Two new Hi-resolution, SVHS video capture cards for under $1000!
The following article is my submission to Camcorder Magazine for the December issue.This article will be edited by the magazine. I am making it available on the internet, almost two months before it is printed. I hope this doesn't create any problems for Camcorder Magazine. I have been swamped with Email and phone calls requesting more info on these two new cards. I hope this article helps.
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They're here!
Fast & Quadrant unleash the power of Desk Top Video.
For about a year now, I have been playing with Desk Top Video Editing products. For the past six months I was using the Fast Movie Line Movie Machine Pro with Motion JPEG bundle. While this system was very powerful, it was missing two important features - Hi resolution SVHS video input & output, and an easy installation program. WOW, how things change in six months! This month, I have had the pleasure of working with two brand new video capture cards. The latest product from Fast Electronic, the FPS60 and the Q-Motion 150 from the new kid on the block, Quadrant International. Both cards are excellent, and while they do the same thing, they do have some subtle differences. I will begin this article with an overview of what both cards do, followed by a more detailed desription of each one. At the end of this article I will give you some general pointers on working with digitel video.
What they can do
Both cards allow you to capture either SVHS or standard video from your camcorder directly to your harddrive and then output it to tape. Many capture cards come with video input only, I do not consider these cards to be an acceptable solution for camcorder and video editing. These cards are best for people doing multimedia presentations or CD ROM authoring. For video editing, make sure you get a card with video output. If you have to buy a second device to get the captured video out of your computer, your quality will suffer. Each offers two video inputs and two video outputs.Both systems capture video at full speed, 60 fields per second. This is very important for smooth, jitter free video. You can choose to capture 1 to 30 frames per second. Both systems support NTSC (the US video standard) and PAL (the European video standard). The NTSC standard is 30 frames and 60 fields, the PAL standard is 25 frames and 50 fields.
Adobe Premiere
Each card comes bundled with Adobe Premiere 4.0 le. Premiere is the standard by which all other non linear editing software is compared. The CD ROM that comes from Adobe also includes Photoshop le and other Adobe software. The software registration includes an offer to upgrade to the full versions of Premiere and Photoshop. With Premiere you can do all the wonderful digital effects, transitions, titling and non linear editing you've dreamed about. You can access any frame of video instantly and place them in any order, anywhere in the tape. You can edit the audio, and even add sound effects and audio mixing with a high end sound card. With non linear editing, you don't have to worry about erase heads or control cables. Editing the video is like rearranging sentences or paragraphs in your favorite word processing program, you just point and click. Premiere has a graphical time line interface that lets you see your video in a kind of digital storyboard. It takes a little getting used to, but once it is mastered, the world of nonlinear editing is at your fingertips. When combined with Photoshop, the only limit is your imagination and the size of your harddrive.
Hardware requirements
This is probably the most misunderstood element of non linear editing. I will start by describing the system I used to test both boards ( and to write this article). I have a Zeos Pentara Pentium 90 with 16 megs of RAM and a 1 gig harddrive. I had no problems with either board. I consider this system to be the ideal for getting started and producing digital video. The most important hardware decision is RAM. A 486DX2 will work great if you have 16 or more megs, a pentium with only 8 megs will be a poor performer. I recommend 16 megs or RAM or more. The harddrive question is more tricky. At lower resolutions, both cards can capture1 minute of good- looking video in approximately 12 megs of disc space. Hi resolution SVHS video takes 4 times the space! This means a 30 minute video would require about 500 megs for a low resolution setting, or a wopping 2 gigs for hi res. Both cards let you select what resolutions you want to work with, before you capture the video. If you are a home video enthusiast, a 1 gig harddrive should suffice, for professionals, you will need to buy a couple of A/V harddrives. These drives are a little more expensive per meg, but they are optimized for the job of storing and capturing digital video. Always get the biggest and fastest harddrive you can squeeze into your budget. Trust me, you will use it.
