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Amiga Update (1998-04-03)
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_ __ _ <>_ __ _ ||
/\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || A M I G A U P D A T E
/__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || -News and Rumors-
/ \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_|| (An Occasional Newsletter)
BACK FOR THE FUTURE ||
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AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Gateway 2000, Inc.
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980403
!!SPECIAL: T R I N I T Y R E V I E W
A 1 2 0 0 U S E R G R O U P S P E C I A L . . .
. . . A N D N O V A S E C T O R T O O !
B U D G E T S I A M E S E R T G P A C K A G E
A N N O U N C E A M I G A P Y R O M A N I A C L A S S I C S
F I N N I S H " S A K U 9 8 " A S U C C E S S
P R O M O T I O N A L P R I C I N G F R O M N E W T E K
I A 9 8 D I N N E R / T O U R N A M E N T
M A C T A K E O N P R E / B O X ?
W O R L D N E W S 0 . 8 5
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
"Amiga Update"'s alliance with "The Amiga Informer" has resulted in
many useful and informative articles for our readers in "The Amiga
Informer Annex" section of this publication. In this issue, we go one
better and present a very timely special review for everyone involved
with video. With the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters)
get-together coming on the sixth of this month, a great deal of hype
about the new "Trinity" system can be expected. Our thanks to Fletcher
Haug of "The Amiga Informer" for making this available to us so we can
get you facts you may need, before the NAB show. We'll have the
regular "Amiga Informer Annex" again next issue.
We have more video news for you also. Check out the special prices
from NewTek. Substantial savings are to be had. There's also the
announcement of Pyromania Classics for the Amiga below.
While we're at it, we have news of user group specials from both
Amiga International and Nova Sector. That's a couple of good reasons
for belonging to your nearest Amiga user group.
Other product news is about news - "World News", that is. If you're
in search of a UseNet news reader, you'll want to check out this
announcement.
We have two items on Amiga shows to bring your way. The folks in
Canada have come up with a most interesting dinner to tempt those who
attend International Amiga 98. Looks like a real fun knight out.
And from Finland, a short but musical report on their successful
recent show. Web surfers may want to check the Saku website - it
contains a complete English transcript of the speech made there by
Petro Tyschtschenko. In it he indicates Amiga OS 3.5 is now slated for
November, a month or so later than originally indicated. He also hints
that Netscape could be included - but no promises. We'll see once it
actually gets here, but it's an interesting thought.
Finally, and just for fun, we present what seems like a case of
processor envy from the Mac crowd for your enjoyment.
Brad Webb,
Editor
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!!SPECIAL: T R I N I T Y R E V I E W
C O U R T E S Y " T H E A M I G A I N F O R M E R "
NOTE: This article was submitted to The Informer Magazine by one of
our free-lance writers. Because Trinity has been billed as a "Video
Toaster Killer" (and Play has stated in their ads "May the Amiga rest
in peace") we thought it vital we present this review of the Trinity
System to the Amiga public, just in case they considered leaving their
Toaster/Flyer system for something hyped to be better. The author is a
credible professional in the field and his review here is based on
hands-on facts, not unfounded speculation. Reading this review will
provide you with facts and information vital to forming your opinion
before you buy any video editing system. Because of the author's
current employment situation, he requested that his real name not be
used. Please pass along this review to any and all you think will be
interested.
Holy Trinity?
=============
By Soothsayer
Because of the massive advertising campaign of the Trinity System by
Play Inc. and the fact that dealers have finally started to receive
demo units of Trinity, I thought it was high time I checked it out. I
am a plug-in developer for video editing/graphics software/hardware
and am constantly looking for new cutting edge tools for which to
develop add-on products. In addition, I am a semi-professional
videographer. Play Inc. claims the Trinity is the future of
television. In their own words they insist they are the next Sony. If
you take Play on their word the Trinity is the utopian video product
that the entire world has been waiting for with baited breath. I had
to find out the truth for myself.
This article is based on many weeks and hours using the currently
available Trinity system. This is an honest review of the product from
the standpoint of a user and potential developer. I will compare what
Play claims the Trinity is capable of to the true functionality of the
Trinity units now available at your local dealer.
