VIDEO BOARD

A somewhat misleading term that can apply to video capture and/or video playback hardware inside a computer. Video can be played back on computers without having video capture hardware. This enables CD-ROM users to view video and animations without having to install MPC or other standard video capture boards. However, if video capture boards are installed, users can also connect their computers to video sources (video recorders, video cameras, and television signals) in order to either view incoming video "on the fly" and/or capture segments of the video into digitized formats such as quicktime, avi, MPEG , or JPEG video formats. . Video board options for PCs are compared in NewMedia 1996 Tool Guide . In particular, Windows users should not purchase or install a video capture board before reading Doyle (1994b) . He provides excellent advice on things to do before installing a Windows video board along with comparisons of alternative hardware options. Price is not currently a good indicator of quality and features. He also provides important advice for capturing and storing video files. For example, video files should not be saved using disk compression utilities like Doublespace or Stacker. For capturing and playback of digitized video into and out of computer files, a full-motion video frame grabber (digitizer) of some type allows authors to capture selected full-motion video (camcorder, videotape, videodisc, cable TV, satellite dish, etc.) images and convert those analog frames into digital graphics files on the computer. Video boards (cards) and frame grabbers start at around $200, but prices vary a great deal with vendors and options, including options under Microsoft Windows Video MCI standards, Apple QuickTime standards, IBM M-Motion (MM) standards, MPEG standards, and Intel Indeo standards. Virtually every major computer brand on the market has multiple options for video (multimedia) devices. Many of those devices also have accompanying frame grabber software. For example, readers may consider Pioneer's LaserActive system (213-746-6337). Compression boards for PCs come in a variety of prices and features. MPEG compression requires MPEG playback boards and/or MPEG authoring boards such as the Optibase MPG-1000 digital video code compression/decompression) board (800-451-5101).. Other alternatives such as XingIt from Xing Technology (800-294-6448) for video capturing software on ReelMagic MPEG playback hardware from Sigma designs (800-845-8086) are listed in Appendix 6. MPEG encoding compression boards are now available for under $1,000. Most computer vendors are now offering MPEG playback (decoding) options, but these differ from recording (encoding) options. However, until there are millions of computer users with newer computer hardware capacity to run MPEG digitized video, Microsoft Video for Windows under MCI standards and Apple QuickTime will probably remain more common in CD-ROM authoring of education materials until the market sorts out its preferences for MPEG , DVI, and the Intel Indeo. The term "video overlay" is used to depict a video board option to view live video "on the fly" in a monitor screen without burdening the CPU until the user elects to capture video. Not all video cards have video overlay options. (See also Active video , QuickTime , and Video capture )