Building a Digital Video Capture System – Part II – THG.RU

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Part II” –>

Introduction

So, if you’ve read Building a Digital Video Capture System – Part I you should have a general idea about the issues involved with building your own digital video capture setup. In this part we’ll get down to some system specifics and then take a look at a handful of capture systems out there and how they stack up.

But first, I got a lot of questions about how big a video stream really is based on what I wrote in Part I. I’ll stick by my guns on this one. Raw, uncompressed video is about 21MB/s. Here’s the math:

720x486x29.97fps = 10487102.4 pixels per second.

Since broadcast video is stored using a YUV 4:2:2 color scheme the luminance values are stored for every pixel while the color values are stored for every other pixel. This equates to 32 bits for every two pixels or, for the sake of simplicity, 16 bits per pixel (1/3 more efficient than a computer’s 24-bit ‘true-color’ RGB scheme actually). So…

10487102.4 * 16 = 335587276.8 bits/s

335587276.8 / 8 = 20,974,204.8 bytes per second

Modulated RF video signals transmitted from your local TV station are about 25MB/s (there’s a lot of extra stuff in those RF signals such as audio, SAP, VIB signals, a bunch of other reference signals, and space reserved by the FCC for test signals, EBS, and even military signals).

DV video is 25Mbits/s because it’s compressed (and don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t compressed or that it is a lossless CODEC). For starters DV only contains 1/4 the color information (YUV 4:1:1 for NTSC and YUV 4:2:0 for PAL) and most DV camcorders do some pretty severe clipping of the blacks (so if you plan to shoot a lot of moody, dark sequences you might want to avoid DV). At its heart, DV uses a DCT (discrete cosine transform) compression algorithm, which is lossy and the conversion from RGB to YUV also introduces quantization errors. They used to say, in the capture industry, that a capture rate of 5-6MB/s was the magic number because a 4:1 compression ratio was about as far as most broadcasters were willing to degrade an image.

I also got a number of emails that questioned my statements about 2GB limits in file systems. According to a Pinnacle technician FAT-16 has a limit of 2GB, FAT-32 has a limit of 4GB, and NTFS has a limit of 4TB. The Pinnacle manuals state, “A limitation in the FAT 32 file system of Windows 98 and Widows ME allows you to capture only files with a maximum size of 3.9GB.” According to the PYRO ProDV manuals the limit is 4GB. The PYRO manuals also state that the DVTools software they bundle has a file size limit of 2GB. One reader, Brick Ekesten wrote, “The 2GB limit is not imposed by FAT formatting but instead by the values used by Microsoft’s AVI stream wrapper. It was assumed originally to have been the FAT-16 limitation but it has been possible to format a drive to use larger than 2GB partitions but the AVI stream wrapper has not changed. There are still capture cards which are limited to 2GB file sizes despite the fact that people are using FAT-32 or NTFS because the AVI wrapper has some hard coded limits on file size.” Apparently Apple also fell into the same trap since the Mac OS (below 7.5) and up until the latest releases, QuickTime also had a 2GB limit. So, whether the problem really exists or not, whether it’s in the file system or the software, whether it’s 2GB, 3.9GB, 4GB, or 4TB most capture card manufacturers seem to think there is some kind of limit and most of them offer some sort of workaround.

Motherboards

Now that that’s out of the way let’s build a video capture system from the motherboard up. For video capture you want to avoid motherboards with on-board graphics controllers (the Intel 810 series chipsets are particularly notorious and should be avoided). NIC controllers on the motherboard can also cause problems unless they can be disabled during video capture. ATA-66 or ATA-100 on the motherboard is preferable to using separate controllers, but SCSI on the motherboard can cause problems in some systems if it is ‘hardwired’ as controller zero. The most common problem with installing video capture devices arises from IRQ conflicts. You should also check with the motherboard manufacturer’s Web site to make sure you have the latest and greatest BIOS. I’ve heard that there were some early problems with some HP systems and some capture boards until HP upgraded their BIOS.

If you’re like me then one of the basic criteria you use when choosing a motherboard is that it have lots of slots. You should be aware that some capture cards like to stick ‘close to home’ (usually first or second slot after the AGP slot) and don’t function well on the other side of the PCI bridge. Some, like the Pinnacle DV500 Pro, are very picky about this so be prepared for some swapping if things don’t go right the first time you install a new capture card.

CPUs

As far as CPUs go the minimum speed is about 300Mhz. As I mentioned in part 1 of this article CPUs don’t play a major role during capture but they are called upon quite heavily when you start doing transition effects, rendering, or transcoding from one CODEC to another. Most manufacturers support both Intel and AMD CPUs but get a little touchy about others. If you’re building a new system from scratch then you should probably be thinking about an 800MHz or better CPU. Overclocking is not recommended since many capture cards derive their timing from the CPU and, unlike most software applications, video is not flexible about this.

