*goes to digout chat logs with ErMaC*
ErMaCStudios: well here's the deal
ErMaCStudios: first off, it's a firewire card
ErMaCStudios: so you can run any firewire device through it, be it dv cameras or hard drives
JasonPassman: k
ErMaCStudios: second it's also a capture device. It's got Analog in (Svideo/composite/RCA audio)
ErMaCStudios: it's capture driver, however, only works from within Premiere, and it encodes directly to DV
ErMaCStudios: so no capturing in VirtualDub or anything like that unfortunately
ErMaCStudios: third it's a video output device. It's got another set of Svid/comp/audio connectors which output to a video monitor or VTR
JasonPassman: okay, I'm following you..
ErMaCStudios: these outputs will display any DV encoded material, or stuff which can be rendered in realtime on the premiere timeline
ErMaCStudios: fourth is it's a realtime effects accellerator for Premiere
JasonPassman: Meaning...?
ErMaCStudios: it can take 2 DV streams, or a DV stream and mix them in a few ways in realtime and output them through video
JasonPassman: okay
ErMaCStudios: i.e. I can laydown a whole bunch of video with just cuts going between them
ErMaCStudios: and it will never have to render anything
ErMaCStudios: as long as I'm working from DV files
ErMaCStudios: if I'm working from other material like AVISynth or non-DV AVI files, I will have to render said footage to DV (which is assisted by the card in hardware) and then it will output
JasonPassman: okay
ErMaCStudios: I do that by hitting enter and letting it build a preview
JasonPassman: That really is a nice card...
ErMaCStudios: yup
ErMaCStudios: for instance
ErMaCStudios: since Soul of an Angel's source was all prerendered to DV beforehand
ErMaCStudios: (it was captured analog or converted digitally to DV beforehand)
JasonPassman: okay
ErMaCStudios: I can render the majority of the video in realtime
JasonPassman: humm...
ErMaCStudios: basically you get up to 2 tracks at once
JasonPassman: How do you render it to DV?
ErMaCStudios: Well when you install the DV500 drivers
ErMaCStudios: they add another Edit Mode
ErMaCStudios: you know how you have Video For Windows or Quicktime?
JasonPassman: yep
ErMaCStudios: it adds "Pinnacle DV500"
JasonPassman: Oh
ErMaCStudios: and using that enables Realtime
ErMaCStudios: and automatically sets your codecs and resolution etc.
JasonPassman: okay..
ErMaCStudios: now the thing you'll have to remember
ErMaCStudios: is that you're working in DV
JasonPassman: So you can only use that edit mode to render in real-time?
ErMaCStudios: so everything is 720x480 and 29.97
ErMaCStudios: yes
JasonPassman: Okay
JasonPassman: So if my source is widescreen, what do I do?
ErMaCStudios: turning that on enables the Pinnacle RealTime tools
ErMaCStudios: you feed it in through an AVS file that resizes it
JasonPassman: Oh, okay..
ErMaCStudios: remember the only things it'll work with in realtime are DV files
ErMaCStudios: and DV files have to be 720x480 anyways
JasonPassman: So no MPEG?
ErMaCStudios: not in realtime, no
ErMaCStudios: you can import anything
ErMaCStudios: but the realtime only works with Bitmap, Targa, or Photoshop stills or DV video