Edit: Extensive additions and corrections, as well as more elements of the history, and a page of screenshots.
I wasn't sure if I wanted to publish all this before making a video, but by the time I was done with all the research, I realized that I can't make that video with what I have.
The Video Toaster I posted pictures of the other day is a forgotten product. Unlike the one most people know of, it came out in 1999, not 1990, and it was for Windows NT 4, not AmigaOS.
As you'd expect, once the Amiga's relevance as a platform faded, NewTek didn't just go out of business - they made new Toasters, but ones that ran on the platform that had clearly taken over (and become far more mature for multimedia.) They actually made a bunch of them: the VT, VT[2], VT[3], VT[4] and VT[5], and then they rebranded them as the Tricaster in the late 2000s and kept on going.
They're all vanishingly rare. Like "I've seen two for sale in as many years and one was $500"-rare, which is infuriating, because I really, REALLY want to cover these things, on account of being one of two people I've ever met who acknowledges they exist (and the other one used to work for the company that made them.)
I waited over a year for one to show up on eBay, and finally this popped up a week ago. Bleary eyed, having just woken up, I instantly plunked down $150 to Buy It Now and waited with breath fully bated for it to arrive... only to find out that it's pretty much the worst one I could have gotten.
All the subsequent models in the series really, genuinely deserve the name Video Toaster. Not this one. It's halfass - literally, it's missing half its functionality, and I'm pretty sure it's essentially an unfinished prototype sold to a market that was about ready to beat down NewTek's door if they didn't get something.
I'm not disappointed, per se. Honestly, this is fascinating, and it's a really neat piece of kit! It does stuff I couldn't do before, and I like it, and if I DIDN'T have it I might have gone on my merry way and made a video about the series in which I would have made completely incorrect assertions about this first model. So, I'm happy.
But if I'd gotten ANY of the other models, I'd be able to actually, you know, proceed with a video. I maybe could have inferred, after reading enough old forum posts, that the VT-NT was missing a bunch of capability - but without a VT[2] or later, there's no way to cover what the rest of the series CAN do.
So I'm kinda back where I was; richer by one neat thing, but basically back in a holding pattern, waiting for another lucky drop on the electronic bay. In the meantime, if you wanna know what I know (or think I do) so far, enjoy this light reading (6,000 words, more if I've updated it.)