Memory

Memory is a good thing when doing video capture and most companies recommend at least 128MB – 256MB. Speed and type of RAM aren’t that critical so if someone tries to convince you that you need a dual Pentium Xeon with scads of RDRAM you should probably look for another dealer.

Hard Drives

Probably the most important components of a video capture system are the hard drives.

First, I should mention that I got a lot of emails from people regarding SCSI versus ATA and hard drive speeds (most people said “ATA good, SCSI bad”). Many people pointed out that the current crop of ATA drives have gotten a lot faster in the past few years and that many of them should work just fine for video capture. Okay, I’ll give you that one but don’t come crying to me if you start dropping frames during capture. A little side note however. Drive manufacturers tend to play fast and loose with their published specifications. They’ll use 1,000 instead of 1,024 (which is why a 10GB drive only holds 9.3GB). They’ll also talk about write transfer rates but sometimes they mean peak transfers in burst mode – writing from the buffer to the platters, not sustained rates from the computer to the platters. If the drive has a 2MB buffer and you’re trying to capture a multi-gigabyte file that buffer isn’t going to do you much good.

For example, I checked into the Cheetah X15 which the company claims is 25% faster than any drive they’ve ever made (it’s a 2GB Fibre Channel or Ultra 160-Wide SCSI LVD drive by the way). Now their press release claims a 69MB/s rate, their tech specs, however, claim 47.4MB/s, so that would put their next fastest drive in the 35.5MB/s range. Not even close to the theoretical bus speeds. Plenty fast for video capture but this just goes to show that just because you have an ATA-100 system doesn’t mean you’re going to get 100MB/s. When you start picking through the specs with a skeptical eye you may find that your 66MB/s drive is really delivering only 25% of that or less. Our standalone review of the RT2500 makes hardware recommendations here, including using two hard drives in your system.

Most capture board companies make these recommendations when choosing hard drives for video capture.

• Get the biggest drive(s) you can afford. You’ll quickly run out of storage space when dealing with video – even with a lot of video compression.
• Second, get fast drives. ATA-66 or ATA-100 should work but companies like Matrox still warn that depending on the drive, the bus, and other factors such as buffering and fragmentation you may still drop frames. Matrox recommends drives that can sustain at least 12MB/s for editing multiple streams but if you’re just doing single-stream capture you can get away with half that. Pinnacle recommends a drive that can sustain 10MB/s and “if you plan on using a DMA capable IDE hard disk (e.g. IDE-UDMA 100 or IDE-UDMA 66) for your video, you should absolutely install a DMA busmaster driver…”).
• Most capture card companies will also recommend using a dedicated drive for capture and a separate drive for programs and OS boot.
• Don’t use drive compression utilities.
• Finally, they all recommend defragmenting the drive prior to capture.

If you have done all these things and still end up dropping frames then most companies will recommend RAID configurations or (gasp) SCSI drives. If you’re serious about video capture and intend to do a lot of it then consider buying a dedicated RAID enclosure (usually RAID 0 unless you really need the security of a more typical RAID configuration). RAID is a way you really can achieve transfer rates approaching the bus maximums. You can do your own RAID configuration and save a few dollars but keep in mind that striping across partitions on the same drive doesn’t really buy you any speed.

Graphics

As far as graphics boards go, most systems don’t really care what kind of board you have as long as it supports overlays. There are some exceptions to this rule however. Matrox systems prefer to work with particular boards (and are happiest with Matrox graphics boards – surprise, surprise). The ADS PYROProDV doesn’t like TNT2 boards, Pinnacle doesn’t like Voodoo 1 or 2 boards, and no one seems to like Elsa boards. The amount of memory on the graphics card is another area where most capture boards don’t really care, but again, some capture systems prefer cards with at least 16MB. The graphics board usually comes into play during editing and displaying transition effects but is cut out of the loop during capture.

Pinnacle’s DV500 Plus takes advantage of the new audio mixing features of Premiere 6.

Audio

Most video system VARs who are honest will tell you to get the cheapest audio board you can find and some will even tell you to remove it during capture. There is one caveat here, audio boards are notorious for eating IRQs, stealing cycles, hogging busses, and crossing memory boundaries so if you start running into problems with your capture system try disabling the audio card first. Most capture systems don’t need a separate audio capture card and DV-based systems can capture both the video and audio from the same stream over IEEE 1394 so removing any audio cards is actually a good thing.

Monitors

A good monitor is a must when working with video and I strongly recommend getting and using a video calibration program such as Displaymate Video Edition from Sonera Technologies. (I’ll warn you now. Most people don’t know what to look for when adjusting a monitor and are perfectly happy with what they have. You may even find that a properly calibrated monitor looks ‘funny’ or too dark. Displaymate can help you properly calibrate any monitor but it can also reveal problems that can’t be fixed and from then on you’ll be seeing them every time you boot up.)

I would not recommend using LCD displays since colors shift drastically depending on your viewing angle and their color reproduction isn’t as good as a CRT. LCDs are great for CAD and most other applications but they just don’t cut it for serious video work. You can use them if you have to but what you see on your screen may or may not be what everyone else will see when they look at your videos on a TV set or on their monitors. That’s the reason you never see LCDs in professional video post houses or broadcast stations.

