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EPIX Vision
Video Rate Real Time Full Resolution Video Display For PIXCI® PCI Board

Display LIVE video (30 frames per second) from NTSC video sources. Display LIVE video (25 frames per second) from PAL video sources. Display full color, full frame rate, maximum capture resolution images from the PIXCI® PCI board! Maximum display performance is achieved by use of an S/VGA adapter that can accept the video output of the PIXCI® board without conversion by the Pentium processor.

Default Windows Display With the PIXCI® Board
The PIXCI® board provides video output in YCrCb color space. This color definition encodes color as 8 bits of Y (luminance) 8 bits of Cr (Chrominance Red) and 8 bits of Cb (Chrominance Blue). This video stream is transferred to system memory and then converted by the Pentium processor into 24 bit RGB.

The RGB data is then given to Windows which provides the software interface for various S/VGA boards. Windows provides the drivers that permit the RGB video to be displayed by a particular S/VGA board with the selected display resolution, refresh rate, and color depth.

This display mode is NOT being retired or replaced. This mode enables video data to be channeled to the Pentium, which is the main reason for using a PCI capture board -- to allow the Pentium to manipulate pixels in pursuit of information about a captured image. Nevertheless, some applications benefit from a maximum display mode that sacrifices information about an image for a major improvement in display performance.

NEW Display With YCrCb Input S/VGA
Video rate display is achieved by using an S/VGA card that accepts video output from the PIXCI® board without the intervention of the Pentium processor. The video stream is directed from the PIXCI board, through the PCI bus, directly to the S/VGA's buffer WITHOUT a processing stop at the Pentium. EPIX has verified that the Hercules Dynamite 128/Video, with 2 MB of memory, operating in Windows 95, works in this capacity.

The Hercules Dynamite 128/Video is a multimedia S/VGA display board with enhanced capabilities. It is NOT a product specially designed to support the PIXCI® board -- it is a powerful, general- purpose display board supporting the universe of S/VGA capabilities, which, happily for EPIX, also encompass the display needs of PIXCI. These capabilities include hardware overlay using the UYVY color definition, hardware cursor, chroma key support, and compatibility with the Microsoft DirectX API.

No Misunderstanding
Use of the Hercules display board provides BOTH of the above- described video display modes. EPIX software allows easy movement from one mode to the other. The user can operate in the new video rate display mode to observe a process at video rates, and then switch to the default display mode to capture and process video information with the Pentium.

Beta Test Status
It works -- we've seen video rate display on a 166 MHz Pentium computer in the software development lab. In addition to video rate display, customers are asking for overlays on live video. The Hercules board is designed to support such overlays. EPIX is now developing the software. Feel free to contact EPIX with questions.

Contact Hercules
For additional information about the Hercules Dynamite 128/Video board,
visit the Hercules web site.
In the US and Canada, call: 800.532.0600.
All other countries call +1.510.623.6030 or send a fax to +1.510.623.1112.


EPIX Vision - December 1996 Newsletter

  1. PIXCI® DLS Image Capture Board Supports Dalsa Digital Area & Line-Scan Cameras
  2. Johns Hopkins University Researches New Procedure to Prevent Vision Loss
  3. 4PVINAM -- 4 Input Pixel Clock And Video Multiplexer for 4MEG VIDEO Model 12
  4. Image-Pro Plus Drivers (32 Bit) For Win 95 & Win NT
  5. Video Rate Real Time Full Resolution Video Display For PIXCI® PCI Board
  6. Use EPIX DLLs With Visual Basic 4.0
  7. Advances in EPIX Software Include Win 95 & Win NT Support

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