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$105 (USD) mini-DV capture/NLE package
While waiting these past four months for Matrox to release the RT2000, and continuing to work with my Mystique220/RR-S, I’ve had occasion to consider picking up a cheap 1394 card to capture DV off my new Sony TRV900. I mean, I’ve had this mini-DV camcorder for almost three weeks, and no way to capture the stuff I’ve shot in DV… just analog MJPEG so far.
At a show this weekend, I spotted a $105 (USD) 1394 card made by SIIG. This is the model NN-400P12, and is called 1394 DV-CAM KIT. It comes with a three port 1394 PCI card, a cable to plug into a camcorder 4 pin I-Link type port, and a CD-ROM with drivers and a copy of ULEAD VIDEOSTUDIO SE 3.0
So, I picked one up and rushed home to install it into the computer.
No problems. It installed easily, and appears to live with my Mystique220/RR-S without any problems.
I was surprised to find that Windows98 SE already has the driver I needed for this card. I was also surprised to see that all I had to do was plug in the camcorder to the port and turn it on for Win98 SE to automatically install the camcorder as a device on the system. This was a hot plug in. When the camcorder’s not there, the device uninstalls. When the camcorder shows up, the device installs. WAY too cool for me to handle immediately!
I’d have to say that anyone who hasn’t gone to mini-DV because of budget restrictions can go with this card and be able to capture, edit, and output DV back to the camcorder, along with any other on-line codec for distribution on the net.
I’m actually quite impressed with this package, because of the price. You can also get this card without VIDEOSTUDIO for around $80 (USD), but for the twenty extra bucks it seems pointless not to get the software, too.
Other people have reviewed VIDEOSTUDIO, so I won’t offer more than a few words about it. After having used the full versions of MediaStudio Pro for about two years, I first found this software to be a little perplexing. But, like any new software that I might want to do a LOT with, it took a few hours of usage to get the hang of it. (I was reminded of the PLAY’s software interface for the SNAPPY, when I ran it the first time.) The UI has a pretty 3D, rounded edge look that seems to say, “I’m for NEWBIES!!!” And that it is. Anyone getting into NLE with a mini-DV camcorder for the first time will find this affordable package to be the most painless path to producing video projects that will actually look good.
I captured a lot of stuff that I’ve shot over the past three weeks, and found it to be effortless. I also checked to see if I could capture a single file over 2GIG, and ended up with a file that was 3,646,920 bytes! It played back just fine! Gosh! The other pleasant surprise for capturing was that I can actually run the camcorder from buttons in the VIDEOSTUDIO program. I mean, this is just SO nice!
As far as how the codec will run on any other software you might have, I tried to do some captures using AVI_IO. It saw the codec, and it saw the interface, but it choked and locked up the computer when I tried to use it. MSP, of course, isn’t ready for prime time on DV, so it doesn’t recognize the files captured by the VIDEOSTUDIO interface. The MSP VIDCAP program also sees the new codec and interface, but like AVI_IO, it choked and puked when I tried to actually do anything with it.
VIDEOSTUDIO, on the other hand, recognizes all the stuff that I can produce on MSP, so I can import anything that has come out of that. I succeeded in rendering one clip from DV to Matrox MJPEG in VIDEOSTUDIO, and it played out fine to the TV OUT on my RR. The only problem there is that the DV captures are 720x480, so the sides got cropped. The second time I tried this, I got an error message saying that the codec wouldn’t support 704x480. Hmmmm. Well, it isn’t anything that I’m going to use anytime soon, so I’m not really worried about it.
Sometime early next year, MSP 6.0 is supposed to ship, so this little $100 package would be a really viable route for anyone who currently owns and runs the RR-S and wants to start moving into mini-DV. Others have apparently put the ADAPTEC 8940 or 8945 into systems with RR-G’s or Marvel’s, so I’m assuming that this card will be just as unobtrusive on systems with those setups, too. The thing is, after all, just a 1394 port and a codec.
