Canopus DVStorm2 Review
Full
technical specifications of the DVStorm2
Physical Appearances: The DVStorm2 card does seem to be
"the business". In addition to a full length PCI card
(make sure you have the space in your PC) you get the hardware
MPEG encoder "daughter board" PCB installed on the
card. The older version of the card - the DVStormSE - can be
upgraded by adding this daughter board and a software upgrade.
Do also check the compatibility
issues. At the time of release the DVStorm2 did not work
with the Matrox Parhelia (that is now fixed). But there are
several other compatibility and other issues with the DVStorm2
range of cards. They don't like 64 bit PCI slots - which is a
bummer, 64 bit PCI slots are standard on most dual processor
motherboards and most other cards work fine in them. To make
matters worse they don't even like the soundcard being in
a 64 bit slot. And we're not talking cheap AMD dual CPU
boards, but some of the best dual Xeon boards like the
Supermicro X5DA8. Canopus do sort all these issues out!
The DVStorm2 offers these expanded features:
- 28 real time 2D/3D transitions and effects, including the
new 3D Picture-in-Picture transition
- 15 Xplode 3D transitions
- New video filters, such as white balance and black
balance
- single-pass video capture. DVStorm2 also allows for
simultaneous capture from multiple DV inputs (additional
OHCI compliant Firewire card required).
Software included:
- StormEncoder, Canopus's realtime MPEG hardware-encoding
module
- Canopus's MediaCruise control software for capture and
encoding
- MpegCutter, an MPEG editing tool for basic editing tasks
- MpegExplorer for desktop search and preview of MPEG files
- MpegRe-encoder for high-speed conversions of high-bitrate
MPEG files to lower-bitrate files
- Ulead DVD Workshop SE DVD authoring tool
Other Reviews: Video
Systems review of the DVStorm2.
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