Canopus Raptor

[Peter B]

I have read many of the postings here with interest recently since discovering this site and learned a lot of useful answers and tips.

I have to say my Matrox G200 PCI PAL card has been excellent over the years. I bought it when they were launched and have virtually never had any dropped frames or major problems (that I haven’t been able to sort out viewing this or the Matrox forum). That was even with my AMD 200mhz machine, which I first installed it in.

However, I am becoming frustrated with the rendering times when wanting to view changes and the fact I cannot playback more than about 15 minutes though the BOB.

I have recently taken the plunge into my own business based on multimedia and video production so it is time to move up. I planed to focus on short segments for CD but keep getting weddings and similar which run for long periods. With all new ventures money is tight to start with so I was hoping to get a Canopus Raptor card to sit with my G200. The idea is to capture my S-VHS and 8mm cameras with the G200 and edit and export with the Raptor. I plan to move up to a digital camera soon, but need the editing power first.

From what I have read these two cards live happily together without conflict but I have found no information on how the work together if at all.

I expect the answer to theses two questions is no and no, but just in case…

Can the Raptor card capture the video to its DV codec from the G200 input?

Or can the raptor card use the G200 MJPEG codec for it’s real time processing?

I expect it will need to captured as MJPEG and converted to the Raptor DV codec?

Any suggestions (or other recommendations) would be appreciated.

[BrianP]

First things first -- the Raptor can exist with the Marvel, but they won't be able to share files directly, without conversion. Nor can you capture through one to the other.

Now as for rest:

I use a Raptor, and am very happy with it. I have a D8 camcorder and the firewire connection is great.

That said, the Raptor is nearing the end of its useful life. There are firewire cards available for $50 that do practically the same thing.

You'll need a fast processor though for one of these boards -- what are the specs of your computer?

The landscape is changing... today you have a choice of inexpensive firewire boards, or Real Time boards with a plethora of features (that cost $$$).

[Dr Mordrid]

Very correct.

Jerry Jones, a very advanced user, former news anchor and previous moderator of the WWUG MSPro forum, just "graduated" from the DVRaptor to a cheap OHCI card himself (he now uses the ATI DV Wonder).

He's been waxing poetic for over a week about how much better it is than his old Raptor

http://forums.murc.ws/showthread.php?s=&threadid=28778&pagenumber=1

Dr. Mordrid

[Jerry Jones]

Right.

Now that I've seen how well OHCI DV boards can perform, I'll never go back to the Canopus DV Raptor or any other non-OHCI compliant Canopus product for that matter. I sold my Raptor at home.

Here at work, we have two DV Raptors. We just replaced one of them with an OHCI-compliant ATI DV wonder. The replaced Raptor is collecting dust on a shelf.

If one has a reasonably powerful computer, one should definitely choose an OHCI-compliant DV board.

The integration between OHCI DV boards and the Ulead MediaStudio Pro software is much, much better.

The DV Raptor's integration with MediaStudio Pro has always been less than perfect...

...the Raptor requires its own, special capture software and can't be used with Ulead Video Capture.

...the Raptor's batch-captured DV files can't be automatically assigned to the Ulead Video Editor production library. One has to manually import them and waste the extra time it takes to get that done.

...the Raptor is a Video-for-Windows product with all of the limitations that accompany that outdated Microsoft media architecture.

I no longer recommend Canopus products.

Some observations about Canopus:

Contrary to what one may hear, Canopus tech support is LOUSY and always has been LOUSY.

That's been my experience, at any rate.

I believe most Canopus users overlook that fact, however, because the Canopus PCI cards are usually pretty reliable and the drivers have usually been written well enough to be stable.

But I just winced everytime I read posts on the Canopus forum suggesting Canopus tech support was good.

My experience was they were either non-responsive to e-mail inquiries or they offered conflicting and/or incorrect information.

Some history:

Initially, all Canopus products were bundled with MediaStudio Pro.

But Ulead correctly saw OHCI coming and released version 6 of MediaStudio Pro.

Canopus, meanwhile, switched to bundling with Premiere and then did everything imaginable to alienate MediaStudio Pro users.

(The recent Canopus decision to *not* fix their timeline playback plug-in to install correctly into the new version 6.5 of MediaStudio Pro was the proverbial "last straw" for me.)

During my e-mail exchanges with them, I got the distinct impression Canopus no longer cares about the DV Raptor and that the newest DV Raptor driver is probably the last. I believe the DV Raptor will no longer be offered in the not-too-distant future.

Canopus are now pitching the DVStorm and the DVRexRT Pro to people who have several hundred dollars to burn and countless hours to devote to learning a new NLE (Premiere).

Ironically, Canopus's "time" has come and gone.

With faster processors and SSE2 - real time output to analog and even DV will be a common feature of software NLEs within the next year.

AVID has been demonstrating a real time version of Xpress DV.

ULEAD is expected to release blockbuster real time features with version 7.0 of MediaStudio Pro.

In the meantime, those who have blown two or three grand on Canopus PCI "real time" boards will gradually realize their toys have about a 24-month life cycle before Canopus moves on to the next proprietary product.

In 24 months - mark my words - Canopus will begin to scale back support for current purchasers of DVStorm and DVRexRT Pro.

That's assuming Canopus even continues to exist as a company.

(I suspect they're going to be purchased.)

If they last another 24 months, Canopus will probably be pitching the next "proprietary solution."

Those of us who were the company's original bundle purchasers have, in the meantime, learned our lesson and have moved on to OHCI - inexpensive, universal, standardized hardware - and the kind of *true* scalability that makes it possible for us to take full advantage of each new version of either Ulead or Adobe software.

Yes - even Adobe has followed Ulead's "lead" and has incorporated OHCI support into Premiere 6.

OHCI is the core technology around which both MediaStudio Pro and Premiere have been built.

[Dr Mordrid]

Ahhh......but Ulead did a MUCH better job with MSPro 6.5 than Adobe did with Premiere 6. Using both every day embeds that fact in ones neurons in very short order.

Dr. Mordrid

[Peter B]

Thanks very much, some great feedback.

I should rephrase my question based on that information.

I have two objectives,:
1. real-time editing and viewing (or close to it, even at reduced frame rates or small frames sizes, I would be happy with rendering the final footage if I can preview it in sufficient quality before hand) and
2. output of more than 15 minutes of video to a VCR.

I currently have 2 PCs and can happily more parts around. I was expecting to move up to a P4 (as I read the VIA chipsets do not work very well with video products, but that came from a Canopus source…) and was considering a dual processor board and adding the second processor later. Though I can probably pick up a couple of the bottom P4 1.5ghz and a dual board for the price of a Raptor RT!

Athlon 1Ghz, PIII 500 Mhz,
Soltec Mbds,
512 & 384 SDRAM,
40 & 27GB (UDMA 100), 17GB (UDMA 66), 4GB,
GeForce MX 64Mb, Maxtrox G200 PCI,
10/100 network cards, HP SCSI 8/4/24RW, Phillips 4xDVD,
56k Modem, Satellite receiver card (internet not broadcast TV),
SB Live Value.

What would you recommend to speed up the rendering process (most common examples are transitions and brightness/contrast filters to match footage from S-VHS and 8mm cameras) and out put of large files or playback to videotape. I am actually very happy with the capture and input of video from the G200 and not really worried about getting video in as this is usually only a small part of the process at the beginning, but out to tape from the G200 is an issue.

I assume moving from a PIII 500mhz to twin P4 1.5ghz will speed up a 30 minute render over 5 minutes of footage to almost real time, but it will still not out put more than 15 minutes of final video, is there a cheap option for that?