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Which is better, the FPS60, Bravado 1000 or DC20? This is the latest debate raging over the Internet, in video clubs and within consumers minds. This article is designed to help you decide which one of these boards is right for you. The Electronic Mailbox sells all three boards, and we offer FREE tech support for all three, plus a 30 day satisfaction guarantee. As a result, it is very important that we get our customers the right board to match their needs, PC and budget. Before I get into the comparisons, let me tell you a little about these boards, what they all can do, and what kind of results you can REALISTICALLY expect.
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Common Features
All three boards have composite (VHS or 8mm) and Y/C (SVHS or Hi8) in and output. This is a very important feature, because not all capture cards can output to tape. All three cards work in both NTSC (the US standard) and PAL (the European standard used throughout the globe). They all capture 30 frames and 60 fields per second, which is considered full motion video. The DC20 and Bravado 1000 PCI capture video at full screen 640x480, the FPS60 uses half screen captures. They all playback full screen video at near SVHS quality.They all can work in a basic 486, but for best results we recommend a 486dx2 or faster, 16 megs or RAM and at least a 1 gig hard drive. If your computer does not meet these standards, you will need to upgrade.Miro is the first company to offer the PCI technology to Mac owners. Now available, the MiroMotion DC20 for PowerMac PCI computers!!
Motion JPEG - what to expect
M-JPEG is considered a "lossy" Codec (compression/decompression). The higher the compression, the smaller the file size, but the more blocky or pixilated the video will look. With a 640x480 capture, the card does not have to recreate the missing info so you can get better quality video, but this also requires bigger files.. One of the big decisions you have to make with M-JPEG is the size/quality trade off. At top resolution, you should expect to use 50+ megs per minute. This means that to produce a 15 minute video, you will need 2 gigs of hard drive space. A little more then 1 gig for the raw footage, and just under a gig for the finished avi file. If you plan on making videos over 10 minutes long, we strongly recommend you get an AV rated Fast SCSI hard drive with a PCI SCSI controller card. These drives can capture and play back very long video segments without dropping frames.What is near SVHS quality?
I use the term near SVHS quality to describe the video you can achieve with these cards. I consider compression of 10:1 or better to be SVHS quality. I am comparing the results of your NLE output with a tape made using conventional SVHS equipment. With analog editing, you first edit your video between two decks or your camcorder and a deck. Usually other devices, such as titlers, mixers and SEGs are also used. The edited master is then copied for distribution. The output you get from these cards is nearly as good as an SVHS dub you would give someone from your master. Remember, with NLE, you don’t have copy generation loss, and you can make any number of copies straight off your hard drive.Which one is best?
The PCI cards will outperform an ISA card, but that doesn’t automatically make a PCI card the right choice for you. The maximum resolution you will be able to get from one of these cards will vary, based on the throughput capabilities of your PC. If you don’t have the throughput, you will drop frames before you reach the lowest compression (and highest video quality) possible. In order to get the benefit of a PCI capture card, you need an A/V SCSI hard drive. Without one, you will not be able to get to the lowest compression without dropping loads of frames.If you have an EIDE drive, the FPS60 ISA card is the best for you. Fast has an excellent 32 bit Win95 optimized capture program that really lets you get great quality out of an EIDE system. If you plan on doing short work, such as commercials, highlight films or music videos, the FPS60 in a hot Pentium with a 1+ gig EIDE drive will do a great job. You can get down to 12:1 with few dropped frames. Another BIG benefit of the FPS60 is its ability to give you full speed, real time video in a window for preview, capture and editing. You don’t need an external monitor to work with the video.
If you have a SCSI hard drive, but no PCI slots, do not worry. The FPS60 can do an excellent job for you, and with AV drives you can reach compressions of 10:1. This will give you excellent results and is a great value.
If you want to do longer videos, or you want the absolute best quality, then get an A/V SCSI hard drive and a PCI card. Both the Truevision Bravado 1000 and Miro DC20 can get to compression below 9:1 at 640x480 capture with an A/V drive. The Bravado 1000 tops out at 5:1 compression and the Miro can get down to 6:1 with some frames dropped. I really liked both of these cards and had a hard time finding any differences. Both cards require an external monitor for viewing the video, but I have some customers reporting getting near full speed playback in a window. I have spoken with both companies tech support, and they each say that your results will vary. It is too soon to know which systems will get full speed video in a window, but if you don’t, you can just hook up an external TV monitor. I can’t currently recommend one over the other. Our experience with video capture cards tells us that one may work better then the other in your system, but they really are about equal. You should probably make your decision based on the software bundle you want.
The Bravado 1000 is the only card on the market bundled with the full version of Premiere. Better still, it is the newest 32 bit, Win95 and NT optimized version 4.2!! The Miro DC20 comes with Adobe LE (Premiere & Photoshop); Assymetrics 3D/FX software. I have Win95 and I like using the full versions of Adobe, Ulead and Star Media. For this reason I give a slight edge to the Bravado 1000 PCI.
I guess you were expecting me to give you a more definitive answer, and name a clear winner. The clear winner in this shoot-out is you. Now is a great time to get started in digital video. You will be amazed at the incredible effects, transitions and filters you can create with Adobe Premiere, Ulead Media Studio, and Star Media Video Action Pro software. These NLE programs let you do excellent titling as well, but if you want more, there are several animation packages that will let you make fantastic animated title sequences. You can even use these cards for outputting animation from the leading 2D & 3D animation software available today.
A dose of reality
Before you go out and get one of these cards, let me make sure you understand their limits. At 50 megs per minute, you would need a 9 gig drive to capture, edit and create a one hour video. Even if you can afford that kind of storage, lets talk about rendering. Rendering is when the NLE software combines the video and audio clips, adds your titles, filters and effects, and creates one continuous avi file. This can take a VERY LONG TIME. 10 or 20 times the length of the video is not unheard of. The longer the rendering time, the greater the chance for a dropped frame or a glitch. If you think you can shoot a 3 hour wedding, dump it to your hard drive, and create a fully edited 1 ½ hour tape, you are not being realistic. NLE with these cards is ideally suited for short videos of ½ hour or less. You can break a 2 hour video into 4 ½ hour segments, but because of the rendering times, you may need over a week to complete the project.
I want one!!
If you want one of these cards, make sure you get it from a reputable dealer who understands the technology. The Electronic Mailbox gives you FREE tech support, before and after the sale. We combine this with our 30 day money-back satisfaction guarantee and liberal trade-in policy, to give you the best possible value. Our prices are very competitive.Order a FREE Calalog & Cool Video Jumps!
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The Electronic Mailbox 10-12 Charles Street Glen Cove, NY 11542 (516) 759-1611