Other Peripherals

As far as other peripherals go, I’ve found that a CD burner or external Jaz drive can be very handy for moving and storing video files as long as they don’t conflict with the capture system. DVD drives that require separate controllers can sometimes interfere or eat valuable IRQs (and if you’ve got a beefy CPU you should be able to play DVDs without separate hardware anyway). NIC cards can be problematic and you might want to disable them during capture sessions.

Putting it all together

So, I had a chance to test a few capture systems ranging in price from $130 up to $900; ADS PYRO ProDV Platinum ($129, w/software bundle $349), the Dazzle* Digital Video Creator II ($249), the Pinnacle DV500 Plus ($699), and the Matrox RT2500 (we found the street price to be around $899, a $100 less than the MSRP). All of the systems did a reasonably good job of capturing a video stream either from a DV source or analog source. The PYRO ProDV only supports DV and the Dazzle DVC II only supports analog but the other two support both formats.

Test Beds

For the testing I used two different systems. First, HP supplied me with one of their x2000 boxes. Their basic x2000 system is comprised of a single 1.4GHz P4, 20GB IDE hard disk (Ultra ATA-100), 128MB RDRAM, 48X CD, and Matrox G450 graphics adapter w/16MB DDR all running under Win2K. The basic HP x2000 systems start at about $1,400. The system I used was more at the top of the x2000 range with a 1.7GHz P4, 256MB RDRAM (yes I know I said you don’t need RDRAM but that’s what they sent me), an Adaptec 29160 Ultra-160 SCSI adapter powering a Quantum (Maxtor) ATLAS, and a very handy HP CD-writer 9500.

The second system I used was a Micron Millennia with a P3 933MHz CPU, 256MB RAM, both a 10.2GB ATA-66 Western Digital WD102BA (apps and boot drive) and a 30.7GB Maxtor 53073U6 (capture) drive, a Matrox Millennium Flex 3D graphics adapter, all mounted on a TYAN S1854 Trinity 400 motherboard, again running W2K. The Matrox RT500 came pre-installed with this system, and if you read our standalone review of the RT2500 you will notice that we recommended getting the product in a system bundle because, it is a chore to install fully.

When possible, I tried to test all four capture systems in both PCs but ran into one or two problems that I’ll get to later.

For a computer display I used my Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2020u flat-screen CRT (I love this monitor) and played back video on a 35″ Sony KV-35V65 Trinitron TV.

For a video source I used a moderately high-end Sony DSR-PD150 DV camcorder 1/3 type CCD with an approximate resolution of 380,000 pixels. The camcorder outputs DV, S-Video, and composite, and supports both DVCAM or Mini DV format cassettes. All the three DV or DV/analog hybrid capture systems had no trouble recognizing or controlling the camcorder through the IEEE 1394 port (although, since it’s a Sony, I suppose I should say i.LINK port) – the Dazzle DVC II doesn’t support DV capture or control.

The stripe ‘flair’ effect problem in Dazzle. This is primarily an MPEG compression problem.

The test video I shot was purposely done breaking every rule in the book to see how the systems would compensate. I shot jerkey, wobbly, hand-held scenes and some tripod mounted scenes. I shot indoors with poor lighting and outdoors with quick pans from bright sunlight to dark shadows. I shot trees blowing in the wind, water with ripples, and dark objects against bright backgrounds. I also did a series of hand-held shots of different fabric patterns such as herringbone, checkers of different sizes, bright red stripes against white strips, fur, hair, and all sorts of patterns that are difficult for the camcorder, the capture system, and the CODECs to handle. I also purposely put skips in the tape (stopping the camcorder, fast forwarding a bit, then starting up again) to test each system’s ability to handle complete loss of picture signal and sync. All in all it was a pretty horrible video to watch but provided me with a fairly extreme test source.

Hollywood FX Copper, bundled with the Pinnacle system, adds many great-looking transitions to Premiere, like this 3D stopwatch with video mapped on its face.

A Note about Bundles

As I implied in part one of this article while the capture board/system is half the battle, if the system performs well then it really comes down to the bundled software when making a buying decision. As far as I know, virtually every capture system comes with some bundled software that will at least allow you to capture video. All of the systems that I tested came with extensive software bundles that if purchased separately could easily be worth three times what you spend for the entire package – including the capture hardware.

In the case of DV capture systems many times it’s the software bundle that makes the difference. Yes you can transfer DV video straight into your computer via IEEE 1394 but what are you going to do with it once it’s in there? A DV capture system bundle gives you the software that will let you control the camcorder remotely, automatically search a tape and thumbnail scenes prior to capture, and allow you to capture and edit video in a more compressed format saving hard disk space.

