PAL VT3 why not now and when?

[james_dmi]

So any news on PAL availability? I have seen many posts that say the VT3 NTSC version supports PAL now and also a post by Paul Lara stating that the VT2 DVE's work fine with VT3. Put the two together then you have VT3 for PAL! but its still not available!

So either A: Newtek cannot supply it in Europe for some legal reason, B: Newtek is giving priority to the US and will only ship to Europe when its totally satisfied that everyone in the US has there toaster, C: There is a bug in the code somewhere that makes it unreliable for PAL usage (unlikely as I have seen several posts from US users saying it works just fine)

If you go to www.newtek-europe.com there is no mention of VT3. UK distribution companies have this sort of thing on the site: "Upgrade to Video Toaster [3] Software - Pre-order only - will be shipped when available."

This is a wake up call Newtek people do edit video in Europe! It may not be as big as the US but you have absolutely no market penetration here at all therefore the opportunity is huge. Most people in video I meet have never heard of the Video Toaster (even the original as it was only NTSC) I have just teamed up with a producer over here to do post work on some of his TV drama work and he was very dubious about my edit suite until I forced him to take a look at it. With products that sell themselves it would only take the smallest amount of effort to promote them but it always seems that to NT Europe is just an after thought. I can remember it taking two whole number version releases to get Lightwave to play back at 25 frames /sec in previews. (Again probably because at the time there was only 1 or 2 places you could get lightwave and no one was using it) I realise NT must do the best they can for the largest user base but they must understand they will never have a user base over here unless they pay us some attention.

Any way that far more then I wanted to write I’m just pissed because I was supposed to be down the pub tonight but my plans fell through. Rant over sorry everyone.

[Aegis]

Unfortunately I think this is partly a side-effect of us all being "Europeans" now :)

The VT[3] manuals are, I gather being translated for other languages and in addition any new DVEs have to be re-rendered to PAL formats. It's possible there's even packaging changes for the European market. Once all this is done then VT[3] will ship.

I'm as anxious as anyone to get my VT[3] upgrade but as noted in other posts to this forum, there's even some US VT users that haven't got their upgrades yet.

ETA at the moment for the UK version still seems to be end of August (although I won't be too surprised if it slips one or two weeks).

Hang on in there :D

[james_dmi]

Actually I’m not that worried about the delay in getting the product but more the slap dash way Newtek deals with the European market. Right now there are people all over Europe making decisions on a new NLE and not many of them will be short listing the VT. Not because it lacks features and certainly not because it costs to much but simply because they have never heard of it. Newtek likes to point out all the new cool features of the toaster like 3D and Batch capture but if you go to http://www.newtek-europe.com/uk/products/videotoaster/index.html there is no mention of any of this. Even worse instead the site goes on about the original toaster and the Amiga! This is totally at odds with Newtek trying to move the toaster to the VT(X) branding. They have done this in the US as the toaster brand was having a negative impact on sales well what do they think the old toaster brand means here? For most users they have never heard of it and for those of us that have it means an outdated editor that was much hyped in the distant past but after several delays never made it to market!

My big gripe as always is information. There are other posts on this site asking these questions and they have several speculative replies by users but no one wearing a Newtek badge has shed any light on the matter ( http://vbulletin.newtek.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9233 ). In fact the only Newtek post on the thread just confuses matters more by suggesting that the VT3 should work in PAL land now but fails to give any reason why its not available. And no update on the www.newtek-europe.com site is a disgrace, it only needs a small gif with “Get ready for VT3 coming to Europe xx/xx/xx” with a link to the US site VT3 pages (5 mins work at most) I have no problem if it’s the manuals or new dve’s I can understand that it takes time to translate / render them But I just think Newtek could be doing so much better over here if they just spent a bit more time informing us.

[FHL]

I agree with both of you we should have better communication.
The product pages on NewTek-europe.com are not up to date and we will be working on it.
Video Toaster is very successful in Europe and this is probably a region where NewTek is selling the best.
Many Television studios are already equipped with it and we are anticipating an even bigger success with VT3 with more marketing support for the product. We do not necessarely need to be loud to be successful :D .
The reason why the VT is not shipping in Europe yet is very simple: we just wait for the registration procedure to be adapted to european market needs (multiple language support, registration available through the Internet but also through the phone).
We are confident that this little adaptation of the product should be done shortly.
I would like to express my apologies for the delay and lack of communication.
The first customers to receive their VT3 in Europe are the VT2 owners who ordered an upgrade or are entitled to a free upgrade.

