ViewCast Osprey-450e User Manual

Osprey® 240e/450e User Guide

AVStream Driver Version 4.6

DirectShow®, Intel® CoreDuo®, and Windows Media® Encoder are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Any other product names, trademarks, trade names, service marks, or service names owned or registered by any other company and mentioned herein are the property of their respective companies.

No part of this specification may be reproduced, transcribed, transmitted or stored in a retrieval system in any part or by any means without the express written consent of ViewCast Corporation. ViewCast Corporation reserves the right to change any products herein at any time and without notice. ViewCast Corporation makes no representations or warranties regarding the content of this document, and assumes no responsibility for any errors contained herein.

UL Statement Underwriters Laboratories Inc. has not tested the performance or reliability of the security or signaling aspects of this product. UL has only

tested for fire, shock and casualty hazards as outlined in UL’s standard for safety UL 60950-1. UL certification does not cover the performance or reliability of the security or signaling aspects of this product. UL MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS, WARRANTIES OR CERTIFICATIONS WHATSOEVER REGARDING THE PERFORMANCE OR RELIABILITY OF ANY SECURITY OR SIGNALING RELATED FUNCTIONS OF THIS PRODUCT.

To maintain UL compliance, this product to be used only with UL Listed computers that include instructions for user installed accessories.

FCC Notice:

WARNING: Use shielded cables to connect this device to peripherals in order to maintain compliance with FCC radio emission limits. WARNING: Modifications to this device not approved by ViewCast Corporation could void the authority granted to the user by the FCC to

operate the device. The Osprey 240e video capture card has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the

FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this device does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:

 Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.  Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver.  Connect the computer into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected.  Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help.

If the above measures are unsuccessful, please consult the dealer or manufacturer of your radio or television receiver, or speak with an experienced radio/TV technician.

Note: This reminder is provided to call to the CATV installer’s attention Section 820-40 of the NEC, which provides guidelines for proper grounding and, in particular, specifies that the cable ground shall be connected to the grounding and, in particular, specifies that the cable ground shall be connected to the grounding system of the building, as close to the point of cable entry as practical.

The Osprey 450e video capture card has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class A digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference when the equipment is operated in a commercial environment. This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instruction manual, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. Operation of this equipment in a residential area is likely to cause harmful interference in which case users will be required to correct the interference at their own expense.

Shielded Cables: Connections between this device and peripherals must be made using shielded cables in order to maintain compliance with FCC radio emission limits.

Modifications: Modifications to this device not approved by ViewCast Corporation could void the authority granted to the user by the FCC to operate the device.

Note to CATV Installer: Section 820-40 of the NEC provides guidelines for proper grounding and, in particular, specifies the cable ground shall be connected to the grounding system of the building, as close to the point of cable entry as practical.

Product Disposal Information

Dispose of this product in accordance with local and national disposal regulations (if any), including those governing the recovery and recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).

RoHS Compliant: ViewCast Corporation is committed to compliance with the European directive on the Restriction of the Use of Certain

Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment, Directive 2002/95/EC, the RoHS directive.

For current RoHS statement, visit www.viewcast.com. ViewCast Corporation 3701 W. Plano Parkway, Suite 300, Plano, TX 75075-7840 USA

Osprey 240e/450e User Guide

Contents

Overview ............................................................................................................................. 1

Warranties .......................................................................................................................... 1

System requirements .......................................................................................................... 2

Minimum system requirements ......................................................................................... 2

Installation Steps ............................................................................................................... 3

Installing the driver ............................................................................................................. 3

Custom installing AVStream ............................................................................................... 4

Installing the video capture card ........................................................................................ 4

Setting Driver Properties ................................................................................................... 7

OspreyConfig’s initial processing sequence ....................................................................... 8

Understanding the device properties window ................................................................. 11

Devices and global controls ........................................................................................ 13

Input tab ............................................................................................................................ 14

Osprey 450e AV option hardware add-on-device ...................................................... 16

Video input .................................................................................................................. 17

Video standard ............................................................................................................ 18

