Benchmark: Pinnacle DV500 Capture Card (page 2)

Using DVTools instead of Premiere

One of the programs that installs with the drivers is Pinnacle's DVTools. This is a capture utility that allows you to perform batch captures from a FireWire-equipped camcorder. It's a good thing they included DVTools. Whenever we tried to capture video in Premiere itself, we encountered crashes.

As far as capturing video, DVTools was easy to use, and got the job done. It was simple to perform live captures, and it was easy to set the in and out points for batch captures. The card had no trouble controlling the JVC GR-DVL9500 Mini DV camcorder we used for our test.

What is Real-time?

Pinnacle touts the DV500 as a real-time editing solution. It is important to note, however, that the real-time aspect of the DV500 is limited to certain Pinnacle transitions, titles and previews of 3D effects. You cannot play many 3D effects out to DV without rendering. The DV500 is a dual-stream card, so you can do a real-time transition with two streams of video, or do a real-time title over video.

Making DVDs

The DV500 also comes with a bundled copy of Minerva Impression software that allows you to create DVDs. The Minerva software does not come in the package, so we were unable to test it. The Minerva DVD software will be mailed to new owners when they register their DV500. In addition the DV500 comes bundled with Sonic Foundry's ACID music creation software, Pixéla Software's Video SpiceRack transitions, Pinnacle's TitleDeko titling software and Pinnacle's INSTANT Video RT real-time plug-in for Premiere. It's actually quite a decent bundle.

The DV500 delivers most of what it promises. You can use it to import and export analog and digital video. It has an impressive software bundle that includes more than enough transitions to keep you happy, a titling package, sound creation software and CD and DVD authoring software. The easy installation makes the DV500 an easy choice for the videographer using analog video but is gearing up for DV or the videographer who uses both.

TECH SPECS

Platform: PC
Interface: PCI

• Operating system: Windows 98, 98SE (Future support for Windows NT and Windows 2000)
• Processor: Pentium II 400MHz (or compatible)
• RAM: 128MB
• Graphics card: 16-bit with DirectDraw drivers
• Hard Drive: 4GB SCSI 2 capture drive, 500MB free for software

• Processor: Pentium III 500MHz
• RAM: 256MB
• Graphics card: 24-bit
• Hard Drive: 9GB SCSI-2 capture drive, 4GB free for software
• Other: DVD-ROM drive

Strengths

• Analog and digital i/o
• Some real-time effects
• Easy installation
• Breakout box

Weaknesses

• Problems capturing in Premiere
• Beefy minimum system requirements
• No IEEE 1394 in breakout box

The DV500 brings what it promises with analog and digital inputs and outputs, some real-time effects and a decent price.

Pinnacle Systems, Inc.
280 N. Bernardo Ave.
Mountain View, CA 94943
(800) 4PINNACLE
www.pinnaclesys.com

$999