Osprey-700 HD User Guide

AVStream Driver Version 1.0.0.14

For
Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Server 2003
 Osprey-700 HD User Guide
Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

UL STATEMENT........................................................................................................................................................a

FCC NOTICE:.............................................................................................................................................................a

PRODUCT DISPOSAL INFORMATION ............................................................................................................... b

Chapter 1......................................................................................................................................................................3
Getting Started with THE Osprey-700 HD Video Capture Card ...........................................................................3
System Requirements...........................................................................................................................................3
Minimum System Requirements: ....................................................................................................................3
Installation Steps .............................................................................................................................................3
Installing the Osprey-700 HD AVStream Driver.................................................................................................3
Installing the Osprey-700 HD Hardware............................................................................................................13
Installing the Osprey-700 HD Video Capture Card ...........................................................................................19
Multiple Board Types, and Adding or Moving Boards.................................................................................19
General Points about Use of the Osprey-700 HD Capture Card ...................................................................20
Device Controls and SimulStream ................................................................................................................21
Designed for Live/InstantVOD Adaptive Features .......................................................................................21
Capture and Preview Pins..............................................................................................................................22
CHAPTER 2...............................................................................................................................................................24
Setting the Osprey-700 HD AVStream Driver Properties .....................................................................................24
Accessing the Osprey Video Capture Card Properties.......................................................................................24
The Video Capture Properties Window .............................................................................................................24
The Trace Tab ....................................................................................................................................................26
The Input Detect Tab .........................................................................................................................................27
The Crossbar Tab ...............................................................................................................................................28
The Video Proc Amp Tab ..................................................................................................................................29
Gamma Correction Controls .........................................................................................................................30
The Watermark Tab ...........................................................................................................................................31
Watermark Pin Select....................................................................................................................................32
Watermark File Selection..............................................................................................................................32
Watermark Position and Size ........................................................................................................................32
Notes on Watermarks: ...................................................................................................................................33
Keycolor........................................................................................................................................................33
Transparency .................................................................................................................................................33
The Crop Tab .....................................................................................................................................................34
Crop Tab Controls.........................................................................................................................................35
The Deinterlace Tab...........................................................................................................................................36
Deinterlace ....................................................................................................................................................36
What are Telecine and Inverse Telecine?......................................................................................................36
What is Advanced Motion Adaptive Deinterlace? ........................................................................................37
Inverse telecine control .................................................................................................................................37
The Video Decoder Tab .....................................................................................................................................37
The Diagnostics Tab ..........................................................................................................................................39

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Chapter 3....................................................................................................................................................................41
The Audio Driver.......................................................................................................................................................41
Selecting the Audio Source and Input Volume ..................................................................................................41
Appendix A - Osprey Hardware Specifications .......................................................................Appendix A - Page 1

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UL Statement, FCC Notice, Product Disposal Information

Osprey-700 HD User Guide

AVStream Driver Version 1.0.0.14
ViewCast Corporation
3701 W. Plano Parkway, Suite 300
Plano, TX 75075-7840 USA
Revised 08/24/2007
© 2007 ViewCast Corporation. No part of this specification may be reproduced, transcribed, transmitted or stored in a retrieval system in any part
or by any means without the express written consent of ViewCast Corporation. ViewCast Corporation reserves the right to change any products
herein at any time and without notice. ViewCast Corporation makes no representations or warranties regarding the content of this document, and
assumes no responsibility for any errors contained herein.

UL STATEMENT
Underwriters Laboratories Inc. has not tested the performance or reliability of the security or signaling aspects of this product. UL has only tested
for fire, shock and casualty hazards as outlined in UL’s Standard for Safety UL 60950-1. UL Certification does not cover the performance or
reliability of the security or signaling aspects of this product. UL MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS, WARRANTIES OR CERTIFICATIONS
WHATSOEVER REGARDING THE PERFORMANCE OR RELIABILITY OF ANY SECURITY OR SIGNALING RELATED FUNCTIONS
OF THIS PRODUCT.

