bill you're giving me all kinds of FEELS seeing you working in LW. However I also appreciate the STACKS of floppies off to your right. Yes folks. Want to install the Toaster on your Amiga? It's a million floppies. Best hope they all work! ;)

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Ha ha nice Kevin! Yeah, one bad floppy would be a total disaster, LOL! Thankfully the Toaster software eventually came on a CD-ROM. Although it doesn't look as cool as that stack of floppies!

[@Kauffy901]

I was friends with the guy that made some very good aircraft models (I think there was a 707 included with Lightwave that he did) for Lightwave. He didn't like the modeling software, so he would draw out every polygon on large format graph paper, and then HAND KEY every single vertex. I remember him telling me that he did renders to slide format (as in, film slides) so they were ridiculous resolution for those days-- like 3000x3000 and he used those for presentations. For some of his animations, a single frame could take 6-12 hours, and he was feeding them, one at a time, to a single-frame-capable Super VHS VCR. He had a ridiculous setup.

[@b3at2]

When I was a little kid I wanted this so bad...

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Me too! I finally got this one this year

[@TheChannelZS]

Awesome video showcasing the Toaster! I was wondering where I could find a place to listen to or buy that end credits song, maybe I'm searching for the wrong thing but I can't find it anywhere

[@RayTheVideoGuy]

I need to correct one thing that you said. The original Toaster WAS a video editor, and let me explain why. At the time the Toaster was released, non-linear editing (as we know it) really did not exist. Editing was still done tape to tape. The original Toaster allowed people to do tape to tape editing, with effects. So it was used as an editor... in the way that editing was done at the time. The Flyer and what would eventually be Adobe Premiere came out a short while later, making it a non-linear editing system

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Sorry, to my knowledge their is no way the original Toaster itself can do proper linear A/B Roll video editing. The original Toaster is a 4 input live video switcher like you would find in a TV studio. There is a big difference between live video switching and linear A/B roll editing which you are trying to describe. It can certainly be integrated into an editing system, and many post houses had them and used them in their post workflow to do effects, transitions, character generation, and all the things I demoed here, but the Toaster itself can not do frame accurate A/B roll editing, control the decks, create an EDL, etc... to the best of my knowledge. It simply switched live between sources (providing you had a 3rd party TBC if using more that one live video source). In order to do the actual editing you needed frame accurate VCR's and an edit controller such as a JVC RM-G800U. If you can point me to documentation showing it doing frame accurate editing tape to tape, please do because I am complete unaware of this feature and am genuinely interested in seeing this happen. It is not in the manual nor I have never seen anyone doing it before and I never had one back then myself. How would you do proper editing with it? It has no control over the sources. I don't see how this is possible, but if you know how to do it I would genuinely like to know. The Toaster certainly could play a large roll in you post production workflow, but the actual editing was done with frame accurate decks and an edit controller. Also, you are correct, linear tape to tape video editing was certainly popular in that era (A/B roll editing is the proper term), but don't forget the original editing systems such as the Movieola and Steenbeck were all non-linear. You could go back and trim edits/change shots without affecting other edits before and after it. We even kept our shots in physical bins, hence why they are called bins in modern non-linear editing software. You just had to be careful not to cut your finger!

[@josedourado3747]

Thanks. Great work

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Thanks Jose! Cheers. Hope you are well

[@airjuri]

Great video as always!

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Not possible to use it with a PAL machine as far as I know my man. Even when booting to NTSC mode

[@airjuri]

@@TheGuruMeditation Sad :(

[@TheGuruMeditation]

@@airjuri My man AirJuri would rock a Toaster!

[@antjarvis]

I have a toaster in the UK. However... you do need to do a little surgery on the Amiga to make it work, namely the crystal by fat agnus needs to be replaced with an ntsc one, plus flipping a couple of jumpers.

[@antjarvis]

... however, it will work with a 3000 or 4000. But you still can only use NTSC video sources.

[@basspig]

To think that now we have real time Ray tracing and rendering at 4K resolution. We've come so far in 30 years.

[@qzorn4440]

gee whiz, i had taken a Video Toaster class at Washburn University at Topeka, Ks. using donated Spielberg Amiga computers 🥳great stuff & too pricey for me 🤑 thanks a lot ☕🥧

[@MisterDivineAdVenture]

Broadcast ready!

