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**This_Idiot** · 3 March 2001, 15:09

Well welcome to the forum

The natural response over here would be to point you towards either a G-series Rainbow Runner or G400-Marvel.

Personally I happen to like the DC30+. It's not the easiest card to set up, but probably the best analogue capture I've seen. On the other hand, FD's YUY hack has given a whole new lease of life to the G400 Marvel, with the ability to capture using a variety of soft codecs and retaining quality through until final rendering.

Of course we're all waiting to see what G450-eTV can do, but there still isn't any news on release dates

Cheers

Chris
(T_I)

**zeb7** · 3 March 2001, 17:58

The matrox G450e-tv is a software mpeg2 encoder from ligos, the same mpeg2 encoding engine is
built into Media Studio.pro's capture program . I had a demo CD of this and i could
not get a smooth capture at 352x288 on a 900mhz AMD Duron ! matrox say any 900mhz
PC should be able to do 720x480 / 600mhz for 352x288
This may be a intel optimized version of ligos encoder
and ligos may have worked out the bugs for Matrox G450

I think you have these choice's:
1 Download a demo MJPEG codec try it out with you're ATI
2 Get a demo of MSPro test you're CPU before buying G450e TV
3 Buy a G400marvel or G450 + a RR add on MJPEG capture
4 Buy a G450e TV if you have a fast CPU
5 buy a DC30pro only a small increase in quality over matrox MJPEG cards

Good thing about the G450e TV is it needs little disk space and
because you can not do much with you're capture you spend a lot less time
cleaning it up before copying to CD/VCD/DVD....

by the way what's the max capture resolution of the ATI card?

**zeb7** · 3 March 2001, 18:15

Hi Chris,
Do you have any views on the DC10+ , a friends wants a cheap
capture card i have a two questions :
1 is the DC10+ max capture resolution 480x576 PAL
2 can the DC10+ capture in any YUV modes

This forum's great!
zeB7.

**This_Idiot** · 4 March 2001, 04:33

Hi Zeb,

I've only encountered the DC10+ once myself, whilst writing a review of a PC for Computer Video mag. I've just dug up the article, and found that the max PAL resolution was 720*540. I had no problems with capture, but playback on the PC was pretty jerky. Using the Pinnacle print-to-tape function didn't suffer from the same problem tho, and the footage looked good back at the VCR.

I guess that if you can get one at a decent price then it's an option. I don't know what the current packaging is like, but the version that I tested used Pinnacles own "Studio" software, which is of the simplistic variety that I don't really like. I'd much prefer something with full control (MSPro or Premiere). It does include TitleDeko tho, which is a nice little package, and if memory serves me correctly, also some of the Spice effects - I'm in the middle of redecorating/reorganising my study here at the moment, so I can't immediately lay my hands on all the info.

Hope all this helps.

BTW, going back to Displacer's original query - the DC30 (or DC10 for that matter) doesn't have a TV tuner built-in ! If capturing from TV is your main aim then you need to be looking at either a RR-G or one of the Happuage cards. RR-G are rarer than rocking horse sh!t at the moment, although it appears that Matrox are restarting manufacture which means they should become available again soon.

I don't know what the editing capabilities of the Happuage are like though, never having tried one.

**zeb7** · 4 March 2001, 08:07

Thanks for the info Chris

Displacer you may get a lot better results with the G450e ,than i did with the
MSPro/ligos combination
I have not used a G450e so i shouldn't judge its performance too quickly.

**Little Alexi** · 4 March 2001, 08:29

Hi,
Just in case you're interested in the DC-10+, I have one and love it. Its biggest limitation is that it's Win9x only. Means you're limited to 2GB captures per file. The newest software version Pinnacle offers, captures continuously by sequentially capturing 2GB files. I think you can join them up to a maximum of 4GB under Windows 9x. Win2k or NT uses NTFS, which allow unlimited file size, and that's where the DC30 has the advantage.
In terms of quality, 768x576 max res with PAL at 25 fps (it does 50 fields/sec actually).
Its Studio Software is pretty good, but it integrates with just about any editor including Ulead MediaStudio Pro and Adobe Premiere. You can even use tiny freeware editors if you want. It supplies a software codec that all programs can access for rendering It's motiopn j-peg files, and is frame-accurate (unlike MPEG editors).
Bad Points:
Chews through disk space because I've found minimum full-res capture from TV is around 2MBytes (not bits)/sec, and raw, uncompressed .wav audio.
Playback quality in Windows Media Player on your PC Screen is jerky. That can be solved by installing Pegasus Imaging's freeware PIC Video MJPEG Codec. Then it's smooth as silky, albeit softer.
Hardware playback via the Studio program or the original Media Player (C:\Windows\Mplayer.exe) is a real knockout!
Apart from that, it's stable, has superb quality, and beats MPEG1 or 2 in sheer resolution and editability. (I also have a Dazzle DVC-11 MPEG Capture device.)

I'd thoroughly recommend either Pinnacle card over just about anything else at the price.

**zeb7** · 4 March 2001, 12:37

Hi Alexi
can i make sure i understand correctly

DC-10+ = 720x540 active res 25 fps (underscan res)
DC-10+ = 768x576 max res(overscan)25 fps but Win9x only
DC-30pro = 768x576 max res(overscan)25 fps win/NT/2k

or is the DC-10+ limited to 720x540 MAX

and just for the record
Matrox Marvel G400 TV - has max res of:

704x576 25fps MJPEG capture (has enybody Hacked the divers to 768x576)
768x576 25fps RGB RAW to software codec (fast PC needed)
768x576 25fps Yuv hopefully in new drivers (not yet suported)

zeb7

**zeb7** · 4 March 2001, 14:01

More thoughts on the Matrox Marvel G450 eTV
If you can capture using I frames
The Quality would be very good eventually exceeding hardware MJPEG
maybe matrox means 720x576 I frame capture at 900mhz
because I frames are less cpu intensive
the G450etv is looking better evreyday.

**Displacer** · 4 March 2001, 14:14

Thank you guys a lot for you input so far.

Someone mentioned that the DC30 doesn't have a tv tuner, but that is ok, I run everything through my VCR anyways.

Your input has been great, I was wondering though. I have been looking through some past posts, and there is alot of mentions of MPEG I frames and the YUY codec (among other things) that I don't have any experience with. IE it goes right over my head. Would you guys happen to know of a page, or a previous post that explains some the differences between the different codecs and stuff?

Thank you again,
Displacer

[This message has been edited by Displacer (edited 04 March 2001).]

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