Multimedia Machine

[Cyklopz]

Hello everyone,

I am about to work on a project using a 2u rackmount computer chassis. This machine will hopefully be running dual PIII 1ghz cpus and at least 512megs of PC100/133 memory. I have room for one PCI card (it has video built in) and I'd like to use SS and a good cap card in this machine on my home LAN.

My question is what could I expect from such a machine being used for video capture from cable input? Also, is a separate sound card needed or does the cap card handle the sound as well as the video during recording?

Thanks for any input.

Cyklopz

[attisb]

The video that is captured, which SnapStream works very well with the Hauppague WinTV cards, is going to be as good as TV. The quality coming into the computer is what is going to come out. To get the best try setting SnapStream to DVD quality.

As for the sound card as long as you can here the sound from the computer SnapStream will capture it. WinTV cards tend to have a small wire that comes out of the WinTV card and into the Line in of the sound card or motherboard which ever be the case. In SnapStream you set the audio capture to Line In.

In version three of SnapStream, due to be released in December/January, the hardware wizard that you must run first before using SnapStream will set all the settings for you. The only option you may have to change is the capture quality. Change it to DVD quality or make you own.

[V_D_O]

is a separate sound card needed

If your motherboard has builtin sound, then PVS can use it to capture sound (connect your TV tuner to the external line-in or internal aux-in connector of the sound card or motherboard). Alternatively, you can buy an external sound card, like the USB Creative SB Extigy. You will, however, need a sound card or a chip in your motherbard, the TV tuner can't handle the sound on its own.

[Cyklopz]

Thanks for the info everyone. The exteranl sound car! Of course. I had forgotten about those. It only has one pci slot for use but it does have USB.

I was mostly curious how the dual PIII 1ghz cpus would do in this usage.

Cyklopz

[V_D_O]

I was mostly curious how the dual PIII 1ghz cpus would do in this usage

They should be great. I'd advise Win XP Pro for maximum performance. Since the WMP codecs are optimized for dual CPUs, you should easily get 640x480 with a decent bitrate and frame rate. Even the WMP9 codecs should work OK.

[MattS]

I've been really suprised at the performace increases I see when using dual CPUs. Let me know how your CPU usage looks when you get it up and running a high quality recording.

[Cyklopz]

The 2u system came in while I was away for the holidays so I should be able to begin working on this project soon.

Has anyone ever used the Extigy external sound card (usb) with SS successfully? Are there any gotchas I can watch out for?

Cyklopz