Summary: NewTek has crammed a lot of features into a single workstation, from traditional studio production and IMAG to live streaming with virtual sets and HD post production with effects.
Target Apps Integrated live and post production for multi-format delivery and broadcast/Webcast
What It Costs You $6,495 (with SX-84 breakout box)
$2,995 (optional SX-SDI breakout box)
$1,495 (software upgrade from previous version)
What's Cool Effortless, live-switched virtual sets with shadows and reflections and multi-format real-time post production, all of which is available as a software upgrade.
What's Missing HD live production. The rumor mill says that an I/O card upgrade will be required for a future version of the VT’s switcher to catch up with the HD capabilities of its editor.
Specs
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (SP2) or Windows Vista 32-bit; Windows Media Player 9 or higher; Windows Media Encoder 9 or higher for streaming Processor: Dual Intel or AMD processors that support SSE2 (dual-core CPUs recommended); front-side bus speed of 800 MHz or higher Interface: An open 66 MHz PCI slot for the VT[5] card is recommended for best performance (additional slot needed for breakout cable)
Any IEEE1394 FireWire card for DV and HDV capture Graphics Card: PCI Express-based graphics card w/ 64 MB RAM per display, DirectX 9.0c or higher Screen Resolution: 1280 x 1024 required System RAM: 2 GB or more Hard Drives: Software-striped SATA drives for video storage and playback; 8 GB of storage for DVEs and content
System drive with 2 GB of free disk space
Smart Advice
New Tek's AVI Wrapper extends the company's real-time philosophy outside of the VT[5] suite and into other applications by allowing a SpeedEDIT project to be opened and read as if it were an AVI file, eliminating the need for an intermediate render.
There are many presets available when rendering output from SpeedEDIT for distribution. Most were set up with speed in mind, so customizing them to make the most use of available bit rates and turning on two-pass encoding can improve quality.
One-Stop Production and Post for Toaster Fans and Beyond
Bill Mills
April 1, 2008 Source: Studio Monthly
The heart of NewTek’s VT[5]— a truly evolved "studio in a box" that traces its lineage back to 1991 and the release of the original Video Toaster— is the VTPro card, a PCI card providing composite, standard definition YUV video input and output with four-channel audio. This card is expanded with the SX-84 breakout box providing 24 video inputs that can be configured for composite, Y/C or component use. The SX-SDI breakout box attaches to the SX-84 and allows for eight additional SDI inputs.
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VT[5]’s virtual sets use fixed camera positions, eliminating the need for positioning hardware. Silhouette outlines overlaid on the preview bus make camera alignment fast and intuitive.
Each physical camera or recorded video source used in a LiveSet can be switched live between multiple virtual camera positions, allowing for establishing shots or more intimate discussion without any physical changes.
All of the processing for a virtual set, including cropping, keying, spill suppression, shadows, reflections, virtual monitors and video walls, is done on the fly during live production by VT[5]’s LiveSets.
Splines allow all of a clip’s properties, from position and color correction to playback speed and keying properties, to be easily animated over time.
Comments (5) for "NewTek VT[5]"
1.
Video Toaster have many nice feature sets but I like to see video preview overlay to every video input like in AvTake new CutFour mixer software.
Posted by James Antero on Friday, May 16, 2008 @ 06:48 AM
2.
There is no quality much less real-time without the Amiga. The fact is if u want the above mentioned you need an amiga. The cpu speed doesnt determine real-time. The hardware archtiecture does. Which x86 cant do.
Posted by Big Bot on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 @ 12:14 AM
3.
VT[5] can do overlay on every input in the preview channel. That is a function of the live sets. It doesn\'t need an Amiga or old style Video Toaster card to do it, either, just CPU power.
Posted by Dave Watson on Friday, June 13, 2008 @ 12:39 PM
4.
The Amiga was great in it\'s time. Those days are long gone. Dual Quad Core\'s are the Future..
Posted by Earl L. Hinson Jr. on Friday, June 20, 2008 @ 10:50 AM
5.
As a former Commodore Business Machines employee, owner of both an original Amiga based Video Toaster and the newer VT[5], I can say most definitely, that the VT[5] provides higher quality, more inputs, more input formats (Video Toaster was a composite only device) and far more capability in realtime. The Video Toaster rocked in its day, and so did the Flyer (real-time editing for under $10K back when $20K Avids spent 2 minutes to render a 4 second dissolve) but they don't hold a candle to the VT[5.]
Posted by Bill Mills on Wednesday, August 20, 2008 @ 09:37 AM
![VT[5]’s virtual sets use fixed camera positions, eliminating the need for positioning hardware. Silhouette outlines overlaid on the preview bus make camera alignment fast and intuitive.](/images/articles/9257_1207064163.jpg)
![All of the processing for a virtual set, including cropping, keying, spill suppression, shadows, reflections, virtual monitors and video walls, is done on the fly during live production by VT[5]’s LiveSets.](/images/articles/9257_1207064182.jpg)