FCC NOTICE:
WARNING: Connections between this device and peripherals must be made using shielded cables in order to maintain compliance with FCC
radio emission limits.
WARNING: Modifications to this device not approved by ViewCast Corporation could void the authority granted to the user by the FCC to
operate the device.
The Osprey-700 HD Video Capture device has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of
the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. This
equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause
harmful interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this
device does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of
the following measures:
• Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.
• Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver.
• Connect the computer into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected.
• Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help.
If the above measures are unsuccessful, please consult the dealer or manufacturer of your radio or television receiver, or speak with an
experienced radio/TV technician.
NOTE: This reminder is provided to call to the CATV installer’s attention Section 820-40 of the NEC, which provides guidelines for proper
grounding and, in particular, specifies that the cable ground shall be connected to the grounding system of the building, as close to the point of
cable entry as practical.
Shielded Cables: Connections between this device and peripherals must be made using shielded cables in order to maintain compliance with FCC
radio emission limits.
Modifications: Modifications to this device not approved by ViewCast Corporation could void the authority granted to the user by the FCC to
operate the device.
Note to CATV Installer: This reminder is provided to call to the CATV installer’s attention Section 820-40 of the NEC, which provides
guidelines for proper grounding and, in particular, specifies that the cable ground shall be connected to the grounding system of the building, as
close to the point of cable entry as practical.

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UL Statement, FCC Notice, Product Disposal Information

PRODUCT DISPOSAL INFORMATION

Dispose of this product in accordance with local and national disposal regulations (if any), including those governing the recovery and
recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).

RoHS Compliant: ViewCast Corporation is committed to compliance with the European directive on the Restriction of the Use of Certain
Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment, Directive 2002/95/EC, the RoHS directive.

For current RoHS statement, visit www.viewcast.com.

Osprey® and Simulstream® are registered trademarks of ViewCast Corporation. Microsoft®, Windows® XP, Windows Server® 2003, AVStream®,
DirectShow®, Intel® CoreDuo®, and Windows Media® Encoder are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Any other
product names, trademarks, trade names, service marks, or service names owned or registered by any other company and mentioned herein are
the property of their respective companies.

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CHAPTER 1
GETTING STARTED WITH THE OSPREY-700 HD VIDEO CAPTURE
CARD
System Requirements
Please note that the following system requirements relate to the user’s Osprey® Capture card only. The video capture
or encoding application software the user utilizes will often require a much more powerful system than that which is
listed below. Please consult the software documentation for applicable system requirements.

Minimum System Requirements:

• Standard Definition live capture applications: 1.8 GHz Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor or equivalent
• High Definition live capture applications: 2.13 GHz Intel Quad-core system
• Microsoft Windows® XP Professional or Windows Server® 2003
• Up to 7.5 MB of available hard disk space
• 1 GB of RAM, 2 GB recommended for HD capture
• One available X1 or greater PCI Express® slot

Installation Steps

In all cases, the most efficient and complete installation method is to run the Setup.exe program on the product CD
or in the Web package the user downloads. The setup program automates the steps required to install the driver and
ensures the steps are performed correctly. The driver is unique to the Osprey-700 HD card. Therefore, while the
driver will automatically configure multiple Osprey-700 HD cards in the same system, it will not automatically
configure other Osprey models. Those cards will need to be configured separately.

The installation steps set forth below are the steps ViewCast recommends if the user installs an Osprey card on a
system for the first time. After the install is run, the card is detected and its drivers automatically start.

Before the user installs updates of Osprey software, the software should be uninstalled and the computer rebooted.

Installing the Osprey-700 HD AVStream Driver

The user should insert the Osprey Software CD into the CDRom drive of the computer. If the user has autoplay
enabled, the main menu for the Osprey software CD will automatically appear. (Autoplay should be enabled by
default. If the main menu does not automatically appear, see Manually Accessing the CD Menu.)