Unlike many mainstream MAC & PC customers I've wanted to know about
Trinity for a long time. At a 1991 trade show called AmiExpo, Digital
Creations/Progressive Image promised to ship a new product in one
years time that would be a Video Toaster killer. It was then called
V-Machine, the predecessor to Trinity. Back then Digital Creations
(DC) had a great track record. Electronic Arts contracted DC to port
Deluxe Paint to the Atari ST. DC also created Deluxe Photolab for the
Amiga before Photoshop was even a gleam in Adobe's eye. Another one of
their products, DCTV and its included paint package, won them many
accolades. It even did real-time animation in about four million
colors before the Video Toaster had any real-time animation playback
features. Unfortunately, Digital Creations & their Amiga products went
away in a company merger. Play was born, as was their first PC
product, the Snappy video snapshot.
The Trinity system is a rather large square Borg-like cube that is
much bigger than your computer. It connects to a host PC that must be
running either Windows 95 or NT. Trinity dealers will tell you don't
even think about using Trinity under Windows 95, NT is a must if you
are serious. By my observations of how unstable the product is on
Windows NT (I did not test it on Win95) I would have to agree with
them. The Trinity "Borg" cube comes with a special PCI serial card
that connects it to your computer.
Play Inc. claims any standard Intel Pentium PC running Win95 or NT
4.0 with 32Mb RAM, CD-ROM and 1024X768 SVGA display is all you need to
use the system. The dealer that wanted to sell me the system said a
Pentium II 300Mhz with 64Mb RAM is a must. He suggested that better
still would be 128Mb RAM and five monitors!
Trinity consists of five major parts. The Switcher, TitleWave CG,
PersonalFX, Panamation & Preditor. We will cover them all separately
and in detail. The Warp Engine hardware is suppose to tie all these
together in real-time.
First lets discuss what I thought was going to be my favorite part of
the Trinity system, PersonalFX. What is it? If you go by Play's
description on page seven of their high glossy handout, PersonalFX is
an essential tool that makes it easy to create any type of effect,
including effects which combine live video surfaces with 3D shapes.
All this without the need to learn time-consuming general purpose 3D
software or the complex interfaces of traditional video gear. The
Reality is this: I found PersonalFX to be a poor mans Lightwave that
was prone to crash for no reason at a moments notice. In Trinity's own
manual Play states, "Keep in mind there are still several outstanding
problems with this software including some effect generation issues
which can cause incorrect anti-aliasing, holes and spikes in some
effects." So in effect you become an unpaid beta tester for this
software even though Play has repeatedly claimed the long delay for
Trinity's shipping was so they could get it right the first time and
not subject new users to incomplete software. Presumably, that's why
it took eight years to ship, or so we thought.
But that is not the most shocking part about PersonalFX. Play has
maintained that Trinity's most amazing feature compared to other
systems is that it operates in Real-Time with no rendering. If that is
true then tell me why on a dual Pentium II 300Mhz, PersonalFX requires
rendering! That's right, it has to render the effect. But what about
all those special custom chips in that huge cube? Never mind the fact
that I tested it on the latest and greatest PC that effectively runs
at 600Mhz. In Plays own words they state; "we're inventing many new
technologies which are now incorporated into Trinity's 20 custom chips
and over one million lines of software code". So what are those custom
chips doing? Apparently nothing for PersonalFX, that's for sure. The
program WipeStudio is much faster. Want to create custom effects with
the Video Toaster? Use Lightwave, Aladdin 4D, Tornado 3D, ImageFX,
Deluxe Paint 5 or even Plays own Brilliance 2.0 software for that
matter. Making your effects in one of these packages then processing
it though Wipe Studio running on an 68060 CPU is faster than
PersonalFX. In addition, the dealer was unable to demonstrate Warping
Video onto arbitrary 3D shapes and applying live procedural
distortions including waves and ripples & morphing in real-time
between different 3D shapes. However, play still claims it can be done
(surf to "http://www.play.com/pages/trinity/3d.html" to see this
claim).
Warp engine: Play hypes; "Warp Engine can perform in real-time any 3D
digital video effect you've seen on network television, such as flying
video screens, spheres, cubes and page peels, all with the lighting,
shadows and transparency that make these effects so dramatic."
