Reviews of Video Editing Cards

Professional Cards

Newtek's Video Toaster Reviews

VT[2]: "I could start by listing features but that doesn’t say much about a product like this. Everyone else offers tons of features. What’s truly exciting about Video Toaster 2 is what you don’t see. It’s what it does behind the scenes. It is almost like having a television crew doing things for you in the background while you focus on your end of the production. Who cares about which tape format you use when you have a great videotape operator to take care of that for you? Who cares about matching sound formats when you have an audio engineer who is handling that? And the graphics department certainly delivers the necessary images in the formats you need, anyway. That’s what this product is really about. While NewTek accurately claims that it replaces tens of thousands of dollars in equipment, I personally find it more accurate to say that it gives you an invisible crew to take care of the details, letting you fully concentrate on your job". More at: Digital Post Production

"NewTek's VT[3] includes integrated timeline and storyboard editing, paint, 3D modeling and animation, titling, keying, and live-switching.  Live production capabilities include live switching of DV cameras and decks connected via the host system's Firewire ports, as well as switching of 8 component, 8 Y/C or 24 composite sources (or combinations of the three types) with the SX-8 option.  Any of the hundreds of DVEs supplied with the software may be applied to live sources, as well as titling and graphics from the integrated character generator as a downstream key. On the post production side, in VT-Edit the number of layers and effects that can be applied to clips is limited only by the power of the host system.  VT[3] includes full 3D control of the position, rotation and scaling of layers, with soft and colored borders,  cropping, shadows and many other parameters available.  VT-Edit also allows full control of all animateable parameters.  For both live and post production, VT[3] offers component, Y/C, composite or optional SDI  output, as well as web-streaming". More at emedialive.

Video Toaster is a Windows based product that processes pristine, uncompressed video in real-time and includes live keying, real-time non-linear editing, character generation, video painting and compositing, 3D animation, audio and video processing and all the tools you need in an integrated, easy-to-use package.

Options on the VT3:

SX8: This is the heart of the VT[3] Live Switcher, offering component, Y/C or composite ins and outs, along with audio, tally, GPI and machine control.

RS8: RS-8 provides a fast, flexible and familiar control solution that may be used in place of the mouse or computer keyboard for live switching or editing.

Genlock: The VT Genlock option is an optional daughter-card - Genlock is only required to time VT to an existing sync pulse. Used in live field production, VT internally generates sync for all incoming signals, and only requires genlock if the VT switcher is connected upstream of another switcher.

SDI Option: SDI option allows you to send VT's pristine D1 video output in real-time in an absolutely lossless, uncompressed state to any SDI-capable capture device or tape deck using a coaxial cable.