The user should follow the directions in the CD menu. The appropriate InstallShield Wizard will appear. This
Installation Wizard will guide the user through the following installation process.

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1. A Welcome window appears, along with a window entitled Remove Previous Installations,
asking the user to verify there are no older versions of the Osprey drivers installed. On the Remove
Previous Installations window, the user should click OK.

2. On the Welcome window, the user should click Next.

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3. The License Agreement window will appear. The user should click the radio button next to
“I accept the terms in the license agreement,” then click Next.

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4. The Osprey-700 HD AVStream InstallShield Wizard window appears. Under Customer

Information, the user should enter his or her name and the name of an organization (if any), choose
whether he or she wants to install the software for all users (the default), then click Next.

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5. A Destination Folder window appears, indicating the folder in which the driver will be installed by
default. If the user wishes to change the location of the destination folder, the user should click
Change to browse for a different location. If the user is satisfied with the default destination folder,
the user should click Next.

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6. A Video Standard window appears. The user should select a default video standard for the
Osprey-700 HD AVStream driver and click Next.

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7. In the Setup Type window, the user should select Complete or Custom installation and then click
Next.

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8. The Ready to Install the Program window appears. The user should click Install.

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9. The Installing Osprey-700 HD AVStream appears. This window shows the progress of the
installation. If, during the installation, warning windows appear regarding Windows Logo Testing,
the user should click Continue Anyway to proceed with the installation.

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10. Once the InstallShield Wizard Completed message appears, the user should click Finish.

Once the installation of the driver is complete, the user must completely shut down the computer on which the driver
has been installed. The Osprey-700 HD card can then be physically installed in the computer. After the card is
installed, and the user turns the computer on, the computer will recognize the installation of the Osprey-700 HD
card. The following steps should be taken to install the Osprey-700 HD card.

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Installing the Osprey-700 HD Hardware

After the Osprey-700 HD driver is installed, and the card has been physically installed into the computer, the user
should follow the directions that will appear on the computer screen to install the Osprey-700 HD hardware. The
appropriate InstallShield Wizard will appear. This Installation Wizard will guide the user through the appropriate
installation process.

1. A Welcome window appears asking the user, “Can Windows connect to Windows Update to
search for software?”

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2. The user should select “No, not this time,” then click Next.

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3. The Installation Wizard will ask if the user wishes to install the software automatically or install
the software from a list or specific location. The user should select Install the software
automatically (Recommended), then click Next.

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4. The installation will begin. The user will see a Found New Hardware Wizard box.

5. A warning window will appear regarding Windows Logo Testing. The user should click Continue
Anyway to proceed with the installation.

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6. The installation continues. The Found New Hardware Wizard box will remain on the computer
screen, evidencing installation of the software.

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7. The user will see a box indicating the wizard has finished installing the software for: Osprey-
700 HD. The user should click Finish.

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Installing the Osprey-700 HD Video Capture Card

When the user installs his or her Osprey-700 HD Video Capture Card, he or she must keep in mind that all computer
cards are sensitive to electrostatic discharge. Slight electrostatic discharges from clothing or even from the normal
work environment can adversely affect these cards. By following these simple guidelines, however, the user can
minimize the chance of damaging the Osprey card.

• Handle cards only by the non-conducting edges.

• Do not touch the card components or any other metal parts.
• Wear a grounding strap while handling the cards (especially when located in a high static area).
• Provide a continuous ground path by leaving the power cord plugged into a grounded power outlet.
• Ensure that the workstation is powered OFF before installing any components.
• If the user is not familiar with how to install a PCI Express bus card, he or she should refer to the
system’s documentation for more complete, step-by-step instructions.
• The card should be used only with UL Listed computers that include instructions for user installed
accessories.

To install an Osprey card...