Reality: I have to admit that some of the Trinity's effects are
impressive at first glance. But upon closer inspection you will notice
slight banding and jaggies in some of the Real-Time effects. For
example, on the famous rotating video cube in a floating reflection
mapped water surface, look at the top of the cube and what do you see?
Slight distortion and breakup of the video. I don't know why this is
and maybe it will go away when the Trinity is no longer a composite
device. That's right, the current shipping Trinity is COMPOSITE ONLY!
Never mind all the hype about it working with Componite, S-VHS,
Firewire etc. It comes with composite which costs extra! $695-795 per
input and you need the Clip Grab card which costs another $995. The
brochure says; "All Included for $4,995, but that statement is
apparently a work of fiction. A Trinity system will cost you about
$25,000 with a host PC, or $15,000 without a computer. But buying one
to use on your own computer is not recommend unless you want to brave
the possible horror of using Trinity untested PC motherboards,
Graphics cards, chipsets, etc. Play should state clearly that your
$4,995 does not include the Composite Preview card for $395, the
Serial D1 Input module for $995, the Serial D1 Output Module for $995,
and the Blackburst Generator for $295. And if you want any type of
audio the base Audio Sub-System is $1,895.
While we are on the subject of audio, if you buy the Audio sub-system
add-on, you would think some nice audio effects would accompany the
Real-Time Digital Video Effects (DVE). Sorry, unlike the Video
Toaster, all of the Real-Time Effects happen in complete silence. The
audio sub-system must be for some cool audio mixing software, and is
currently unavailable.
Lack of audio on the effects can be forgiven, but what about video
effects that are corrupt? In Play's own words "We are fixing many of
the digital video effects that have pop & glitch errors during
playback." I witnessed this first hand and it does not look pretty. In
addition, I noticed an annoying flickering video streak on every
Framestore I grabbed. Play has shown off their Fire & Explosion
Real-Time Effects for some time and explained it was only possible
because of those 20 fantastic custom chips in Trinity. At Amiga98 in
St. Louis I saw an add-on Effects CD-ROM for the Amiga called
Pyromania that had many more and better Fire, Explosion & even Smoke
Real-Time Effects for the Video Toaster 4000. No Trinity coprocessors
or Borg cube required.
Switcher: In Plays own words; "This powerful switcher is the heart of
Trinity's live production capabilities. It mixes up to eight video
sources, two still stores, and a matte generator together in real time
at full D1 resolution. Trinity's exclusive capabilities . . . include
soft edged organic wipes". Since when are soft edge organic wipes
exclusive to Trinity? The Video Toaster did this in 1992 and the folks
at Play should know this since they made the same claim when they
worked at NewTek. In fact, the interface for Switcher seems like a
24-bit harder-to-use copy of the 1993 Video Toaster interface. It has
more buttons to be sure, but it's not very stable. I experienced many
crashes while using the Switcher or almost any part of the system for
that matter. It did not bring down Windows NT completely but you had
to reset and/or restart Trinity. Play insists you can mix eight live
inputs at once but the dealer I worked with was unable to show that
feature of the Switcher. The icons of the effects, or "picons" as the
manual refers to them, are fantastically rendered in 24-bit. So if you
like pretty icons look no further.
Panamation: Plays words; "Panamation is an object-oriented paint,
animation and compositing system with the real-time performance
required for fast paced production environments. Panamation allows you
to paint in real-time directly on live video with variable
transparency and unlimited undo/redo of any stroke at any time. In
fact, every stroke is actually an object which can have any of its
attributes animated, including position, size, rotation, color,
texture, transparency, shadow, velocity, acceleration, scatter value
and more. [You can also ] paint directly on non-linear video clips."
It's kind of hard to paint on non-linear clips when the Trinity has no
shipping date for its Non-linear Effects (NLE), which will also cost
you extra when it is available. In addition, Panamation has many
Real-Time 24-bit brushes included in the package, but that's just what
they are, Brushes. You can created, use and save 24-bit brushes in any
modern painting program, but it's nice they did it for you.
Panamation, unlike PersonalFX is Real-Time for almost all operations.
