Will a Toaster 4000 board fit and work well in an Amiga 3000?

[mbrantley]

Can a Video Toaster 4000 board be used in an Amiga 3000? Are there any issues, concerns or pitfalls? I know the AGA features (64-color wipes and such) wouldn't be available, but I am wondering whether the board otherwise work in an A3000. I've been out of the Amiga game for a long time but getting back into it as a nostalgic lark if for no other good reason. I seem to recall that the original Toaster board was too big to fit the A3000 without some hardware hacking, but I don't know if there are similar concerns with fitting the newer 4000 Toaster board into an A3000. Assuming it fits OK, is the A3000 power supply good enough to power everything? And are there any issues with running the 4000 Toaster in an A3000 with Kickstart 3.1 and AmigaOS 3.9?

Thanks, any and all, for any pointers and information.

[T3000]

VT4000 card was redesingned to fit into the A3000D and A3000T with out having to cut the chassis of the host machine. The BNC connectors can be moved to accomodate the case. Unless the 3000D is crammed full of cards the Power Supply is enough. More power is always better. NewTek didn't offically support OS3.5 or higher with the Toaster software, but I have yet to read about any problems associated. Good luck and have fun.

[tonyvdb]

I had a Toaster 4000 running in a A3000T before I upgraded to my current system and it fit and worked just fine. As you mentioned the AGA colour transitions will not work but almost everything else will.
I currently am running OS3.5 with my Toaster Flyer and have not encountered any troubles with it as of yet. The only issue I have found is that the Flyer SCSI drives reset there heads once every 5 seconds for some reason but by putting the Flyer drive dos driver icons into the startup directory this has fixed that issue. (this may be because I am using a Cyberstorm PPC with the Amiga OS on the SCSI of the CSPPC)

[alexh]

I can confirm that a Toaster2000 will not fit in an A3000D case without cutting.

[SyrTran]

Like T3000 posted, a VT4000 will fit in a 3000.  I used to have mine in my 3000 Desktop.  One thing to look out for (besides the PSU issue) is that the Toaster sits *very* close to the top of a 3000D case.  Newtek provided a sheet of nonconducting plastic to apply to the inside of the 3000D's case above where the Toaster sits so that there was no chance of a short.

[mbrantley]

Thanks, friends, very much for the information. The tip about avoiding a short with the case is a good one, as I likely would have overlooked it. I'll know soon what system I'll plug the Toaster 4000 card into, but I'm glad to know the A3000 will work in case I go that route. I'm on the hunt for a "new" (to me, anyway) Amiga.

[mbrantley]

Thank you all again for the information. Perhaps someone else found the knowledge useful. As itn turns out, I won't be putting the card into an A3000 after all, since I just purchased a clean-looking A4000 from an eBay seller.

I was conflicted on which way to go, since I happen to think the Amiga 3000 and the original Amiga 1000 were the sexiest, best-looking Amigas ever, and I admire the Amber flickerfixer functionality and the on-board SCSI of the 3000. But in the end I decided the best way to fully replace my A1200, which I will either store or maybe even sell, is to have an AGA A4000.

I've got no idea what I will actually do with the Toaster (also bought from an eBayer), as I do my home movies on a PowerMac G5 with Final Cut and iMovie, and I use LightWave on the machine as well. I just want to play with it.

[tonyvdb]

Just for your info, You wont be able to store or capture video on the Amiga's hard drive, you must have a Flyer ad on card to  do that. You will also need at least one channel of Time Base Correction (TBC) in order to input video through the Toaster input #1. Two TBC's are needed to do live AB roll editing switching between more than one input. (the Toaster 4000 keeps the video signal anologe where the PC/Mac convert it to digital or keep it digital). The Flyer also converts the video to digital and gives you excellent quality compared to most PC based systems because there is no artifacts that are usualy seen with MPEG compression.

[mbrantley]

Thanks, Tony, that's good information. I'll have to keep an eye out for a TBC card for the Miggy, I suppose. Is it correct that the Toaster can switch live video camera sources (not from tape) without a TBC? Like in a studio setting rather than editing tape sources? It has been so long since I read up on this technology. I could be completely offbase.

Anyway, I have no business at all with a Toaster card, so it likely will be a "collectible" for me rather than an actual tool. My video editing these days, as mentioned, is all done in an NLE fashion on my Mac. I now have an HDV camcorder for acquisition, so the stuff is starting out in a compressed (but high quality) digital format.

[T3000]

mbrantley wrote:
 Is it correct that the Toaster can switch live video camera sources (not from tape) without a TBC? Like in a studio setting rather than editing tape sources?

Nope   still need a TBC for each incoming signal.

...and you'll be much happier with the VT4000 in an A4000D than the A3000D. Mainly for the color wipes AND the fact that you can abuse Toaster Paint full screen instaed of a quarter screen.

not to mention, the VT cards acts as a dongle for Lightwave.

[mbrantley]

Okeydoke. This thread has been a good education for me, and hopefully others will benefit. Now I've decided not to purchase the Toaster card at all, although I am happy to say I have purchased an Amiga 4000. After thinking about it, it doesn't make sense for me to devote my sole video slot to a Toaster card that I won't get much use out of since all my video editing is NLE on a different platform now. Better to leave that card on the market for someone who will actually use it. The seller has the Toaster 4000 and software listed on eBay now.

My 4000 really deserves a RTG graphics card for its video slot, don't you think? After doing some reading here and elsewhere, it seems the Picasso IV would be my best acquisition, though one of those no doubt will be costly and perhaps difficult to locate.

[tonyvdb]

In your situation yes using the PC/Mac to do the editing is good enough but I will say that the Toaster with a Flyer dose a far better job then the PC/mac based systems. Unless you have a $10,000 editing hardware like the New Newtek VT4 for the PC your not going to get the quality that the Toaster offers. The Transitions alone are far smoother and higher quality.
The only drawback is that the Toaster was out before Firewire and other digital means of video transfer was available but most Television studios still use the anologe video out to move some video over to editing VTR's and for DVD or Brodcast of news clips this is more then sufficient as the Toaster is D2 quality.

Just for clarification the Toaster must have TBC's in order to switch between video inputs. the only way around that is to use the Flyer and record the video to the Flyers Hard drives and the video is then digital.
Anologe video needs TBC because the video is not in sync with the other inputs. Video that is not in sync when doing a crossfade or other transition will jump all over the place and will not be usable. Its like taking two gears that are not moving at the same speed and putting them together thaw will grind and make lots of noise. A TBC strips the original signal and rebuilds it so that both are drawing the lines from top to bottom at the same speed and time. The TBC need to talk to each other thus need to be of the same make and will have a cable that connects them together.
TBC's on ebay that work in the Amiga usually go for about $100 each. The Kitchen Sync is a great choice because it has two TBC's on one card (I have two of them) another is the Personal TBC II, III or IV (you would need two of them)
Digital video is not "drawn" like anologe so TBC's are not necessary. Once on a hard drive it is in the Digital realm so at that point you don't need them.