1. Power down your computer and disconnect the power cable.

2. Remove the computer’s cover and locate an empty PCI Express slot.
3. Remove the cover screw from the empty PCI Express slot’s cover, set the screw aside.
4. Remove the slot cover.
5. Remove the Osprey Video Capture Card from its anti-static bag.
6. Insert the Osprey card into the desired PCI Express slot and make sure that it is seated evenly.
7. Secure the back panel of the card with the slot’s cover screw.
8. Replace the computer cover.
9. Turn the computer on.

Multiple Board Types, and Adding or Moving Boards

All Osprey cards are designed to co-exist with other Osprey cards within practical limits of slot placement, available
power, and the upper limits of system and CPU performance. There are six classes of Osprey devices. Each class
requires its own Windows driver. The six classes are as follows:

• class 1: o100, o200, o210, o220, o230

• class 2: o300
• class 3: o440
• class 4: o530, o540, o560

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• class 5: o700 HD and later DSP-based PCI Express products

• class 6: o240 and related non-DSP PCI Express products

This user guide applies only to class 5.

For example, if the user has an Osprey-240 and an Osprey-700 HD installed in the same computer, separate drivers
must be installed for each board.

When the user adds or moves boards after the Osprey-700 HD driver is installed, the following two scenarios exist:

A: A board of a different class is added a computer that already contains another board. For example, an Osprey-
240 is already installed with its current driver on the computer. The user wants to add an Osprey-700 HD card.
The user must install the driver installation package for the new board to work.

B: The user moves a board from one slot to another, or adds another board of the same type. For example, an
Osprey-240 card is installed in the computer, and the user wants to install another Osprey-240 card. In this case,
the following sequence takes place:

1. The New Hardware Wizard runs and displays the Found New Hardware window followed by
the Digital Signature Not Found window.
2. Click Continue Anyway. (The Digital Signature Not Found window will only display on drivers
that have not been WHQL Certified. WHQL Certified drivers skip this step.)
3. The Controller installing window (not shown) displays, and the text inside this window changes to
Osprey Video Capture Device, Installing ... . Then, the Digital Signature Not Found window
appears.
4. Click Continue Anyway. (Again, the Digital Signature Not Found window will only be displayed
on drivers that have not been WHQL Certified. WHQL Certified drivers skip this step.) The
Completing the Found New Hardware window displays.
5. Click Finish. The Digital Signature Not Found window displays.
6. The Digital Signature Not Found window displays once for each Osprey board you install.
7. The Systems Setting Change window displays.
8. Click Finish to restart the computer.
9. The Osprey-700 HD card is now ready for use!

General Points about Use of the Osprey-700 HD Capture Card

The Osprey-700 HD is a High Definition (HD) Video capture card. As such, the card has significant operational
differences from other cards that fall under the Standard Definition (SD) Osprey card family—differences needed to
offer advanced features, to accommodate the many input video standards that are part of the HD experience, and to
automatically adapt to input signal types dynamically, a common need in the HD environment.

Some functional differences between HD and SD follow:

• How SimulStream® works on the Osprey-700 HD versus Osprey SD cards

• Dynamic adaptive features of Osprey-700 HD cards
• Global vs. Local property settings

These items are further described as follows.

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Device Controls and SimulStream

The Osprey-700 HD card includes a special version of Osprey SimulStream that allows the user to “virtualize” the
entire feature set of the card, i.e., the card can simultaneously feed more than one capture/encode application or
multiple instances of the same application, from the same A/V input with independent controls for each capture
stream.

This functions differently from SimulStream on other Osprey card models. On all current Osprey cards except the
Osprey-700 HD, SimulStream virtualizes a card into separate streams, but some of the Property Page controls
affect all channels, while others affect only the stream under control. On these Osprey models, controls which
simultaneously affect all streams are listed as follows:

• Video Proc Amp

• Video Decoder
• Input
• Filters
• Device
• RefSize

Controls that can be set separately for each capture stream are named below.

