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Pinnacle DC2000

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

This is the latest professional video encoding and editing solution from Pinnacle. It allows you to do real time video editing directly in MPEG2, which is the most commonly used format for creating digital video content. It consists of a dual codec PCI card, which has a DV input/output connector, and a D-Sub62 connector. While the former can connect to IEEE1394 DV equipment, the latter connects to what’s called a Breakout Box, which has various audio and video input/output connectors. 

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We set up the system on a P4 machine with 512 MB RAM running Win 2000. It can also work on Win 98 and NT systems. Setting up the card is quite simple, and you need to install Adobe Premiere 6.0 LE before doing so, which is a part of the pack. Most of the card’s functionality is used through Premiere, as it installs several plug-ins for that. When creating a new project in Premiere, DC2000 gives several presets to choose from in order to speed things up. These presets define several things such as the editing mode, video format and audio settings. Of course, if you’re a video professional, you can also customize the presets to match your requirement. Many of these settings can also be done from a separate utility, if you don’t want to do it through Premiere. There’s also a utility to measure your hard drive’s transfer rates, which can be useful to determine whether your hard drive is fast enough to capture your video. 

Marvel

G450 eTV
Price Rs 154,999
Features  Real-time MPEG2 encoding and editing, CD and DVD authoring 
Pros Fast rendering, easy to set up, good software bundle
Contact Aditya Infotech,

Delhi. 



Tel: 011-6816986-90.


E-mail: navinder_
chauhan@adityagroup.com

We tried everything from capturing video from a VCR to editing and final output. We did these both before and after setting up DC2000, and found a tremendous difference. The card really helps speed up the entire process. Video capturing can be done in MPEG2, AVI, QuickTime, or through a IEE1394/DV device. Similarly, you can define the frequency and compression for audio capture. You can also choose other formats for editing like AVI, DV Playback, Video for Windows, and QuickTime.

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DC2000 also adds several of its own transition and video affects, which can be applied to your captured video. These can be previewed before being applied, in case you want to change some of their settings. Some of these transitions include wipe, zig-zag, cross dissolve, and checker board. In the video settings, you can invert, change the brightness, saturation, etc all in realtime. Of course, not all effects are real-time, meaning they have to be rendered before you can view them. For this, DC2000 has a playback plug-in for Premiere, called Instant Video. This handles the video clips and effects in the time line and controls playback and audio scrubbing. It indicates whether a particular transition or effect requires rendering or not, through a simple red or green signal.

Once you’ve created your video with all the transitions, special effects, etc, you can directly output it into DVD format. For this, the card comes with a software called Impression DVD SE. This allows you to output video into an interactive Autoplay CD or DVD. Besides this, DC2000 also comes with several other software and special effects plug-ins. Another interesting feature in the card is device control, which allows you to control the tape mechanism of a camcorder or VCR connected to the DV interface of the card. This can let you even output your video to a

betacam.

Overall, this is a good option for video-editing professionals, looking for broadcast quality video output. It supports all MPEG formats such as I, IP and IBP frames. The last option is good for creating streaming Internet video. 

Anil Chopra

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