Input Format: analog inputs ....................................................................................... 19

VideoCheck ................................................................................................................. 20

VideoGraph ................................................................................................................. 20

VbiGraph ..................................................................................................................... 21

Video Proc Amp tab .......................................................................................................... 22

Video Decoder tab ............................................................................................................ 24

RefSize tab ......................................................................................................................... 26

Horizontal Format ....................................................................................................... 27

Horizontal Delay .......................................................................................................... 28

Source Width .............................................................................................................. 29

Reference Size for Crop and Logo Placement ............................................................. 30

525-Line (NTSC) Vertical Format ................................................................................. 31

Filters tab .......................................................................................................................... 32

SimulStream ................................................................................................................ 33

Deinterlace .................................................................................................................. 36

Currently Using group ................................................................................................. 38

Adaptive Deinterlace window ..................................................................................... 39

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Contents

Device tab ......................................................................................................................... 42

No-Video Test Pattern ................................................................................................ 43

Buffers Requested ....................................................................................................... 43

Diagnostic logging ....................................................................................................... 44

Device Info .................................................................................................................. 46

Board Numbering ........................................................................................................ 46

Extras ........................................................................................................................... 49

Captions tab ...................................................................................................................... 50

Pin Select ..................................................................................................................... 51

Render NTSC Closed Captions On Video ..................................................................... 52

Render Logical White As ............................................................................................. 52

CC Pin .......................................................................................................................... 53

Logo tab ............................................................................................................................ 54

Pin Select ..................................................................................................................... 56

File and Color .............................................................................................................. 56

Enable Key Color ......................................................................................................... 57

Weighting .................................................................................................................... 58

Position and Size ......................................................................................................... 58

Size and Crop tab .............................................................................................................. 60

Pin Select ..................................................................................................................... 61

Reference Size ............................................................................................................. 61

Granularity .................................................................................................................. 62

Enable Cropping .......................................................................................................... 63

Default Output Size ..................................................................................................... 65

AVStream driver reference information ...........................................................................67

Post-Processing mode ....................................................................................................... 69

Efficient Video Rendering ................................................................................................. 71

Preview Pin to Video Renderer ................................................................................... 71

Preview Pin to Overlay Mixer to Video Renderer ....................................................... 71

Preview Pin to VMR7 .................................................................................................. 72

Preview Pin to VMR9 .................................................................................................. 73

Some Data Points ........................................................................................................ 73

Video standards and sizes ................................................................................................. 75

Color formats .............................................................................................................. 75

YUV format details ...................................................................................................... 76

Closed captioning (CC) ................................................................................................ 77

Captioning via CC or VBI pins ...................................................................................... 77

Direct CC rendering on video ...................................................................................... 78

CC streaming interface ................................................................................................ 79

Vertical Interval Timecode (VITC) ............................................................................... 79

Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI) capture ...................................................................... 80

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Osprey 240e/450e User Guide

Audio driver .......................................................................................................................81

Selecting the audio source and input volume .................................................................. 81

Audio properties page ...................................................................................................... 83

Audio formats ............................................................................................................. 84

Audio playback ............................................................................................................ 84

Audio configuration .................................................................................................... 84

Mono Source Mode .................................................................................................... 84

Dual Mono .................................................................................................................. 84

Audio level .................................................................................................................. 86

Appendix A: Osprey hardware specifications .................................................................87

Osprey 240e ...................................................................................................................... 87

Environmental specifications ...................................................................................... 87

Osprey 450e ...................................................................................................................... 89

Appendix B: Osprey 450e audio cable .............................................................................91

Appendix C: Troubleshooting ..........................................................................................93

Color bars on video screen ............................................................................................... 93

Scrambled video image ..................................................................................................... 93

Poor video quality at large frame sizes ............................................................................. 94

Multiple horizontal lines across video image ................................................................... 94

Cannot play back recorded audio ..................................................................................... 94

Audio recording control comes up with wrong device and wrong inputs ....................... 94

Index ..................................................................................................................................97

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Osprey 240e/450e User Guide

Limited Warranty

ViewCast warrants its hardware products against defects in material and workmanship under normal use for the period of one year (12 months) from date of sale. Where specific warranties exist that provide more substantial coverage, notwithstanding the warranty provisions herein, such product warranties control and preempt or supersede the warranty provisions herein.