[@104d_3rr0r_vince]

5:34 Where is that mustache? If I ever get one of these, I will say goodbye to after fx for good... Excellent vid babe.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Ha ha, oh man, you are right. I should have put on the stache! Thanks for the kind words and support as always bud.

[@peacechief]

Thank you for the great video!

[@sherbournesubwaymess]

Can you PLEASE post quicktime clips of Kiki and other toaster animated wipes over transitional backgrounds (like green and blue) so they can easily be keyed/thrown onto modern NLE as transitions? PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@sideburn]

I just fixed an Amiga 2000 with a video toaster 4000 card and installer the 3.1 software. Everything is working but the composite video inputs signals I’m using (an Atari 800xl and an apple ][) are out of sync. Searching the internet I’ve found I need a TBC/Genlock. Is there any other way I can get some video signals input just to test it out?

[@AmigaSwiss]

Hi , would like to know how you connect the video cam to the Toaster. What cam do I have to buy and which cables to connect to the toaster BNC connectors? Great 👍 video I love it!

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Thanks! I need to do a whole video on this subject. You nee an NTSC video camera with composite out. Later versions of the Toaster has S-Video. If you use more than 1 camera you need a TBC as well

[@Thatguy101987]

After my dad passed away, I found his Amiga 2000 in a closet. He had several boxes of floppy disks for Video Toaster. Unfortunately, I have no clue how to use an Amiga and don't know where the start-up disks are for it.

[@8bitwidgets]

@thegurumeditation i saw you have the toaster floppies. any chance you could upload them as adfs somewhere? i know the ISO version is free but if you don't have a CDROM you're in trouble. Also some people might have certain disks corrupt in their own sets. Awesome video! I'm building an A2000 toaster (no cdrom) and i'm using SCSI so using WinUAE / CF Card isn't an option.

[@monolalia]

Very interesting. Never really seen one in action and never had a big-box Amiga either (also I don't think they were in use here in PAL land). Would it benefit from a true-colour graphics card? Even AGA HAM seems a bit fussy. Also those are some terrifying floppy stacks on your A2000... did all of those come with the Video Toaster?

[@CantankerousDave]

The Video Toaster 4000's control software came on 45 floppy disks! My Video Toaster 2000's was a mere 20.

[@monolalia]

@@CantankerousDave Yikes! And no CD, not even by A4000 times?

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Thanks so much! glad you enjoyed it. Yes those are the install floppies, ha ha! Unbelievable. Yes, it did come on CD eventually. I have Toaster 4.0 on CD-ROM This was 3.x and the floppies look cooler! I don't think it would benefit from a graphics card, because i am not sure how it would use it other than maybe Toaster Paint. The Toaster was really doing the video processing and the Amiga controlled it. It was almost like the original Vampire ;-) Actually having a Vampire in the 2000 would be really great for Lightwave 3D. That would be an excellent add-on for thins system.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

@@monolalia Software version 4.x came on CD-ROM - thankfully!

[@TheGuruMeditation]

@@CantankerousDave Those 45 floppies were fun to stack up in the background!

[@boblowes]

When you consider the size of the global television market, how much bespoke digital systems like Quantel cost (see Retro Man Cave's video on Quantel Paintbox to get some idea of how expensive those systems were) and that out of all the countries in the world, only three used NTSC (everywhere else was PAL, except France and Russia, which were SECAM), it is amazing to me that Commodore didn't pay Newtek to deliver a PAL version of the Video Toaster. I realise the US TV market is huge by itself, but my god - they would have had that market sewn up. If Commodore had any sense (as we know, it didn't) they would have bought Newtek, and fully integrated the Video Toaster into the Amiga's design, making that the focus of their production. They would have revolutionised video production and the costs therein - years before things like Premiere and iMovie. NewTek are still around. Amiga barely is. Commodore is a memory. I know we in Amiga fandom like to speculate about how our beloved Amiga could have ascended to the top with competent leadership and management, but that really does seem no-brainer. The two companies were so dependant on each other that it would have made sense to combine.

[@TheGuruMeditation]

That is very insightful and I totally agree. Wow, that would have been a smart play on Commodore's part. Man that would have been fantastic. Let's face it, the Amiga's strength was its multi-media capabilities and they should have pushed that forward. I will check out RMC's video. Thanks!

[@danielhmartineza4223]

As soon as I can sell a video toaster flayer with a Amiga 4000?

[@Channel__T]

is there any modern/accessible ways to do all of this nowadays?