Depending on the software you can do editing, transitions, and effects, lay in audio tracks, and create an EDL (edit decision list). When you’re ready to go the system will find and capture only the scenes (or parts of scenes) that you need from the tape, render all the effects and transitions and then output back to tape with a minimum of decompression/recompression.

Pinnacle DV500 control panel – output settings.

Many bundles come with transcoding software that will allow you to convert between DV, analog, MPEG, AVI, Real, or QuickTime. These days many bundles include Video-CD or DVD authoring software as well. And on top of it all you get a 1394 card thrown into the deal – all for under $300. I’d call that a bargain.

Dazzle’s file conversion panel. Handy for converting and outputting to the Web.

Test Proceedures

I evaluated each of the four systems based on six basic criteria:

In order of importance I looked at:

1. Capture quality
2. Software bundle
3. Ease of installation
4. Ability to deal with problems such as difficult scenes, extra-large files, lost sync, etc.
5. System requirements
6. Documentation

I weighted my conclusions heavily in favor of capture quality since the other things don’t really matter if all you get are lousy images. The software bundle is also important for reasons mentioned above and should be considered part of the total price – rather than as just a few extra freebees thrown in with the hardware. Ease of installation is one of those wildcards. Sometimes things work like a charm and other times getting a board to work can be a real nightmare. The ability to deal with problems is important since no matter how good a cinematographer you are there are always going to be shots that are less than perfect or require a little extra effort on the part of the capture system. Next, I felt system requirements can sometimes be a make or break criterion since you don’t necessarily want to replace all the components in your PC just to get your video capture system to work. Finally, documentation – you know, all those bits of paper and manuals that you skim through as a last resort when you can’t figure out how to get something to work – can either be a lifesaver or simply a waste of trees.

ADS PYRO ProDV (Platinum Bundle)

The ADS PYRO ProDV

Input(s): DV only

Street price PYRO: $79.95

Street price PYRO Pro (with Standard bundle): $249.95

Street price PRYO Pro (HP with Platinum bundle): $299.95

System Requirements:

Pentium II 400 MHz or AMD K6-400 MHz or above

Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows ME or Windows 2000

64 MB RAM

AGP video card or PCI w/4 MB RAM

Sound card

CD-ROM drive

300 MB hard disk space for capture/editing application

4 GB hard disk space (20 minutes of raw DV footage)

In the box

Hardware:

PYRO 1394DV OHCI-based 1394 PCI Host controller

6 ft. 6 pin to 4 pin DV editing cable

Software Bundle (from ADS):

Media Studio Pro 6.0 Video Capture (Full Version) – Video Capture, Video Editor, Audio Editor, Video Paint, CGI Infinity

DV Suite – DVMovie and DVPhoto Capture for NT 4.0

Pixelan-SpiceMaster Lite with 50 Spices from Video Spice Rack Pro

Boris FX 4.0 Ltd.

Animation Master ‘2000 – True 3-D character Animation

Acid Style 2.0

Sound Forge XP 4.5

Cool 3-D 2.0

Software Bundle (w/HP x2000):

Adobe Premiere 6.0 (Full Version)

Ligos MPEG-2 Encoder Plug-In for Premiere

Spruce Technologies SpruceUp (DVD Authoring And Publishing)

Adobe GoLive 5.0 (Full Version) (Publishing To The Web)

Boris Factory (Professional Scene Transitions for Adobe Premiere 6.0)

Sonic Foundry Sound Forge (Professional Sound/Voice-Over Editing)

The ADS PYRO1394DV OHCI-based 1394 PCI Host controller

ADS PYRO ProDV (Platinum Bundle), Continued

Evaluation

I liked this system a lot primarily since it worked flawlessly straight out of the box with little or no setup hassles and it produced very nice captures under all circumstances.

I was a little concerned at the sparse installation documentation plus the fact that installing the software took only a few seconds. Granted, the HP people have done some pre-configuration for the x2000 but it still seemed almost too easy. But installing the system on the Micron was also a snap so I’d have to give ADS high marks in this area. After installing the board and software Win2K found everything with no problem. I launched Premiere, told it that I wanted to capture DV at the highest resolution possible, hit record and the Sony DSR-PD150 quietly switched into play. When I clicked on stop in Premiere the capture and camera stopped. When I clicked on rewind the camcorder dutifully began rewinding. It all worked like a charm.

I then tried to capture an extended sequence (well over 2MB, although the short PYRO manual does, however, point out that FAT32 has a 4GB limit – about 18 minutes of DV) and the PYRO/Premiere combination didn’t skip a beat. There were no dropped frames, no problems dealing with the portions of the tape where it lost sync, and no problems with the quality even in difficult sequences. The capture quality was nearly flawless.

The software bundle (I was using the HP Platinum version) was very strong in all areas and included professional (or at least prosumer) level packages. I would have to say, however, that the standard bundle’s software is more “second-tier”. I’m not saying the standard bundle has bad or simply consumer-level software, but the Platinum bundle is stronger in all areas. (I’m not sure why the street price of the Platinum bundle is lower than the standard bundle but even if it were $50 more I’d spring for the Platinum package.)

