Videoguys 4th Annual Video Capture Card Round Up
The Desk Top Video Handbook On Line ver 9.9 (July '99)

I can't believe that this is now my 4th round up article. In the past 4 years things have changed dramatically. Not only are today's products more powerful, they are easier to use and set up and they have incredible features that make the actual process of video editing much more productive. The most important of these is timeline playback. This feature allows you to get around the 2GB file size limit and saves you up to 50% disk space. Before timeline playback if you wanted to create a 10 minute video, you needed enough storage space for all your raw footage PLUS the new 10 minute avi file you rendered out. With timeline playback you only render the transitions, filters and effects. The original avi files are used. Not only does this save you tons of disk space, it makes rendering the final video incredibly faster.

But the BIGGEST change over the past 4 years is the speed and power of the computers we have access to. For my first article, $3,000 bought you a Pentum 90 (w/ optional floating point error), 16 megs of RAM (of course you could add another 16 megs for just under $500) , a 2 meg graphics card and a paltry 2 GB EIDE hard drive that could barely sustain 2 megs per second throughput. For video editing you needed to add an AV optimized SCSI drive and controller, which for another $2000 got you a whopping 4GB! Today for $2500 you can buy a screaming fast Pentium III machine ( or G3), with 128 megs of 100 Mhz SDRAM, a 16 meg 3D graphics card, and a huge 16+ GB Ultra DMA hard drive that is fast enough for home video editing and editing DV/FireWire video. My how things have changed!!

The other big change in the industry is the new video compressions used. 4 years ago all we had was MJPEG. About 2 years ago we saw the first compression revolution - DV. It was very slow to take off, because the early FireWire capture cards had their share of stability issues, and so did the NLE software. But over the past year, DV/ FireWire editing has come on to dominate the marketplace. Why? Because it delivers incredible video quality with a fixed throughput of only 3.6 megs per second. While at first this throughput required SCSI drives, today any Pentium II 350+ or faster with an Ultra DMA EIDE hard drive can easily handle it. The other BIG feature of DV/FireWire capture cards is frame accurate device control. This allows us to use batch capture features that save us disk space and make the overall editing process more productive because you can fully control your DV cam from within your editing application.

Today we stand at the threshold of the next compression revolution. It is called MPEG2 and it pushes the envelope even further. MPEG2 delivers the same spectacular video quality as DV with 50% or even 25% of the required throughput. Even more importantly, MPEG2 files can be burned onto a CD Rom or DVD and played back by anyone with a fast enough computer and MPEG2 decoder software or hardware!! By next years round up I fully expect to be including several cards that actually let you produce DVD video that anyone with a home DVD player can watch!!

But enough about the future and the past, lets get down to the present, and the current crop of products. You can jump instantly to the complete specs for each product by clicking on its image!

Pinnacle Studio DC10+
The Studio DC10+ is actually a very powerful capture card bundled with Pinnacles incredibly easy to use Studio non linear editor. While the Studio software is simple, it does offer a full range of features including titling, special effects and timeline playback. At a street price under $200, I can't think of a product I would more highly recommend for the beginning non linear edtor. Studio DC10+ is perfect as a gift for your creative teenager, Uncle Harry who never leaves home without his camcorder, new parents wanting to show off the kids, or world travelers who want to share the adventures of their journeys. Sure the software isn't as powerful or professional as Premiere, but this card is a great place to start digital video editing.

Dazzle DVC
Not all video editing is for output to tape. Today video is used in presentations, streamed over the web and burned onto CD ROMS. For these activities the DVC is a great choice, especially the new USB Internet version. If you've got a less then year old computer or laptop with Windows 98 and a USB jack, then this product is a fantastic choice. In fact, it is for now the only product I recommend for use with a laptop. The video captured is MPEG1, so the output to tape quality is limited to VHS at best, but MPEG is ideal for web, CD and multimedia. The Internet version comes with real video producer, so you can actually capture, edit and create web streaming videos with it. Bets of all, it is a fully external product. No boards to install!! A very cool gadget for well under $300!

