The Amiga Video Toaster has a lot of strange quirks and poorly documented behaviors, made worse by the bit-rot of all online knowledge about it. Here are some things you should know.
Don't fret. It's simply been incredibly poorly preserved.
Several versions of the software (everything after 1.0 and before 3.1) do not seem to be anywhere online that I know of. 1.0 is available on a Hungarian FTP that is currently geoblocking the US out of spite so good luck with that one. You could install 4.x (and I recommend you check it out) but it came out ten minutes before the Amiga and Toaster evaporated out of the market and is mostly intended for use with the Flyer, so it isn't really representative of what the Toaster, you know, Was.
Fortunately, there's good news: The version you want - 3.1 - is readily available, it just won't come up in any searches and nobody will tell you how to find it, because despite the Toaster's status as Retrocomputing Meme #1, no one has ever bothered to write down any information about it; just mumblings on forums and people offering to sell you whatever you need to get one running, 20 years after it was last remotely relevant.
You need two files, and you'll be shocked to learn that they're the install media for Toaster v4.3. Yeah, it turns out Newtek recognized that 4.x was so radically different from 3.x that some people would be unwilling or unable to switch, so they simply bundled them together.
You can get these from several sources, but the principal option at the moment is DiscreetFX's downloads page. Make sure you get the CD and the floppy! They're useless without each other. I have no idea what Newtek was thinking there but sure, whatever.
To be clear, I'm still incredibly irritated at this situation. Everyone and their mother will swear up and down that the Toaster was revolutionary, and 99% of the units ever made are closely coveted collector's items, yet nobody is bothering to rip the install media, presumably because it's too much work. Well, it's not too much work for me, so if you have the install media for any version, please get in touch; I promise I'll do it.
If you have an Amiga 3000: Flip the switch on the back from DISABLE to ENABLE, then plug your display into the VGA port. Congratulations! The switch enabled a "scandoubler" (aka "flickerfixer") and it's now outputting 31KHz progressive VGA that will work on anything, so you're good to go.
If you have anything else: All the other Amiga models output various video modes that are not supported by a lot of PC monitors; there are several ways to cope with this.
One option is to buy an Amiga scandoubler/flickerfixer; you are on your own as far as which one to get, I don't own any, but I know that some work with the Toaster. They need to be external however; the Toaster occupies the Video Slot which many scandoublers require.
If you don't have one of those, then you need a monitor that supports 15KHz (also known as standard def NTSC resolution) RGB input, including composite sync. A lot of LCD monitors (particularly 4:3 ones) will go down to 15KHz with HV sync, and you'll find that these (as well as many scalers, Sony PVMs, and many other things) DO work as far as the the Amiga desktop, because that's it's native mode - 15KHz RGBHV. But when you start the Toaster software, you'll invariably lose sync.
For years I was told that this was due to the Toaster running in a "bizarre" video mode, but this is completely untrue. It's still 15KHz RGB, it just uses composite sync instead of HV. I have no idea why this is, and I also don't know why it's on a separate pin than the H and V. Many devices output RGB with composite sync (known as "RGBS") but if they support HV, they'll usually just put the CSync on H. The Amiga doesn't, for whatever reason - but fortunately, there's a 50/50 chance you can easily fix it.
If your display doesn't support CSync, okay, well, you're screwed. You need a different display, or a scaler. I have had good luck with a Retrotink 4K (RGBS mode, 180mv sync threshold, Wide Tolerance = On)
If your display supports CSync, all you have to do is rewire your adapter cable to connect it.
CSync is present on pin 10 of the Amiga DB23 video port. If you have a DB23 to DE9 adapter (used for the Commodore 1084 monitor) it should be wired to pin 7. If you have a DB23 to HD15 adapter (for connecting to a VGA monitor) however I would guess that CSync isn't brought out at all, so your best bet is to start with one of the DE9 cables, especially since that's what I have, and I can guarantee you it works.
I'm going to assume that you're doing what I did - using an existing DB23-DE9 adapter, then adapting it again to VGA - so I'm going to provide the full end to end pinout.
| Function | DB23 Pin | DE9 Pin | HD15 Pin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| Green | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| Blue | 5 | 5 | 3 |
| CSync | 10 | 7 | 13 (actually HSync) |
| Gnd | 20 | 1 | 6 |
I should note that here I've only connected one of the color grounds. Technically you should probably connect all of them but I tried it with just one and it worked perfectly with zero degradation, so I think connecting all three is just extra effort. Also, I'm not 100% sure that mine is grounded to pin 20 on the DB23; if yours doesn't work, look up the DB23 pinout and try a few other grounds. BE CAREFUL: The DB23 potentially has 12V on it!
Are you seeing references to a "Framestore" section that doesn't exist, an "Overlay bus" that doesn't exist, or "menus" that don't exist? That's because you have the manual for Toaster software 4.x, and that's because it's the only complete manual set that's online. The manuals for 1.x, 2.x and 3.x are almost completely lost. This is a real problem, because each version of the Toaster software is radically different. The 1.0/2.0 GUI are completely different from the 3.x GUI, and again from the 4.1, and again from the 4.2/4.3.
Until and unless someone scans and uploads the manuals for the other versions (and I'm not holding my breath) your only real choice is to play it by ear. I actually have a scan of the 3.1 manual that a viewer sent me, which I will try to remember to upload here, but it's not super readable since it was scanned in even/odd order, and I don't believe it's complete anyway.
On a real vision mixer, you can do whatever you want with the T-bar, including pulling it partway across, then reversing instead of finishing the transition. You can also usually perform the transition either by swinging the T-bar down if it's up, or up if it's down.
The Toaster T-bar only goes from top to bottom, and many of the transitions only run in one direction. If you have a simple fade, you can reverse it midway, but I don't think any of the graphical effects support this. The manual just says that "some" can only be run in one direction, but I think "most" might be more accurate.
You might find that when you perform a sphere or cube 3D effect, instead of wrapping the video around the cube as it flies offscreen, you just see a cutout in the shape of the object.
This happens when one of the framestores is occupied with a graphic or still frame. You can identify this by the FREEZE button being highlighted. Click FREEZE to clear the DV, and now your effects will all work.
Symptom: Sometimes the color is just really badly out of whack, but not when you've just started up the toaster. It only happens after you've been doing stuff for a bit, or when you trigger 3D transitions, or when you take a freezeframe.
Cause: The Toaster has a digital framestore that can store a single fullscreen image. When doing ordinary switching it is not in use; the signal from the active camera is simply passed straight through to the output unmodified. If you're doing a CG overlay, the CG lives in the framestore and the card switches to it only for the pixels where the overlay will appear.
The Toaster's digitizer can get miscalibrated, so when you put an image into the framestore, the hue is off. The reason you only see this sometimes is because the inputs are only routed through the framestore if you request it, or if an effect needs that, or if you take a freezeframe.
You can detect if the image is being routed through the framestore, because three buttons will be simultaneously selected on the same bus: An input, and both DV1 and DV2 will all be yellow. Click the input again, or click another input and then back, and DV1/2 will clear. If your color returns to normal, this is your problem.
Solution: Run the Autohue tool, inside the Toaster folder (possibly under Utilities.) It will usually tell you how you need to connect the inputs and outputs on the card; follow the instructions precisely and it will fix your problem.