Setting up a Video Toaster Flyer system

[mbrantley]

Just a follow-up note to say I have just made my A2000/060 Video Toaster Flyer system functional. I have two of three 36GB SCSI hard drives connected at this time for video streams A and B. Before I can get the third drive online I will need to figure out how to house and power it. I found an old two-drive external SCSI enclosure in my closet but I have not found anything to hold the other drive yet. Man, the stuff I used to have and discarded! Anyway, I did make the Toaster-to-Flyer ribbon cable myself.

So, anybody got a TBC I can have? ;-)

[Matt_H]

TBC isn't needed if you're pulling from a modern digital source (DVD player, DV video camera, etc). I think you'd still need one if you had more than one video source, but configuring that has never been clear to me - even with manuals.

When setting up my Flyer, I managed to find 3.5" external SCSI enclosures for dirt cheap. One drive in each, and all is well. Only downside is that the enclosures only take low-profile drives, and it seems like most SCSI drives tend to be taller.

[Ami_GFX]

TBC isn't needed if you're pulling from a modern digital source (DVD player, DV video camera, etc). I think you'd still need one if you had more than one video source, but configuring that has never been clear to me - even with manuals.

Not exactly true since the advent of HD video. NTSC SD DV camaras work great without a TBC. HD video sources that have composite outputs usually use some sort of scaling down to SD and the composite out isn't always compatible with the Toaster without a TBC. I'm using a Kitchen Sync and the only equipment I can connect direclty to the Toaster without it is a DV camcorder and an SD satellite receiver. My DVD player and my HD satellite receivers all output video that is inompatible with the Toaster without a TBC.

The good thing is that TBCs are cheap right now. Nobody does SD video anymore. There were 2 TBC IVs that had the comb filter board that went for under $50 each recently on Ebay. I sold my spare Kitchen Sync with breakout and controller modules for around the same price.

[Ami_GFX]

The other thing I could add to my previous post is that TBCs have a lot of video processing capability and do effects that add to and complement what the Toaster does.

[Pyromania]

@mbrantley

You won't need a TBC as long as you use digital sources, MiniDV, DVD, etc. Can we pay you to make 10 Toaster-to-Flyer ribbon cables? Like Ami_GFX said, a TBC can be cool to use if wanted.

[mbrantley]

Thanks for all the good info, folks. Pyromania, at present I only know how to make Flyer to Toaster 2000 cables. Are they the same or different for the Toaster 4000 card? I dunno. Anybody can make the one I did using Plaz's picture of the cable he made, the parts and a pair of pliers.

I'm still coming to grips with this Toaster Flyer setup, but I seem to be only able to sync up to a source connected to Toaster input 1. Do I need TBC to connect sources to other inputs? Same source works on 1 but not on 2-4.

And while I am messing with some digital source material now, I do have a lot of analog tape material in house. So I do want TBC in my setup. Just need to find one. They don't sell for a lot on eBay I just noticed, but I don't do eBay anymore. Anybody have one?

[Ami_GFX]

Input one is the sync input. The Toaster will sync its video to whatever video source is connected to it. The video connected to the other inputs has to be in sync with what is connected to input 1. The TBC will do this synchronization. You need 2 TBCs to do 2 channels--or a dual channel Kitchen Sync. 4 channels of video require 4 synced TBCs. With the Flyer you'll just need one TBC because you'll be recording video to its drives and doing transitions and efects on the recorded video. The Flyer was a big deal in its time because before the Flyer came out, doing very basic A-B editing required a very cumbersome 2 VCR 2 TBC setup with a lot of other equipment usually. With the Flyer, just put the croutons in the right order and it's done right from the hard drives.

[mbrantley]

Thanks, AmiGFX. Good info.

I'm getting sequencing errors at times when playing back my test projects. Playback stutters and halts and then an error requester advises my to check scsi cabling and termination and to possibly consider using "voidal" whatever that is.

I am using new Seagate 36GB bare SCSI drives connected to flat SCSI cables run out of the back of the machine. One end of each cable is connected to the Flyer card SCSI 0 or SCSI 1 header and the other directly to the drive. Do I need to terminate something somewhere, and how? I'm using a 68-pin to 50-pin adapter for each drive.

I do not yet have an audio drive attached to the SCSI 2 header because I haven't figured out where to house/power the third drive.

I don't know what this voidal business is and haven't done anything about cache settings, etc. I was assuming I wouldn't have to mess with that kind of thing with a newer SCSI drive.

UPDATE: Found an old NewTek forum post from 2003 mentioning that "modern" SCSI drives lack onboard terminators. Each of my ribbon cables has headers for two drives, so I will just use the last one on each cable as a place to plug in a terminator. I just ordered a trio of 50-pin passive SCSI terminators from Amazon. Hopefully that will take care of the problem.

[giZmo350]

I always liked this TBC article....   if you havn't read this before you may enjoy it....
 
http://www.videomaker.com/article/641