A Mini-MIG toaster version would be best if it used the Flyer and Toaster 4000 board with an AGA chipset version of the Mini-MIG
For those unfamiliar with the toaster. It takes the AGA output in 256- or ham 8 and overlays it onto video. You can switch between a Live camera, live video off a SatTV or Cable box, or PC video NTSC output. You only need a Time Base Corrector for sources coming off tape or Macrovision protected DVD players.
TBC's can be external or internal.
I used a Toaster Flyer setup for nearly 10 years and it was great. I'm at a point where everything minus the live switching can be done infinately faster on a laptop.
The Flyer allows comibnation of switching live and non linear editing, and playback live on a set. You get storyboard editing from the factory settings and there are plugins that enable a timeline of sorts.
It was so impressive that an investor plunked 4000K to buy a second sytem for us when he saw what it could do.
Aside from lightwave you can use low speed 030 as I ran the toaster with the A3200 030 card. I did have a CSPPC233/060 but that helped only with rendering clips, the CSPPC hd controller did speed up the slight processing time required before the flyer played a project... but you can get by with modest CPU power.
I renderd all my lightwave stuff on the PC and burned the flyer clips to CD-ROM and copied them over.
NOWDAYS...For live switching I used NewTek's Tricaster, its a direct anscestor if the TOASTER FLYER housed in a shuttle PC. It's made by NewTek.
Discreet FX is on the right track as this technology was never used in Europe and it'd be a blast to see what demo coders can do with it. Especially since toater 4000's are cheap these days.
What most folks don't realize is that you can used them with existing PC and MAC systems and even as a live switcher for a internet TV webcast. I used to record the flyer output directly into a mac laptop using an analog to DV bridge in Imovie, re-encode and upload!
Actually putting the toaster and flyer and mini-MIG into one FPGA would be great. You can have a self contained unit on just a few chips in a small package. Imagine a Live switcher VJ mixking- MINIMIG the size of an external hard drive enclosure.
Great technology...
