Copyright: © miroComputer Products AG 1997
Citation: © miroComputer Products AG 1997


Configuration
During the installation the miroVIDEO DC30 configuration program starts automatically. You can use the configuration program to test your miroVIDEO DC30 board and to analyse your computer system.

If you want to start the configuration program later, double-click the program icon in the miroVIDEO DC30 program group.

Test

Expert


Test

Click Test to test the hardware.

You get information about:

Language selection
The miroVIDEO DC30 language selection dialog box always displays the language you chose for the miroVIDEO DC30 installation. If necessary, select another language.

Driver version information
Here you find all drivers, programs, and the corresponding version number used by miroVIDEO DC30.

Testmodes
Specifies if all miroVIDEO DC30 components function correctly. In case of a malfunction, you will be notified. In this case, please insert the miroVIDEO DC30 board into another slot.
If your graphics board supports the PCI (digital) overlay, the program detects this and displays a message. If you change the current resolution, it may happen that the digital overlay is not supported for this resolution.

If you selected a very high resolution, color depth, and refresh rate you will receive a message during the test notifying you that the digital overlay is not supported. In this case, lower the resolution and the color depth and test the hardware again.


Expert

If you installed the miroVIDEO DC30 for the first time, the hard disk transfer test utility starts automatically. miroVIDEO EXPERT tests the performance of your hard disk. If more than one hard disk is installed in your system, you should test all hard disks and use the hard disk offering the highest data rate for video capturing. For more details, refer to the miroVIDEO EXPERT help.


Video format
The Options (VidCap) menu item and the Video Format command open the Video Format window.

Border size

Quality adjustments

Pixel ratio

Cropping

Statistics

Expert

Default


Border size

Here you can select the image size of the video clip:

Horizontal
When selecting Full resolution (default), all pixels of a video clips will be digitized, when selecting Half resolution, every second pixel is digitized: pixels which have not been digitized are interpolated from the digitized pixels.

Vertical
If you enabled Both fields, Both fields are recorded, when enabling One field, only one field is digitized.

Frame ratio
You can select between the 4:3 and the 16:9 (cinemascope) aspect ratio.

Cropping
When clicking Cropping the Cropping  field is added to the window.

Here you can view the compression factor (with reference to the data rate). If you change the image settings, the compression factor changes automatically.


Quality adjustments

Compression
Here you can select the compression rate. If this rate exceeds the rate determined by miroVIDEO Expert, you will be notified. The data rate slider is adjusted accordingly.

Data rate
Here you can determine the Data rate you want to use for capturing the video clip. If this rate exceeds the rate determined by miroVIDEO EXPERT, you will be notified and the data rate is shown in red. The compression slider will be adjusted accordingly. The data rate is shown in KB per second.

The adjustment of the compression and the data rate is based on the value determined by miroVIDEO EXPERT. This value shall give you an idea which date rate you should select, you can also choose a higher or a lower rate to achieve an ideal result. Test your system!


Pixel ratio

Lets you choose between Square and CCIR601.

Choosing CCIR601 (studio standard) either reduces the data rate, or, if the data rate remains the same, increases the quality.


Cropping

Here you can select the image section.

•	None
When enabling None, you capture the complete TV image including the image margin which normally is not visible on the TV screen.

•	TV
When enabling TV,  you choose the normal TV image size. The complete captured video is shown on the TV monitor. Image data from the image margin which are not important will be omitted and the quality increases.

•	Special
Under Special you can determine the image section yourself using the slider. The current image size is displayed.


Statistics

The Statistics inform you about the frame size and the file size that will be achieved for the settings you chose.


Expert

If you have not started the miroVIDEO EXPERT hard disk transfer test utility yet or if you want to test your hard disk or another hard disk again, use the Expert... button to do so.


Default

The Default button selects the image settings and the data rate based on the values determined by miroVIDEO EXPERT.

If you did not save any values, miroVIDEO EXPERT starts automatically. In this case, test your hard disk(s) and save the value.


Video source
The Options (VidCap) menu item and the Video Source command allow to choose the video source and to set the video quality.

Input

Standard

Pixel ratio

Video-loopthrough

Display

NTSC options


Input

Here you can select the miroVIDEO DC30Video input to which the video source connects: composite or S-Video. This setting remains unchanged. If you connect a video source to another video input, you have to select the other input. If not, no video image appears on your monitor.

If you connect a video source supporting another video standard than the one selected, choose the correct Standard.


Standard

Here you select the video standard of a video source: PAL, NTSC, or SECAM.