Pinnacle Studio MP10
Pinnacles low cost MPEG1 editing solution. What sets it apart from the Dazzle product is the Studio editor, which lets you fully edit your MPEG video. You get all the same great features as the Studio DC10+, but the video is MPEG1. This means it is ideal for web, presentation and CD Rom. The video output quality to tape is actually quite good for MPEG1, but still no where near as good the DC10+. Studio MP10 includes a light version of Minerva Impresison CD Authoring software which lets you create a basic interactive CD.

Fast AV Master2000
The AV Master 2000 is the third bundle version of the original AV Master card. It now ships with the full version of Ulead's Media Studio Pro 5.2 & Cool 3D animated titling program. The AV Master was the first PCI card with built on audio for perfect sync, the first card with it's own custom capture interface (fastCap), the first card with memory caching to smooth playback in slower systems( avi cache) and one of the first cards with timeline playback (PowerPlay). Today what you get with the AV Master 2000 is a proven, stable performer that runs on Windows 98 and NT equally as well. While the 640x480 capture size is slightly smaller then today's 720x480 cards, the video quality at 4+ megs per second is more then adequate for the prosumer video work. I've also found that the Ulead software is easier to learn for beginners and has a ton of very cool features that set it apart from Premiere.

Pinnacle DC30pro
Like the AV Master, this is the third version of this card. The current bundle is loaded. You get the dc30+ hardware (704x480 capture, 7 megs per second) and a breakout box. But most importantly you get the full version of Adobe Premiere 5.1, Pixelan Video SpiceRack transitions, Pinnacle's own TitleDeko titling software and Sonic Foundry's ACID audio software for creating your own background audio tracks using loops. You also get Instant Video 5.0 for timeline playback which integrates seemlessly into Premiere 5.1. Let me make it simple for you. If you have an analog camcorder and you want to edit video using Adobe Premiere, get the DC30pro. For under $1000 there isn't a better solution.

Pinnacle DC50
The DC50 is the big brother of the DC30Pro. What does big brother have that little brother doesn't? Component video, ProVTR device control for Betacam decks and Adobe After Effects. This makes the DC50 a very serious bundle, capable of handling very sophisticated, commercial editing. If you have betacam equipment or you need to input or output component video, the DC50 is the card for you. The DC50 breakout box includes balanced audio as well as composite, S-Video and component in and out. If you only shoot with S-Video, then for the price difference I think the DC30Pro is a better choice, unless of course you plan on buying After Effects. At that point even an S-Video editor may find the DC50 bundle too great a value to apss up.

DV/FireWire cards

ADS Pyro
This new entry into the marketplace lets anyone with a DV camcorder and a fast computer edit video for well under $200. Pyro ships with Uleads Video Studio, a very nice, user friendly NLE program that while limited, does get the job done. Currently the Pyro will not work with Premiere or even Ulead's full featured Media Studio Pro software, but ADS is promising better NLE compatibility down the road. The Pyro is also strictly a Win98 product with no firm plans for NT drivers. But hey, for the price, you can't beat it for just messing around with DV. Sure, you are going to outgrow it, but it'll get you started.

Digital Origin MotoDV
MotoDV has now become a really great card for getting started. For under $400 you get a software bundle that is actually quite usable and best of all easily upgraded. MotoDV includes Digital Origins PhotoDV software for grabbing stills directly into PhotoShop from your DV cam and Moto DV for capturing full motion video. You get both Photoshop le and Premiere le in the bundle. What I like best about MotoDV is the upgrade path. Down the raod you can upgrade to the full version of Premiere for $199.95 or the new Edit DV for Windows ($599.95). If you decide to go with Premiere, you can also upgrade to the complete set of plug-ins that turn your MotoDV into the full MotoDV Studio 2.0

Pinnacle DV200
DV200 is another great card for under $400. What sets the DV200 apart from the other low end cards is that you get the complete DV Tools utility that lets you autoscan, log and batch capture your DV footage. If you are one of those videographers who has no problem shooting an entire 60 minute DV tape per day, these features are awesome. You also get INSTANT video timeline playback, an incredible feature for a product at this price range. This makes the DV200 a great choice for those getting started and the perfect addition for DC30/30+/30pro owners wanting to migrate to DV. DV200 now ships with the FULL version of Adobe Premiere 5.1 making it an exceptional value!!

