Hello, I would like to announce the release of updated version of Linux driver for DC10plus video capture card. Please, check: http://www.cicese.mx/~mirsev/Linux/DC10plus/ The driver presented on this page is a patched version of the original source by W.Scherr. Please note that this page is intended to be temporary, and the author of original source W.Scherr is the current maintainer of this driver. However, as far as he has not released his own updated version, you may use this page and send questions and/or oppinions to me, Serguei Miridonov. Changes: 1. Both PAL and NTSC standards are supported. 2. Full motion video capture using hardware MJPEG compression is supported (thanks to Dr. Rainer.Johanni for 1.0.1 version of Buz driver). The decompression and playback are not yet supported due to lack of information about DC10plus board design (If you have any, please, let me know). General information about DC10plus video capture card The DC10plus card is manufactured by Pinnacle Systems Inc. and is considered by this company as low end product for home use. Currently the company provides very easy to use Studio software with only Windows 95/98 drivers for the card (even Windows NT/2000 is not supported). However, the hardware itself may sometimes satisfy even professional: the frame resolution can be up to 640x480, for NTSC, and, 768x576 for PAL standards, which is better than Super-VHS (400 vertical lines). The MJPEG hardware compression provides the ability to capture and play back full motion (50/60 fields per second) video with data rates below 10 MB/s, at compression ratio about 3 for very good image quality at full resolution, or even below 2.5 MB/s for acceptable VHS-like or better image quality. The current price ($149.00 in USA) and card characteristics make this card very attractive even for beginners. Multisystem PAL/NTSC capability: Pinnacle Systems Inc. insists that DC10plus cards sold in USA are for NTSC only and the cards sold in Europe and Australia are both PAL and NTSC... Well, I can not tell for every card sold in USA but at least one of them (guess which one? ;-) supports both PAL and NTSC, however, the drivers for Windows 95/98 supplied in the box, and then upgraded to version 1.05, support NTSC only. Current Linux driver supports both PAL and NTSC standards. Pinnacle Systems Inc. does not release neither Windows driver source code, nor the card programming specifications. This makes writing the driver a bit difficult and that's why some very useful features are not yet supported. Luckily, complete information is available about chipsets used in this card: 1.Philips SAA7110A video decoder; 2.Zoran ZR36060 (hardware JPEG codec) and ZR36067 (PCI controller); 3.Analog Devices ADV7176 video encoder. If someone would like to play with the driver code and add new features, please note that the same or similar JPEG codecs and PCI controllers are used in the Iomega Buz and LML33 cards. You may also take a look at Zoran H33 board (see also here). This might help somehow... However, the programming of different modes of operation depends on specific board design and this information for DC10plus card is still missing. For more information and links, please, visit http://www.cicese.mx/~mirsev/Linux/DC10plus/ Best regards, Serguei Miridonov. -- To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" as the Subject.
