Video Toaster

The NewTek Video Toaster is a combination of hardware and software for the editing and production of NTSC video on personal computers. It comprises various tools for video switching, chroma keying, character generation, animation, and image manipulation.

First generation systems

The first wire-wrapped Video Toaster was designed by NewTek engineer Brad Carvey.

Related Topics:
NewTek - Brad Carvey

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The Toaster was released as a commercial product in October 1990 for the Commodore Amiga computer system, taking advantage of the video-friendly aspects of that system's hardware to deliver the product at an unusually low cost. The hardware component was a full-sized card which went into the Amiga's unique single video expansion slot rather than the standard bus slots, and therefore could not be used with the A500 and A1000 models. The card had several BNC connectors in the rear, which accepted two video input sources and provided one output. This initial generation system was essentially a real-time two-channel video switcher.

Related Topics:
1990 - Commodore - Amiga - BNC connector - Video switcher

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Aside from simple fades and cuts, it's real power was the large variety of character generation, overlays, and complex animated switching effects. These effects were in large part performed with the help of the native Amiga graphics chips which were synchronized to the NTSC video signals; the result being that while the Toaster was rendering a switching annimation the computer desktop display would not be visible. The Toaster hardware also relied on having very stable input signals, and therefore was often used along with a separate video sync generator to precondition the video sources. Third-party low-cost sync generators specifically designed to work with the Toaster quickly came to market, most of which were designed as standard Amiga bus cards (although they only used the bus to draw power and nothing more).

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The video path through the Toaster hardware, while of high quality, introduced significant delays in the signals, often between 100 to 200 ms. This delay would be quite noticible when viewed along with the corresponding audio, and therefore it was also common practice to install audio delay circuits which would match the Toaster's video delay lag.

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Although initially offered as just an add-on to an Amiga, it was soon available as a complete turn-key system which included the Toaster, Amiga, and sync generator. These Toaster systems became very popular, primarily because at a cost of around $5,000 US, they could do much of what a $100,000 profesional video switcher could do at that time. The Toaster was also the first such video device designed around a general purpose personal computer that was capable of delivering NTSC broadcast quality signals. As such, during the early 1990's the Toaster was used quite widely by many local television studios and was even used during The Tonight Show regularly to produce special effects for comedy skits. It was frequently easy to detect a studio that used the Toaster by the unique and recognizable special switching effects.

Related Topics:
Television - The Tonight Show - Comedy skits

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