Canopus DV Raptor
The Raptor comes in two flavors. The standard bundle gets you the full Premiere 5.1 and RaptorBay for under $700. The SE version only includes Premiere le, but for under $500 it lets you get a very full-featured card at a great price. Both versions of the Raptor include the identical hardware, drivers, utilities and the RaptorBay. The RaptorBay lets you plug all your connections into the front of your computer, a very handy feature! Canopus has done an incredible job with the DV soft CODEC. It renders quicker then the other software CODEC cards. The integration with premiere is excellent. You get full device control, batch capture and SmartPlay timeline playback. The featuire that sets the DV Raptor apart from the competition is its unique DV loop through. This very clever feature uses the DV cam to decode the DV signal and as a result lets you overlay your DV video in full size, full motion on your computer screen. To take advantage of the Raptors full screen preview, you must have a DV device hooked up to it. If you don't hook up a DV cam, it still works great, you just get the same limited preview size as all the other cards on the market. Another very cool feature of the Raptor is seemless capture which lets you capture up to the full capacity of your hard drive in one pass. This is a work around of the 2GB file limit, using a 'virtual' avi file that links multiple 2GB files into a single contiuos file.

Pinnacle DV300
The DV300 is Pinnacles full featured DV card. It ships with full Premiere 5.1, TitleDeko, Pixelan SpiceRack, DV tools and INSTANT video. The DV300 hardware has an Adaptec UW SCSI controller built on. This feature was necessary just a couple of years ago because at that time all the DV cards required SCSI drives for video storage. Today that is no longer the case, so the built on SCSI is not the important feature it once was. Still, if you are building a machine with SCSI drives and peripherals, the DV300 is a great choice.

Digital Origin Moto DV Studio 2.0
This bundle includes the full version of Premiere, PhotoDV, Potoshop le, and 3 plug-ins that fully integrate the MotoDV with Premiere. You get timeline playback, device control and batch capture. What really sets MotoDV apart from other cards in the industry is Digital Origins use of Quicktime rather then the Windows avi file format. At the time I was writing this there was not yet support for Quicktime 4, but my discussions with Digital Origin confirmed that not only will MotoDV have Quicktime 4 support, but it will also add all of the new quicktime features and that combined with Digital Origins AVA acceleration for Pentium 3 machines, it will become the fastest card on the market with Premiere 5.1

Digital Origin Edit DV 1.0 for Windows
Edit DV for Windows is finally here. Ever since I got to play with EditDV 1.0 for Mac, I've been anxiuosly awaiting this release. Edit DV has a great feature called Draft DV, that in my opinion single handedly makes it the best NLE software for editing DV video. What is so cool about Draft DV? How about a near real time editing environment at a fraction of the cost of real time systems. Let me explain a bit more. Draft mode creates a 1/4 resolution proxy file of every DV clip you use in a project. Since these files are 1/4 the size and require 1/4 the throughput, you get almost instantaneous previews, even with titles, transitions and filters. Once you are done editing, you switch back to full DV mood and let the final video render out. So it's not a true real time system, but when you are editing, and you don't have to wait for previes, it sure feels like a real time system. Speaking of feel, that is the other thing I really like about Edit DV. It just has a more professional, higher end NLE feel to it. I like to call it Avid-like. Novice editors probably won't ever know it, but if you've been trained on or have ever worked on a commercial/professional NLE system like an Avid, you'll feel much more at home with Edit DV then Premiere.

Hybrid DV systems

Canopus DV Rex
The DV Rex has quickly become the DV/FireWire system of choice for the event videographer, and it's easy to see why. It ships with a great software bundle including premiere 5.1 full version and Canopus's own Rex Edit NLE application. On top of that it is a very easy install, has rock solid stabilty, and it is loaded with features and goodies that give it a special edge over every other card in the market. What are these special features? The first and most significant is the Rex Edit NLE application. It utilizes both the software and hardware CODECs found in Rex, so it is lightning fast. How fast you ask? How about 5 seconds for a 1 second dissolve on my PII400, at full DV resolution. Rex Edit also lets you work with a 4GB file size limit, vs 2GB for every other card on the market. The Rex video capture app lets you seemlessly capture up to the full capacity of your hard drive. While Rex Edit may not have all the cool features of Premiere, you can plug the supplied Boris FX 3D transitions right into it. Best of all, if you need the features of Premiere, it comes with DV Rex. And it's not just bundled in. You get total integration including timeline playback, device control and batch capture.

