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Video
Capturing Hardware
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 What
hardware to use?
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The
hardware to capture video can be internal PCI card or external box
(USB or Printer Port). The internal cards should be less expensive
and many times work better.
Warning: Don't think the capturing and making video is easy as they
say on the box or web pages! Even on good Pentium it will take a
lot of time to render the output video..
There
are many types video capturing cards, but we can make a 3 categories:
- AVI capture card
- MPEG or MJPEG capture card
- DV card
All
of them have its advantages and disadvantages. There is no "perfect"
capturing card in a reasonable price..
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AVI
capture cards (VideoBus)
| Quality |
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| Setup |
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| Lipsync |
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| Efficiency |
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| Software |
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| Sum |
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It
is very cheap and the quality is loseless |
 |
You
can't capture longer clicps because of the size
The driver didn't work |
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The
cards are very simple and they are also nonexpensive. The disadvantage
is usually a huge amount of data stored on disk. They use only software
compression and because you need to capture on real time - the compression
is very nonefficient.
The advantage is usually very good video/sound sync. However you
wont have oportunity to test in longer file because it would simply
not fit on your hardisk.
There are not many external devices, one is Belkin VideoBus USB.
However when we were trying to test it - it didn't work at all.
The software driver never installed properly (even the update from
web) and the only result was crashing the computer - but no video.
However it may work for you - so if you decide for this buy it in
the store where you can return it.
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| MPEG
capture cards |
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MPEG
is popular for its good compression. However you can't compress
MPEG on real time just with the software. All the MPEG capturing
devices have processor to do that. So they are also more expensive.
The price can go from $250 to $1500. You usually get what you pay
for :-)
The
major problem with cheaper MPEG cards is very bad video/audio sync
The reasons are various - but mostly it is the MPEG technology.
However the manufactors usually blame your video source device (not
constant video sync)...
What does it mean: you try to record a 20 min video from your tape
and when you play it the sound could by out of sync even few seconds
at the end of the clip. The recommended way of working with MPEG
cards is to record just short clips and make sure the source signal
is clean and there are no frames skipped.
We
tested two popular cheaper external devices: Pinnacle Studio MP10
(Printer port) and Dazzler Digital Video Creator (USB).
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Pinnacle
Studio MP10
| Quality |
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| Setup |
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| Lipsync |
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| Efficiency |
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| Software |
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| Sum |
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Good
input and output quality. Usable software. |
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Lipsync
Problems, unstable softweare and driver, slow |
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Manufact:
Pinnacle Systems.
Pinnacle is doing the video capturing cards for long time so we
feel this would be excellent product. Nope. Also because the video
and audio is processed inside the box we believed the device would
have excellent audio/video synchronization. Nope.
The input and output quality was very good. The software looks robust
however as we started working with it we find a lot of problems
with software as well with the drivers.
The good:
- The Studio software has very good titling (if you compare it with
other software) and the adding of Smart Sound is excellent.
- The output to tape has good quality
The
bad:
- Sometimes when we captured video the preview was upside down -
no idea why!
- Even we captured the clips in the same format as desired output
the software needed a lot of time to render the output video. As
we added a few transitions the time needed to render 10 min clip
was something like 3 hours on P333 with 120 MB Ram.
- at the end the whole clip was out of sync more than 2 sec! We
checked all the 10 clips - none of them were visibly out of sync.
The Pinnacle says it is because of cumulating small errors, but
we believe the software itself added some.
- five times from ten we couldn't start the capture application
because "the device was not ready".
- there
is no USB version at this moment
- Very strange support for VideoCD format. The VideoCD with clips
created with MP10 played very poorly with lot of hiccups on our
Raite DVD player.
- software was crashing frequently
We returned the card after 2 weeks of testing.
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Dazzle
Digital Video Creator
| Quality |
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| Setup |
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| Lipsync |
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| Efficiency |
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| Software |
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| Sum |
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Good
input, stable, fewer lipsync's, easy to use. |
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Bad
video output. Bundled Software could be better. |
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Dazzle
makes non-expensive MPEG capturing devices. We tested the USB version.
The one with Video output. (There is also a limited edition without
video output)
The device has the same functionality as Pinnacle except it has
a MIC input. The audio cables go to the Dazzle Box, however the
dazzle audio out plugs in the Line input of your soundcard so it
is more for pleasure than functionality. But the MIC input is plus.
The Dazzle software is simple but id does what it suppose to do.
It allows you to capture video, static image and manipulate with
the clips. There is Ulead VideoStudio 3.0 included for more effects
and editing.
Good:
- the driver has no problem to use the device anytime, switching
on and off is easy, we had never any problems.
- the VideoCD files created with Dazzle plays perfectly on our DVD
- the Dazzle software never crashed (however the Ulead Video Studio
does)
Bad:
- we don't know how the video output is suppose to work, but after
3 minutes of sending mpg file to the output, the player starts behaving
strange choking and damaging the video. After stopping and playing
again it was good for another 3 minutes.
- it still suffers from audio/video sync problem, however less than
Pinnacle Studio MP10
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Snazzi
Not
Rated
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There
was a good working card Snazzi (they don't make it anymore) It had
no biglipsync problems, the quality wasn't any superb, but it worked
and many people liked it. Just for your info if you will see one
used one - not a bad deal.