I also liked the fact that the system requirements were minimal, which means it should work on just about any current PC without having to buy new gear.

The main drawback to the PYRO Pro was the limited documentation. The Adobe software had reasonably good manuals but the other packages had little to none. The ADS documentation consisted of a single installation sheet from HP and a 25-page pamphlet from ADS mostly devoted to installing the board and software and some tips for capturing, yet lacked any board specifications or other more detailed information.

Apart from the documentation the ADS PYRO Pro package performed very well on all other fronts. Overall, I would rate this package at a strong 4 out of 5.

Ratings:

4.5 = Capture quality

4 = Software bundle

5 = Ease of installation

4 = Ability to deal with problems

5 = System requirements

2 = Documentation

Overall rating: 4 out of 5

Dazzle Digital Video Creator II

Dazzle Digital Video Creator II

Input(s): Analog (composite or S-video) only

Format(s): MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, RealVideo

Street price: $249.95 (list $299)

System Requirements:

Intel Pentium II/Intel Celeron/AMD K6-2 400MHz or higher

(Note: According to the Dazzle Web site, “AMD Athlon processors with certain chipset combinations will cause problems for the Dazzle Digital Video Creator II. On some Athlon based PCs, the DVC-II works as intended and on some the product will not function. AMD engineers are currently investigating the issue. At this time Dazzle cannot guarantee full compatibility with every PC containing an Athlon processor.”)

Windows 98, Windows 2000/ME

64MB minimum

800 x 600, DirectDraw compatible graphics card

Sound card

60MB-Dazzle Software / 200MB-Bundled MPEG video 25MB-All bundled software / 0.5-15MB per minute rec. video

In the box

Hardware:

Dazzle MPEG-2 PCI Card

External Audio/Video breakout box

1 – S-Video cable

2 – composite RCA cable

1 – Stereo RCA cable (audio)

1 – RCA to Mini-stereo cable (audio)

Software Bundle:

Dazzle MovieStar Software

Sonic Solutions DVDit! LE

Software DVD player

Sonic Desktop SmartSound

Sample MPEG Video Clips

RealPlayer 8

Microsoft Media Player

Microsoft IE

The Dazzle MPEG-2 PCI Card

Dazzle Digital Video Creator II, Continued

Evaluation

I have to admit before I tested the Dazzle DVC II I was prepared for a cheap, consumer-level board with limited resolutions, low frame rates, dropped frames and cheesy software. I was wrong on most counts.

No question that the Dazzle DVC II is targeted at the home enthusiast with cute pictures of vacation videos and kids on the box and their MovieStar software skin looks more like a pocket organizer than an NLE, but the board itself performed admirably when it came to capture quality.

Dazzle’s breakout box

Installation was quick and painless on both systems. The illustrated poster-sized installation sheet was easy to follow and everything went smoothly. When you first boot the software it asks a few questions such as selecting a capture mode (Video, Stills, or Audio) and capture options and does a quick little diagnostic of your system. I did have to give it an extra click or two before the test software detected the video source correctly but after that everything ran perfectly. There were no IRQ or hardware detection problems at all.

Dazzle’s MovieStar main control panel. Other panels pop-out to the sides and below.

While the MovieStar capture and editing software would make a professional cringe is was serviceable and did the simple tasks that it was capable of quite well. I can’t say much for the UI design since some of the basic features a hidden on slide out panels but the manual guides you through the processes efficiently.

Dazzle’s pop-out configuration panel.

My real surprise came when I asked it to capture an MPEG-2 clip at the highest resolution possible (720×480), 30 frames/second, at the highest bit rate 10Mb/s – essentially the highest setting for everything. I connected the Sony DSR-PD150 to the Dazzle breakout box via the S-video port, started up the tape and hit the capture button. The DVC II merrily captured away (in a very small window) until I told it to stop.

Dazzle Digital Video Creator II, Continued

DVDit!’s opening screen.

I first tried to view the clip using the bundled version of the Microsoft Media Player but it was having a bad day for some reason. So, I fired up the bundled Sonic Solution DVDit! LE software, threw together a quick DVD title with menu buttons linking the clip, and ran the emulator. When I pressed the play button I was amazed. There was my clip running full-screen, 30fps with no glitches or heavy artifacting at all. The image was beautiful.

Dazzle’s video adjustment pop-out panel.

I then went back and captured the full torture test clip and studied it in detail. Yes, in some spots there was MPEG-2 artifacting and the occasional macroblocks during really tough scenes, but overall I was still impressed with the quality. I did notice some over-saturation of colors in some scenes and that red-and-white striped fabric blossomed like a road flare for an instant but the settings page will let you adjust color, tint, saturation, contrast and brightness so I’m sure that with a little tweaking I could improve overall image quality.

Dazzle Digital Video Creator II, Continued

Dazzle’s included effects (note the consumer oriented themes such as vacations and birthdays).

