#Seasoned member but new
7 messages in this thread
Vincent:
>I think you should check out these two cards: Fast Movie Machine Pro and miro
DC1 TV.<
So I've heard! I'd love to, but the magazine I write for primarily think those
cards are "too expensive" for video consumers…
>Intel Smart Video Recorder Pro is also a good card at this price range to be
considered.<
As far as screen captures to be output back to video, I'm not sure the Smart
Video Recorder Pro's quite up to the job. I've got one in my computer, and the
best it can do is 240 x 180 at 30 fps (and it drops frames after about a minute
or so at that resolution!)–I doubt that's good enough for output to your VCR
w/any quality.
Still, thanks for the tips!
Tim
Tim,
(I got an new ID now, so that I'm writing the reply with it.) Gee! I thought
they are the 'lower end' capture boards. <grin> I heard they are below $500 on
the street. Anyway, see their price fall very soon. (Competition! What else?)
Just curious, what price range that they think is 'about right'? And, who are
'they'?
About doing a better capturing with Intel SVR Pro, I bet there are a lot of
owners here would like to help you to do a bigger screen (I heard they're doing
320×240 at 30fps) capturing without dropping frame. (OK. OK. May be one or
two.) Any one?
–Vince
Vince:
>RE: Fast Movie Machine Pro and miro DC1 TV… Gee! I thought they are the
'lower end' capture boards. <grin> I heard they are below $500 on the street.
Anyway, see their price fall very soon.<
Really? That *would* put 'em about in the right price range. I'd been under the
impression (as had "they" <g>–my editors) that both those boards were $3,000 –
$5,000–which is a bit on the high side for your average consumer…
Of course, there's also the question of how powerful a computer's needed. While
a 486/66 w/a gigabyte drive and 16 megs + RAM may not seem like much to anyone
on this forum, it's a damned sight more than Mr.&Ms. Homevideo Consumer
generally have. (Most of the nonprofessional folks I know, if they even *own* a
computer, consider 486/25s w/4 megs to be "souped up"! <g>)
>About doing a better capturing with Intel SVR Pro, I bet there are a lot of
owners here would like to help you to do a bigger screen (I heard they're doing
320×240 at 30fps) capturing without dropping frame. (OK. OK. May be one or
two.) Any one?<
What Vince said–anyone, please? According to the documentation that came w/the
Smart Video Recorder Pro (and according to my own experiences, which were, to
put it politely, dismaying), you can't capture more than 15 fps @ 320×240 size,
or 30 fps @ 240×180 fps). Neither are quite good enough for more than the
occasional special effect, where you live w/the loss in quality in exchange for
experiencing the Wonders of Digital Video Effects!!! <g> But I'm open to
suggestions…
Also, can anyone recommend a decent VGA-NTSC board or external convertor? I've
used the GameBlaster, which is cheap (in all senses of the word) but does the
job, and the output capability of the StudioMagic card (at least until it
started hanging my computer up all the time!)–but I'd love to come across a
better solution.
Thanks, Vince!
Tim
Tim,
$3000-$5000? They must be referring TrueVision's Targa 2000 card and alike.
Yes, you do need a higher end machine to do the DTV capturing/editing works.
Before others jump in, let me offer my experience since I'm waiting for the
upcoming vacation. <grin> I just used the miro DC1 board to do capture on a
Pentium/90 and a 486/66 today. On Pentium/90 with PCI Fast SCSI-2 host adapter
and AV drive, I can easily do a 320×240 30fps capturing without dropping frame.
On the 486/66 with a local bus IDE card and IDE drive, at 320×240 15fps I got
the same non-dropping frame capturing. At 20 fps, I got 20% dropped (that
means 16 fps is probably the best it can do). I was using Fast Movie Machine
Pro on them last week, I got similar result. However, miro board gave me a
little better quality video output. I think Intel Smart Video Recorder Pro
with Indeo CoDec would give you similar result, too.
A few additional tips: 1, I often capture in PAL, this will give me bigger
screen. 2, Use the fast drive as the capture drive and remove any disk cache
for that drive. 3. I defrag my AV drive and capture a big file as a place
holder, then I always use that file as the capture destination. Work best with
our Video Capture program. 4. If you have RAM to spare, allocate a RAM drive
to capture small clips (this works best for low power machines). For example,
use 8M for RAM drive and 8M for program.
Enough talking for today. Happy Chinese New Year!
–Vince
Vince:
>$3000-$5000? They must be referring TrueVision's Targa 2000 card and alike.<
So far as anyone at VIDEO (and for that matter, I) knew, that was about as
cheap as you could get away with. Actually, we were thinking about Fast's
nonlinear setup, which from the press information seemed to be an add-on to
their Video Machine (already a $4,000 investment).
BTW, thanks for explaining your model. We are talking DTV (eventual output to
videotape) and not multimedia, aren't we? Seems to me there'd be a bit of a
problem editing in PAL mode which is 25 fps and outputting to a 30 fps NTSC
machine, as it seems that outputting 15 fps to a 30 fps NTSC tape would
compromise quality severely. Or am I missing something?
>Happy Chinese New Year!<
*Kung Hei Fat Choy* to you too, Vince!
Tim
Tim,
I double checked the list price printed in the New Media Nov/94 issue about PC
based capture boards. Most are in the price range $500-$899. So, their street
prices are within the 'about right' margin but their output quality at best is
sub-VHS. Avid/TrueVision/Fast are famous in producing cards can output
S-VHS/VHS quality video. However, their price tags show the difference, too.
<grin>
Yes, we're talking about video. That PAL input is a trick works for me when
taking shots at still images or scenes where timing is not critical (from 25fps
to 30fps), so that I can output in NTSC with a better quality (resolution).
Got it?
–Vince
Vince:
>Avid/TrueVision/Fast are famous in producing cards can output S-VHS/VHS
quality video. However, their price tags show the difference, too. <grin><
Well, there's the problem for the market I'm writing for–regular video
consumers *want* the power of nonlinear editing and all those nifty special
effects, but can't quite bring themselves to spend more than the price of a
camcorder to get it. As for multimedia at this point, it's a nice toy for most
consumers, but not worth spending $500 or more to have (esp. since they'd also
have to get a huge hard drive and more memory for something that can only play
on computers roughly as powerful as theirs). That's a good rule of thumb for
what I write about–if it costs more than a high-end consumer camcorder (I
usually figure a street price of $1,500 is about right), it's doubtful
consumers will bite in large enough numbers to make it profitable.
>That PAL input is a trick works for me when taking shots at still images or
scenes where timing is not critical (from 25fps to 30fps), so that I can output
in NTSC with a better quality (resolution). Got it?<
Got it! Good trick, BTW–I'll have to remember that for effects and titling
sequences…
Best,
Tim