Check out the card at: http://www.siig.com/1394/1394.html
I fished around and found this vendor on the net for the same price I paid: http://www.insight.com/cgi-bin/bp/13...p&d=SII1014793
At a show this weekend, I spotted a $105 (USD) 1394 card made by SIIG. This is the model NN-400P12, and is called 1394 DV-CAM KIT. It comes with a three port 1394 PCI card, a cable to plug into a camcorder 4 pin I-Link type port, and a CD-ROM with drivers and a copy of ULEAD VIDEOSTUDIO SE 3.0
So, I picked one up and rushed home to install it into the computer.
No problems. It installed easily, and appears to live with my Mystique220/RR-S without any problems.
I was surprised to find that Windows98 SE already has the driver I needed for this card. I was also surprised to see that all I had to do was plug in the camcorder to the port and turn it on for Win98 SE to automatically install the camcorder as a device on the system. This was a hot plug in. When the camcorder’s not there, the device uninstalls. When the camcorder shows up, the device installs. WAY too cool for me to handle immediately!
I’d have to say that anyone who hasn’t gone to mini-DV because of budget restrictions can go with this card and be able to capture, edit, and output DV back to the camcorder, along with any other on-line codec for distribution on the net.
I’m actually quite impressed with this package, because of the price. You can also get this card without VIDEOSTUDIO for around $80 (USD), but for the twenty extra bucks it seems pointless not to get the software, too.
Other people have reviewed VIDEOSTUDIO, so I won’t offer more than a few words about it. After having used the full versions of MediaStudio Pro for about two years, I first found this software to be a little perplexing. But, like any new software that I might want to do a LOT with, it took a few hours of usage to get the hang of it. (I was reminded of the PLAY’s software interface for the SNAPPY, when I ran it the first time.) The UI has a pretty 3D, rounded edge look that seems to say, “I’m for NEWBIES!!!” And that it is. Anyone getting into NLE with a mini-DV camcorder for the first time will find this affordable package to be the most painless path to producing video projects that will actually look good.
I captured a lot of stuff that I’ve shot over the past three weeks, and found it to be effortless. I also checked to see if I could capture a single file over 2GIG, and ended up with a file that was 3,646,920 bytes! It played back just fine! Gosh! The other pleasant surprise for capturing was that I can actually run the camcorder from buttons in the VIDEOSTUDIO program. I mean, this is just SO nice!
As far as how the codec will run on any other software you might have, I tried to do some captures using AVI_IO. It saw the codec, and it saw the interface, but it choked and locked up the computer when I tried to use it. MSP, of course, isn’t ready for prime time on DV, so it doesn’t recognize the files captured by the VIDEOSTUDIO interface. The MSP VIDCAP program also sees the new codec and interface, but like AVI_IO, it choked and puked when I tried to actually do anything with it.
VIDEOSTUDIO, on the other hand, recognizes all the stuff that I can produce on MSP, so I can import anything that has come out of that. I succeeded in rendering one clip from DV to Matrox MJPEG in VIDEOSTUDIO, and it played out fine to the TV OUT on my RR. The only problem there is that the DV captures are 720x480, so the sides got cropped. The second time I tried this, I got an error message saying that the codec wouldn’t support 704x480. Hmmmm. Well, it isn’t anything that I’m going to use anytime soon, so I’m not really worried about it.
Sometime early next year, MSP 6.0 is supposed to ship, so this little $100 package would be a really viable route for anyone who currently owns and runs the RR-S and wants to start moving into mini-DV. Others have apparently put the ADAPTEC 8940 or 8945 into systems with RR-G’s or Marvel’s, so I’m assuming that this card will be just as unobtrusive on systems with those setups, too. The thing is, after all, just a 1394 port and a codec.
Check out the card at: http://www.siig.com/1394/1394.html
I fished around and found this vendor on the net for the same price I paid: http://www.insight.com/cgi-bin/bp/13...p&d=SII1014793
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