Pixel ratio

Lets you choose between Square and CCIR601.

Choosing CCIR601 (studio standard) either reduces the data rate or, if the data rate remains the same, increases the quality.


Display

The Display field lets you select the brightness, the contrast, the saturation, and the sharpness. You can preview the video image simultaneously as you change the settings (except for the sharpness on the digital overlay). The higher the sharpness setting, the higher the data rate. For noisy or bad footage you should lower the sharpness setting.

While you change the values using the slider, distortions may occur in the preview or in the overlay.


NTSC options

If you selected NTSC, you can select special NTSC options: Comb Filter is a filter especially designed for NTSC which improves the composite signal quality. You can only enable Comb Filter if you selected a composite input.
Enable the 4.433 MHz color carrier option, if your source offers this color carrier. If there is no color in the preview or in the overlay, change the setting for this option.


Control
miroVIDEO DC30 Control lets you adjust the miroVIDEO DC30 video output. As soon as you start an application for playing back video (e.g. the Media Player), miroVIDEO DC30 Control starts automatically and is minimized in the task bar.

You can, however, start miroVIDEO DC30 Control before starting an application for editing or playing back video (especially recommended for Adobe Premiere). This ensures that miroVIDEO DC30 drivers remain loaded. In this way, you can access your video clips faster.

⇒	While playing back a video clip, you cannot change the settings in miroVIDEO DC30 Control. The settings take effect after restarting the playback.

Click the miroVIDEO DC30 button in the task bar to open miroVIDEO DC30 Control. Make the required settings. You can also make the settings clicking the right mouse key.

Standard

Device

Video loopthrough

AVI Cache Adjust

Synchroniszed start

Overlay Adjust


Standard

Select the desired video standard for the miroVIDEO DC30 output.

⇒	NTSC video clips cannot be played back at a PAL resolution with the full image size and without jerks. PAL video clips cannot be played back at an NTSC resolution.


Device

This option improves the video output: Super-Video, Composite Video, Window (accelerated), Window (standard). When enabling Window (accelerated), the image refresh is faster but the image is not extremely sharp, Window (standard) offers the maximum quality.


Pixel ratio

Here you can choose between Automatical adaption, Square and CCIR601.

If you enabled Automatical adaption, but no video image is output at the miroVIDEO DC30 video output and the video clips only appears in a Windows window, switch to Square or CCIR601.


Video loopthrough

Depending on the connection you chose (one VCR connected to the miroVIDEO DC30 video input and to the video output), you have to enable the Video loopthrough option.

If miroVIDEO DC30 is not active, that is if no video clips are recorded nor played back and the Video loopthrough check box is enabled, a feedback between the VCR and the miroVIDEO DC30 may occur which causes disturbing effects. To avoid this disable Video loopthrough.


AVI Cache

The AVI Cache button lets you change the cache size for video data. The miroVIDEO DC30 Control window will be expanded by AVI Cache Adjust. The Video buffer field allows you to select the number of images you want the cache to store. You can choose between a number of 6 and 128. The setting takes effect immediately. Clicking Default size selects the default settings (16) which suffices for most applications. A hint at the bottom of the dialog box shows you the approximate memory required at a data rate of 3 MB per second.

⇒	Please note the a large cache size needs much memory. Especially on systems having not much memory the system performance may be reduced considerably.


Synchronized start

If the Synchronized start button has been enabled, a dialog appears when you start to play back a movie and all frames have been loaded into the cache. When you confirm this dialog, the playback starts immediately. This mode is required when you want to record video to tape and have to avoid delays during playback.


Overlay Adjust

Here you can select the overlay resolution (high, medium, low) and determine if you want to view an overlay during playback or not. When you enable the “miro logo“ check box, the miro logo appears during playback.


Overlay
If miroVIDEO DC30 is installed in your computer together with a DirectDraw-capable graphics board (miroMEDIA View, miroMEDIA 3D, all graphics board with a S3 TrioV64+- or ViRGE chip), the overlay function should be available.

If digital overlay does not work with these boards, change the resolution, number of colors, and the refresh rate (Control Panel, Display, Settings), or ask for new drivers.

With some graphics boards, the horizontal resolution is not completely available which causes “step effects” in the overlay. The quality of the recorded video clips, however, will not be affected! Reducing the resolution or the number of colors may improve the overlay quality.

In the miroVIDEO DC30 Overlay you can select the overlay resolution (high, medium, low) and determine if you want to view an overlay during recording or not. When you enable the “miro logo“ check box, the miro logo appears during recording.