pinnacle dazzle

Hi everyone,
I need some piece of hardware to bring the video out of a nikon Coolpix 995
into the computer (composite video) that is compatible with USB 1.
I thought of Pinnacle Dazzle Video Creator or Pinnacle Dazzle DVD Recorder.
I have two questions:

1. Which of them works with USB 1? There are different informations, but
someone who owns this product probably knows...

2. What about software? I only want to have the video out (composite) of the
camera (it's in TV resolution) on the screen (also full screen mode). I
don't want sophisticated software you need for making videos etc, just a
plain view of the picture. Perhaps some third party software? It should run
on an elder computer with WinXP as OS. I don't have USB 2 on that machine!

Thanks for any hints!
Richard
--
Richard Müller - r-dot-mueller-at-oeko-sorpe-dot-de

"Richard Müller" <r.mueller@oeko-sorpe.de> wrote in message
news:fhej6i$3tt$03$1@news.t-online.com...
> Hi everyone,
> I need some piece of hardware to bring the video out of a nikon Coolpix
> 995
> into the computer (composite video) that is compatible with USB 1.
> I thought of Pinnacle Dazzle Video Creator or Pinnacle Dazzle DVD
> Recorder.
> I have two questions:
>
> 1. Which of them works with USB 1? There are different informations, but
> someone who owns this product probably knows...
>
> 2. What about software? I only want to have the video out (composite) of
> the
> camera (it's in TV resolution) on the screen (also full screen mode). I
> don't want sophisticated software you need for making videos etc, just a
> plain view of the picture. Perhaps some third party software? It should
> run
> on an elder computer with WinXP as OS. I don't have USB 2 on that machine!
>
Hi Richard, can`t be sure, but Windows Movie Maker might
do that for you.
It`s already on your XP machine.
bw..

meerkat wrote:
> "Richard Müller" <r.mueller@oeko-sorpe.de> wrote in message
> news:fhej6i$3tt$03$1@news.t-online.com...
>> Hi everyone,
>> I need some piece of hardware to bring the video out of a nikon Coolpix
>> 995
>> into the computer (composite video) that is compatible with USB 1.
>> I thought of Pinnacle Dazzle Video Creator or Pinnacle Dazzle DVD
>> Recorder.
>> I have two questions:
>>
>> 1. Which of them works with USB 1? There are different informations, but
>> someone who owns this product probably knows...
>>
>> 2. What about software? I only want to have the video out (composite) of
>> the
>> camera (it's in TV resolution) on the screen (also full screen mode). I
>> don't want sophisticated software you need for making videos etc, just a
>> plain view of the picture. Perhaps some third party software? It should
>> run
>> on an elder computer with WinXP as OS. I don't have USB 2 on that machine!
>>
> Hi Richard, can`t be sure, but Windows Movie Maker might
> do that for you.
> It`s already on your XP machine.
> bw..
>

"Movie clip - QuickTime MOV format, 320 x 240, no audio"
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikoncp995/page2.asp

"16 MB Compact Flash Card (Lexar card in US), USB cable"
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikoncp995/page5.asp

1) The equipment that accompanies the camera (software and USB cable),
looks like it is intended to pull the movie or pictures, across
the USB cable. I would try that first.

2) Some camera devices support "USB Mass Storage" or a similar mode,
where, when the camera is plugged in, the CF storage card appears
just like a hard drive on your computer. You can copy any files
you see, from the camera to your computer hard drive that way.

3) Now, assume the USB cable is broken, or you lost all the software
and instructions. What other ways can the files be transferred ?

Remove the 16MB CF card from the camera. A lot of these things have
an eject button or other means, to help pop the CF card out a bit.
Plug the CF card into one of these. It has USB on the end.
There are many different brands and shapes of these, and I selected
this one as the function is pretty fixed. This one, in fact, only
runs at USB 1 rates (transfer rate of 1MB/sec or so).

http://www.radioshack.com/sm-sakar-c...b-summary.html

Once the file is transferred to your computer, it has a file
type of MOV. You can use Apple Quicktime to play it, as MOV is
an Apple file extension. The Quicktime player window has an option
to "double" the window size, so the 320x240 movie will be blown up
to 640x480 size on your computer screen.

