CompuServe Thread

Paul, I'm not an artist, nor am I an expert on the Toaster – but my church uses one for broadcasting its services. Our technical people use only a fraction of the capabilities of their equipment, but they love it. One of them works at a TV station that is affiliated with a major network, and he is pleased with the quality he gets from the Amiga4000 and Toaster. The best place for you to get help with the Toaster is in the NewTek support section in AmigaVendor forum. There are many users over there, conversing about all sorts of Toaster-related topics, and NewTek personnel are there regularly to answer questions and make suggestions. You might keep an eye on the Classified section of AmigaUser, too. I've seen quite a few Toaster systems advertised there lately, at good prices. Even I have been tempted a few times, and I have absolutely NO use for such a system except as a toy! I suspect you'd have no problem learning to use the Toaster. There are video tapes available to help you get the most from it – and I occasionally see that someone is offering a two- or three-day hands-on training course for it in various parts of the country. I'll leave it up to the Toaster users to tell you about prices, but do check in AmigaVendor, for that's where most of them will be. —Betty

Paul, If your intention is to really "get into it" as far as video goes, or you spemd more than about $10K per year on your video needs, then by all means, you should consider building a studio around the Toaster. However, if your main job (and those of your company/co-workers) is something else entirely – like widget manufacturers – then by bring the Toaster onto the scene you are risking loosing productivity in the widget arena. The part the Toaster demos and tapes don't stress too much are the TBCs single frame controllers/PAR cards/Flyer cards, "broadcast quality" editing decks and controllers, not to mention the audio equipment, production music licenses, clip-art libraries (and the time to search them), the other tools you'll inevitabley want in both software and hardware (house synch, and if you want broadcast results, waveform-vectorscope). The "amatuerish look" can also be obtained with the Toaster. The tapes don't stress the sheer talent of the people who made them. The Toaster was merely a vehicle to let the talent express itself on video. What I would suggest is to hire an Amiga/Toaster/DTV knowledgabl person for a few hours consulting, to look at what you have, what you want to do with it, and how you anticipate being involved with video over the next 5 years. Have them specify a system for you right down to the cables and connectors level, and price it out for you. Fold that information in with your assement of the talent of the folks who are going to use it, and there's your answer. You might find it is better to locate a Toaster owner with lots of talent and limited potential for getting a foot in the local hi-budget video service providers who would give you a good price in exchange for a shot at getting a good customer. It's as simple as looking at the demo reel and an interview to see if the person is willing to work to your vision. wmc – via Autopilot!