Now the DVC II probably isn’t going to be finding it’s way into any commercial DVD-video production studios but $300 for a pretty decent MPEG-2 encoder is a lot easier to swallow than $3,000 or more.

Dazzle’s MovieStar timeline pop-out panel.

The only other problems that I encountered were when the tape lost picture and sync. That seemed to confuse the encoder a bit and it stopped recording.

Overall, I would give the Dazzle Digital Video Creator II high marks for what it is. Installation was a snap. The software bundle is the low point, geared more for the casual consumer who wants to capture birthday videos, but it does that fairly well. The Sonic package is good although the documentation is nonexistent and it takes some playing around with, but again, it wasn’t designed for professionals. Problem handling was fair. System requirements are minimal. But the bottom line is: the capture quality was very good. If you want to put videos on DVD, video CD, or do some light editing with few effects without having to buy a new PC, then the DVC II should do the trick. I’d give it a 3.5 or 4 out of 5 compared to the other systems I tested.

Ratings:

4 = Capture quality

2.5 = Software bundle

4 = Ease of installation

3 = Ability to deal with problems

5 = System requirements

4 = Documentation

Overall rating: 4 out of 5

Pinnacle DV500 Plus

Pinnacle DV500 Plus

Input(s): DV and analog (composite and S-video)

Formats: MPEG-2 (DVD compliant),MPEG-1, MP3,Real Media, Windows Media. Also DV, DV Cam, DVCPro, Digital8, S-VHS, Hi8, VHS, Video8.

List price $779

Ratings:

4.5 = Capture quality

4.5 = Software bundle

1 = Ease of installation

4 = Ability to deal with problems

2 = System requirements

4 = Documentation

Overall rating: 3 out of 5

System Requirements (Minimum):

Pentium II 450 MHz or faster compatible processor

1×32 bit PCI 2.1 slot

128 MB RAM (196 MB RAM for Windows 2000)

500 MB hard disk capacity

4 GB video hard disk (SCSI 2/UDMA-IDE)

16 bit display adapter with DirectDraw drivers

CD-ROM drive

Sound card

External video monitor

Windows 2000, NT, Me, 98SE and 98

System Requirements (Recommended):

Pentium III 550 MHz

1×32 bit PCI 2.1 slot

256 MB RAM

4 GB Hard disk capacity

18 GB SCSI video hard disk (SCSI ultra-2/UDMA-IDE)

24 bit display adapter with DirectDraw drivers

DVD-ROM drive

CD-ROM drive

Sound card

External video Monitor

Windows 2000, NT, Me, 98SE and 98

In the box

Hardware:

DV500 PLUS 32-bit busmastering PCI card

Breakout Box

IEEE 1394 DV cable (6 pin to 4 pin)

Software:

Adobe Premiere 6.0

Pinnacle Systems’ TitleDeko RT

Pinnacle Systems’ Impression CD-Pro

Pinnacle Systems’ DV Tools

Hollywood FX Copper

Hollywood Alpha Magic

Pinnacle Systems’ INSTANT Video

Adobe PhotoShop LE

SmartSound Quicktracks

DV500 PLUS 32-bit busmastering PCI card

Evaluation

The DV500 Plus is a tough one to evaluate. When it works it works great, when it doesn’t it’s a disaster. The Pinnacle DV500 Plus is a board, breakout box, and software bundle that begins to approach serious prosumer-level capture, editing, and effects. While the descriptions on the box and their print materials make a big deal of the real-time native DV video editing with 3D effects, not all of the effects are realtime.

Pinnacle’s main capture settings preferences window.

The bad news first. There is no way to gloss over this – the Pinnacle DV500 Plus is a bitch to install. While the required system specs seem reasonable enough on the surface it turns out that the board is very, very picky about what motherboard you have, what chipset the motherboard has, what features in the bios are enabled or disabled, the PCI bus performance, which IRQ it gets (9,10, or 11), what slot it’s in (one or two away from the AGP slot), what graphics card you have, what software you may or may not have had installed on your system before you start the installation, what drive you install Premier on, what order you install things in, and on and on. (Check http://www.pinnaclesys.com/support/faq/ for a rather lengthy list of possible problems and solutions.)

Pinnacle System’s DVExpert diagnostics utility useful for testing system performance.

Even with an insider direct line to head of tech support (that most consumers won’t have access to) I couldn’t get the system working at all on the HP and barely working on the Micron. I tried everything in the manual, everything their tech suggested and everything I could think of short of wiping the hard drives and reinstalling the OS. I tried cleaning the system the best I could, disabling as many things as I could, and moving the board from slot to slot but even after dozens of re-boots, manual driver installs, and a few blue-screen’s-of-death I still couldn’t get it to work properly.

Evaluation, Continued

Now I ain’t stupid when it comes to installing hardware and software – I’ve been doing this sort of thing for years – but if I have trouble with something then the odds are pretty good that most other people out there are going to have worse problems. When I investigated this a bit further I uncovered a snake-pit of installation problems not unique to me.