Reseller Pass Through of Standard Limited Warranties.

Resellers pass the ViewCast standard limited warranties for the products through to the customer without modification. Any modification of a product voids the ViewCast warranties or any other existing or available warranty.

Overview

Thank you for purchasing the ViewCast Osprey 240e/450e video capture card. This user guide provides step-by-step instructions for installing and using your new video capture card. For the latest ViewCast product information and news, visit our website at www.viewcast.com.

Warranties

For complete warranty details, refer to the specific warranty included with each product. General warranty information includes the following:

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Overview

System requirements

The following system requirements relate to your Osprey® video capture card only. The video capture or encoding applications you use will likely require a much more powerful system than that which is listed below. Please consult your software documentation for applicable system requirements.

Minimum system requirements

 Direct Mode: 2 GHz Intel® Pentium® 4 processor or equivalent  PostProcessing Mode and SimulStream®: 2 GHz Intel® Pentium® 4 processor or equivalent, 3

GHz recommended

 Microsoft® Windows® Professional or Home Edition, Windows Server® 2003  Up to 7.5 MB of available hard disk space  256 MB of RAM, 512 MB recommended  One available PCI Express® slot

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Osprey 240e/450e User Guide

Installation Steps

In all cases, use the setup.exe program on the product CD or in the web package if you downloaded it. The setup program automates the Plug and Play steps needed to install the drivers and ensures they are performed correctly. It also installs the bundled applets and User’s Guide. If you have multiple Osprey capture cards in the system it configures all of the boards at the same time.

We recommend this method especially if Osprey software does reside on your host computer. After the install is run, the software detects the card and its drivers initiate automatically.

If you are updating Osprey software, first uninstall the previous software version, reboot your computer, and then install the update.

Installing the driver

Insert the Osprey Software CD into your CD-Rom drive. The main menu for the Osprey software appears if you enable autoplay. If the main menu does not automatically appear, click on the Window’s computer icon and select the CD-Rom and the setup.exe icon. The Osprey A/VStream – Install Shield Wizard engages and guides you through the installation process.

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Installation Steps

Custom installing AVStream

During the installation process, if you choose a Custom installation, your options are limited (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Osprey 240e Custom Setup screen

This window allows you to choose individual components you may want to install. You can also change the location where components install.

Installing the video capture card

This manual covers one class of Osprey devices that include two PCI Express cards.

Class 6: o-240e, o-450e and related non-DSP PCI Express products

Both cards use the same driver. If you add a card from a different class, then you need to install the driver for that card.

When you add or move boards after the AVStream 4.6 driver is already installed, there are two possibilities:

 You add a board of a different class from what is already in the machine. For example, an

Osprey 240e is already in the machine with the current driver installed, and you want to add an Osprey 530. For this case, you have to obtain and install the driver install package for the new board.

 You move a board from one slot to another, or if you add another board of the same type.

For example, you might have an Osprey 240e in the machine, and want to add another Osprey 240e. In this case, the following sequence begins.

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Osprey 240e/450e User Guide

Power down and unplug your computer.

Remove the computer’s cover and locate an empty PCI Express slot.

WARNING! Be sure to install the card in the PCI Express slot. This slot is

usually black. Refer to the following diagram as a guide. Placing the card in the wrong slot can damage the card.

Remove the cover screw from the empty PCI Express slot’s cover, set the screw aside.

Remove the slot cover.

Remove the Osprey video capture card from its anti-static bag.

Insert the Osprey card into the desired PCI Express slot and make sure it is seated evenly.

Secure the back panel of the card with the slot’s cover screw.

Replace the computer cover.

Plug in and turn the computer on.

