BNC 1420 - Video Microscope - Manual (Page 7)

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composite video signal. The video signal is digitized by a DirectX9.0
compliant PCI video capture card (Berkeley Nucleonics optionally
supplies a Hauppauge PCI video card) or USB2.0 video capture peripheral
(BNC optionally supplies an ADS video capture peripheral), capable of
digitizing and storing uncompressed VGA resolution video on disk.
Many PC video input devices include on-board image compression
hardware, converting the video stream into various compressed video
formats. Image compression standards like MPEG are designed for
general visual imagery and may not be suitable for all types of imagery
occurring in microfluidics device diagnostics, e. g. the images of isolated
small particles as recorded in Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV)
experiments. The ability to record uncompressed video is therefore an
important feature of the hardware and software included with the Model
1420.
Uncompressed video streams naturally take up more bandwidth and use
more computer processing power for display and storage, so a powerful
computer is recommended. When used on a newer standard PC with
moderately fast CPU and disk speed, uncompressed video sequences can
usually be stored on disk in real time. If used on slower computers, frames
may be lost during recording. Slower computers may also exhibit a
perceptible delay between an imaged event and its appearance on the
computer display.
Also, a large hard disk is recommended for storage of video data. A color
video signal will typically generate 1.6 GB per minute and thus quickly
consume hard disk space.
1.4 Installing the software
1.4.1 Installing the Hauppauge WinTV video card
1. Turn off the computer and install the card into a free PCI slot
2. Start up the computer
3. Insert the WinTV disk into your CD drive