I don't know if this is because I tested it on a dual 300Mhz Pentium
II or because of the Trinity custom chips. I would hope it's the
custom chips since they were allowed to relax while running
PersonalFX. As an old time DCTV owner I was excited to see this part
of the system. It is object-oriented with unlimited undos as they
claim. The Digital Creations team that is now a part of Play has much
experience in creating nice painting software and it shows.
I am afraid they should have shipped Panamation long ago as a
separate package. In 1995 when Play promoted Panamation as an advanced
object-oriented paintbox nothing else like it was available. However,
in 1998 the software industry has moved on. The program Illuminare
Studio (created by some of the ex-Opalvision programmers) from
Discreet Logic is available for both Mac & PC and gives everyone
object-oriented painting with unlimited undo in software only. The
fact is that Illuminare has much more depth and features than
Panamation and does not require special hardware. For more info surf
to http://www2.discreet.com/dlselector/go.html
For the Amiga I was very impressed with Photogenics Ng at Amiga98.
This brand new package brings painting to a whole new level with many
new features not seen before in any software and it's Amiga only. It
strives to support painting in Real-Time on Flyer Clips and Toaster
Framestores. The user interface and advanced layering features of this
painting software are inspiring. It is created by a talented
artist/programmer, a mix that is rare in the software industry. Within
six months the developer of this software plans to eclipse all of the
features in Panamation. And that is not the only package available,
ImageFX 3.0 directly hooks into The Video Toaster/Flyer and gives it a
host of fantastic features similar to After Effects only much easy &
faster.
TitleWave CG: Plays words; "Trinity's advanced TitleWave hardware and
software creates, animates, and superimposes high-resolution text onto
live video. TitleWave features full support for anti-aliased text and
graphic elements with multiple color gradients, 24-bit textures,
transparency and a myriad of type treatments for text faces, outlines,
borders and shadows." TitleWave was the most stable of the software
included with Trinity. Unlike the other features TitleWave appeared to
deliver all it claimed and it's a fast modern Character Generator
(CG). I was unable to test how it integrates with the NLE however, and
text did corrupt once during a project in the Preditor timeline. Play
should have released the Trinity as a high end advanced CG/Paintbox
(because TitleWave and Panamation are well implemented programs) and
been more up front about the rest of the system not being finished. As
it ships now, Trinity appears to be a rushed incomplete solution and
may well be judged as such by the video industry. Play should correct
this possible perception by the industry or things may come back to
haunt them.
Virtual Sets: Play's words; "Trinity Virtual Sets® allow the
combination of live actors and 3D computer graphics to generate super
realistic digital sets in real-time. Trinity synthesizes these
photo-realistic scenes by using its sophisticated Virtual Set software
and the combined power of the Warp Engine, Switcher and Chroma Keyer."
Reality: Play gives you some 24-bit backdrop images that can be used
to Genlock or Chroma Key yourself into. However, anyone with a camera
can grab an image of a room with empty chairs or a vacant kitchen.
Preditor: With a name right out of a Hollywood movie, the title
sounds powerful. Play states; "Preditor is a next generation
non-linear/linear video editor built for speed and ease of use. Using
Trinity's powerful hardware, all operations happen in real-time,
including compositing up to eight video clips and digital audio tracks
simultaneously. You can drag through your timeline, and see every
dissolve, wipe, digital video effect graphic, title, and still store
instantly, all at full D1 resolution without rendering." Reality:
Preditor only layers two tracks of video and two tracks of still store
with audio. The dealer claimed this may never change or the whole
interface to the software might be thrown out anytime. How comforting.
The non-linear part of Preditor has no shipping date and costs extra
even though Play says it's included in the $4,995. According to
dealers and price quotes, this seems to not be the case, but that is a
matter of course when it comes to the Trinity System.
After the Trinity dealer carefully explained to me why non-linear
editing is not that important for beginning Trinity buyers, he spent
the next 45 minutes struggling to get Preditor to control two BetaCam
SP decks. The VTR's were spinning hopelessly out of control as he
attempted to create an edit with a simple dissolve in the timeline.
Whatever commands Preditor was sending to the decks they spun
helplessly back and forth not understanding what Trinity wanted them
to do. This is inexcusable, an Avid Media Composer does this
flawlessly as does Decision Maker or AV8TR+ for the Video Toaster. So
ask yourself, why can't Trinity do it?
