Interface cards/adapters Hauppauge

ImpactVCB, PCI Express ImpactVCB: low cost video capture boards with live overlay which can be used as the heart of a live video display, real time video capture, streaming video or video conferencing solutions

The ImpactVCB product family
- ImpactVCB-e model 01381board is a half height PCI Express board for Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit) with one S-Video and one composite video imput, plus audio inputs.
- Impact VCB model 00166 board is a small 1/3 height PCI board based on the Conexant 878A video digitizer chip. It has 32-bit support with Windows XP.
- Impact VCB model 00558 board is a full height PCI board based on the Conexant 878A video digitizer chip with three S-Video and one composite video input. It has 32-bit support with Windows XP.
- Impact VCB model 00188 board is a full height PCI board based on the Conexant 878A video digitizer chip with four BNC connected composite video inputs. It has 32-bit support with Windows XP.

The ImpactVCB PCI Express board
The ImpactVCB-e is the new PCI Express video capture product. Compatible with Windows 7 (both 64-bit and 32-bit), ImpactVCB-e is a low profile board which is supplied with both a full height and half height brackets.

The ImpactVCB PCI boards
It requires a bus-master PCI slot. A VGA card with Direct Draw 3 (or later) capability is required for Live Display. Operating system can be WindowsXP, Window 95, Windows 98, WindowsME, NT 4.0, Windows 2000. Third party Linux drivers are available. Drivers are provided with the ImpactVCB board. Incoming image is digitized using high quality 4:2:2 video sampling and displayed in a window on the PC's VGA screen. The image is transmitted directly by the ImpactVCB into main system memory or the memory of the VGA adapter for high performance results. The ImpactVCB comes in several different I/O configurations, with up to four composite video inputs, s-video input, power output (primarily to drive a CCD camera) and an optional audio input. A Programmers Toolkit is available for the ImpactVCB which provides both DLL and OCX support for applications requiring the ImpactVCB's video capture or video display. Applications can be developed in C or Visual Basic.

Product Availability
Hauppauge has a variety of ImpactVCB boards to support your image capture, video image display, industrial image processing and video conferencing applications worldwide. Please note that our technical support organization is available to provide technical information you require to support your applications. Special models are available which use BNC connectors.

All ImpactVCB models support both PAL and NTSC compatibility (referred to as "dual crystal").

Video Capture
Video from any analog source (composite or S-Video) can be captured as either still frame video images or motion video. Composite video inputs are provided as female RCA jacks, while S-Video uses standard 4-pin DIN connectors. The PCI based ImpactVCB boards come with a VFW capture driver (Video for Windows) for Windows 95 and Windows NT, and a WDM driver for use with WindowsXP, Windows98SE, Windows Me and Windows 2000. Typical capture rates range from 15 to 30 fps depending on system configuration.

Live Video Display
The ImpactVCB can display live video from NTSC or PAL video sources in a resizable window on the PC screen. The digitizing of the analog video signal and the resizing of the video image is performed by hardware on the ImpactVCB, thereby not slowing down the CPU. After video is digitized and resized, the digitized video image is drawn by the ImpactVCB directly into the memory of the PC's VGA card. This uses a feature of Windows called Direct Draw, and the ImpactVCB can be used with most VGA cards which support Direct Draw 5 or higher. This technique is used on Windows95, Windows98, WindowsME, Windows2000 and WindowsNT 4.0

Serialization
Some ImpactVCB models have a unique serial number burnt into an EProm on board. The serial number is read either through the Hauppauge WinTV Programmers Toolkit or can be read via Windows Control Panel. In addition to the serial number, these models of ImpactVCB have its I/O configuration burnt into the EProm.