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Help Contents

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Introduction

Connecting Video Source

Exploring MPEGWizard

Configure for Capture Operation

Capturing Video

Working with Single Frames

Question and Answer


Introduction

Your new MPEGWizard represents a new generation of real time MPEG encoding hardware. With the AVerMedia MPEGWizard, you can actually capture, compress and preview full motion video and CD quality audio files in MPEG 1 format in real time. These extremely small files will save you storage space and minimize transmission time when your clips are being displayed on the internet. The AVerMedia MPEGWizard is compatible with your desktop or laptop PC and can do both video capturing and high quality still image capturing at true, 24-bit color at 704 x 576 resolution (up to 1600 x 1200 dpi with software interpolation).

The MPEGWizard comes with a huge array of software applications for the video fanatic. NET TOOB Stream TM  is a top rated multimedia player for the web and even lets you make your own custom screen savers. The built-in i-Media AudioTM  driver from QDESIGN® enables MPEG audio compression up to a 60:1 ratio. i-Film EditTM from Cinax® lets you edit your video files for the perfect cut. Studio MTM from Astound® gives you the power to create dynamic multimedia greeting cards and invitations for your friends and family.


poppower
Button POWER

Quits the MPEGWizard application.


popconfig
Button CONFIG

Open DigiVCR dialog box to configure capture setup features such as: Saving file location; capture time; audio capture; video resolution, video input type, format and color controls.


popfilmedit
Button iFilm Edit

Open the iFilm Edit application to edit your video clip.


popsnap
Button CAMERA

 Toggle to the image capturing set of control buttons.


popopen
Button OPEN

Open a MPEG file.


pophelp
Button HELP

This file


popstate
Information Window

Shows where the file will be saved, current mode, the capture time in seconds, and the video/audio bit rate.


popplay
Button Playback

Playback the captured video clip. This button toggle operation 'playback' and 'pause' in playback mode,toggle operation  'record' and 'pause' in record mode.


poppause
Button Abort

Aborts the capture (or playback) and cancels the process.


popstop
Button Eject

Aborts the playback and cancels the process.


popstop2
Button Capture (Record)

Begins the capture process.


popbar
Counts/Adjust the playing progress of the video clip.


popindicator
Button Minimum

Minimizes the MPEGWizard.


popscreen
Display Window

Shows the clip being played, or the captured image.


explore
Exploring MPEGWizard

To explore MPEGWizard,  just click on any part of the sample display.

At Recorder control buttons:

At image capturing set of control buttons:


popconfig2
Button CONFIG

Select this to configure capture setup features such as: Saving file location; capture time, and; audio capture. This is also used to setup video resolution, video input type, format and color controls. Refer to the Configure for Capture Operation section for more information.


popsave
Button SAVE

Set the name and location of the clip you wish to capture.


popencode
Button RECODER

Toggle back to the recoding control buttons.


popfreeze
Button FREEZE

Pauses or freezes the image for viewing a single frame. Click again to continue playing. See the Working with Single Frames section for more details.


connecting_video_source
Connecting Video Source

Connecting procedure

1. Insert the prerecorded source media (for example; a video tape, CD-ROM, etc.) into the source device. Turn the power off for the source video device.

2. Connect the video cable. If you are using a composite video cable, make sure that you connect the cable to the source device VIDEO OUT terminal.

3. If you wish to capture audio as well, connect the stereo audio cable to the AUDIO OUT terminal of the source device, and the AUDIO IN terminal of your sound card. Do not connect the audio cable to the MPEGWizard.

4. Turn on the source video device and start the MPEGWizard application.

Note:If your source video device has an S-video terminal, and you have an S-video cable, use the S-video connection since it provides better quality than other connections.

Before you begin capturing video, you need to make some adjustments within the MPEGWizard application itself. Refer to the MPEGWizard application and the setup options for a detial discussion.


configure_capture_operation
Configure for Capture Operation

Before you begin to capture video with the MPEGWizard, you first need to make some basic setup adjustments. The necessary steps involve setting the capture time desired, if you plan to capture audio or not, and various choices on resolution and audio quality.

The Capture Setup Folder

Click on the Config button to open the DigiVCR dialog box. The Capture Setup folder will appear as below.

Save In

Can change the location you want to save the clip to.

Capture Time

If you want to set a specific time, select the Duration check box, then set the time in  minutes and seconds. If you don't want to set a specific time, select the Unlimited check box.

Capture Audio

If you wish to capture audio, select the Audio check box.

