New capture card!

[Peter B]

Well I finally replaced my old Marvel G200, though I have mostly been passing thorugh a Sony DV camera anyway so the Marvel hasn't been used much lately.

Still if anyone wants a capture facility I can recommend the new Pixelview PlayTV HD http://www.prolink.com.tw/new_web/pr...V%20HD_new.htm

The picture quality is awsome (new 10 bit DAC chip) and with third party software (The FlyDS) I can capture 768x576 PAL although the card only states 720x576, works with Win2000/XP, Mpeg2 realtime encoding with Powerdirector (though I haven't got that working yet). There is still some more experimenting to do, but it defintely surpasses anything the Marvel could achieve and only cost around $US60. Plus it comes with a remote control, FM radio, TV tuner etc, note it has no output (which I didn't need) but as a capture card it is excellent.

I have to say I am stunned by the picture quality (must be the 10 bit DAC), better than anything I ever expected from a TV, composite or S-VHS signal.

My first capture was from an old JVC DV camera with only S-Video out, 720x576, YUV2 (NO compression!) to a 7200 ATA100 Segate 40GB on a RAID 133 (No stripe, the only drive so far, planning ahead ...), PCM audio 48hz stereo, 35GB file in 27 minutes, some dropped frames in the first initialisation second and then not a single drop until the end. And the picture is magnificent!! (PC - 1.5G P4, Asus P4B MB, 764 RAM, RAID card, SB Live, SCSI card, USB2 card, Firewire card, NVidia 440mx AGB, DRU500 DVD, HP 9200 [SCSI], Segate 40GB x 2 - 60GB x 1, only one PCI slot free though that slot has addtional USB outputs in it - pretty crowded!)

PaulW if you want to upgrade from your RR this could be a good option at the right price!

[paulw]

Hi Peter.

Funny you should post this. I am going to upgrade my PC in the next month or two and am looking at something to replace the ye olde RRS..

How much in NZ$?? and where from??

Looks intersting

[Peter B]

I bought it at Compulink

http://www.activecatalog.co.nz/prod/compulink/Products.aspx?catid=24&page=1

They are not usually the cheapest, but competitive, though I buy most of my PC equipment there because they usually trouble shoot any issues for free.

[Ray Austin]

Re: New capture card!

Originally posted by Peter B
I have to say I am stunned by the picture quality (must be the 10 bit DAC), better than anything I ever expected from a TV, composite or S-VHS signal.

My first capture was from an old JVC DV camera with only S-Video out, 720x576, YUV2 (NO compression!) to a 7200 ATA100 Segate 40GB on a RAID 133 (No stripe, the only drive so far, planning ahead ...), PCM audio 48hz stereo, 35GB file in 27 minutes, some dropped frames in the first initialisation second and then not a single drop until the end. And the picture is magnificent!!

Well it should be eggsellant, at close to 20MB/s. I can just imagine my poor harddrives getting thrashed.

Sounds like a good cheap way to get into HDTV with a free radio to boot? The radio, it does work right? Sorry have to ask, $60 is pretty cheap!

[Peter B]

Yes the radio works, everything seems to work fine, I have yet to install Powerdirector there is some sort of problem, but I am confident I will get it all working as the hardest parts are working OK.

Yes it is cheap, I didn't expect this level of performance, I orginally bought as a TV card for my son's PC rather than add in a TV to his room and just tested it in my PC until I have finished building his from old parts as I upgrade. But I will have to get him another one I think!

[paulw]

Thanx Peter.

NZ$95 +GST is not too bad price. Pitty their web site is not Opera fiendly..

[PaulM]

Peter,

Can you tell if the TV tuner supports PAL-I? Since I can't find any mention of this card in the UK I'm not feeling optimistic...

Cheers,
Paul

[Peter B]

You pessimist!

Yes options include:

NTSC
PAL B, D, G, H, I, M, N
SECAM, B, D, G, H, K, K1, L, L1

Colour spaces are:

RGB 555 (16 bit)
RGB 24
YUV2
YUV9
I420

Frame rates up to 30fps

Audio:
Mono
Stereo
SAP
SAP2

Inputs:
Cable/Antenna
Composite
S-SVHS
FM antenna (supplied)
Audio mini jack (no RCA need an adpater, not supplied)

Also has an infrared sensor for the remote and an audio cable from the PCI card that plugs into your audio card/MB

Hope this helps, covers more options than I was aware off.

[PaulM]

Well I'll go to the foot of our stairs!!! A truly global-thinking company. Excellent. Of course I still can't find any UK distributor but then what else is the Internet for?

Thanks again

[Ray Austin]

I posted this on another site and I have been getting feed back that this does not do HD-TV. What is your opinion on this?

I looked up HDTV facts here.

http://www.hdtvinfoport.com/high-definition-television.html

Because of the 720x480 and that they state NTSC it is a wonder if this really is HD-TV?

What do you guys think?


Because it's very cheap, leads me to believe it as well.

According to the HD-TV facts there are 2 competing formats one is 720p and 1080-i, but I am lead to believe that the 720p is 60 frames a sec and not 30.


Are we being duped???





Or are we being duped???

[Peter B]

Well we don't have HD televison here yet or in the near future!!. But it does not promote it's self as a HD capture card only HD ready, perhaps they mean it can cope with the signal and downsize the resolution?

It seems to all rest with the Conexant chip as this has all the TV and FM properties built in. I suggest you do some reseach on that chip.

One thing I will note is that currently third party software is capable of capturing 768x576 which is a larger frame size than than that stated by the card manufacturer? The third party s/w highest option is 768x576, if it could be set to larger who knows...

I believe this is the very first card based on this new chip to hit the market, it will probabaly be a while before we really know what it's capabilities and limitations are going to be.

Still at this price, what it can currently achieve out of the box is good value for money, if that is what you want to do.

[SpiralDragon]

actualy there are more HD standards than that... there even is a 1080p standard a 24p..... well the point is there are many standards... and a normal PC (even with idea raid) cant handel uncompressed HD bandwidth wich comes around 125MB/s i think... downconversion is needed to play it at lower BWs.... but what makes HD intresting (other than rez) is the ability to do 24fps Progresive.... that is the cinema standared..... and HD is a global standard.. no more pal/ntsc color issues... no more timecode diferences... (although there are standards for 29.97 interlaced compatebility with ntsc....)

[Ray Austin]

Originally posted by Peter B
But it does not promote it's self as a HD capture card only HD ready, perhaps they mean it can cope with the signal and downsize the resolution?

I refer you to this.....

http://www.prolink.com.tw/new_web/products/multimedia/PlayTV%20HD_new.htm

The very first line says:

"Pixel view PlayTV HD will turn your PC into a High Definition TV and data broadcast reception"

[Peter B]

"Pixel view PlayTV HD will turn your PC into a High Definition TV and data broadcast reception"

Isn't that sort of what I mean? It doesn't mention HD capture only reception, so possibly that means less than full resolution?

Actually I have not purchased the product with any HD capabilities in mind, however, the comments about HD resolution do pose a valid question.

I don't know the answers, but I can say it can already capture at higher resoltuions than those they state it is capable of.

Maybe it can recieve and display higher resolutions and the supplied software cannot capture higher than 720x576. I have no higher signals than 768x576 so cannot test it.

here is some brief information from Conexant http://www.conexant.com/products/prodparts.jsp?id=720

[Peter B]

Well I just had a closer look at the Conexant site and the "Product Brief" on the left mentions ATSC HD TV decoding with 480P/720P/1080i and 5.1DD from HDTV or DVD sources capable with this chip, the technically minded should have a look at these specs...