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/

By transferring the file digitally from your camera to the computer,
that preserves the movie quality. If you capture via an analog
capture product, you'll lose further picture quality. And the
reviews on some of the Dazzle products, are not that good.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815144001

Paul

I think I did not make clear what I intend:
I want to have the _live_ picture on the monitor. Background: My institution
uses the Coolpix on a microscope and we want to use the computer screen to
see what the camera sees in the same moment for focusing etc. (We use the
computer [xphoto via the serial port] also to trigger the camera). We had a
ATI graphic card with a video in terminal, that went fine. But now we
vcan't use that card any more, we want to switch to a more portable
solution with an external "card".
Good night, Richard
Paul wrote:

> meerkat wrote:
>> "Richard Müller" <r.mueller@oeko-sorpe.de> wrote in message
>> news:fhej6i$3tt$03$1@news.t-online.com...
>>> Hi everyone,
>>> I need some piece of hardware to bring the video out of a nikon Coolpix
>>> 995
>>> into the computer (composite video) that is compatible with USB 1.
>>> I thought of Pinnacle Dazzle Video Creator or Pinnacle Dazzle DVD
>>> Recorder.
>>> I have two questions:
>>>
>>> 1. Which of them works with USB 1? There are different informations, but
>>> someone who owns this product probably knows...
>>>
>>> 2. What about software? I only want to have the video out (composite) of
>>> the
>>> camera (it's in TV resolution) on the screen (also full screen mode). I
>>> don't want sophisticated software you need for making videos etc, just
>>> a plain view of the picture. Perhaps some third party software? It
>>> should run
>>> on an elder computer with WinXP as OS. I don't have USB 2 on that
>>> machine!
>>>
>> Hi Richard, can`t be sure, but Windows Movie Maker might
>> do that for you.
>> It`s already on your XP machine.
>> bw..
>>
>
> "Movie clip - QuickTime MOV format, 320 x 240, no audio"
> http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikoncp995/page2.asp
>
> "16 MB Compact Flash Card (Lexar card in US), USB cable"
> http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikoncp995/page5.asp
>
> 1) The equipment that accompanies the camera (software and USB cable),
> looks like it is intended to pull the movie or pictures, across
> the USB cable. I would try that first.
>
> 2) Some camera devices support "USB Mass Storage" or a similar mode,
> where, when the camera is plugged in, the CF storage card appears
> just like a hard drive on your computer. You can copy any files
> you see, from the camera to your computer hard drive that way.
>
> 3) Now, assume the USB cable is broken, or you lost all the software
> and instructions. What other ways can the files be transferred ?
>
> Remove the 16MB CF card from the camera. A lot of these things have
> an eject button or other means, to help pop the CF card out a bit.
> Plug the CF card into one of these. It has USB on the end.
> There are many different brands and shapes of these, and I selected
> this one as the function is pretty fixed. This one, in fact, only
> runs at USB 1 rates (transfer rate of 1MB/sec or so).
>
>
http://www.radioshack.com/sm-sakar-c...b-summary.html
>
> Once the file is transferred to your computer, it has a file
> type of MOV. You can use Apple Quicktime to play it, as MOV is
> an Apple file extension. The Quicktime player window has an option
> to "double" the window size, so the 320x240 movie will be blown up
> to 640x480 size on your computer screen.
>
> http://www.apple.com/quicktime/
>
> By transferring the file digitally from your camera to the computer,
> that preserves the movie quality. If you capture via an analog
> capture product, you'll lose further picture quality. And the
> reviews on some of the Dazzle products, are not that good.
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815144001
>
> Paul

--
Richard Müller - r-dot-mueller-at-oeko-sorpe-dot-de

Richard Müller wrote:
> I think I did not make clear what I intend:
> I want to have the _live_ picture on the monitor. Background: My institution
> uses the Coolpix on a microscope and we want to use the computer screen to
> see what the camera sees in the same moment for focusing etc. (We use the
> computer [xphoto via the serial port] also to trigger the camera). We had a
> ATI graphic card with a video in terminal, that went fine. But now we
> vcan't use that card any more, we want to switch to a more portable
> solution with an external "card".
> Good night, Richard

There are potentially a ton of solutions to your problem.

Reading reviews for video capture products, none seem to receive
100% approval ratings. Thus, you're comparing the deficiencies
of each of them, to see how best to fit the problem.

In your case, I still don't have a clear picture, why the interface
*has* to be USB 1.1.

