CompuServe Messages

Amen to your comments. Over in the Multimedia Forum I've been conversing with a guy who says he has a friend interested in a Toaster-like board. He asked specifically about Matrox Studio for the PC. I replied, saying nice things about the Matrox and more nice things about the Toaster. He came back saying his friend likes the Toaster but is bent on getting something for a PC. I replied, "The right tool for the right job." A Matrox Studio rig (or something else for a PC like the Video Machine) in fact may be exactly what that guy needs; however, the point here is that he isn't considering a purchase in those terms. He's considering it in terms of: I need something like a Toaster and it *has* to run on an IBM compatible! Also, to him, money apparently is no object. He'd pay 10 times what a Toaster costs to get Toaster functionality, just to stay with a PC clone. Nevermind that a Matrox will take over an entire machine; he can afford it. So, reverse snobbism rears its head in the DTV market! On the one hand the Amiga gets dumped on because as a platform it's more expensive compared to IBM clones, but in the above case cost has no real bearing on the purchase decision — and in fact a more expensive solution may be seen as inherently "better." It's ironic! Also, we got into a bit of a dust-up because I compared a high-end Amiga's rendering speed favorably to a fast 486 system. Guy comes back and says he knows someone who rendered an image both "on a Toaster" [sic] and on a 486, and that Lightwave 3D was "four times" slower than whatever rendering software the friend was using on the 486. I don't think so, but there are so many ways to go wrong in these kinds of comparisons I doubt he'll listen to reason. No matter what else happens, real "desktop video" users will find the Toaster a good deal for some time yet to come. If you run a production house and deal in six- or seven-figure budgets, the Toaster has some competition, now. But the Toaster still has a market niche the others haven't yet cracked, namely: If you're on a supertight budget and the Toaster software is right for your needs, the setup can't be beat. IMHO, the Toaster's biggest competition will be WITHIN the Amiga community with boards like Opalvision.