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Digitizer Capture Card
User Manual v2.0
10 pgs436.18 Kb0
User Manual v3.0
15 pgs895.89 Kb0
Table of contents
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NCast Digitizer Capture Card User Manual v3.0

Digitizer 3.0 Capture Card
User Manual
Page 1 of 15
1. INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................... 3
2. HARDWARE OVERVIEW............................................................................................................... 3
3. SPECIFICATION............................................................................................................................... 4
4. SOFTWARE OVERVIEW................................................................................................................ 4
5. INSTALLATION................................................................................................................................6
6. QUICK START................................................................................................................................... 7
Properties.............................................................................................................................................. 8
Sources.................................................................................................................................................. 8
Adjustments......................................................................................................................................... 10
Custom................................................................................................................................................ 11
Preview ............................................................................................................................................... 12
Video Size............................................................................................................................................ 13
7. TECHNICAL SUPPORT................................................................................................................. 14
APPENDIX A ............................................................................................................................................. 15
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1. Introduction

The NCast Digitizer Capture Card 3.0 functions as an RGB, DVI, and video capture device. The DCC-3 card also provides customizable Picture-in-Picture (PiP) capabilities for video within graphics display. The DCC-3 card supports up to UXGA resolution and delivers SXGA at 30 fps. The DCC-3 card is primarily designed for applications requiring high resolution and high frame rates. Example applications include webcasting over IP, local capture, remote viewing, and replacing dedicated monitors.
The DCC-3 is a PCI plug-in card, and is compatible with Windows XP/2000 and Linux operating systems. Drivers for both operating systems are available at
www.ncast.com/downloads. The card is designed to work with software such as
Windows Media Encoder for real time streaming, presentation authoring, and archiving of high resolution/frame rate graphics and video.

2. Hardware Overview

The DCC-3 card is designed to capture high resolution and frame-rate graphics. The card accepts inputs from DVI and HD15 RGB inputs, and also S-Video and BNC Composite. The RGB data is transferred using the PCI bus master DMA.

Resolutions

The DCC-3 card supports resolutions up to UXGA (1600x1200) from the RGB and DVI sources. Scaling options also are available. For instance, a smaller resolution such as 1024x768 can be sent at either the original resolution, or scaled to a different resolution. For instance, the DCC-3 can accept a 1280x720 input and scale it up to a 1600x1200 resolution. Ultimately based upon user settings, the resolution from the input signal will be scaled up/down to the selected resolution. For a list of support resolutions by the DCC-3 card, please reference Appendix A.

Frame-rate

The DCC-3 card is designed to capture a maximum of 30 fps. of 1280x1024 and 18 fps. of 1600x1200. However, the highest possible frame-rate is dependant upon the signal frequency, PCI bridge and CPU of the host computer. For instance, the user can expect a higher frame rate by using an Intel P4 @ 2.0 GHz then a P4 @ 1.06 GHz.
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Video Capture

The DCC-3 provides full frame-rate signals from S-Video, Composite and DVI inputs, at both PAL and NTSC resolutions. Odd and even frames are combined during capture, and de-interlacing is implemented in the driver code.

3. Specification

Physical Half-Size PCI Card
One female DVI-analog connector One female High Density 15 pin VGA connector One Composite BNC video connector
Optional S-Video connector (different bracket) Pixel Rate 165 MHz Graphics Sampling 24 bits per pixel/8-8-8 format Input Resolutions Supported 640x350 up to 1920x1200 Output Resolutions (supported by hardware) Frame Rate Up to 30 fps. SXGA, 18 fps. UXGA Operating Systems Windows 2000/XP, Linux Horizontal Frequency 105 kHz Storage Memory 2x1 mega pixels in double buffered acquisition mode Temperature 0 to 35 deg. C. Humidity 5% to 90% non-condensing Application Software Windows Media Encoder, Real Producer, Windows
640x350 up to 1600x1200
Movie Maker, Windows Messenger, and MSN
Messenger. Installer, Windows Driver, API, software
development kit, and sample applications.

4. Software Overview

Windows Driver

The DCC-3 can be installed by downloading the Digitizer Capture Card v 3.0 Drivers from the NCast website at http://www.ncast.com/downloads.html. Once the driver has been downloaded, double click on the .zip icon and follow the installation instructions as outlined later in this section.
The Windows Driver offers the most important functionality to the user applications. The driver enables the card to be compatible with the Windows 2000 Kernel Streaming
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Model, and therefore the DCC-3 should be usable with most Windows video capture programs.
The DCC-3 and driver have been tested with the following Windows programs:
• Windows Media Encoder 9 Series
• Real Producer
• Windows Movie Maker
• Windows Messenger
• VLC
• MSN Messenger

Functionality

As the DCC-3 captures graphics and video requires constant output resolution, some of the operations like de-interlacing and scaling must be turned on or off before capture begins. As the DCC-3 can switch between interlaced and non-interlaced modes and also modes with different resolutions, the following functionality was placed within the driver:
• The DCC-3 tries to capture 30 fps., but most programs (like Windows Media
Encoder) are able to drop frames if the user wishes to capture less than 30 fps.
• If there is no signal detected, the DCC-3 will output 30 fps. of black screen.
• The DCC-3 is able to switch selected PiP and main inputs on the fly. While
changing input signals or detecting a new resolution, a black screen will be generated.
• To change the selected inputs, get information about the current resolutions,
adjust the PiP size and format, and update the firmware the user can reference the DCC-3’s property page in Windows, or use the application properties such as in Windows Media Encoder.
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