|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Once video is captured, what format can I save it to as, can it be saved as avi, mpeg, quicktime, wmv?The card only delivers raw pixels, RGB data. There is no compression, no file formats. The application(s) running on the PC need to do image compression, file creation, etc.
Is your driver a Video for Windows (VFW) driver? and is it compatible with WDM software?While the driver is not a VFW driver, it is compatible with WDM software. The capture card appears as a video camera, except that the resolution of the camera is much larger than a typical standard video camera. These higher resolutions may be used if the Windows application supports them. The capture resolution is normally set using the properties page menu in the application. Virtually any Windows application which supports the WDM interface will be able to use the DCC card. NCast tests its driver against Windows Media Encoder, a free download available from Microsoft. But many other applications are known to work, including Windows Movie Maker, VLC, and others. Applications which are not prepared for the higher resolutions available with the capture card may crash if these higher resolutions are used.
Can I run two DCC cards in the same computer at the same time?No. When capturing even modest sized presentations the DCC card consumes much of the available PCI bandwidth. The PCI bus has 130MB/sec of available bandwidth. To support an additional card, capture parameters would have to be reduced, eliminating many of the features and benefits of the DCC card. Therefore, no support for additional cards has been provided.
How do I set a resolution other than XGA?
The Driver must be asked to Capture at a different resolution. The capture application should either: (1) allow the user to change the capture resolution - like Windows Media Encoder or Windows Movie Maker - by changing the capture parameters [see fig. 1: Setting up capture resolution in Windows Media Encoder: notice "Custom" capture size request], (2) allow the user to pick a stream quality, and then adjust resolution and frame rate to optimize for that stream quality (like Windows Movie Maker), or (3) do not allow user to change driver settings, limiting user choice to XGA resolution. Since we get many complaints about this issue, we are planning to add an option to change default capture resolution proposed by the driver. This feature should be available in next release of the driver.
Why does Windows Media Encoder show 800x600 (or some other value) when I install?Probably Microsoft when designing windows Media Encoder decided that 800x600 is an optimal video size, which may be a good choice if you are assuming that you want
to capture video movement, and not computer graphics. Go to >>Video size<< TAB, to setup a custom capture size, set re size method to custom, and setup requested width and height of video. The >>re size<< option may be confusing, since this may be the actual size of captured image (without resizing). To confirm the size of video captured by DCC go to property page and check the Capture Information (use Refresh button if needed). The information is valid while DCC is capturing video. [Fig 2]
Is there a PCI-Express version of the DCC 3.1 card?No, we are expecting one by the fall of 2008.
How do I get the Driver Property Pages?The video capture application should have an option to display the device properties. Alternatively, try the "NCast Control Room" application, downloadable from the NCast downloads page.
Is there a 64-bit driver for the DCC 3.1 card? Vista driver?Today, there are 32-bit drivers available for Windows 2000/XP and 32/64 bit drivers for Linux available on our Downloads page. We are expecting next release of the Windows driver to support 32/64 bit XP/Vista systems. The MAC is currently not supported, but will be driven by business opportunities.
Is there a way to share PCI bandwidth when there is a high-end graphics card on the PCI bus?If other devices, such as high-end graphics cards, extensively use the PCI bus, there will be an impact on performance of both Digitizer Card (DCC) and the other PCI device. OEMs and Systems Designers should strive to keep any capture cards or frame grabbers on a seperate bus from the display adaptors. AGP busses and Northbrige/Southbridge approaches can yeild very meaningful performance results.
What is Crossbar support and how does it apply to the DCC 3.1 card?The Crossbar mechanism, proposed by Microsoft, is a standard way of selecting an active video input. However, for compatibility with Windows Media Encoder, the standard DCC Driver disables Crossbar support. A Crossbar-enabled Driver can be obtained from NCast by active OEM Partners on request.
Can I capture on more than one port?Yes! You may capture on any two input ports simultaneously, with the exception of the Composite and S-Video ports. These cannot be run together. Other than that limitation, you may capture any port as your main window and any port as your second window and can adjust the position, size, and overlay of each to suit your needs.
What are the conditions of the graphics performance specifications?The performance is solely related to the PCI bus and its ability to move what the card is producing elsewhere. Traffic on the PCI bus could interfere with performance. If there are other devices contending for the PCI bus, there will be an impact. These might be other capture, display, or communications cards. For very high performance systems, such as our Telepresenter M3, it is best to eliminate such devices, minimize the bandwidth they use, or put them on other busses, such as AGP or other PCI busses attached to the Northbridge or Southbridge.
Have we answered your questions? Please email us at info@ncast.com if you would like to learn more. |
|
| All Rights Reserved © 2007 NCast Corporation |
The DCC card, however, allows you to capture very-rich content, so selecting another resolution might be the best bet.