Capture card

[snedker]

Hi

When using digital videocamera with firewire connection to computer - is there any benefit using a specific "capturecard" like matrox rtx-2 ore similary ??, isn´t it all about cpu + ram ??? - any comments ?

[Brian Ellis]

When "capturing" DV, there is no conversion. The signal is already digital. The codec you use "wraps" the incoming digital stream into a format, such as AVI for Win machines, that can be used by the operating system, but the stream is totally unmodified (assumiing DV type 1) by the card and the codec and is therefore put on your hard disc exactly as it came out of the camera. The moral of the story is that your IEEE-1394 port, whether it be on the motherboard, on a cheapo $10 card or an expensive $200 card, produces exactly identical results. The only differences are in the codecs, whether they be firmware in the cam or software in the computer MAY convert analogue to digital differently, but that has nothing to do with your question.

[snedker]

Thanks Brian !

AS i read your answer - There´s no benefit when capturing and i asume it goes as well for editing (cs3+ aftereffects) when my hardware is among the fastest as possible .I´m using HDV (Sony HVR V1E camera) and the specs. for my hardware is : xeon 5345 (quad-core) X2 , 4 gb ecc ram , 8800 gts graphics (320 mb ram)
Kind regards
snedker

[Dr Mordrid]

I use an RTX.100 card for DV edits and have had "hands on" with the RT.X2.

There are major advantages to using cards like these, especially in the case of doing HDV edits with the RT.X2. They make Premiere MUCH 'snappier', meaning more responsive, due to their realtime on-board processing. This is very, very useful when dealing with HDV as even a multi-core CPU can bog down converting those IBP frames to I-frame on the timeline and doubly so when several layers of effects are in the stack. Tough to edit HDV can be, and the RT.X2 can make it much more tolerable. It also offers so many, many effects and I/O enhancements vs. a naked rig.

All that said make sure your system specs are in synch with Matrox's system reqs;

http://matrox.com/video/support/rtx2/rec/computer.cfm

It sounds like yours is well within the butter zone.