VGA frame grabbers

[Mauricio Caicedo]

Are there any VGA frame grabber compatible with Catalyst??

our costumers insist on being able to display their powerpoint presentations without loss of resolution due to scaling to composite.

[SourceChild]

Hey Maurico,

For better resolution with PowerPoint or Keynote here are two little tricks.

The best way to work is to display each slide on a computer with a high resolution video card and a feed capable of displaying high rez.

The thing is, the way these presentation programs work is that they create vector based graphics (excluding images which have been imported from photos which will only scale to their largest pixel count). These vector graphics then render to whatever size the screen is. If you use a screen 640x480 then you have low rez. If you use a screen which is 2560x1500 you have high rez.

Here is the problem. You have a composite capture. This is 640x480. You could buy an LFG4 or Decklink HD Pro video capture card to stick into your Catalyst machine (you must have V4 of Catalyst to use features of the LFG4). With an SD capture card, you would at least be able to capture at DV-PAL/NTSC which would at least bump your width up to 720 wide.
If however you use the HD capture card it would mean you are importing 1920x1080 which mean your sides would look the best off the video input.

Here is the second scenario.
I have a 30" apple cinema display at 2560x1500. When I render my own content I can see it pixel for pixel that size. This mean that if I use the simple screen capture function (off of a power point side) I will catch an image that is 2560x1500. I then save this as a JPG and presto! I have a new Catalyst Library file.

I have a little program called Irfanview and I can capture a 100 slide presentation as JPGs in less than 1 min of work. Then use an external MIDI trigger to have the client step through cues on your lighting desk.

If you want more info, read the following thread:
http://chaldee1.gotadsl.co.uk/~richardb/upload/showthread.php?t=1237

[Spam Butterfly]

Powerpoint presentations can be saved out as quicktime movies. Use Inframe to select the relevant frame.

The Decklink Intensity card can capture HDMI in YUV and RGB... If your powerpoint laptop can output 720p60 (aided and abetted by with a DVI Detective), you can get a DVI to HDMI cable and capture your laptop output in real time through Catalyst using video input. I have been using the Decklink Intensity with a DVI source all summer.

Hugh

[FxDrew]

Powerpoint presentations can be saved out as quicktime movies.
This also allows you to capture the transitions if the client is using them. It will be a bit tricky to program the video playing forward and stopping on the last frame after the transition, then setting the in and out points again for the next slide without making the video jump, but it is possible.

[SourceChild]

This also allows you to capture the transitions if the client is using them. It will be a bit tricky to program the video playing forward and stopping on the last frame after the transition, then setting the in and out points again for the next slide without making the video jump, but it is possible.

I've done something similar to this a few times when content creators have given me unclipped files. If you create a second cuelist which changes the outframe value for each cue, you should be able to have your cue running on one list and simply use the second cuelist to step through each outframe.

[SourceChild]

The Decklink Intensity card can capture HDMI in YUV and RGB...


I realize most presenters prefer using their own laptop and presentation trigger but the best and simplest way to do this is to use your own computer with an HD-SDI or HD-Component video output that you can feed into an HD capture device in your Catalyst.

I have Decklink HD cards in a few of the Catalyst machines I use which have HD-SDI inputs. So I just built a little micro PC with an HD-SDI output card. This is the solution most TV crews use for feeding in Powerpoint to their switcher. In this case, it's just Catalyst instead.

[Mauricio Caicedo]

Thanks a lot for your info, I will be trying some of this options.