• Crop
• Logo
• Captions

With the Osprey-700 HD, all of the above features can be set individually. Each application receives its own full set
of identical Property settings tabs. Another significant operational difference of the Osprey-700 HD and other
Osprey cards is that in the Osprey-700 HD each stream is configured separately. This means the second and
subsequent streams may appear to have randomly changing defaults.

For example, assume the user originates Instance 1 of Windows Media® Encoder (WME) rather than from a
previously named and saved settings file, and configures the encoder for a 720P WME stream with a watermark (for
example, a logo) in the lower right corner of the screen. When the user originates a second instance of WME, WME
adopts the same settings, including the same watermark in the same position, as the stream created before it. This
situation arises because, in the second instance, the WME was not started from a saved settings file. Therefore, the
WME was forced to assign default settings, and adopted the most recently configured stream. If, in the second
instance, the user needs to create different configuration settings, the user should modify the settings, then save the
WME, naming it something other than in Instance 1 – unique file with a different name.

Designed for Live/InstantVOD Adaptive Features

One of the most important features of the Osprey-700 HD card rests in its ability to automatically adapt to input
signal format changes without having to stop, to reconfigure, and to restart the video application run by the card.
This newest Designed for Live™ feature distinguishes the Osprey-700 HD from cards used for ingesting video into
video editing systems or other applications. With the Osprey-700 HD card, the user has the ability to create the
following events.

• Switch on-the-fly between SD and HD − The Osprey-700 HD accepts all ATSC SD and HD video
standards and will automatically re-sync, without interruption, when the signal formats change
between any of the supported SD and HD modes.

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• Reduce and eradicate post-production work − Minimize or eliminate post-production work to make
a live broadcast available as InstantVOD™ (Instant Video-on-Demand) at the end of the broadcast by
encoding a Save-to-File version of the live stream. The stream can be configured with its own
watermark if desired.

• Create anything-in-same thing-out video – One of the most popular applications of the Osprey-
700 HD is to accept SD and HD input for live Internet video streaming. Generally, the expected
viewing experience is for the viewing window to be of fixed dimensions regardless of the aspect ratio
or pixel count of the incoming video. Most of the popular video encoders require these parameters not
change during the encoding session. The Osprey-700 HD can automatically adapt through size and
scale the incoming video to match the selected output parameters. For example, this creates the ability
for a 24/7 broadcaster to freely switch sequences between a live HD studio feed, an SD promo clip
from a playout server and then return to live HD.

Capture and Preview Pins

At the top of several Osprey-700 HD property tabs are drop-down list boxes captioned Pin Type. The figure below
sets forth this list box, expanded to show Capture, Preview, and Both. This selection works similarly to other
Osprey models which typically expose these selections using radio buttons.

The three choices, Capture, Preview, and Both, provide the user the opportunity to determine whether changes he
or she make on the property page are to be applied to both the capture and preview pins associated with the other
controls on the page, or just the desired pin—Capture or Preview.

The user must decide what type of pin to select based on several criteria. The user should be aware software
applications that use Osprey capture cards and AVStream drivers communicate with the hardware via a Microsoft-
developed software layer named DirectShow®.

DirectShow is a collection of software objects, i.e., an object library, for working with video, audio, and other
multimedia data. The object library primarily consists of filters―objects that process video and audio data and are
connected or chained together into filter graphs.

For example, ViewCast-designs filters included in all Osprey AVStream drivers that interact with the capture
hardware to grab digitized frames of video. These filters then process video streams and pass them to target software
applications like WME. Other filters are associated with previewing or displaying video that decode video and
render video to the screen.

Filters usually have inputs and outputs and are interconnected programmatically as needed. The input and output
connections are referred to as pins, and the pins of interest to the Osprey user are the Capture Output pin and the
Preview Output pin. Generally, captured audio and video to be fed to the Encoder is taken from the Capture pin,
while video for local preview, such as the Input video window in the Windows Media® Controller dashboard, will
usually use the Preview pin.