All computer cards are sensitive to electrostatic discharge. Slight electrostatic discharges from clothing or even from the normal work environment can adversely affect these cards. By following these simple guidelines, however, you can minimize the chance of damaging the Osprey video capture card.

 Handle cards only by the non-conducting edges.  Do not touch the card components or any other metal parts.  Wear a grounding strap while handling the cards (especially when located in a high

static area).

 Properly ground your computer to avoid static discharge.  Ensure the workstation is powered off before installing any components.  If you are not familiar with how to install a PCI Express

documentation for more complete, step-by-step instructions.

bus card, refer to the system’s

 Install the card only in UL Listed computers that include instructions for user-installed

accessories

To install the video capture card:

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Installation Steps

Click Continue Anyway. The Controller installing window displays, and the text inside this window changes to Osprey Video Capture Device, Installing ... Then the Digital Signature Not Found window appears on top of it.

Click Continue Anyway. The Completing the Found New Hardware window displays.

Click Finish. The Digital Signature Not Found window displays. This window displays once for each Osprey board you are installing. The Systems Setting

Change window displays.

Click Finish and click Yes to restart the system now (Figure 3).

Figure 3. System Settings Change Window

The New Hardware Wizard runs and the Found New Hardware window appears followed by the Digital Signature Not Found window (Figure 2)

Figure 2. Digital Signature Not Found Window

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Osprey 240e/450e User Guide

Setting Driver Properties

After installing the Osprey card and AVStream driver, you need to access the card’s settings and possibly modify them to fit your needs. This manual takes you step-by-step visually through the card settings. Start by opening the Osprey Config utility. Afterwards, we can explore the driver.

You need to use a DirectShow application such as Microsoft Windows Media® Encoder or RealProducer®. We also access card property pages through Osprey Config, the utility bundled with our

4.6 driver suite. Once installed you can see the card’s default settings and change them as needed.

To open Osprey Config click All Programs in the Start menu of your Windows computer  ViewCast 

Osprey 240e and 450e  Osprey Config (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Accessing the Osprey Config Utility

Note: Other DirectShow applications can find the property page too. If you use a third-party

application, you will find how to access the card’s settings in the third-party application’s documentation.

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Setting Driver Properties

OspreyConfig’s initial processing sequence

After clicking on the Osprey Config icon, the first screen of the application appears (Figure 5) showing the cards and devices installed on your computer.

Figure 5. Initial OspreyConfig user interface

In this example, the computer in use has one card and four devices. The card can take a single input and stream the content differently, for example, you can use several bit rates, sizes, and formats. Click the + icon on the left side of the device you wish to configure, to change the properties of that device.

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Osprey 240e/450e User Guide

Figure 6 shows the user interface that appears when you select a filter. We expanded the Osprey 450e Device 1A and selected Video Filter. We’ll continue with this device unless we indicate otherwise.

Figure 6. Selecting a device for configuration

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Setting Driver Properties

When you choose Device 1A and Video Filter 1, the Show Properties for Selected Filter button becomes active (Figure 7).

Figure 7. Control used to open the properties page

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Osprey 240e/450e User Guide

Understanding the device properties window

Osprey’s device properties window enables you to view and change the default settings of the 4.6 driver. Once you are familiar with the video card’s properties, you can make changes to get the optimum performance from your card and change settings in real time.

Device properties are visible through tabs to select different controls (Figure 8). The 4.6 driver includes changes from previous versions - the tabs have changed. They now take advantage of the 4.6 driver’s advances and added functionality.

Figure 8. Osprey Video Device Properties window tabs

The Osprey 240e and Osprey 450e use the same driver. The same Video Device properties appear whether you choose the Osprey 240e or the Osprey 450e. If you have other Osprey cards, they can still coexist on your PC, but they use a separate version of the drivers provided with the card. You need the driver version for video capture cards you use.