And if Trinity has a hard time with just Linear editing, how will it
do with non-linear/linear at the same time in the same project (like
they claim)? And how about the bigger question. Why can't Play use
Trinity to produce their own demo video which has been used on their
website for over two years? If they, the designers and developers,
can't make a video with it, how will you?
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A 1 2 0 0 U S E R G R O U P S P E C I A L . . .
March 23rd, 1998
Special A1200 Offer for Usergroups in North America
Limited offer until April 30th, 1998!
At the Amiga '98 show held in St.Louis on March 13th to 15th, Petro
Tyschtschenko, AMIGA International, Inc., announced the appointment of
COMPUQUICK Media Center of Columbus, Ohio, and National AMIGA of
Canada, exclusive distributors for the sale of AMIGA 1200 and
A1200-HDD for userclub members for the United States and Canada
respectively. This scheme is available only until April 30th, 1998.
Usergroups of US and Canada may directly approach these two
distributors for pricing!
Compuquick
Fax 614-235-1180
Phone 614-235-3601
National AMIGA
Fax 519-858-8762
Phone 519-858-8762
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. . . A N D N O V A S E C T O R T O O !
Nova Sector Engineering Announces User Group Distribution of Amiga
Machines
We would like to give the true supporters of Amiga a break for
sticking to the Amiga though bad times. Any Amiga user group thoughout
the world can purchase Nova Sector suped-up Amiga A4000Ts at
distributor prices (typically at about a 15% to a 25% discount). Or,
you can simply become a member of CUCUG, and get the same discounts
for a $20 membership. For further information on how your user group
can take advantage of these specials please contact Ryan Bertram at
(888)855-9407 or ryan@novasector.com. Long Live the Amiga.
Greetings,
I'm Ryan Bertram, President of Nova Sector Engineering, Inc. We are a
manufacture of Amiga A4000T with PowerPC boards. I have something here
that you might be interested in. Starting immediately we are going to
be distributing our products though the user groups. All user groups
will be able to purchase our products at distributor prices, which
includes the following: pre configured A4000T, Cables, printers,
scanners, monitors, processor boards, processors, software, modems,
memory, etc. If any member decides s/he wants to sell our products,
what ever they make over the distributor prices is theirs to keep. At
Nova Sector our objective is to run a successful business, and to
bring back the Amiga into the computer market. What better way to
bring the business part of Amiga back, then to have the very community
be the spokesmen for it. Petro himself could not do it better. We can
get a hold of just about any Amiga hardware, or software anyone could
need on any computer system. Let us know, because this is a community
effort to bring back the Amiga, and there needs to be an effort at
every meeting to get a hold of companies in your area, and see what an
Amiga can do for there business. The Amiga community can't wait until
Petro at Amiga International does something, or Jeff at Amiga Inc. to
develop new products. If the Amiga is going to be successful; its
going to take a grass roots effort. Nova Sector can provide the
resources, but only the Amiga community can put the Amiga on top. If
any of the groups are interested please email me at
ryan@novasector.com, and give me a contact phone number and a mailing
address, and we will send catalogs, and support information.
Best Regards
Ryan Bertram
President
Nova Sector Engineering, Inc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
B U D G E T S I A M E S E R T G P A C K A G E
24th March 1998
Due to requests from many potential customers who want to see what
the Siamese system v2.5 can do before parting with their money,
Siamese Systems ltd have decided to launch the new "Siamese Remote
Amiga v2.1" package for only ( UK 29.95 pounds, Germany 79.95dm, USA
$49.95 ). This can be used as a full Serial based system in its own
right, or evaluated and then part exchanged for the full "Siamese V2.5
Pro" package, by paying the diference. This software is based on the
Siamese v2.5 software but without the TCP/IP ( Internet / Ethernet )
capabilities, and uses a normal null modem serial cable (not supplied)
for connection.
The software supports serial speeds up to 115,200 bps on a standard
AGA Amiga serial connection. This version of the Siamese system also
supports Cybergraphics screen modes but please remember when using
16bit graphics over a serial line it is not as quick as the Ethernet
version which is up to 50 times faster. Main features of "Siamese
Remote Amiga v2.1" CD-ROM. Supports all serial speeds available to
both the Amiga and PC, standard maximum is 115200 bps. Supports third
party Amiga and PC high speed serial cards. Remote control Amiga from
PC, most RTG friendly Amiga screens appear in a Window on Win95/NT4.