In most cases the Preview pin is given a lower priority in the video processing engine. If the host PC is nearing its
upper performance margin where video quality could be compromised, it is preferable to sacrifice quality or drop
frames in the Preview output in favor of sustaining quality of the Capture pin’s output. Exposing these pins
separately in Osprey drivers allows the user to balance his or her needs with the host computer’s performance and
the user’s video application’s features. The user might apply a very low-effort de-interlacing process to a preview

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window to save CPU cycles, and apply a more CPU intensive Advanced Motion Adaptive De-interlacing process to
the captured stream for maximum video quality.

Like other Osprey cards, the Osprey-700 HD allows the user to define various setups for the two pins. For example,
the user could choose to include a Logo in the capture pin’s video, but not in the Preview output. When the user
selects the Capture radio button, the current logo settings for the Capture pin are loaded, and changes the user
makes apply only to the Capture pin, not to the Preview pin. The Preview button works in the same manner.

The DirectShow Pin Properties some applications use with Osprey cards might expose for Capture and Preview
pins are always per-pin.

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CHAPTER 2
SETTING THE OSPREY-700 HD AVSTREAM DRIVER PROPERTIES
Accessing the Osprey Video Capture Card Properties
After the user has installed the Osprey-700 HD card and driver, the user will be able to access the properties for the
card through most major DirectShow applications (such as WME, RealProducer®, or ViewCast’s Niagara SCX®).
For detailed information on how to select the Osprey Card and access its Video Properties window from third-party
applications, the user should refer to the documentation for the encoding application. Note that most of these
encoding applications expose the drivers’ property pages without modification, so the examples set forth below will
probably appear as shown. However, some applications expose the Property pages slightly differently. Therefore,
the examples below might differ somewhat.

The Video Capture Properties Window

When the user’s video application is invited to expose the Osprey-700 HD’s video-related property pages—usually
by navigating to the user’s applications’ Video Properties or Video Settings page—the user will see a pop-up form
as shown in the figure below. The form is a nine-tab dialog box entitled Osprey-700 HD Video Capture Device(x)
Properties, where “x” is the target installed Osprey-700 HD card. This will always be “1” if only one Osprey-
700 HD card is installed.

The tabs are labeled as follows:

• Trace – Sets error logging controls.

• Input Detect – Describes the signal coming into the card.
• Crossbar – This feature is not currently implemented. The Crossbar will be used in a future release
when the user can select from multiple inputs.
• Video Proc Amp – Sets Gamma, Brightness, Contrast, Hue, and Saturation.
• Watermark – Sets up on-video logos.
• Crop – Enables cropping; sets the cropping rectangle.
• Deinterlace –Sets de-interlacing properties.
• Video Decoder – Enables selection of the video standard—NTSC or PAL, HD 720P 60,
HD 720P 59.94, HD 1080I 60, HD 1080I 59.94, HD 1080I 50, HD 1080P 30, HD 1080P 9.97,
HD 1080P 25, HD 1080P 24, and HD 1080P 23.98.
• Diagnostics – Sets Osprey-700 HD internal test controls. The user should only use these controls when
instructed by ViewCast support. Doing so without proper instructions might result in system instability
or in the system crashing.

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In some applications, the user might see additional tabs other than the tabs listed above. The additional tabs are
application- or system-supplied, are intended for information only, and generally contain no controls that can be
changed.

Note: Some controls are interactive. For example, changes the user makes are immediately updated in the captured
video. Such examples are the Brightness, Contrast, Hue, and Saturation, controls, the graphical Gamma
control, and the graphical sizing and positioning controls for watermarks / logos. The OK, Cancel, and Apply
buttons have no effect on these controls. The OK and Apply buttons pertain only to changes on the currently
displayed page.

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The Trace Tab

The Osprey-700 HD driver can be configured to create trace events for diagnostic debugging and subsequent
logging to file. These are normally disabled. The user’s authorized ViewCast Support representative might invite the
user to change these settings should the user experience problems using the Osprey-700 HD with a video
application.

