FR24 vs. Toaster?
12 messages in this thread
Rick,
I recieved my Impulse sales pitch letter today, on Imagine and the
Firecracker 24. Good news on Imagine. I am axious already!
—————————Now, tough question time:
re the Firecracker 24 (FR24); for $1,200 (one meg) or $1,600 (two meg) what
does the FR24 buy me that the Toaster does not?
I don't really want to get into arguments about whether the Toaster will
EVER ship or not, let's assume that it will, with basic features as
described in AmigaWorld.
The FR24 will display 24bit images right out of the box, right?
The Toaster is @$1,595, right? If I want to just display 24bit images it
will do so right out of the box, right? I don't need no TBC or anything to
just use it as a frame buffer, right?
But the Toaster also offers the potential for the other stuff (video
effects, genlock, etc) albeit at a price of another TBC or such.
Also the Toaster offers the paint and 3d software (which rumor has it is
pretty good) – [I'm sure I'll stick with Imagine, though 🙂 ]
As I am one (of MANY I am sure) who are likely to purchase a frame buffer
of some sort (FR24, Toaster, etc) in the next few months/year, what would
you say to convince me to buy the FR24? What do I gain?
(this is NOT a plant question. I just have had a HE** of a hard time
getting a spec sheet out of Impulse, and the info on the Toaster is still
pretty much hearsay…. I just want to be informed)
Please take this question in the right spirit. –jp–
JP, for one, you can get a Firecracker TODAY, not REAL SOON NOW. The FC24
allows you to paint DIRECTLY TO THE BOARD in 16.7 million colors. The
Toaster uses an indirect method wherein you paint in HAM and then transfer
a super-bitmap over to the Toaster (clumsy at best, IMHO). The FC24 does
not take over the machine as does the Toaster. The FC24 has internal
genlocking which allows you to key Amiga screens (like DPaintIII
animations) over 24 bit images. Also, I would expect that you will see
substantial discounting on the street price of the FC24. –Rick
Thanks Rick. I'll be at the AmiExpo in Anaheim and hope to see a FR24
there? Talk with you later…. –jp–
Am very interested in obtaining a FC24. Could you anwser a few questions
for me:
1. Does paint software come with it and are there any other 24 bit paint
programs available for it that allow realtime painting (ala Targa).
2. Does an accelerator board improve the performance of the FC24.
3. Can the output of the FC24 be genlocked using an Minigen.
4. How much memory is required.
5. What is the retail price.
Thanks.
Mike, the Firecracker will have a 24bit paint program available sometime in
early '91 which will be sent to owners free of charge. An accelerator
helps the paint program operate a bit faster, but won't hep the FC24 work
any faster. The output of the Firecracker is Amiga-compatible RGB, so you
may use the Minigen or any other external genlock to encode its signal. No
additional memory is required for the FC24, don't know yet about the paint
program. Sorry, but I've misplaced the pricing info. I'll get back to you
tomorrow. –Rick
When is F24 available for purchasing?
Raman
The FC24 is available now! I got mine shipped in on Saturday, (the 2meg
version) and the quality is *very nice*. You'll want an external genlock/
encoder for recording to video, as the output is RGB. But it *is*
honestto-goodness 24 bit RGB, so there's nothing standing between you and
high quality animation except your encoder and video deck. By the way, as
an aside to Rick & Impulse, whoever built the boseems to have done a great
job. To my non-engineer's eyes, the hardware quality is among the best
I've seen for any computer: very clean, well-defined traces, and a nicely
layedout board. This is what the Amiga's been wanting for a couple of
years. Now, if we can expand the software some, and get that paint program
finished! Or maybe EArts would like to develop a 24-bit version of
DPaintIII?
What are specs for FC24? Is it a framebuffer or a graphics card?
Raman
Hmmm. Framebuffer or graphics card? I'm at a loss to the distinction. The
best description of the FC24 is probably "graphics display card". It does
not have framegrab or digitizing abilities, unfortunaltely. It does display
FULL, REAL overscan images in 482 vertical by varying horizontal
resolution: 384, 512, 768, or 1024. And who knows what software goodies
will be coming in the future. As far as I know, though it is the only
available card that will display a fully O-scanned video image on the
Amiga. The RGB output is nice and robust, too.
Oh yeah: one more thing you'll need for high quality animation–Practice,
practice, practice! (*:-)
Raman, the Firecracker is now shipping. Your dealer can order one for you
or you may purchase the board directly from Impulse. –Rick
Been comparing stats between FC24 and Targa/Vista, perhaps a more
appropriate head to head comparison since it's a framebuffer/framebuffer
vs. framebuffer/super video engine and whatnot. Considering that Vista
boards have up to 16 megs of display memory isn't the FC a bit hobbled at 2
megs? I've seen byte sizes of 24bit high res Mac images, a one-meg board
would have been a joke. Of course I'm not very technological in these
matters but I've been waiting for a true Amiga version of Vista/Targa and
I'm not sure I see it here.
FL