[thelist] Video Capture/Hardware/Software

[Mike Migurski]

>Well the real problem is (Mac Lover digital Video Trainer at one time)
>not the computer but the throughput.  A single frame grab of 640*480 NTSC
>video is 30 megs and each grab is 2 Frames and there are 60 Frames a
>second.

Er ... 30Mb???

You have, AT MOST, 640 pixels x 480 pixels x 3 color channels x 1 byte per
channel per pixel = ~900Kb per frame. That's assuming you have zero
compression, which is pretty much never the case. NTSC is 29.97 frames per
second, since captured video typically ignores the interlacing.

If you're talking about putting small video clips online, divide
everything by two: 15 frames per second, 320 x 240 should be just fine.
Add some decent compression on top of that (MPEG, Sorensen, etc.), and the
filesizes just keep dwindling. Programs like Media Cleaner will assist you
in choosing appropriate compression settings.

To the original poster: find a someone with a mac if you don't have one
yourself, they are seriously light-years ahead of PC's in terms of video
handling out-of-the-box. You will find that iMovie is a breeze to work
with, and you'll save gobs of time by using the right tools the first time
around.

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michal migurski- contact info and pgp key:
                 http://www.saturn5.com/mike/contact.html

                "Freedom! Horrible, horrible freedom!"