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The Input Detect Tab

The Input Detect tab displays the signal properties of what the card detects as the input signal.

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The Crossbar Tab

The tab is employed for applications that use the Osprey-700 HD Application Expansion connector.

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The Video Proc Amp Tab

On the Video Proc Amp tab, the slider controls are used to set Gamma, Brightness, Contrast, Hue, and
Saturation. All slider values are applied real-time, i.e., if Preview or real-time capture-to-screen video is running
when the user accesses the Preview tab, the user can see adjustments as the user makes changes. Individual restore
buttons return the respective slider to the settings as set when the dialog box is opened. An adjustment scale is also
included to identify each slider’s relative position.

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1. Two buttons are provided to influence all presets and defaults simultaneously. These are the Reset
Values button and the Neutral button.
2. The Reset Values button resets all slide controls to the state they were in when the dialog box was
opened.
3. The Neutral button resets all slide controls to their original factory default settings. These defaults
are considered neutral, that is, the controls are set to positions that pass through the incoming video
without modification.
4. All controls affect the incoming video for all color modes except the Hue slider, which is disabled
when PAL is selected. If the user changes the video standard or video input no changes will be seen
in the slider controls until the driver properties dialog is closed and re-opened.

Gamma Correction Controls

The Gamma slider and control adjusts the gamma of the incoming video. Gamma refers to the response curve of
video cameras and CRTs. When video is captured through a camera, the response of the camera is deliberately
nonlinear—low lumen values are boosted, and high lumen values are compressed. This is done for two reasons.

1. It increases the effective bandwidth in the low lumen range, where it is needed, at the expense of the
high lumen range, where it is needed less.
2. It matches the response characteristics of TV sets and monitors.

The calibration specified in video standards matches the requirements of cameras and television sets in broadcast
use, but generally does not match the needs of computer-based applications or the response curves of computer
monitors. Therefore, a correction inverse to the original bias is often needed, and the user might want to adjust the
gamma for the characteristics of a particular monitor.

When gamma correction is disabled, either by setting the Gamma to Neutral or by setting the Gamma correction
value to exactly 100, the software-based Gamma filter works in passthrough mode with no affect on the video and
with no processing bandwidth used. When Gamma correction is enabled, the factor applied is as shown in the
slider text box and in the graphic. If the user is running preview video while adjusting the filter, the user will see
the effects of his or her adjustments as the adjustments are made.

There are two ways to adjust the gamma correction value set forth as follows:

• By moving the Gamma slider; and/or

• By selecting the red line on the dynamic YUV Gamma control window and dragging the mouse with
the left button down, moving between the upper left and lower right of the window.

The YUV graphic, in addition to showing the transfer function as a red curve, shows the visual effect via the two
greyscale bands on the adjustment square. The lower-third of the square shows a nonvarying linear adjustment
range. The upper two-thirds of the square shows the greyscale mapping of the current setting. When the setting is
100, the two portions are identical.

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The Watermark Tab

The Watermark tab exposes controls to enable, disable, and position a graphic at any position of the video
capture window. A watermark might be any properly-formatted bitmap of appropriate size. Typically, this is a
network / affiliate logo, an advertisement, or some promotional bitmap positioned near the lower right corner of the
screen. The Watermark tab is also where the user can select the desired bitmap file and adjust transparency.

Watermarks are often used as logos, and have the following characteristics:

• Any RGB-24 bitmap (.bmp) can be used.

• A selectable key color can be specified; all parts of the Watermark graphic with that color are not
drawn on the video.
• A transparency control can be used to blend the Watermark graphic with the background video.
• The Watermark can be previewed as it is positioned and scaled.

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• The Watermark appears on both captured and previewed video. If the capture and preview video are
different sizes, the logo is scaled to look the same on the preview video when the Pin type of both has
been selected and the user has set different properties for Capture and for Preview.

The Watermark property controls work best when the preview video is running and is viewed using the Start
Preview button. With preview video running, the user can preview his or her changes dynamically. If the user’s
application displays capture video in real time, capture video can be used instead.

