The Video Hardware

When considering a video production project using Linux, it is absolutely required that you research the kernel-supported hardware for video capturing. Make sure you have a list of the currently supported Video4Linux video capture devices handy when you go to your local computer retail store to buy a video capture device. I researched the drivers, the hardware, and the prices and then decided to get what I felt was the best bang for my buck, the Pinnacle Systems Studio DC10 Plus video capture card.

I found the price to be right in my budget range, and the driver was available for download from a Web site. The driver is not yet included in the Video4Linux list of kernel drivers, but it is Video4Linux compliant.

As you are probably aware, support for various hardware devices under Linux comes very infrequently, mostly because a few talented individuals devote some of their time and their knowledge of hardware and programming. Some also rely on getting hardware donated to them by manufacturers not willing to put in their time to support Linux (a huge mistake, if I may say so) or by fellow users or programmers who really want a particular piece of hardware supported. Not all of us can write device drivers, but we can support those who do with free hardware, praise, or thanks.

Frame Grabbers

Frame grabber ”what a strange name for something! But the name serves it well because it describes what's going on. In lay terms, a frame grabber is a device that converts an analog video signal into a digital representation of video frames. The frames are stored on your hard disk, a process known as video capture, by various methods using different techniques of encoding and compression.

Video Cameras

In doing your research for supported hardware, you should consider your video playback device. By this I mean your camera or VCR. Is your camera a digital camera with Fire Wire output, or does it have the more common analog output device? This makes a huge difference in your choice of supported hardware. I have a Sharp Viewcam VL-E650, which is not a digital camera. It outputs a standard analog signal. A simple cable connects my camera to a video capture card, or frame grabber, using standard RCA connectors for the video signal and the sound.

Your camera should have some way of connecting to a VCR using RCA connectors. If not, then you might have to play your videotape from a VCR using a tape adapter cartridge in order to capture the video. If your camera is like mine, it does not have stereo outputs, so use a Y splitter to give you left and right sound cables. It won't be stereo, but at least the sound won't come from only one of your stereo speakers .

Webcams

Webcams can also be used to capture video. It should be noted, however, that many Webcams do not have a very good picture quality, and their frame rates can be very slow. They are intended mainly for transferring video between computers over the Internet.

For this purpose, they work quite well, since video quality is usually not an issue among friends in a video conference. The other downside to Webcams for my projects is the fact that they have to be connected to a computer in order to capture video.

For the project I'm writing about, I needed to be able to take my video camera to the local R/C racing track to shoot video. I positioned the camera in various places to get the best shots of my R/C (Radio Control) monster truck flying through the air. You can't do that while tethered to a computer. This is why a supported video capture device is crucial to my projects.

Your System

Video production, capturing, editing, and storing requires a beefy system. You'll want to have plenty of memory, lots of hard disk space, and a decent-speed CPU. My configuration is as follows :

MSI K7T Pro-2A motherboard (with UDMA100)

AMD Athlon 1-Ghz CPU

512MB memory

Western digital 7200 RPM 30GB UDMA100 hard disk

Creative SBLive! Value soundcard

PowerColor PowerGene MX (GeFORCE 2 MX) video card

Pinnacle Systems Studio DC10 Plus analog video capture card

Due to the amount of data being transferred from your capture card to your hard disk, I highly advise you to use a hard disk of at least 7200 RPM and at least UltraDMA/33 as the interface. The faster the hard disk and interface speed, the less likely it will be that you'll get lost frames during the video/audio capture process. If your hard disk or interface is slower, you might try increasing the number of frame buffers so that the system has time to write to disk while it's capturing the video/audio frames. Playback is also where a faster drive and interface really come into play, because the drive may simply be too slow to load enough video frames into memory to play at 30 frames a second.