CompuServe Thread

Eric, Hi. You do have a kind of tricky application there. I'll take my best shot at it. I am not aware of _any_ video cards for the IBM & compatibles that will both overlay an external video source and, at the same time, output the combined VGA screen with the overlaid video source. Now, that does not mean that one does not exist… I can think of two ways to do this. One is to use a camcorder that will allow you to video computer screens with a refresh rate that is not a multipe of 3.54xxyyzz kHz (NTSC), ie. SVGA, and just video the computer screen to tape and then use conventional editing techniques to edit with that tape. I think these camcorders are somewhat expensive, however. The second solution would be to go ahead and get a "switcher" that will allow you to do picture-in-picture, without relying on one board to do the overlay and encoding. You could take one computer and encode its output as an NTSC input to the switcher, and then take your other video source as a second input to the switcher and then use the switcher to do a positionable picture in picture type of effect. I had not heard of Lotus SmartCam yet, can you describe it to me? -John

Eric, I hope you don't mind me piping up, but I couldn't help notice that you have Mediaspace/DVA4000. I've never seen the capability of a Targa, an Amiga, or any of that stuff, so I can't comment on that. I have read that these boards can do some really great quality recording, but for making software demo tapes or training videos, I think Mediaspace is definitely up to it. I use Videologic Mediaspace & DVA/4000 too, and I have had some luck with it, although I admit there was a steep learning curve in the beginning; it became more of a case of building components around Videologic's boards as much as building a system! For what its worth, I have some insights for getting the best out of these boards that you can while minimizing the cost of additional hardware. Also, I have had good luck with Orchid's 1280 plus VLB SVGA card, but even that took some fine-tuning. I think that the output quality depends somewhat on the system's ability to download video to begin with, as measured by Vidsnap's calibrate reading, as well as the refresh rate. Another thing that's important is what device you use to output the video to vcr. I use Videologic's Mediator LC; it's nice because its external (has both red AND green lights)(perfect for Christmas -g) and has controls on the side to adjust picture. And most importantly the picture quality is good. If you are going to do a lot of insets, then Mediaspace can be really good at that, since most PCs tend do get a higher quality video recording rate using Mediaspace at 320 X 240 where the hard-drive and CPU can work optimally to get a really good quality "take" off your video source. 640 X 480 recordings need pretty super-human (PC?) kit to manage the data transfer rates at that setting. A Pentium/PCI system is out, sadly, because Videologic claim that the PCI buses out there are not standardized enough to work with the VGA standard set forth by IBM. It's a lame excuse, but there you are– The DVA/4000 won't display a picture with a PCI video card. A DX4-100 with vesa local bus video and vesa local bus hard drive is what I would suggest. I read about a Pentium 90 motherboard made with Vesa Local Bus that is now out of production because it doesn't rate as a motherboad compared to the newer PCI boards, but for Mediaspace, it could be perfect; after all, what you really want the Pentium 90 power for is non-linear editing in Windows. As for your technique, have you considered attempting to use some sort of software frame-grabber (like Hijaak or something) to convert your PC's screen to bitmaps, turn that into a video, and then position your video clips on top of that using Premiere? Anyway, best of luck finding what you're looking for. If you do put together the killer system, be sure and post it! –Scott