Set up
Unlike earlier video capture cards, these two are a snap to install and set up. Each is a single board solution, so any available ISA slot will do. ISA slots are the standard 16 bit slots found in all 386/486/Pentium computers. Your computer may have PCI or Vesa local slots as well, but you won't use them for these boards. Both Quadrant and Fast have told me they have PCI boards planned for early 1996. PCI boards will represent the next jump in affordable video capture technology.After you install the hardware, the software set up is a breeze. Each board came with a single set up disk. During set up you are asked the usual questions about drives and directories. When installation is complete, you have to configure the drivers. This was also very easy, I had several different configuration choices, all accessible from the software. I had no jumpers or internal cabling to worry about. I clicked a couple of icons, and started playing with the various video capture settings. Within 30 minutes I was looking at digital video from my harddrive!
Q Motion 150
The Q-Motion card is capable of 640x480 resolution, 30 frames and 60 fields per second. This is considered full frame, full speed video capture. The images I got from the Q-Motion were spectacular. I was able to capture a moving object, with little or no artifacts or jitters. Artifacts and jitters, are the biggest problem with digital video. As a viewer, you can tell that something is not perfect about the video. It sometimes results in a video that looks like it was shot in slo- motion and then played back at double speed. It's hard to describe, but you know it when you see it, and with the Q-Motion, I barely saw it. The Q-Motion comes with something they call a custom media bus. This allows you to optimize the card's performance to match your system hardware. The settings can be adjusted for compression ratio (from 6:1 up to 100:1), field size, Kbytes per second and bits/pixel. I found this to be the most confusing part about the Q-Motion. It took me a couple of nights to figure out the ideal settings for my system. The Q-Motion also lets you select from 4 different video capture sizes with the click of a mouse. You can choose 640x480 full screen, 320x480 half screen, 640x240 half screen or 320x240 quarter screen. This is one of the highlights to the Q-Motion board. With harddrive space at a premium, I like being able to capture some scenes at lower resolutions to save space.If you must have 640x480 video capture, then the Q-Motion is the perfect card for you, but be warned, you will need a lightning fast A/V harddrive to get optimal results. On my system, I would drop one or two frames per second at the highest resolution settings. Sometimes this left me with unacceptable jerkiness, so I would have to try to capture the footage over. Usually if I was persistent, I could get an excellent capture on two or three tries. The Q-Motion won't display full speed video on your VGA monitor without a Quadrant VGA card. You will have to use a TV monitor on the video output of the board to see your video during capture, preview, editing and playback.
FPS60
The most incredible thing about the FPS60 is its ease of use. The board can automatically set itself up to optimize its performance. You just click on the BEST QUALITY button and the card does some sample captures, then gives you its recommended settings, if you click OK, you are set. If you want to use your own setttings, you can have the card optimize itself for FRAME RATE, to avoid dropping frames. The FPS60 displays video in a window on my VGA monitor and TV monitor simultaneously. This is an important feature if you have limited space, or no TV in the computer room. The FPS60 captures at 640x240, 30 frames and 60 fields. I found the picture quality to be excellent, and I dropped less then 1% of my frames, so every capture is great, whatever the length. This is very important to me, because A/V harddrives are not in my future. On my system, I feel the FPS60 worked a little better.The FPS60 is by far the easiest desk top video card I have ever used. Combined with the great picture quality, I feel it is the best choice for users who want to get into digital video, while using their home PC. Fast has once again established themselves as the world leaders in affordable digital video editing. The ability to bring technology and expertise from their high end commercial products to consumers is amazing. Sony and Panasonic had better take note, or there positions of dominance in consumer video will eventually fade away.
Non linear editing tips
Here a few little tips you will find helpful after you get started in non linear editing.- Rather then capture one huge 15 minute video tape, I try to break it down into several 30 second or 1 minute clips. I store each of these as an individual avi file. With a little creative naming, you can create a rough edit decision list, and a good log for future use.
- Set up separate partitions on your harddrive for captured video. Put only captured video on this partition, no programs or anything else. This will limit disk fragmentation and help you maintain top notch picture quality. In addition, before each project, clean out and defrag the partition.
- Lighting, Lighting, Lighting. The better the lighting of your original footage, the better the digital video will look. Always use a fill light indoors, and for important shoots, take the time to purchase, and learn how to use, a complete lighting system. Lighting is what separates amateur video from professional. If you learn how to master the intricacies of it, your videos will look professional, and your digital effects will be even more incredible.
Please Email your comments or suggestions to: videoguy@videoguys.com