Single Keyboard and Mouse control for both Amiga and PC. Works on
Intel and Alpha processors. ( Alpha needs FX32! ) PC drives are
accessible from standard AGA Amiga with up to 13kbytes per second.
Supports SCSI networking to speed up file transfer ( 1mb/sec ) with
suitable controllers on the PC and Amiga. Emulates Cybergraphics
screen modes, remember bitmaps will transfer at serial speed. Can be
part exchanged for Siamese v2.5 Professional, (TCP/IP Ethernet version
99.95 pounds.) Special WinUAE set up files to transfer your WB3 to a
WinUAE environment by using Sisys MountPC. Will create ideal "Real
Amiga" and "WinUAE Amiga" giving the best of both worlds. Great for
creating the Amiga floppy disk files for WinUAE Works with the "Amiga
Forever" package or PD downloaded version. (not included on CD) Has
videos on board to explain Siamese system v2.1, v2.5 and the new
Siamese v4 PCI Amiga.
Many utilities and PD programs that work over RTG and aid the
integration. Available from Siamese Systems ltd or many dealers,
www.siamese.co.uk/ordering.html Siamese v2.5 to Siamese v4 PCI Amiga
Upgrade offer. Many people who have shown interest in the Siamese v4
PCI Amiga have asked if the deposit scheme could be made part of the
Siamese v2.5 package. Therefore we have decided to offer the following
special deal to people who want to pre order the Siamese v4 from us.
Order Siamese v2.5 for 99.95 pounds sterling plus P&P direct from
Siamese systems ltd before April 30th and we will put 50.00 pounds
towards your deposit on the Siamese v4 system. With the 50.00 pounds
discount this will mean that the Siamese v2.5 will actually work out
free of charge.
Yours sincerely Stephen Jones Managing Director Siamese Systems ltd.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A N N O U N C E A M I G A P Y R O M A N I A C L A S S I C S
980322
VCE and Bill Panagouleas Announce Amiga Version of Pyromania Classics
VCE, leading Hollywood visual effects company for 20 years & Bill
Panagouleas developer bringing many popular PC & Mac applications to
the Amiga is proud to release PYROMANIA CLASSICS! Amiga/Video Toaster
4000 version. PYROMANIA CLASSICS brings your productions all the
firepower of the top gun visual effects companies. PYROMANIA CLASSICS
contains over 30 Explosive Visual Effects Sequences including
explosions, fire, smoke, Zero-G explosions and depth shockewaves.
Individual files in sequence are provided for maximum usage in a
variety of programs such as ImageFX, Photogenics or Toasterpaint. All
files are photographed in 35mm motion picture film, scanned at 2k
resolution and down sampled to full overscan video resolution. In
addition, the Amiga/Toaster version includes Sequences in native
FlyerClip format and Real-time Color Toaster Effects/Wipes. Toaster
Effects may be used Real-time in your project and FlyerClips can be
used for advanced compositing in Lightwave 3D & Toasterpaint.
Call 1-800-242-9627 for more information, dealer inquires welcome. or
on the web go to http://www.vce.com/. AGA Amiga or Graphics card
required. Video Toaster 4000 with A4000 or higher spec Amiga required
for Real-time Effects. Video Toaster Flyer or Lightwave 5.5 required
for FlyerClips.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
F I N N I S H " S A K U 9 8 " A S U C C E S S
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Petro Tyschtschenko Unveiled The New Amiga Hymn In Finland
ESPOO, FINLAND - March 29, 1998 - Saku 98, organized by the Finnish
Amiga Users Group on March 28th in Vantaa, was the biggest Amiga only
event in Finland in years. Estimated total of 500 people visited the
exhibition during the day and almost 250 were listening Petro
Tyschtschenko's speech.
Amiga International's Petro Tyschtschenko launched his new Amiga hymn
at Saku 98. There were five different versions of this promotional
song, ranging from classical to pop. The techno version, which Mr.