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Setting Driver Properties

Input

Select the video input, NTSC / PAL / SECAM video standard and Input Format

Video Proc Amp

Set brightness, contrast, saturation, hue, gamma, and sharpness

Video Decoder

Select the video standard – NTSC, PAL, SECAM

RefSize

Set the reference size for cropping

Filters

SimulStream®, processing mode, gamma, deinterlace, and inverse telecine*

Device

Test Pattern, Capture Buffers, Diagnostic Logging

Captions

Set up on-video closed caption rendering

Logo

Set up on-video logos

Size and Crop

Set the default size, enable cropping, set the cropping rectangle

The Osprey 240e and 450e cards have the following tabs:

* Telecine refers to the technology used to transfer or repurpose analog film into electronic media.

Some of the 4.6 drivers’ controls work interactively and changes in value immediately update the video. Examples include brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, and sharpness.

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Osprey 240e/450e User Guide

Devices and global controls

The Osprey 240e and Osprey 450e video capture cards can present multiple output streams from a single input device. For example, a company may wish to do a webcast globally to resellers, users, or potential customers. Using the Filters tab, you can set up different output streams with different bit rates to accommodate users with different bandwidths.

Some changes may affect the filter, such as cropping, logos, and captions. For example, changes to the Osprey 450e Device 1A, Filter 2 only affect that filter (Figure 9).

Change the values on Video Proc Amp, Video Decoder, Input, Filters, Device, and/or RefSize tabs and the effect is global to the card. All characteristics on each device on the card change to those changed on a single device. This is limited to the card on which the device changed. If you make changes on an Osprey 240e card residing with an Osprey 450e card, a change on the Osprey 240e does not affect the Osprey 450e devices.

Figure 9. OspreyConfig utility to access devices

DirectShow® discussions refer to pins and filters. These terms require technical experience with Microsoft’s DirectX® 9 Software Developer’s Kit. References on tabs in the Osprey driver relate to terms used by Microsoft’s streaming video software application. They exist for users with a high degree of technical expertise. You can simply ignore them and use the property tabs as discussed in this manual.

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Setting Driver Properties

Input tab

The source of data from an Osprey 240e/450e that streams to the Internet can come from a number of devices such as DVD players, digital cameras, camcorders, and so forth.

Figure 10. Input tab

The controls on the Input tab of the driver properties card have a global effect on the Osprey capture card on which they reside. If you have multiple Osprey cards, and you want to make global changes, you have to make the change on each card.

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Osprey 240e/450e User Guide

Video Input

The Video Input section of the tab allows you to select the video signal source.

Video Present

This indicator is enabled when video is present.

Video Standard

The Video Standard allows you to select the standard different countries or geographical areas use (Figure 10) from the dropdown list.

Input Format

This control works with digital cameras routing through the Osprey’s card’s analog input.

VideoCheck

This button opens a simple video monitoring window.

VideoGraph

This button launches a vectorscope/lumascope utility.

VbiGraph

This button opens an applet that displays the raw waveforms of the video’s Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI).

Click OK to accept the settings.

Cancel

Click Cancel to reject the settings and close the window.

Apply

Click Apply to apply the settings.

Help

Click Help to access the user guide.

The Input tab has the following controls.

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Setting Driver Properties

Osprey 450e AV option hardware add-on-device

In addition to the standard components built into the Osprey 450e card, you can purchase the Osprey 450e AV Option hardware add-on device.

The AV Option exposes additional inputs for Component and S-Video as well as balanced audio. For example, when you choose a Filter from standard Osprey 450e Device 1A; the default option provides a single video capability: Composite.

Note: Use Osprey Config to set balanced audio for Microsoft® Windows Media Encoder.

Figure 11. Input tab without AV option

Without the AV hardware option the default input standard is limited to Composite. With the optional add-on, you also have Composite 1,2,3,4, S-Video and Component YRYBY (Figure 11 and Figure 12).

Note: Separate video, abbreviated S-Video (also known as Y/C) is an analog video signal that

carries the video data as two separate signals. They include luma (~brightness) and chroma (~color).

Figure 12. Osprey 450e card with optional plug-in

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Osprey 240e/450e User Guide

Video input

The Video Input (Figure 16) lets you select the video signal source from a drop-down list.

