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Miro goes to the head of the classThe following article was written by Gary Bettan for the upcoming January issue of Camcorder & Computer Video Magazine. |
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I tested the DC30 using a Streamlogic Microdisk AV Gold SCSI drive and an Adaptec 2940UW SCSI controller. This is the same SCSI storage system I used for my "PCI capture card round up article" in the November issue. (In order to get the top performance from your video capture card, you must invest in SCSI storage). I was able to capture video at 640x480, 30 frames, 60 fields with compression below 4:1. In order for you to play back smoothly at compression below 5:1, Win95 needs help. Miro created a program called miroAVI that installs automatically and lets you create a RAM buffer to smooth playback. At the time of this article I had to download a driver patch from the web, but hopefully this software will be in the shipping units when you read this. If not, I have provided a list of FTP sites at the end of this article. I was able to get perfect jitter free playback at all compression settings. I could play back the video either to video tape or on my computer screen. My movies rendered quickly and flawlessly in Premiere, with great looking transitions and filter effects. The video quality of the DC30 is excellent.
Miro has been an industry leader in PC based video capture cards for years. The DC1 was one of the first video capture cards to offer video output. The DC20 was the first PCI video capture card for under $1000, it was the first PCI card to work on the Mac platform for under $1000, and the first card in its price range with NT drivers. Over the past 6 months the competition has heated up. With the introduction of the DC30, Miro once again goes to the head of its class! The DC30 is the most powerful and complete non linear editing system ever offered for under $1000. In addition to incredible video quality, the DC30 is loaded with great features.
Adobe Premiere 4.2 (Full Version)
The DC30 ships with the full version of Adobe Premiere 4.2 in the USA. (Europe and other markets get Premiere LE). Premiere is the industry standard for non linear editing software, and the software alone will cost you over $500!! But DC30 isn’t just bundled with Premiere. Miro software engineers have written optimization software for the DC30 that gives you accelerated rendering, improved performance and faster operations. When you first load the DC30 software it searches for Premiere on your hard disk and then loads the optimization software for you. You don’t have to do anything. The software bundle also includes Asymetrix 3D FX, an easy to use animation/titling program.
CD Quality Audio on board
The DC30 has a built on sound card that gives you CD quality audio to match its great video performance. Not only is the quality of the audio superb, but it is always perfectly synchronized with the video. You don’t have to worry about audio drift or having the video look like a 1950’s Godzilla movie. If you already have a sound card, the DC30 installs in addition to it. Under Win95 Control Panel you can go into the Multimedia icon and select the sound card you want to use. The DC30 is not Soundblaster compatible, so you will still need a sound card to play games. You can use the DC30 as your system sound card for all other Win95 software.
Video Overlay
The DC30 is the first video capture card to support the new Direct Draw technology in Win95. This means that you can preview, capture, edit and even playback the video using only your computer monitor. You do not require an external TV monitor to view your video. This is a very nice feature, but I still use an external TV monitor. I like to see the video exactly the way my audience will. At the time this article was written, only a handful of graphics cards were supported by the DC30. By the time you read this article, I’m sure, most of the best selling graphics cards will be compatible. New versions of the software are made available on the web. I have provided a list of FTP sites at the end of this article.
Outstanding Video Quality
All the features in the world don’t mean a thing if the video quality isn’t great. Well, the DC30 video is better than great, it is the best I have seen in its price range. The DC30 can handle up to 6 megs per second of throughput. This statistic is very important. With Motion JPEG video capture cards, the better the video quality, the lower the video compression. The lower the video compression, the larger the video file (.avi) will be created. A 30 second video must be played back from the hard drive in 30 seconds, regardless of its size. The DC30 can handle video compression as low as 3.5:1. What does all this mean? SVHS video quality is considered to be 8:1 compression. The new DV camcorders on the market are considered to be 5:1. Industrial Betacam video is considered to be 4:1. I use 7:1 compression for 90% of my video, because I feel it looks as good as the original footage and I can store a little over 5 minutes of video per gigabyte. Conclusion
I highly recommend the DC30. It combines fantastic performance with a powerful software bundle. Set up was very easy. The patch I downloaded from the Miro website installed perfectly. All I had to do was unzip the files and copy them into the Windows System directory in DOS. When I booted up Win95 the new driver was automatically installed with the miroAVI software. I have used the DC30 to create video for output to tape and for playback over the Internet using VivoActive video streaming software. You can check out a sample of this video on my website.