Re: video capture question

["Timothy S. Sullivan" <sullivan@KENYON.EDU>]

If you are talking about full frame rate (30fps) and full size (640x480)
images, then USB doesn't have the bandwidth to support streaming to
disk. The alternatives are to have a PC bus card to digitize analog
video (some graphics cards are starting to appear with this capability)
or you will want a computer with DV (digital video) a.k.a. Firewire
a.k.a. IEEE-1394 inputs. The new DV Macs have such support, Sony and
Compaq also offer models with these inputs, or you can buy a PC card to
add such support (e.g. the miroVideo DV200 at about $300 including Adobe
Premiere.)

Standards are very shaky in this area (at least on the PC side.) Make
sure that you make your supplier demonstrate that all parts work
together as advertised before paying the bill. I suggest that you want
to specify 7200 RPM hard drives to ease a potential bottleneck.

We tested a Canon Optura ($950) as a video source. It has DV output and
is one of the only consumer priced cameras with manual shutter speed
control (largely because it tries to be both a camcorder and a digital
still camera in one package.) It is a nice unit, but too many controls
for intro lab and the annoying feature of shutting off every few
minutes. So we use analog, BW, security cameras that can also operate at
lower light levels than the Optura. To convert the analog video to DV we
use the Sony DVMC media converter box ($300) that converts back and
forth from analog to DV.

Tim Sullivan
sullivan@kenyon.edu

Mark Sylvester wrote:
> I have to replace a video camera and video capture card in our lab. I'd
> appreciate insight into what the current best buy is in this area. In
> particular, is there any advantage in having a digital video camera - can
> one video files directly via a usb port with such a device?
>
> Mark
>
> Mark Sylvester
> United World College of the Adriatic
> Duino TS Italy
> +39 040 3739 255