Being an Amiga user who started using them around 1986, or early 1987, and also since I live in the USA, I take for granted that most Amiga users are well acquainted with NewTek's Video Toaster & Flyer products, until I come across forum messages like yours above. I also forget that not all Amiga users have been users as long as myself, and many of them became interested in the Amiga in very different ways than myself, so they may not have been exposed or interested in video products.
The Video Toaster is what made the Amiga famous in North America, where we did not have nearly the acceptance and popularity of Amiga computers that was present in Europe. I cannot understand why NewTek never produced a PAL compatible Video Toaster board, as they surely would have sold hundreds of thousands of them, unless they looked at the sales numbers (if available anywhere), and saw that the most popular Amiga models in Europe were the A500 and later the A1200, which could not use a Toaster board without converting them to tower cases and adding video slots.
Maybe NewTek was making so much money in North America at the time, they did not worry about making a PAL version, or maybe they were already thinking of moving away from the Amiga due to Commodore's troubles, and they did not want to spend any development resources on anything except moving to the PC. I have never seen a definite answer why NewTek did not make a PAL compatible Toaster board.
I have several Video Toaster/Flyer systems and know a personal friend that I went to High School with who made his living with the Toaster for many years, before the NTSC video standard was replaced by digital HD video standards. The Video Toaster & Flyer is still a great Amiga tool to play around with, and can still be quite useful for video projects that don't require resolutions greater than the NTSC format.
As for buying a Video Toaster for use in the UK, I am not sure it is worth the trouble of also needing to convert all video signals to or from the PAL format to the NTSC format. Others that have already done it will have to advise you on what is needed and how good the results are.
If you can't find a Video Toaster board to purchase in the UK at a decent price, let me know, as I can probably afford to sell you one of my backup boards. Good luck and if you do get a Toaster, I am sure you will enjoy hundreds of hours of fun with it.
Hi Amigadave
thanks for all the information my friend and you are right some of us Amiga users are relatively new to the Amiga and its only in the last few years I became caught by the Amiga bug and I am still learning and the video toaster amazed me so I am reading up on them but thanks for the offer to buy from you I really appreciate the offer, I have not looked for one in the uk yet but I have seen them come up occasionally so its a little more reading before I take the plunge but still fascinating reading,very best wishes Brian.
