[geeks] Ok I am ready to kill this Fu**ing linux box

[Joshua D Boyd]

On Mon, May 27, 2002 at 02:20:50PM -0700, Peter L. Wargo wrote:

> In fact, my 840AV in being used to capture video - it has the 
> Spigotpower AV card in it, and I just did my first 1/2-hour trial, 
> capturing a TV show as a test.  I then transferred it over to the G4, 
> and I'm encoding it for a VCD.

I have one of those cards, but I think it is bad, since I couldn't get
3 different AV Macs (840av, 8100av, 7100av) to recognize it.  I have
a few questions.  First, how do you convert the video to something that
can be played back on machines without the card?  I know that premiere can
do that, but I was hoping some free utility also could.

Also, how good is it?  At the lowest compression ratio (i.e., highest data
rate), are there any visible artifacts?

Unfortunately, I just missed out on a couple of SpigotPro cards (I couldn't
decide if I could afford them in time).

Anyway, at the moment I'm going round and round between getting a new 
SpigotPower, buying a VideoVision, buying a Targa 2000, and buying a NuVista.

The SpigotPowers are dirt cheap ($10-$20).  The VideoVisions aren't too bad
($40-$50), supposedly are pretty good, and usually come with Premiere.  The
Targa 2000 starts showing a serious commitment.  They are about $100, but
they can do pretty low compression ratios (5:1, versus 10:1 for the SPAV), 
and if one lucks out and gets the pretty rare Targa2k Pros, it is real 
broadcast resolution.

The card with the most potential is the NuVista.  This thing has a pretty
fast programmable DSP on it.  But, I've never heard of the DSP being used
for compression, and I've never heard of common folk being able to write
programs for the card (I currently have an AtVista, which is essentially 
the same thing, but the ISA bus, but the ISA bus data rates are a joke, but
I do have docs and compilers for it).  However, the programs that ship with
it can do video capture, so maybe it would be possible to eek enough hard
drive performance from an 840AV for uncompressed video?  I've never heard
of it being done.  Seems this card is usually only used for low resolution
work, low framerate scientific work, video output (character generater, 
CG overlays, etc), and broadcast work, with a seperate JPEG card (AKA, the
Avid Janus Advanced JPEG card).  These cards are really expensive when gotten
from reliable source, but are accasionally dirt cheap.

I like the idea of the TrueVision hardware, but at those prices, I'm not
sure if it is better to hold of for something that is more of a sure thing.
At a minimum, I'd probably need at least one ATTO Silicon Express IV card,
or similar.

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd