External TBC for Toaster 4000 system?

[orb85750]

So I have this 1200 Tower Toaster4000/Flyer system that is not yet fully working.  Presuming that I do get it going soon, I suppose I will need a TBC if hooking in an old VHS or Hi8 camera?  Problem is that I have no ISA slots, so I cannot use one of those nifty internal cards by DPS.  (I do have Zorro II slots on my ONBoard)  Is an external TBC an option??  Thanks, -Dave

[marcfrick2112]

Hi Dave, well I am Toaster-less ATM, but from my experience, you'll need a TBC for virtually any source. The Toaster is very fussy about its' video feed. An outboard TBC should work fine, but currrently-made external TBC's are Very Expensive. Check pro A/V dealers, used stuff, etc.
Make sure you have a color video camera, or make sure your camcorder has a basic video out, you'll need it to AutoHue the Toaster.

[Jeff]

Any old PC motherboard with ISA slots will work to power the DPS TBC. The ISA connector just needs to supply power to the card. The control is done with the serial cable to the Amiga (or another PC). I have 2 DPS expansion cases, one holds (2) cards and the other holds 8 or 12 I think. The backplanes are passive in both cases and supply power only. The DPS cards are cheap these days and work quite well.

You can see an example of the 2 slot case in this picture right under the VCR.
Toaster/Flyer setup

[orb85750]

marcfrick2112 wrote:
Hi Dave, well I am Toaster-less ATM, but from my experience, you'll need a TBC for virtually any source. The Toaster is very fussy about its' video feed. An outboard TBC should work fine, but currrently-made external TBC's are Very Expensive. Check pro A/V dealers, used stuff, etc.
Make sure you have a color video camera, or make sure your camcorder has a basic video out, you'll need it to AutoHue the Toaster.

I thought you didn't need a TBC if using a digital camera.  Is that not true?

[orb85750]

Jeff wrote:
Any old PC motherboard with ISA slots will work to power the DPS TBC. The ISA connector just needs to supply power to the card. The control is done with the serial cable to the Amiga (or another PC). I have 2 DPS expansion cases, one holds (2) cards and the other holds 8 or 12 I think. The backplanes are passive in both cases and supply power only. The DPS cards are cheap these days and work quite well.

You can see an example of the 2 slot case in this picture right under the VCR.
Toaster/Flyer setup

Wow, I really like that slim case in your image.  Any idea where one could get one of those holding, say, a DPS TBCIV??

[Jeff]

The case is a DPS ES-2200. It has two passive ISA slots and front panel controls. You can find them on Ebay now and then for a pretty reasonable price, sometimes even with a TBC or two already installed. That's where I got mine. You can also put a DPS Vectorscope in the second slot.
Ebay ES-2200T

[marcfrick2112]

Orb85750: TBH, I don't know about using digital cameras with the Toaster.. I didn't get a chance to try before my 4000T went amok... But I can say the Toaster will have issues with video for many reasons... e.g. DVD's being digital should be fine for the Toaster, but the Macrovision will mess it up.... DTV worked sometimes... The Toaster is just picky ....
Sigh..,. better edit the 4000T Toaster/Flyer system out of my sig....

[Matt_H]

MiniDV sources don't need a TBC. No digital source should, but MiniDV is the only one I can verify first hand.

[orb85750]

Regarding the external TBC options, I have two DPS TBC IV cards in hand, but the external power/control cases themselves seem to be quite expensive.  Any sleek but inexpensive options?  Maybe the DPS option is not the way to go at all?  Perhaps there's some other cheap branded single external TBC option that can be used with Amiga?  Thanks for listening to my outdated video production questions.  Hopefully my final output will not appear as dated as my equipment. :-)

[Ross1]

The best TBC for the Toaster/Flyer is the Kitchen sync. It requires no software and comes with TWO channels of TBC built in not just one. The controller is attached directly to the card and so does the breakout box for incoming and outgoing video.
Any older pc motherboard can be used for the power.

[Ami_GFX]

I have several video sources connected to my Toaster 4000 without a TBC through a switchbox.

1. A viewsat satellite box that works flawlessly
2. A Ritech DVD player works fine for switching but framestores from it have artifacting
3. The video out from my Sony Vaio laptop works flawlessy which is great for DVD, AVI and Mpeg video and for turning still pictures into framstores.
4. A high end VCR which has a limited built in TBC doesn't work at all even with the built in TBC enabled. Not my prefered video source anyway so I really don't care.

I've tried the video output from several digital cameras and none of them work with the Toaster.

There are stand alone TBCs made for the pro video market that should work for the Toaster. I've looked at them on ebay now and then but I don't have any real need for one and don't know of one to recomend off hand.