A friend of mine – a DV expert and professional video producer (who has also been doing this sort of thing for years) ran into similar installation headaches and never got the board running properly on his PC either. Finally Pinnacle had to send him a complete system with the board and software pre-installed by the company. Only by comparing notes – what I could get working for my tests and what he experienced with a completely functioning system – could I give the Pinnacle DV500 Plus any kind of fair evaluation.

To be fair, I’ve heard that other people had no problems whatsoever and that the DV500 Plus works flawlessly on a wide range of systems and configurations. Hey, if no one could get them to work, they probably would have pulled them off the market long ago.

Hollywood FX Copper transitions main screen.

On to the good news. The software bundle is impressive and the capture quality near perfect. The Pinnacle DV500 Plus is about as tightly integrated with Premier 6 as you can get, putting the system squarely in the realm of a near-professional system. Along with the full version of Premiere 6, you also get Hollywood FX Copper and Alpha Magic, Cleaner EZ, DVTools, TitleDeko RT, Smart Sound Quicktracks, and a Total Training Introduction to Premiere 6. The Alpha Magic package offers hundreds more effects than the old Spice Rack bundled software and Hollywood FX Copper is a fine collection of transitions that mix 3D objects with transitions. TitleDeko RT is easy to use, flexible, powerful and comes with lots of canned text styles and it works in real time.

Hollywood FX Copper transitions options screen.

But that lead to one of the weakness in the DV500 Plus. If you want to do real time 3D effects, it’s not going to happen with the DV500. If you’re going back to DV tape you’ll have to wait while the system renders any effects that are in your timeline. But only the effects need to render, and on my friend’s lowly Pentium II 550 machine, the rendering took about 4 seconds for every second of effects. If you’re going to analog tape directly from the timeline, however, you’re in luck.

Evaluation, Continued

Pinnacle’s “Image correction” panel.

Some other features do work in real time, such as the ability to do limited color correction (what Pinnacle calls “image correction”). The advantage of this would be, for example, if you had a twenty minute shot that was too dark. In real time, you’re able to bring that brightness level up to the normal range, without out rendering.

Pinnacle System’s miroVIDEO DVTools main screen.

As far as dealing with problems, I couldn’t use precisely the same stress test tape but according to my friend, who tried to emulate the those problems from afar, the DV500 Plus performed well. The manual is detailed and thorough in most cases but was a little too sketchy in other spots.

Bottom line. If you can get the Pinnacle DV500 Plus working it’s great. The software bundle is impressive and well integrated. Capture quality is top notch, it handles problems well, and the manuals are good. However, the installation nightmares and pickiness about system requirements drag the overall score down. Other Pinnacle products that I’ve tested worked great and didn’t have these problems so it’s likely this is a one-time, one-product situation. If you want to invest in a DV500 Plus I would go so far as to recommend buying a complete, pre-installed system from a VAR or dealer who knows their way around a video capture system. Then again, you might get lucky and have the system up and running perfectly in no time. Overall I would have to give it two scores; if it works then it gets a strong 4 or even 4.5 our of 5, if not then it gets a zero.

Ratings:

4.5 = Capture quality

4.5 = Software bundle

1 = Ease of installation

4 = Ability to deal with problems

2 = System requirements

4 = Documentation

Overall rating: 3 out of 5

Matrox RT2500

Matrox RT2500

Input(s): DV (DV, DVCAM, DVCPRO) and analog (composite and S-video)

Formats: MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (DVD compliant), RealVideo, Windows Media, QuickTime.

List price: $999 (street $899)

System Requirements (Minimum):

Microsoft Windows 2000 (Service Pack 1 is recommended) or Windows Me (Millennium Edition) operating system.

Intel Pentium II CPU, 350 MHz or AMD Athlon CPU.

256 MB RAM.

Display card w/16MB (Matrox Millennium G450 or Matrox Millennium Flex3D recommended).

500 MB of free space for software installation on system drive.

Separate hard drive for A/V content.

16-bit soundcard.

CD-ROM drive for software installation.

System Requirements (Recommended):

Pentium III or AMD Athlon CPU, 750 MHz or faster.

DV video camera (to use 1394 connections).

NTSC or PAL video monitor.

Notes: According to the Matrox Web site, “There are some performance issues (such as dropped frames) when using RT2500 with motherboards that have an Intel 850 chipset. Unfortunately, this chipset is used on most Pentium IV motherboards. Matrox is communicating with Intel about this problem, and we hope to offer a solution very soon. Until that time, we do not recommend using Pentium IV motherboards with RT2500.” And, “Under Windows Me only, the RT2500 is experiencing compatibility problems with display cards that use an ATI or nVidea graphics processor. Matrox is presently working with both these manufacturers to help resolve this issue. In the meantime, we recommend that you use a Matrox G400 or G450 display card with RT2500 and Windows Me. This issue does not occur under Windows 2000.”