Tyschtschenko played after his speech, featured the lyrics "Back for
the future" and "Amiga". Another highlight of Mr. Tyschtschenko's
speech was the promise of cheaper A1200 computers for the members of
the Finnish Amiga Users Group. The exhibition was attended by the
leading Finnish Amiga retailers Amigator, Broadline Oy, Gentle Eye Ky
and Tsunami Trading, and the hardware manufacturer Petsoff Limited
Partnership (of Delfina fame). New products, such as the Phase 5
Blizzard PPC, were on display and a lot of Amiga software and hardware
was being sold. Mr. Tyschtschenko was present the whole day and handed
out Amiga stickers and lighters. For further information, visit
Finnish Amiga Users Group's Web Site at http://batman.jytol.fi/~saku/
or http://tzimmola.tky.hut.fi/saku/. E-mail inquiries may be sent to
Janne Siren (siren@mikrobitti.fi).
About Finnish Amiga Users Group Finnish Amiga Users Group is a
non-profit organization for promoting Amiga computing and helping
Amiga users in Finland. Also known as Saku, after its disk magazine,
the group is trying to accomplish its goals by organizing meetings and
by publishing a disk magazine. Since 1993 the Finnish Amiga Users
Group and its predecessors have released 24 issues of the disk
magazine and held five gatherings.
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P R O M O T I O N A L P R I C I N G F R O M N E W T E K
Save Up to Five Thousand Dollars on Production Systems
SAN ANTONIO, April 1 -- NewTek, manufacturer of industry-leading 3D
animation and video production products, announced today a complete
line of specially priced Video Toaster and Video Toaster Flyer Promo
Packs designed to save video production professionals thousands of
dollars. The Video Toaster and Video Toaster Flyer promo packs are a
combination of hardware and software that provide all the tools
necessary to produce broadcast-quality video with one convenient
desktop video production system. Since the inception of these
products, NewTek has offered the Video Toaster and Video Toaster Flyer
at an extremely competitive price, these new discounted prices make
the system even more affordable to home users and professional video
producers who need to maximize production quality within fixed
budgets. "The Video Toaster and Video Toaster Flyer products have
always been flagship products for NewTek," said Don Smith, vice
president of Sales for NewTek. "Our bundles are designed to put this
powerful system in the hands of as many video producers, animators,
and broadcast professionals as possible."
The NewTek Video Toaster and Video Toaster Flyer Promo Packs are
available through authorized dealers throughout the United States and
Canada and direct* from NewTek inside sales. Dealer locations are
available from NewTek at 800-862-7837. In addition to these special
prices, NewTek will offer directly an extended warranty and
replacement IC cards at tremendous savings.
Package: Includes: Suggested Customer
MSRP: Saves:
Promo Pack A * Video Toaster 4000 $3495.00 $3895.00
* Video Toaster Flyer 4000
* VT 3.5 + 4.2 Software
* LightWave 3D Software
Promo Pack B * Video Toaster 4000 $4995.00 $5044.00
* Video Toaster Flyer 4000
* VT 3.5 + 4.2 Software
* LightWave 3D Software
* Amiga 4000 Tower Computer
Flyer Special * Video Toaster Flyer 4000 $2795.00 $2200.00
* 4.2 Software
Promo Pack C * Video Toaster 4000 $3495.00 $1549.00
* VT 3.5 + 4.1 Software
* LightWave 3D Software
* Amiga 4000 Tower Computer
Toaster Special * Video Toaster 4000 $995.00 $1400.00
* VT 3.5 + 4.1 Software
* LightWave 3D Software
* Plus shipping charges
Video Toaster
The Video Toaster offers the broadest range of video production tools
available in a single product, including video switching, character
generation, and 2D and 3D graphics tools. Its signature ability is
that it lets users overlay animated video transitions across the
screen in real time. No other product offers this capability in the
price range of the Video Toaster. Video Toaster Flyer
The Video Toaster Flyer is a broadcast-quality, tapeless, nonlinear
editing system that lets users edit video and audio without the
complexity of an analog videotape-based system. The Video Toaster
Flyer encompasses both hardware and software tools to record video and
audio segments as clips that can be arranged using a simple
drag-and-drop interface.
LightWave 3D
LightWave 3D is one of the industry's most powerful photorealistic 3D
animation systems for personal computers and workstations, enabling
users to create stunning images and animations.