Even cooler news: You'll be able to upgrade your DV Rex into a 100% DV real time NLE system this summer. The add on card will allow Rex owners to add transitions, filters, titles and keying in real time. Rex RT will require dual Pentium II or Pentium III processors to deliver this incredible performance, but with the plummeting costs of computers, this isn't really that big an investment for all that power!

Fast DV Master Pro 2
Now shipping with In:sync Speed Razor, the DV Master Pro 2 is the perfect editing solution for long form DV productions like documentaries, feature movies and corporate training tapes. The reason why DV Master Pro is so ideal for these types of projects is that Speed Razor uses its own file system, so there is no file limits. With the introduction of SR 4.7 the DV Master now gives you multi-processor support and multi-threading under NT. This means that rendering is much faster and previews are in real time on the VGA screen. Speed Razor can also be used for compositing, with an unlimited amount of layers. Speed Razor is a very sophisticated, professional NLE application that is not for beginners. At around $4000, it is not for everyone, but if you are a professional digital video producer, needing to make long-format projects, then you will find Speed Razor much more powerful and productive then Premiere based systems.

The DV Master also has Component (YUV) output so your can output your videos directly to Betacam if you need it. Fast also makes the standard DV Master which is the identical hardware as the Pro, but with Ulead Media Studio Pro and Final Effects instead of Razor. This bundle is much easier to use, and it can be upgraded to the new SR 4.7 for under $1000.

Pinnacle DC1000 w/ DV Option
This is the first MPEG2 based non linear editing system to hit the market. Based on C-Cubes revolutionary new DV Explore chipset, the DC1000 delivers the incredible combination of outstanding video quality, real time dual stream editing, CD Rom authoring and MPEG2 compression. The DC1000 uses a very special technology called SmartGOP that gives you frame accurate editing of the MPEG2 video, while maintain outstanding video quality at a data rate of 50% or even 35% that of DV. The base DC1000 system costs under $2500 and gives you Adobe Premiere 5.1 RT, Instant Video timeline playback, TitleDeko, SpiceRack, Acid, Breakout Box and Minerva CD Rom authoring software. The DV Option daughtercard adds another thousand to the cost but gives you DV in and out plus full device control.

The Minerva CD Rom authoring software is incredible. It lets you import multi-layered PhotoShop files and edit each layer for use in creating your interactive content. Adding 3D buttons and links is a snap with this software. Linking different video clips to different buttons is done with drag & drop ease. When you combine this with the real tine 2D transitions, filtering and titleing of Premiere RT, you've got a powerhouse of a video editing system, for all video formats past (analog), present (DV) and future (MPEG2 CD-ROM, DVD)

Canopus Amber
Amber is not actually a non linear editing system, but it is a video capture card. It lets you input composite or SVHS video and encode it in real time into spectacular broadcast quality MPEG2 video at extremely low data rates. Canopus positions Amber as the ideal video archiving and mastering solution. For under $2500 you get not just the Amber, but a Panasonic DVD-RAM drive, so it definitely gets the job done. Amber can be used with either a DV Raptor or DV Rex to create a complete non linear and MPEG2 production system. For now you'll have to loop the analog output back into the Amber, but Canopus is working on a direct internal transfer for their DV cards into Amber. At the time of this article Amber was not shipping with any authoring software. Canopus has told me that they are negotiating a deal with a 3rd party vendor and that authoring software will be included in the Amber bundle by the time you read this.

There you have it, my latest roundup article. I think that no matter what your level of videography and budget, you can find a capture card bundle that is right for you. Based on the tremendous growth of the industry, I think I'll have to split up future round up articles into smaller market segments. You can find complete details and specs for any of the products mentioned in this article by using this quick navigation tool. Video Capture Card Matrix ADS Pyro Canopus DV Rex-M1, DV Raptor Dazzle DVC Digital Origin EditDV, MotoDV Fast AV Master 2000, DV Master, DV Master Pro Pinnacle StudioDC10+ & StudioMP10 Pinnacle DC30pro, DC50, DC1000, DV200 & DV300 Interactive Capture Card Survey