Configure

Click on the Configure button to open the Encoder Options dialog box if you wish to make any changes to the audio default configuration.

Bit Rate

Select the speed you wish to capture the audio. Higher speeds render better quality, but take up more space on your disk drive. If you plan to use the clip on the web, 300Kbps is recommended. For VCD authoring, use the standard 1150Kbps for video and 224 Kbps for audio. For professional applications that demand high quality output, use 3Mbps.

Sample Rate

To convert an analog signal to digital, your computer takes measurements of the sound wave's amplitude (a sample) at particular points in time. The more samples the computer takes, the more information it obtains and thus, the closer it comes to capturing something close to the original sound. 44.1 Khz is CD quality sound and is the default setting.

Mode

You have four audio channel choices to choose from:  stereo, joint stereo, dual channel, and single channel. To obtain high-fidelity sound, use joint stereo with Layer II compression.

Layer

MPEG audio encoding can result in two types of compression. Layer I is the simplest. It is a simple sub-band recoder. Layer II adds greater accuracy to the compression. If you wish to create high-fidelity, CD quality sound, select Layer II.

Note: MPEG-1 supports up to two audio channels that may be configured as mono (single channel), dual (dual channel), stereo, and joint stereo. With Level II joint stereo, the high frequency part of the signal (above 2Khz) is combined. The stereo image is preserved, but only the temporal envelope is transmitted. Level I does not support joint stereo. Although a 44.1Khz sample rate, joint stereo mode and Layer II encoding provide higher quality sound encoding, they also require both greater computing power to compress and greater disk space to store. Consider these issues when compressing audio.

Mux

If you wish to do real time mux, select the RealTimeMux check box.

Video Display

If you wish to use full display window to display capture data, select the Full Window Size check box. Or select the Actual Size check box to depend on Video Resolution SIF/QSIF to determine the video display size.

Audio/Video Synchronization Adjustment

If you found audio and video lost synchronization when you playback captured MEPG file, you can use this Audio/Video Synchronization Adjustment to adjust audio delay value.

Automatic Adjustment

Use device driver to automaticly detect the audio delay value.

Manual Adjustment

 Use the scroll bar to adjust audio delay value. If you found audio was fast than video, it must set the audio value to positive value. Otherwise, set to negative value.

The Video Folder

After your capture preferences have been made, click on the VIDEO tab folder. Within this folder, you may make selections depending on your connection setup.

Video Resolution

You have two choices of video format: SIF and QSIF. SIF (Standard Image Format) renders image sizes of 352 x 240 pixels for NTSC video format, and 352 x 288 pixels for PAL video format. QSIF (Quarter-size Standard Image Format) renders image size at 176 x 112 for NTSC and 176 x 144 for PAL.

Video Input

Set the type of connection that you have made with your source device. Select C-Video if you are using a composite video cable. Select S-Video if you are using an S-video cable connection. S-video provides better quality.

Note: You must select the correct connection type. If you do not, you will not be able to view the source video.

Bit Rate Control

Set the bit rate of the video you wish to capture. Select the appropriate bullet: Video E-mail; Web Page Authoring; Video CD Production; or User Define. If you select User Define, you can set the desired rate in the Bit Rate field. Choose a number between 1000 (1 MB) and 3000 (3MB). Higher bit rates improve quality, but take up more disk space.

Frame Rate Control

This sets the number of frames to capture per second. there are three type of frame rates to choose from:

Full	Capture 30 fps for NTSC, 25 fps for PAL.

Half	Capture 15 fps for NTSC, 12 fps for PAL.

Quarter	Capture 7.5 fps for NTSC, 6 fps for PAL.

1/8	Capture 3.7 fps for NTSC, 3.1 fps for PAL.

1/16	Capture 1.8 fps for NTSC, 1.5 fps for PAL.

Full frame rate allows real-time capture of video. The frame rate quality you get from it will be exactly the same as the original video, but the final MPEG file will take up large disk space. Low frame rates(the Half and Quarter frame rates) do not give you real-time video, but produce smaller files and acceptable video quality. For example, at video CD bit rate, capturing a one minute length of video in SIF size will take up around 9MBytes of disk space. Capturing a one-minute length of video in SIF size using Half frame rate will take up about 5MBytes of disk space, and only 3MBytes using Quarter frame rate.

Low frame rates let you capture longer lengths of video. They result in substantial time savings in sending your MPEG files over the narrow-band network.

