Added: 02/26/2006 |
Pinnacle video capture solutionsThe Pinnacle video capture hardware complex is one of the most popular devices of the kind for today. The Pinnacle Studio Plus 700 has two variants. The first one is an external device with the USB 2.0 interface. The second variant is internal with the PCI bus.
Here you can see the characteristics of the Pinnacle Studio Plus 700 PCI: the interface PCI 2.3; the following ports: two external 6-pin ports IEEE-1394a; one internal 6-pin port IEEE-1394a; a socket for additional power supply 3.5" 4-pin Molex; a socket for connecting an external module; one 3.5 mm audio socket.
The e
xternal module for the Pinnacle video capture card contains: a composite video input (RCA socket), PAL, SECAM, NTSC, an S-Video input, PAL, SECAM, NTSC; a composite audio input (two RCA sockets); a composite video input (RCA socket), PAL, NTSC; an S-Video output, PAL, NTSC; a composite audio output (two RCA sockets).The Pinnacle hardware supports the following formats for the analogue capturing and output: PAL/SECAM/NTSC (SECAM just for input); PAL: 720x576, twenty five cadres per second; NTSC: 768x480, thirty cadres per second.
Let us take a deeper overview of the Pinnacle Studio Plus 700 PCI. This device is a controller card with the PCI interface and an external commutating block for connecting the analogue hardware. The small card is a combination of the IEEE-1394a controller and coder. There are three six-pin FireWire ports. Each one can be used for connecting digital video hardware. If you are going to connect the devices with a high power supply, then you may require an additional power. This power is provided via a four-contact Molex connector from 3.5" devices.
The analogue part of the Pinnacle video capture card is controlled by the chip Pinnacle SAA7113H. This is a nine-bit ADC, i.e. a coder of the analogue video signal. There is also a video encoder ADV7179. An import and export of the analogue audio is controlled by the high quality 20-bit codec EMPIA Technologies EMP202.
A commutating block is a new feature for the Pinnacle video capture system. The block has a long protected cable and it allows mounting the device to the desktop for the convenient hardware connection. The commutating block carries on the RCA and Mini-Din sockets.
At the same time, the Pinnacle Studio hardware part is not the most important component of the capture streaming video. All the functionality, needed for this activity, is available in a new software package, Pinnacle Studio Plus 10.
This software complex is the best solution for the simple and efficient video capturing. The new version 10 has a new design according to the modern trends. Simultaneously, it keeps an old algorithm of the easy capturing, video processing and export by some mouse clicks.
To use HDV, MPEG-2, Dolby Digital 2.0 and also recording DVD and S-VCD becomes available after a free registration of the product via the Internet. An import and editing of the movies and also an export by Dolby Digital 5.1 requires installing an additional codec from Pinnacle, which should be purchased for a separate fee. It cannot be a very pleasant feature, but it is worth this wonderful product.
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