I’m not talking in terms of specs, because I know the chromagnon has the Vidiot beat, but in terms of versatility and the complexity of the patterns that the instrument can produce on it’s own. I ask this because the Vidiot seems to have a much more extensive patch bay than the chromagnon. Also, the website doesn’t say if the chromagnon’s different workflows can work alongside one another or not, so that’s a big factor as to whether or not I get one.
For someone who has a Vidiot already, they can choose between keeping their Vidiot and adding a Chromagnon or replacing their Vidiot with a Chromagnon.
I’m not sure buying a Vidiot is an option anymore. So, for someone who doesn’t have a Vidiot, the choice may be much simpler. Either buy a Chromagnon or not. I’m in this position, BTW. The Vidiot never interested me, I didn’t buy one and now I don’t have that option. You may be more fortunate, but I don’t know.
So, if you can still buy a Vidiot then your question makes the most sense. Regardless, I’d recommend waiting until a demo video is posted before making any commitments. You can compare it with the Vidiot demo when that video appears on the LZX YouTube channel.
There’s the odd vidiot Comes up for sale used
I would ignore to some extent the number of available patch points
The important thing is what you can do with it
Chromagnon has many apparent advantages over vidiot
More video inputs - including colour
High def analog video output
Image Rotation
Laser compatibility
A ton of buttons and switches - some of which may change internal routing of some patch points - idk I am speculating a bit here!
As nerdware said - wait for the demos and compare - there may be a few more vidiots available used at that time too
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This thread might give you a better impression of Chromagnon’s capabilities (though wait for a demo video, if you’re still not sure):
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The way I see it Chromagnon will be the best of Vidiot and Visual Cortex (and Navigator, Shapechanger, Mapper, and Staircase) packed into one module. I think the key difference you’re looking for is that the Vidiot excels primarily at making grids of shapes with a pair of oscillators, but can’t do rotating quadrilateral figures or any of the tricks that a Nav+SC combo would give you. From what I gather, Chromagnon is going to have the complexity to make patterns and shapes far above and beyond what Vidiot is capable of, and with wavefolding it will likely be able to generate grid of shapes too, but with many more possibilities for modulation and animation. Also worth noting that Chromagnon has several built in modulation vectors, whereas Vidiot only has scrolling horizontal bars.
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Can Chromagnon actually rotate an image? I thought it was just the ramps, but perhaps I’ve missed something. Anyway, I don’t recall Vidiot doing any kind of rotating, so Chromagnon definitely wins on that feature. I agree with all your other points. I’d add 1080 component input, too. I think that’s a really big feature.
So what does Vidiot have that Chromagnon doesn’t? Two oscillators, for a start. It’s small size is another factor, making it easier to carry to gigs etc. One of the suggested Vidiot applications is video feedback using a B/W camera and monitor. I don’t think Chromagnon is so well suited for that.
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You’d need Memory Palace or some kind of frame buffer to perform image rotation. Processing a Luma camera signal using Navigator and Shapechanger (effectively the MK1 versions of what has been described in Chromagnon) will just get you a brighter or darker image.
Rotating ramps in the context of a scan processing patch displayed on a XY monitor (or ILDA if you have super fast galvos on your laser) would appear to rotate the image as the H/V ramps are defining an arbitrary raster.
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Yes, it looks like Chromagnon can instead rotate the chroma part of the signal, not luma.
Am I right in thinking Chromagnon will let you access the luma part of the input and then feed the result back into Chromagnon to be recombined with the processed chroma part?
So much of this is speculation! We really need to see that demo video.
as no demo is available yet I guessed that if this is replacing shapeshifter and navigator that it would enable image rotation of some kind… maybe just wishful thinking on my part - fingers crossed!
Well, a new module like this encourages a degree of wishful thinking! For a short time, I wondered if Chromagnon could process HD video internally. I’ll be really impressed if it can do this, but now I seriously doubt it. I’d like to be wrong, but we’ll see.
exactly - from what I’ve read I would assume that if you can put HD analogue video in and get HD analogue video out then the entire workflow would work like that - downscaling on the fly adds complications - and I remember reading somewhere that a lot of the expedition modules (staicase etc ) can handle HD analogue - it was just never an option before
think about it - it’s really about recognizing the frame and line markers in the stream - so as long as the circuits can handle a faster signal it shouldn’t be an issue
but I might be wrong!
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I just sold my Vidiot on reverb to pay for my chromagnon preorder. I’d assume that once chromagnon does drop that people who wish to replace the Vidiot in their setup will put them up for sale. So their may be an influx of used vidiots for sale at that point in time.
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Perhaps–but those who keep Vidiot will be rewarded by patching it into Chromagnon.
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Oh yes. See the Chroma and Luma buttons on the right side? Those are selecting where the output color converter’s sources come from. So you could have a gradient shape colorized by the chrominance of input video only, etc. Or colorize luma video with a gradient created by the XY shape generating chroma, etc.
Chromagnon can rotate the luma or the chroma. Luma rotation will look like a continuous solarizer.
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Chromagnon will process whatever native format it’s internal sync generator is running in: any of the SD/HD resolutions. The HD image may look a little soft on very hard edges, but this is a machine designed for linear edge processing, so, at worst, in HD it will look like a “very high quality/organic SD upscale” with a little horizontal filtering.
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Note that the video inputs (CVBS/Component) are directly into the TBC. So they go thru the digital subsystem for time base correction before entering the analog signal path. The frontpanel RGB 1V inputs are direct inputs to the analog path. All of the outputs (video, laser, 1V) are fully analog.
The digital subsystem manages sync and TBC – so the TBC will scale whatever your input video is to whatever your “house sync” format is automatically. There’s a lot of auto-detect/auto-switch code in the digital system, so for the most part, it should just work without much worry.
Video input, auto-sync enabled = “house sync” matches video input format
Video input, auto-sync disabled = “house sync” matches programmed sync format, and video inputs scale to match
Video input + sync input = “house sync” matches sync input, and video inputs scale to match
Sync input only = “house sync” matches input sync
No input = “house sync” matches programmed sync format
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Excellent! That confirms it, thanks. 
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Don’t make me feel bad! I already miss my little robot!