Pinnacle AV DV9 DV Information Please

[Debbie]

Hi All,

Anybody has some first hand informatin about the Pinnacle AV DV9 DV video capture card.
From my previous experience, I have never been impressed with this range from Pinnacle.

Debbie

[LvR]

Debbie

Depends on which exact model you are after.

The first production versions were no more than a glorified hw MJPeg codec capture card (ala DC10) with a firewire port on it.

The later versions have a "custom" chip for the analogue capture that can only be configured via the "drivers" built into the proprietary Pinnacle Studio editing package - those drivers allow you to capture analogue in either MJpeg, DV or mpeg and in addition you have the standard features associated with the firewire port.

Just like you, a lot of people (myself included) have been chasing up Pinnacle to supply detail capture specs - iow - is the animal using a hw codec to do those analogue captures in any of the codecs selectable. So far they have been their normal self and have not uttered a single word on the subject in a huge thread on the Pinnacle support forum on exactly this subject.

If you are serious about editing and don't want to be tied down to Studio as an editor, go look elsewhere - I would suggest the Canopus AVDC50 as a very good equivalent and alternative.

[Debbie]

Thanks Lawrence,

I belive that pinnacle hardware will not allow you to use any other capture software exept what comes with it.
In other words, it will no be seen by third party software like Ulead or WinDVR for real time MPEG-2 capturing.

[LvR]

Correct - the "drivers" for those animals are made part of the Pinnacle Studio editing package by design - the clever Pinnacle people refuse to create industry standard WDM drivers that any video editing package can speak to.

[Debbie]

Then it is still a useless toy !!
Thanks again Law.