Video System

NTSC (National Television Standards Committee) specifies 30 frames per second and is prevalent in North America, Japan, and most of South America. PAL (Phase Alternation by Line) specifies 25 frames per second and is used in Europe, the Middle and Far East and Africa. PAL-M is the PAL system used in Brazil. PAL-N is the system used in countries like Argentina, Paraguary and Uruguay. SECAM is the system used in France, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam (and more).

Color Adjustment

You can control the brightness, contrast, hue, and saturation of the video display by sliding the scroll bar to the right or left. Click on the Default button to return to the original settings.


capturing_video
Capturing Video

To capture a clip:

1.  Play the source video until you reach the section you wish to capture.

2.  Press the Record button.

The MPEGWizard will automatically begin capturing and compressing the video clip for the time specified in the Capture Time section of the Capture Setup folder.

If you wish to cancel the capture process, press the Abort button. Once the clip has been captured, you can press the Playback button to view the clip. When you press the Playback button, the clip will expand to fill the MPEGWizard window.

The clip is automatically compressed to an editable MPEG format. Editable MPEG is a compression format that uses MPEG I-frame compression. I-frame stands for intraframe, or compression within the frame. As the name implies, files compressed to editable MPEG format can be edited. You may open the clip in any of the bundled software packages to edit it to your personal tastes.


working_single_frames
Working with Single Frames

With the MPEGWizard, you can both "freeze" an individual frame, and capture a frame and save it as a bitmap file. The process is very simple. To "freeze" the image, simply press the Freeze button. The video will pause, or "freeze" on a single frame. To resume play,  press the Freeze button again.

To capture a frame, first set up the desired configuration settings.  Next, press the Save button to capture the image. The MPEGWizard will prompt you to enter a filename. This file can then be opened in any image editing program, such as Photoshop or Kai's Power Goo, for editing.

How to capture a single image:

1.  From the main MPEGWizard application window, click on the Camera button.

2.  Click on the Configure  button to open the Configuration dialog box.

3.  In the Configuration dialog box, set the desired Video Resolution.

4.  Select the appropriate Video Source and Video System.

5.  Select the desired file format to save the image (.BMP, .GIF, .JPG).

6.  Make any desired modifications to the image color by changing the saturation, hue, brightness, and contrast.

7.  Select the desired video display size (Full WIndow Size, Actual Size)

8.  Click OK to exit the Configuration dialog box.

9.  Click Save to open the Save Image dialog box.

10.  Enter a filename and location and click Save.


qanda
Question and Answer

Q: When I play my video clip, I don't hear any sound.

A: Check the volume settings for your sound card. Is the volume turned up? Check the cables, did you connect them correctly? Your audio card may not be installed correctly. Refer to your sound card manufacturer's documentation to check the installation process.

Q: When I try to capture a video clip, I receive an error message "Capture Failed!"

A: This message may appear if the MPEGWizard was not installed correctly. Make sure that you have changed the I/O Port settings in the BIOS Utility. Please note that when installing the MPEGWizard, you should change the I/O Port setting before you install the software.

This message may also appear if your settings in the Capture Setup folder do not match the physical setup. Make sure that your settings are correct.

If you still see this message, remove the MPEGWizard unit and software application and install it again.

Q: I've compressed my movie clip, but I can't view the MPEG file when I try to play it.

A: Did you install Active Movie or another MPEG player? If so, were the settings in the Capture Setup folder correct? Make sure that the settings in this folder match the actual physical setup. If you still have a problem, try reinstalling the MPEGWizard.

Q: The MPEGWizard does not appear to be working properly.

A: Check all cable connections first. Also, make sure that you modified your I/O Port setting in the BIOS Utility to EPP or ECP. Remember as well, the MPEGWizard works on a Pentium 133Mhz system or faster. The settings in the Capture Setup dialog box also must match the actual physical connection type. If you are using an S-Video cable, make sure that S-Video is selected in the Capture Setup folder. This applies to the Video Format selection as well.


About

AVer-MPEGWizard

Real-time MPEG Encoder Version 2.00

1997 AVerMedia Technologies, Inc.

Web site: www.aver.com

I-Media Audio Version IMDA_AV

MPEG Stereo Encoder

1997 Qdesign Corporation.

Web site: www.qdesign.com


popmax
Button Maximum

Maximizes the MPEGWizard.


popabout
Button ABOUT

AVerMPEG Wizard application version information


popmail
Button E-Mail

Send E-mail with MPEG file.


T_281314110031
Information Window

Shows where the file will be saved and picture format.


T_281314110032
Button Minimum

Minimizes the MPEGWizard.