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MATROX
MJPEG capturing cards
| Quality |
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| Setup |
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| Lipsync |
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| Efficiency |
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| Software |
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| Sum |
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Easy
setup, very good quality in & out, Second Monitor, TV tuner,
bundled DVD player |
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The
editing software is old and not very useful (Avid Cinema) |
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We
tested Matrox Marvel G400 TV.($299.00) In fact it is a video
card with excellent G400 chip with TV tuner and a capturing board
with video in and out. MJPEG means Motion JPEG and that means bigger
files than with MPEG (But still smaller than regular AVI) The quality
is excellent and there is no Lipsync problem. The card captures
the video into the AVI using MJPG hardware compression. (So you
would need MJPEG codec to play it on other computer - and that's
not free) That means before you distribute the video you have to
convert it to MPEG or AVI with any standard CODEC. The lite version
of LSX MPEG 2 transcoder is included, it allows you to make MPEG
but VideoCD format.
Why
to use M-jpeg ? It just makes sense if you want to edit the video
- the quality is outstanding, no lipsync problems, etc. Matrox is
shipped with AVID Cinema - a very lite-lite version of Avid. You
can make your cuts, transitions, add sound etc... but I would recommend
other software. Also once you install new QuickTime 4, the Avid
wont start - it needs QT 3.0 (!)
Otherwise
there are no problems with the hardware. It captures always with
no problem. On P600 we had always 0 dropped frames - and that's
great.
Marvel allows you to plug in a TV monitor (any TV with video input)
beside the standard computer monitor (it is a video card, not only
capturing board) So you can always see on the TV what you capturing,
or editing. This gives you the professional look :-) Yeah and you
can use your computer as a TV tuner if you plug antenna or cable
and watch TV on the screen or TV monitor. Also the driver and shipped
DVD soft player allows you to play DVD on the TV monitor on full
size (like hardware DVD player would).
As Pinnacle MP10 or Dazzle it also has breakout box. You don't plug
all the video/audio cables to the video card itself but to the neat
box on your desk.
Problems:
Sometimes the driver didn't start the output to the external TV
monitor during the capture - the monitor was blank green. The Matrox
technical support answered my message in just few hours telling
me to dissable DualHead option - it seems that it fixed the problem
and Matrox support gets kudos for the speed.
Result:
It cost a bit more than Pinnacle MP10, but for more serious video
editing it is "Marvel". And it gives you many other gadgets
- all for one price. In fact because it is also a very good video
card you practically don't pay too much (take out the price of G400
video card and you paying maybe $50 more) However you would really
want to buy a better software than Avid Cinema shipped with it.
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DV
capture cards (Pyro Video)
| Quality |
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| Setup |
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| Lipsync |
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| Efficiency |
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| Software |
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| Sum |
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Easy
setup, broadcasting quality |
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You
need top-line computer, you need DV player/recorder |
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Digital
Video is a new format. DV is not a codec as MPEG, DV is whole hardware
solution. In order to transfer video to computer you need a DV (or
I-link) video or camcorder and a Firewire port. The fact is that
all the encoding does the video or camera and the FireWire is just
some sort of SCSI to transfer the whole data without any encoding.
Really speaking the DV should be cheaper than MPEG solution, however
it is a "new" thing. You need the codec only to watch
DV on your computer.
But! Your DV camera handles the DV files all right, but you need
really fast Pentium to render the DV files to screen in real time.
The DV allows you to produce broadcasting quality video - but you
need a DV camcorder and DV video recorder and fast pentium.
The firewire card starts from $140, we tested Pyro Video with JVC
DV camcorder. It worked, but our P333 couldn't send the video back
to camcorder in real time...the recorded video was slower :-)
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| I
want something better |
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The
cards above are for home use (of course you can use them for business
as well) If you are serious with video editing soon or later you
will need to move forward. For 4 times the price of Matrox Marvel
you can have very decent professional real-time digital video editing
solutions. (That means you will have all the necessary components
- the hardware and the software)
Matrox ® RT2000 ™ was featured on NAB
2000 and it looks very promising. There are of course other companies
making professional video editing. Why
I would go with Matrox ? The products are excellent, Great software
and fast support.
What
you get:
- Realtime
dual-stream video editing with 32-bit animated graphics
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Realtime broadcast-quality 3D digital video effects (DVE) powered
by Matrox Flex 3D
- Native-DV
and MPEG-2 editing
- Analog
and digital video input/output Y/C, composite, 1394
- MPEG-2
output for distribution applications such as DVD and CDauthoring
- RealVideo,
NetShow ASF, MPEG-1, and QuickTime output for web video streaming
- Integrated
Matrox Millennium G400 Flex 3D Edition drives your high-performance
desktop
- Stereo
audio input/output genlocked to video ensures perfect lip-sync
- Complete
content creation software bundle
- Adobe
Premiere RT (real time)
-
Ulead Cool 3D
- Sonic
Foundry ACID Music
- Sonic
DVDit! LE
See
more about
Matrox ® RT2000 ™
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