They also report on their site that neither the IWill KV200 motherboard with AMD socket A and VIA KT 133a chipset or the Aopen AK73Pro motherboard with AMD socket A and VIA KT 133 chipset are compatible.

Finally, according to the Matrox Web site, “To be compatible with the dual stream operation of the RT2500, a storage device you use has to sustain at least 12 MB/sec data transfer rate,” and, “all hard disks manufactured within the last year should be acceptable, as long as they have a rotational speed of at least 5400 RPM.” However, they also note, “our tests have shown that 1394 hard drives are not capable of sustaining the data transfer rates that are needed for video editing with RT2500.”

In the box

Hardware:

RT2500 PCI board

VIP (video input port) ribbon cable (for connecting to graphics board)

Breakout box

Breakout box cable

IEEE 1394 DV cable (6 pin to 4 pin)

Software:

Adobe Premiere for realtime nonlinear editing

Adobe Photoshop LE

Sonic Foundry ACID Music

Pixйlan Video SpiceRack Lite

Inscriber TitleExpres

Sonic Solutions DVDit! LE

Matrox DVD Player

Ligos LSX-MPEG LE

Matrox RT2500 PCI board

Evaluation

Okay, I cheated on the installation since Matrox sent me the Micron system that had the RT2500 already up and running – plus the fact that we had already done a standalone review of the product. The installation procedures for a full installation are complicated. However, the manual does go into great detail about all the steps in the installation process so if you follow the instructions carefully you shouldn’t have any problems.

Matrox RT2500 breakout box.

Of all the capture systems I tested the Matrox RT2500 seemed to have some very specific system configuration standards and requirements (such as the graphics card and memory) but they didn’t seem unreasonable for what you’re getting.

Matrox file conversion utility.

Evaluation, Continued

Since we have covered the digital video editing capabilities of the RT2500, I wanted to really focus on the capture quality. Capture quality was excellent in all situations and the RT2500 handled my torture-test tape with only one glitch. For some reason (perhaps a loose cable) during one of my capture sessions I noticed a single horizontal line near the bottom of the screen as if the pixels had been shifted one position to the right. I only noticed this once and could not pin down or reproduce the error. Other than that the RT2500 worked flawlessly. It never dropped a frame even at maximum settings. The images were crystal clear, never over or under saturated and the real-time editing and effects were smooth.

While the system is the most expensive of those I tested the software bundle is top notch and integration with Premier 6 is very tight. In all cases the RT2500 performed like a professional. This is why we gave the RT2500’s editing suite a full run through separately. It’s an education in video editing.

Matrox DVD player utility.

Comparing to the other products I evaluated, I would have to say that the Matrox RT2500 is about the closest thing to a professional level capture, edit, and effects package you’re going to get for under $1,000. The tools, manuals, and performance are all top notch with very tight integration with Premiere. Captured image quality was excellent. Everything about the RT2500 seemed professional and well thought out. I have no qualms about recommending this system. I give it a very strong 4 (or even 4.5) out of 5. So, now you have a second opinion.

Ratings:

4.5 = Capture quality

4.5 = Software bundle

3.5 = Ease of installation

4 = Ability to deal with problems

3.5 = System requirements

4 = Documentation

Overall rating: 4 out of 5

Last Words

I realize that these reviews are just snapshots and barely scratch the surface. There are dozens of capture solutions out there – some good and some only fair – but these days you should be able to get satisfactory results with the majority of systems. I also realize that there will be people who disagree with my conclusions – either they got great results with these or some other systems or their experiences were a disaster. In all cases, however, you should be prepared to invest a fair amount of time learning and fine-tuning your capture system if you want to get good results.

Capturing and manipulating video in a computer is still a relatively new concept when you consider that television has been around over half a century. It’s only been in the last 10 years or so that professional broadcasters began to seriously look at TV/computer solutions as anything more than toys. Capture system manufacturers have made incredible strides forward in capabilities, quality, and cost. There is still a lot of room for improvement but we no longer have to settle for postage-stamp sized, grainy video running at 6 frames per second.

There is a lot more to this subject that I just didn’t have the time or space to explore. We’ll get the chance to delve into those other topics and take a look at more products in future articles.

If you liked these two articles let me (and the good folks at Tom’s hardware) know. If you have further questions, topics or products you’d like me to investigate drop me an e-mail at: guywright@home.com. I try to answer all questions but sometimes I just get swamped or frankly just don’t know the answers. Anyway, I hope these articles have helped and might have inspired the next undiscovered Spielberg, Hitchcock, or Cameron.

Summary Chart

About the Author

Guy Wright has worked as a video engineer, video editor, and producer/director for cable and experimental television stations. He is a published science fiction author and author of books on computers and video. He has been Technical Editor, Technical Manager, and Editor-in-Chief for a number of high-tech magazines since 1983 including Run Magazine, Amiga World Magazine, OS/2 Magazine, InterActivity Magazine, and Multimedia Week. He has published over 500 articles in more than two dozen high-tech and video magazines.