If you want a good quality video capture device, this is an example.
It is $450 and has a Firewire interface. It probably doesn't need to
have such an interface, but there you go.

Canopus ADVC300 $450
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814144209

So, to define the problem a bit better:

1) Laptop or desktop ?
2) If laptop, PCMCIA or PCCard slot, Expresscard slot available ?
For example, you may be able to fit a Firewire card, then use
a nice device.
3) If desktop computer, do you have a PCI slot available. There
are all sorts of cards available, starting at $20, that can capture
video. Older cards had stuff like BT848/BT878, but there are other
single chip solutions that people report that they like. A major
weakness is software, and people even complain about what they
get with Hauppauge cards. I've been pretty happy with my experience
with one of their cheaper cards. It did what it was supposed to do.
4) If you go USB, and the capture device uses compression, then the
data rate on the cable can be reduced. I don't know what tradeoff
there is between bitrate, and captured quality. Some compression
method seem to leave the image a bit soft, and if you are recording
from the device (and not just previewing), sometimes you have to
sharpen the results to make it acceptable.

The reviews on Newegg can give you some idea as to what issues
some of these products have. But without knowing exactly how
many options are available besides USB 1.1, it is hard to offer
lots of alternatives. I guess I consider USB 1.1 to be pretty
limiting, and if that choice limited the resolution of the
capture device, you might not be very happy about that.

There are 159 entries here, starting at $20:

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCateg...=Video-Devices

Paul

On Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:22:26 +0100, Richard Müller
<r.mueller@oeko-sorpe.de> wrote:

>I think I did not make clear what I intend:
>I want to have the _live_ picture on the monitor. Background: My institution
>uses the Coolpix on a microscope and we want to use the computer screen to
>see what the camera sees in the same moment for focusing etc. (We use the
>computer [xphoto via the serial port] also to trigger the camera). We had a
>ATI graphic card with a video in terminal, that went fine. But now we
>vcan't use that card any more, we want to switch to a more portable
>solution with an external "card".


Why not keep using the ATI card then?
Why not get another video card with the feature if
necessary?
What software did you use to view this live image?

For a live feed you may have problems depending on the
needed resolution because USB1 is slow, but you would want a
USB capture device (seek it at your preferred seller,
perhaps Http://www.newegg.com ) or the better alternative is
a PCI capture card with the mating input type (composite) or
a composite - S-Video adapter inbetween.

Is the system simply out of PCI slots? A PCI device is more
desirable, even if it means you install a USB2 PCI card into
the system so it can then support a USB2 external capture
device instead of USB1.

Here is a list of potential USB1 analog capture devices, you
can research if any support your needs and whether they come
with the viewing software you want, or else you would use
another 3rd party application. One option is to instead get
a USB1 TV tuner/capture device which has the intended TV
viewing software which allows selecting the composite (or
adapted composite - S-Video) signal, but again a USB2 card
to support USB2 transfer would be better.

http://www.videohelp.com/capturecard...&Search=Search

Paul wrote:

> Richard Müller wrote:
>> I think I did not make clear what I intend:
>> I want to have the _live_ picture on the monitor. Background: My
....
>> switch to a more portable solution with an external "card".
>

> In your case, I still don't have a clear picture, why the interface
> *has* to be USB 1.1.
>

Older computer
>
> 1) Laptop or desktop ?

Desktop, but to be mobile (training courses outside the lab) a laptop should
be considered too
> 3) If desktop computer, do you have a PCI slot available. There
> are all sorts of cards available, starting at $20, that can capture
....
a heap of PCI slots (no PCIe) available
> 4) If you go USB, and the capture device uses compression, then the
> data rate on the cable can be reduced. I don't know what tradeoff
>
> The reviews on Newegg can give you some idea as to what issues
>
> There are 159 entries here, starting at $20:
>
>
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCateg...=Video-Devices
> Paul
OK, convinced. I'm stepping over to a built-in PCI card. The laptop thing
has to wait. The cheap K world card would be what I want, but I dont find a
vendor here in Germany for that product. (Perhaps there is, but I stopped
seeking). Hauppauge's WinTV Express is also suitable (the TV tuner will be
unused), I just ordered one.

Thanks for the discussion, it helped me a lot for this decision!
Greetings, Richard
--
Richard Müller - r-dot-mueller-at-oeko-sorpe-dot-de