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video capture card

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shanku_16in

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Hello.
i am a project trainee in TCS. I have been given the task of finding a video capture card with the following specifications:
1.It should support PCI bus
2.It should work in LINUX
3.It should give a minimum capture frame rate of 30 fps
4.It should have 4 input channels
5.The output should be given in RGB

After searching a lot, all that i have managed to find have everything except the RGB output. Infact, I found an Nvidia card(Quadro SDI capture card) which even gives RGB output, but my project lead says it has too many extra features that has added to its cost substantially and is not viable for the project that i am working on.
Now the solution that i have thought to this is converting the MPEG4 output given by most cards into RGB by some additional simple hardware. But googling does not help. Can anyone please help me on this by advicing something that converts MPEG4 into RGB.

Thank you,
Siddharth
 
Check out the top board on this page:
Video capture cards | AccessGrid.org

It has two D-sub connectors on it. One obviously takes a cat-of-nine-tails cable with the four BNC connectors installed on it.
The other D connector we can only hope is an RGB output, as they don't supply much info. It does have Linux support. It's not cheap, as it goes for $150 USD with the discount.

I see what you mean by "hard to find". I can find 4-channel PCI video capture boards all over for as little as 15 to 20 bucks, but there is hardly any info to go with them. The vast majority have four BNC connectors taking all the rear panel space, and a simple composite TV output jack at best. I suppose they expect the user to display captured video on the PC display.
Later.
kenjj
 
I looked up the Nvidia card you mention above. It isn't just PCI, it is PCI-Express, 8-channels. It's output is through a BNC connector, in a SERIAL signal of some kind. And it's $2,690. A tad pricey.
And the first board above probably uses the other DB connector to capture VGA video signals. I can't say for sure, but I found boards that do that.
Basically, I think you're up the creek. You might want to consider a two board solution: one PCI 4-channel video capture board, and one suitable video-out board with VGA, RGB, whatever.
Does your PC have PCI-E by any chance? Just about all modern video boards seem to be PCI-E(xpress).
kenjj
 
Thanks for your concern, but i have already tried out all the available Video Capture Cards from Bluecherry and none of them have mentioned RGB output as i have noticed.
Yes, a Capture card loaded with all the things i need is quite difficult to find, most of them do not have all the things clearly mentioned.
 
Actually i will tell you the motherboard we're thinking of using.
Its LT600-DR, it has 6 PCI slots and one PCI-ex slot.
so i think it would be better to have a card that works on PCI because PCI-ex is not always available.
and can you please clarify on this "video-out board with VGA, RGB, whatever"
please give some names or links, as i am not very experienced in this field, m just a trainee.
 
The main problem here is what he's wanting to do, video capture cards are just that - inputs!.

He's wanting an 'input' card with an output as well, and a specific type of output at that.

Any output is more likely to be on the PC side, from it's video card, and not a function of the capture card.

The added problem of Linux makes things more difficult as well, even today Linux drivers and support is pretty rare.
 
Thats true. That is adding to my woes as i need a specific kind of output, which is though available, but no on linux, as most capture cards do not have linux support, and those which do do not have an RGB output. Atleast that is what i found out.
Also as my project lead told me that converting MPEG4 into RGB increases the processor requirements substantially that is making it unviable!
That is why, i need the specific card which has all the mentioned functions, and at the same time is cost efficient too.
I found a card DVP-7020B from 'Advantech', but m unsure if linux drivers are available for that card. The manual mentions support for windows xp/2000.
 
Google is your friend.
So I did a search for "Linux driver Conexant bt878a" (used on card you mention) and found:
**broken link removed**
This guy claims a module exists for this in Mandrake 9.1. Read the article while you're at it, he does some interesting stuff with it. You could do the same search and look at the other hits.

If all else fails, my brother writes Linux drivers
all
day
long.
His name is Gary Jennejohn. Do a Google on his name. He is the member of several Linux forums. He sleeps, eats and breathes this stuff. For compensation, of course. Send me an email or PM through the forum if interested.
kenjj
 
i do'nt know about VGA output. As i said, I am just a trainee and so do not have much knowledge or experience in these things. Does it give the same output as RGB?
I think it would be better, if i stick to simply RGB as i do not know if there wold be any difficulties in processing the images in that case.
 
i do'nt know about VGA output. As i said, I am just a trainee and so do not have much knowledge or experience in these things. Does it give the same output as RGB?
I think it would be better, if i stick to simply RGB as i do not know if there wold be any difficulties in processing the images in that case.

VGA is RGB - but just quoting RGB is pretty meaningless - you've really been pretty vague about what you're wanting to do and why?.
 
@ Nigel Goodwin

I want a 4-input capture card, and the video captured by this card will be processed using a DSP.
the OS has to be LINUX.
The DSP I am goin to use is a c6000 series chip of TI.
For now, I have to clear that doubt about RGB and VGA.
 
okay... what is the difference between MPEG-4 and VGA?
Because most video cards i am finding have an MPEG-4 output. Is it the same as VGA?
Linux support is not that hard to find. There are a lot of bluecherry cards available which have Linux support at around 100-150 bucks.
 
okay... what is the difference between MPEG-4 and VGA?

VGA is a type of hardware connection to a monitor, a form of RGB+sync.

MPEG4 is a software compression system for compressing files to make them smaller - I suspect you're confused as to what an 'output' is?.

Because most video cards i am finding have an MPEG-4 output. Is it the same as VGA?
Linux support is not that hard to find. There are a lot of bluecherry cards available which have Linux support at around 100-150 bucks.
 
I suspect you're confused as to what an 'output' is?.


no, I am not confused to what an 'output' is, its just that my project lead had asked me to find something which doesn't gives its output in MPEG-4. So, having MPEG-4 compression, can we have the output in VGA?
Are there any conditions for that?
 
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no, I am not confused to what an 'output' is, its just that my project lead had asked me to find something which doesn't gives its output in MPEG-4. So, having MPEG-4 compression, can we have the output in VGA?
Are there any comditions for that?

MPEG4 and VGA are in no way related, and nothing to do with each other.
 
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