About NewTek
With headquarters in San Antonio, NewTek is the leader in providing
full-featured video editing and special-effects tools that allow
anyone to produce professional video and graphics. The company's
products are used worldwide on projects from home video to feature
film, including some of the most widely anticipated recent
blockbusters, such as Men In Black, Titanic, The 5th Element and The
Jackal. Contact NewTek at 8200 IH-10 West, Suite 900, San Antonio, TX
78230. Phone 210-370-8000. FAX 210-370-8001. http://www.newtek.com.
NOTE: LightWave 3D, Video Toaster and Video Toaster Flyer are
trademarks of NewTek Inc. All other brand names mentioned are
trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I A 9 8 D I N N E R / T O U R N A M E N T
April 2, 1998
International Amiga 98 now offers more than your average Amiga Show
fare and lets you take in more of Toronto while your here.
Join us for the Friday night party at Medieval Times Dinner and
Tournament - party with your friends and cheer for your favourite
Knight (the one with the red and white flag?)
That's in addition to all the new products from developers and
manufactures from all over the world!
For more information, visit the IA98 Website at
http://www.randomize.com/ia98.html
P.S. remember that coming to Canada is a great deal because of the
Canadian Dollar!
-- Thom Mills
Randomize Computer Distribution (RCD)
R.R. #2, Tottenham, Ont. L0G 1W0
Phone: 905-939-8371 Fax: 905-939-8745
email: thom@randomize.com WWW:
http://www.randomize.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
M A C T A K E O N P R E / B O X ?
22 Mar 1998
{The following item was spotted recently in various Amiga locations on
the Internet. It supposedly originated on a Mac web site at
http://www.macosrumors.com. Unfortunately, by the time we checked it
out for ourselves, we were unable to locate the original posting so we
present one of the copies we found on the net as a rumor. We think
most Amigans will get a smile from this. Brad}
Mind-blowing AmigaOS machine sports quad G3 processors
It's difficult to believe, but by overcoming the hardware
multiprocessing limitations of the G3 via software, Phase 5 Digital
Products has developed a number of multiprocessing PowerPC systems
which run AmigaOS 3.1 -- including a quad G3 system, with 4 300Mhz
PowerPC 750 processors, each with its own 1MB backside cache.
This dream machine also sports a 100Mhz main bus, 66Mhz PCI, an 8mb
graphics system, a special slot for a Voodoo2 3D acceleration system,
UltraII SCSI, a 100mbit ethernet card, and other features -- at a
$4495 price point.
Unforunately, while a reliable source confirms that these machines
are very real and that several European Amiga users are already
testing prototypes, they will almost certainly never run the Mac OS or
Rhapsody because of special limitations in the ability to use
low-level software which allows the G3 to multiprocess; limitations
that are only known to be overcome by the AmigaOS and a few UNIXes.
That won't stop us from dreaming, however. :-)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
W O R L D N E W S 0 . 8 5
26 Mar 1998 19985553.Amiga@mail.cadvision.com> body
Hi All,
New version of World News 0.85 can be download at
http://www.toysoft-dev.com and its free.
V0.85 features
------------
- Post/Reply/Read articles
- User defined groups
- Filters
- Folders
- Batch articles into folders
- View pictures, play sound, mpeg etc. using helper files
- Sort
- Built-in Mailer
- Integrated with Air Mail Pro. You can file articles directly
in Air Mail Pro's InBox and read it later.
- Off line reading
- Complete address or use Air Mail Pro's address book
- Search for articles within a news group.
- and many more
regards,
Danny
--
TOYSOFT DEVELOPMENT INC.
E-Mail: danny@toysoft-dev.com
Website: http://www.toysoft-dev.com
Calgary, Alberta Canada
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Amiga Update on the net: some issues available at:
http://www.sharbor.com/amiga/news/ (in html format)
Australian Mirror Site: http://www.comcen.com.au/~paulm/index.html
All back issues available (in ASCII text) at:
http://www.globaldialog.com/AdventureCentral/AU/index.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1998 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified.
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/\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || Brad Webb/AmigaUpdate
/__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || bandr@globaldialog.com
/ \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_ ||
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