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Choosing the proper video capture hardware is
essential to obtain the highest quality video possible with the V1 software.
The following page will help you to understand the basics of video capture and
determine if any additional hardware must be installed in your PC to begin
capturing your swing. There are many possible configurations depending on the
hardware you may already own and what capabilities your PC has. Be sure to read
this page carefully to help select the best possible setup to meet your
needs.
Our testing department has spent countless hours testing different
video capture products and have they come up with a list of recommended
devices. These have been tested and are approved for use with our software.
Please try and stick with the brands and models that we recommend, as we cannot
guarantee that a capture card or device not featured in our list of compatible
devices will work properly.
Digital Camcorder Owners (MiniDV or Digital
8mm camcorders)
>All our V1 products are designed to
work directly with any off the shelf MiniDV or Digital 8mm camcorder connected
to your PC using Firewire (also: IEEE 1394, i.LINK). This configuration offers
not only the highest quality video possible with the software, it's also the
easiest setup to configure. In most cases, you only have to connect the
Firewire cable from your camera to your PC to begin capturing video in the V1
software.
With a MiniDV or Digital 8mm camera, the video feed
from the camera is already in digital form, you only need a Firewire card
to connect your camera to your computer to begin transferring video into the V1
software. Any Firewire card will work, there is no performance gain from using
a more expensive Firewire card.
If you have a MiniDV camera and your PC
already has a Firewire port installed, no additional hardware is required, just
connect the camera to the Firewire port and you're ready to capture your
swing.
Use the Hardware Selector to determine what
hardware is necessary to connect your camera to your PC:
Analog Camcorder Owners (VHS, VHS-C,
Hi-8mm, etc.)
If you own an older analog style camcorder such as
a VHS-C or Hi-8mm model, you'll need some sort of video capture card to convert
the analog video signal from the camcorder into digital data that your PC can
interpret and save. Since the capture card is ultimately responsible for the
quality of the video you capture, using a high quality card is essential to
capturing high quality video.
For desktop systems, capture cards come in a variety of PCI or AGP
styles to be installed directly inside the computer. These types of cards may
have additional system requirements above what the V1 software requires. Before
purchasing one of these cards, please verify that the card will be compatible
with your system. Our hardware selector linked below will assist you in
locating a compatible card.
For notebook systems, capture cards cannot be
installed internally, they must connect to the notebook using whatever external
ports your system has available. If your laptop already has a Firewire port
available, we recommend the use of a 'DV Bridge' for video capture. These
provide both the highest video quality possible with an analog camera, plus they
are also 100% Plug-and-Play, just like their DV camera counterparts. Even if
you don't have a Firewire port, we recommend purchasing a Firewire card along
with a DV bridge for best results.
Our hardware selector will help you determine what options will work best
for your system. It returns results ranked by video quality, from highest
quality to the lowest quality. There is usually a correlation between price and
performance, budget priced cards offer budget video quality, while more
expensive cards offer higher quality video.
Use the Hardware Selector to determine what additional hardware is
necessary to connect your camera to your PC:
Webcam Owners (USB or USB 2.0 webcams)
Webcams are usually not an ideal choice for video capture,
although most models will function with the software. These usually lack
important features such as a shutter speed adjustment (prevents 'motion blur'),
and they output video in a lower resolution and framerate than the recommended
DV cameras. While they can be used, video quality will be much lower than what
the V1 is capable of.
USB 2.0 webcams feature higher resolution and
framerate and are usually acceptable within the software. We recommend the
Orange Micro IBOT 2 USB 2.0 webcam, this model even features an automatic
high-speed shutter to eliminate motion blurring when used under the proper
lighting conditions.
No additional hardware is usually required for these cameras. You need
only a free USB or USB 2.0 port on your PC to connect them to the PC. Check on
the webcam box or in the instruction manual for setup instructions
Digital Still Camera with Movie Capture Owners (CoolPix,
Mavica, many others)
Digital still image cameras featuring movie capture may or may not be used,
depending on the capabilities of the camera. We do not recommend using these
types of cameras as they usually do not capture an image clearly enough to allow
you to accurately analyze your swing. These cameras were intended to capture
highly compressed files to be easily e-mailed, they were not designed to capture
videos to be replayed in frame by frame slow motion.
All video capture
with these cameras will be done solely with the camera. Video files must be
imported from the camera to your PC using whatever means the camera offers.
Videos will be opened as read-only files within V1, they usually cannot be
trimmed. Video quality with these cameras is determined entirely by the camera,
V1 will only replay what your camera has captured.
For these cameras to work, they must capture either .MPG / .MPEG or
MotionJPEG .AVI files. The software cannot use .MOV (Apple Quicktime) format
videos. Please check your camera manual for file format details and additional
information about video capture capabilities.
These cameras will not work directly with the V1 software for live
video capture. You must do all capturing using the camera or software included
with the camera to create the video files, then open these files using the V1
software. No additional hardware is required to use these with V1.
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