Figure 13. Video Input field

Osprey 240e

The Osprey 240e is a single channel card. It has multiple video inputs, but you can select only one of them at a time. The inputs that are selectable depend on the type of dongle used. Two types of dongles are available for this board – Composite/SVideo, and YPrPb.

The connections for the Composite/SVideo dongle are shown in Figure 14.

Figure 14. Composite/SVideo dongle connections

The YPrPB dongle is primarily for YPrPb (Component) inputs, as shown in

Figure 15. YPrPb dongle connections

The blue Pb input can also be used as a Composite input. The driver should be set to Composite when thePb input is used this way.

Osprey 450e

The Osprey 450e has four separate independent video channels that can run simultaneously. You can use the board with or without an optional auxiliary expansion connector.

When the expansion connector is not installed, the only video inputs available are the Composite BNC

inputs on the board’s mounting bracket. The four connectors correspond from top to bottom to

channels A, B, C, and D. In this case, the Video Input control shows just the one input for each channel, which is selected automatically.

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Setting Driver Properties

The Osprey -450e’s optional auxiliary expansion connector for video adds three additional inputs, over three multi-purpose physical connectors for each of the four channels:

 Component (YprPb) uses all three of the auxiliary video connectors  S-Video (Y-C) connects an SVideo connector to two of the connectors via an adapter cable  Three additional Composite inputs

The labeling on the expansion panel shows which connectors to use for each purpose. The inputs for each channel, along with the channel’s bracket connector, can only be used one at a time. The hardware automatically senses at system start whether the expansion connector is plugged in, and if it is then six inputs appear in the Video Input drop-down list.

Changes to the video input take effect as soon as you click Apply or OK.

Video standard

Figure 16. Video Standard field

The Video Standard control group is a copy of the controls on the Video Decoder tab.

The North American standard is NTSC. The Japanese standard is NTSC-Japan. The five PAL standards, B, D, G, H, and I are similar, and are treated the same way by the Osprey driver. The driver also supports PAL-M and N and SECAM video. The North American standard is NTSC. The Japanese standard is NTSCJapan. The five PAL standards, B, D, G, H, and I are similar and treated the same way by the Osprey driver. The driver also supports PAL-M and PAL-N and SECAM video. PAL-N is the Argentine standard with a 3.58 MHz subcarrier. PAL-M is a standard that uses the PAL method of color encoding combined with an NTSC-type 525-line, 29.97 Hz frame format.

Changes to the video standard take effect as soon as you click Apply or OK. If video is currently streaming, you will not see correct video unless the signal format on the input is the same as the video standard you have just selected. If you are changing from a 625-line standard to a 525-line standard and your video is larger than the maximum size for the 525-line format, video will not restart until you adjust the video size to an allowed value.

Figure 17. Video Standard drop-down list

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Osprey 240e/450e User Guide

Input Format: analog inputs

Below the Video Standard drop-down list is the Input Format (Figure 18).

Figure 18. Input Format

On the Osprey 240e/450e, when an analog input becomes the media source, the controls provide adjustments that improve the clarity of video from monochrome sources. When you select a composite input line and attach a monochrome device, the result is a sharper image, as shown in the notch kill item in Figure 19. This control is only for true monochrome devices, without color capability.

B&W composite camera

Figure 19. Notch Kill

Black and white input sources are rare these days, but some do exist. For example, you may want to stream black and white historical film in a documentary film.

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Setting Driver Properties

VideoCheck

VideoCheck opens a simple video monitoring window (Figure 20). You can see the immediate effect of changes to your settings. Most changes show up automatically as soon as you click Apply. You will need to click the applet’s Update button to see a change that alters the output size of the video.

VideoCheck uses one preview stream of video. If you do not have SimulStream installed, you can only view one preview stream at a time from each device (this is in addition to the main capture stream). If VideoCheck does not work, the first thing to check is whether a preview stream is already running on the device.

Figure 20. VideoCheck

VideoGraph

VideoGraph launches a vectorscope/lumascope utility (Figure 21). VideoGraph is intended to be used

with a color bar signal from a calibrated signal generator. It shows whether the signal and the card’s

Video Proc Amp settings are calibrated to the correct luma and chroma levels.

