1. Video Capture Devices &Supporting Media Components

2. Brief History of Video Capture  In the early 1990s, a digital video system capable of capturing full- screen video images would have cost several thousands of dollars.

3.  Until the arrival of the Pentium processor in 1993, even the most powerful PCs were limited to capturing images no more than 160x120 pixels.

4.  The turning point for digital video systems came as Pentium II processors finally exceeded 200MHz. At this speed, PCs could handle images up to 320x240 without the need for expensive compression hardware.

5.  Using the PCI bus, TV Tuner/Video capture cards connect to video camera by S-Video or VCR Cables.

6.  Introduced in 1995 by Apple computers for the Sony video camera, only the IEEE 1394 Firewire serial bus had the bandwidth of 400 Mbps to perform high speed data transfer from a DV format device to a host system.

7.  Since Windows 98 SE, Microsoft has had DV class driver support for IEEE 1394-Firewire based DV devices.

8.  By the autumn of 1998 several consumer-oriented video capture devices were on the market which provided full-screen video capture for as little as a few hundred dollars.

9.  Introduced in 2002, high speed USB technology increases bandwidth to 480 Mbps which makes high speed DV data transfer possible over the 2.0 USB port that exceeds Firewire IEEE 1394.

10.  In 2003, ratifying the USB Video Class (UVC) 1.0 Specification by the USB Device Working Group (DWG), the USB Video Class specification includes a DV format definition and transport control protocol.

11.  For Dazzle 90 by Pinnacle, USB 2.0 ports provide adequate bandwidth for similar 720x480 hi-resolution video capture devices which connect to the video media device by S-video and VCR cables.

12.  Sources  http://www.pctechguide.com/24digvid _History.htm http://www.pctechguide.com/24digvid _History.htm http://www.pctechguide.com/24digvid _History.htm  http://www.pctechguide.com/24digvid _Digital_camcorders.htm http://www.pctechguide.com/24digvid _Digital_camcorders.htm http://www.pctechguide.com/24digvid _Digital_camcorders.htm  http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/syste m/platform/mediacenter/MCPCvidcap. mspx http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/syste m/platform/mediacenter/MCPCvidcap. mspx http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/syste m/platform/mediacenter/MCPCvidcap. mspx  www.pc-utilities.co.uk Issue 37: Upgrade to USB 2.0 and Firewire. www.pc-utilities.co.uk  http://www.cablestogo.com/ http://www.cablestogo.com/