Franck Lafage
NewTek Europe

[PeterK]

Hey Franck,

How much further are we going to wait for the registration pages to finish? The registration site over at http://register.newtek.com already works for european customers. Surely it cant take four weeks for you to copy those pages onto your site?

I don't get the multiple language support for the registration. If they cant even understand how to register the product in english, how will they ever be able to get the VT[3] running with english only docs? Anyway, I think the language will only be in french, italian, and german.. Please,please send out the upgrades to the rest!

Im soooo tired of waiting.. :(

/Regards Peter K

[FHL]

Dear Peter,
It is slightly more complicated than one might think and it is not only about copying a link onto newtek-europe.com webpage.
The upgrades will be sent very shortly after NewTek Europe receive them from the USA. This should happen very soon now.
For further information do not hesitate to contact directly NewTek Europe sales department sales@newtek-europe.com or your resseler.
Thank you for your understanding and patience.
Best regards,

Franck Lafage
NewTek Europe

[kleima]

Oh, stop complaining! I live in the US, AND was a Beta Tester, AND just got a call on Friday from my dealer saying that the shipping version is in.
You're not as far behind as you think you are!

[kleima]

Also, in case you haven't visited http://www.newtek-europe.com lately, it is talking about VT[2] & VT[3] (including the price) and not about the Amiga Toaster.

[PeterK]

Franck, Im looking forward to my upgrade.. Marc already told me that I was among the first in line.


Kleima: We never did have opportunity to join the Beta force, so I feel my complaint aint totally irrelevant. From what I understood Newtek clearly stated that betatester would have to wait until all upgrade pre-orders were filled, so Im not suprised that you haven't got yours yet.. I mean your already using the final revision, are you not? :confused:

I don't know what you´ve seen the talk about VT[3] over at newtek-europe. All I can see is pretty old information about VTNT2 when I press products->videotoaster.. The french page aint even working... The french lightwave information is in english.. Maybe a little effort updating the product pages would be in order? Not that I dont enjoy the frequent interviews made by Ben, but surely some effort must be made to new customers, wanting to see some information about the products..

/Regards Peter K

[PeterK]

:rolleyes: Any update? How far away is "very soon"? :confused:

/Regards Peter K

[Aegis]

Well, Newtek Europe have finally updated their Toaster pages to show VT[3] so I guess it's imminent - there was a guy in Malaysia on www.videotoasternt.com who said he was using a final PAL release so I assume it has been shipped (or is in the process of shipping) to dealers - I'm not a gambling man but I'm betting I'll get a call from OneVideo next week...

[PeterK]

The silence is deafening...

This was the last time I "pre-ordered" anything from Newtek. :mad:

[tlively]

Just to be Nasty and pour a bit of Petrol on the flames; My mother-in-law says she really likes the nifty Pal DVD I made for her of her daughter's last trip (Shot in NTSC DV) The included PAL VHS tape was also handy to show the neighbors! Being able to render both a PAL and NTSC version from the same project sure saved me alot of work. OH, you don't have your T3 yet? Oh bugger! Isn't that a shame!

Tom

[Aegis]

Thanks for that tlively... (and it seems I lost my bet :()

[PeterK]

My dealer finally got through to Newtek Europe today (wow!)..

They will be ready to ship, next week, or the week after.. Since its just the beginning of this week.. I cound it to approx 20 days from now, until (hopefully) I get the CDs in my small little tired hands..

/Regards Peter K

[Michael Englyst]

Hmm., I hope they have a good reason for being delayed that much.. I need my VT3 fix! :) Thanks for the info Peter!

[Jeffers]

OK, this is getting silly! When will we see VT[3] in Europe.
Somebody at Newtek-Europe please respond.....BeeVee!

[sym@onevideo]

VT3 Pal is shipping !! :D
On a first come first serve basis !! :mad:
So don't worrie you will see it soon !!! :)
Order of shipping is as follows :
1st Full copy's
2nd The paying Upgrades
& finaly the people that were entitled to the free upgrade. :confused:

Your dealer or reseller should have seen their first batch already,
I know we have here @ onevideo just waiting on the next batch to make all our customers v-happy..

Rebuild of our demo system Friday cant wait to play !! VT3 heaven here i come.......

Sym @ Onevideo:confused:

[nikolai]

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