In Figure 21, the left hand panel shows the luma levels of standard 75 % NTSC color bars. The grey background shows the expected levels, and the red line shows the actual levels measured. The right hand panel shows the chroma positions of the six colors. The small colored squares show the expected positions, and the points on the red signal pattern should line up with them.

If there are discrepancies, you can use the driver’s Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, and Hue controls on

the Video Proc Amp property page to adjust the levels.

If you don’t have a signal generator available, you can get a general idea of how VideoGraph works by disconnecting the input signal and running it with the 75 % or 100 % no-signal color bar test pattern. The driver’s test pattern will line up exactly with the VideoGraph’s targets – if the gamma setting is at the default position. Software-based Video Proc Amp controls alter the test pattern levels; hardware-based controls do not. The gamma control, and in some cases the hue control, are software-based.

The vertical slider adjusts which video line displays. You may have to move this slide so that a line that has color bar information is selected.

The horizontal slider moves the horizontal cursor – the vertical line on the luma display. The data displayed at the lower right – IRE-L, etc – is for the pixel selected by the horizontal cursor. Also, on the

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Osprey 240e/450e User Guide

chroma display, the small solid rectangular cursor corresponds to the luma cursor – that is, if the luma cursor is on the red color bar, the chroma cursor will be at or near the red point in the chroma display.

There are also controls to set the background markings for 75 % or 100 % signal levels, and for eight or seven bars – so that the markings correspond to the type of color bars your signal generator is making.

The Help button on the applet brings up a message box with an alternate, and slightly more technical description.

Figure 21. VideoGraph

VbiGraph

VbiGraph (Figure 22) opens an applet that displays the raw waveforms of the video’s Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI). The information on these lines may include closed captions (CC), wide screen signaling (WSS), vertical interval timecode (VITC), and teletext. The applet is useful as a diagnostic if the expected data is not being decoded – you can see if the required signal is there at all, whether it is in spec, and which line it is on.

The controls select the field and line to be displayed. The only time you need the Update button is when you switch between 525-line and 625-line video standards.

Figure 22. VbiGraph

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Setting Driver Properties

Video Proc Amp tab

Video Proc Amp stands for Video Process Amplifier. It controls various characteristics of streaming output from Osprey 240e/450e cards. The Video Proc Amp is the second tab from the left of the Device 1A properties (Figure 23).

Figure 23. Video Proc Amp Tab

The Video Proc Amp uses slider controls to adjust brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, sharpness, and gamma. If you’re using the preview or capture mode in real-time, then you can see your adjustments as you make them with the Video Proc Amp controls.

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Brightness and Contrast

These terms are used for contrast ratio. It’s a measure of a display system, defined as the ratio of the brightest color (white) to that of the darkest color (black) that the system can produce. A high contrast ratio is a desired aspect of any display, but with the various methods of measurement for a system or its part, different measured values can sometimes produce similar results. The control exists in the event you need to change the ratio of an incoming signal.

Hue

Hue adjustment only functions for NTSC video. It sets the predominance of color, classed as red, yellow, green, blue or an intermediate color based on a contiguous pair of these colors

Saturation

In color theory, saturation or purity refers to the intensity of a specific hue. A highly saturated hue has a vivid, intense color, while a less saturated hue appears more muted and grey. With no saturation at all, the hue becomes a shade of grey. You are able to adjust the saturation level in the event it is altered by a video feed.

Sharpness

This slider has eight positions corresponding to eight hardware filter settings. Generally, the positions to the left result in smoother video, the positions to the right result in sharper video. Since each step engages a different combination of discrete filters, some steps may result in slight differences while other steps may result in large differences. The range is 0 to 7.

Gamma

You will rarely need to use this control. In simple terms, the input of a feed from a device into your card may not match the digital output on your screen. The gamma control enables you to balance the red, blue, and green from the input to output within the normal range of people’s perceptions.

White Balance