The Watermark properties are organized into four areas, as follows:

• File
• Position
• Color
• Transparency

In addition, the Pin Type and Enable Watermark checkbox controls are available, as they are available on other
property pages.

Watermark Pin Select

When Both in the Pin Type drop-down box is selected, changes the user makes to the Watermark setup apply to
both the Capture and Preview pins. The user can enable different setups for the pins. For example, the user could
enable the logo on the Capture pin but not on the Preview pin, and thereby save CPU time. When the user selects
Capture in the Pin Type drop-down box, the current logo settings for the Capture pin are loaded, and changes the
user makes apply only to the Capture pin, not to the Preview pin. The Preview button works analogously.

Watermark File Selection

The Enable Watermark checkbox enables or disables logos. If the user disables logos, all of the user’s other
Watermark settings are retained for when the user re-enables logos.

The […] button (i.e., browse button) exhibits a standard file select dialog. Watermark files must be in (1) .bmp
format with a .bmp filename extension and (2) RGB-24 format.

If the user has a graphic that is in another format, he or she will need to edit the graphic with a drawing or photo edit
program, such as Windows Paint, and save the graphic in a RGB-24 format.

Watermark Position and Size

The Watermark Position and Size controls allow the user to position and scale the watermark, much like the
process is conducted in the Cropping tab. ViewCast strongly recommends the user have live or preview video
running when he or she uses these controls.

The background/preview window represents the video area where the logo can be positioned. The selected
bitmap graphic appears when the Enable Watermark checkbox is checked and a suitable bitmap has been loaded.
To position the logo, the user must click on the logo rectangle and drag it to the new position.

The four “nudge” spin-buttons, Top, Left, Height, and Width, position the logo exactly one pixel at a time on the
output video to help the user position the watermark precisely after a drag-and-drop operation. The Up and Down
buttons change the position and the size of the watermark.

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The [2X watermark] and [1X watermark] buttons adjust the size of the bitmap graphic. The quality of a scaled
image will not be as exceptional as the quality of the 1X image. ViewCast recommends that, wherever possible for
production work, the user prepare artwork of the exact size at which artwork will be used.

Notes on Watermarks:

Designed-for-Live and Watermarks – When incoming SDI video mode switches on-the-fly, as occurs when the
user switches from SD to HD and back, the watermark size and position is automatically recalculated and, if
necessary, is scaled, to force the watermark to remain in the same position relative to the lower right corner. This is
another exclusive Designed-for-Live feature of the Osprey-700 HD.

Keycolor

The key color is the color that disappears from the graphic so the underlying video shows through unchanged.

If the Enable Key Color checkbox is not checked, all colors are displayed.

Alternatively, if the Enable Key Color checkbox is checked, key coloring is activated. The user can adjust the three
edit boxes—Red, Green, and Blue—to enter any RGB color value into these boxes.

The user controls the key color and the transparency effects of the watermark. If preview video is running, the user
will dynamically see his or her changes.

Transparency

The degree of transparency of the watermark is variable through use of a zero to 100 percent scale. If the setting is
zero, the logo will be opaque. If the setting nears 100 percent, the watermark will become completely
transparent. If the user has set a keycolor, the transparency value is applied only to pixels that do not match the
keycolor and, therefore, are completely transparent.

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The Crop Tab

The Crop tab exposes controls to enable and disable cropping and set the desired cropping rectangle. Cropping
means removal of unwanted video around the edges of the incoming image. For example, if the incoming video is
letterboxed, with an aspect ratio wider than 4:3, the user can crop away video at the top and bottom of the image and
capture just the active portion. The Left and Width controls are used to crop the left and right sides of the video.

The user might want to note this type of cropping is different from the final desired Display size that is usually set
by the application software that negotiates with the driver to deliver the desired output.

The Display size is the size of the Osprey graphic in the dialog box. It is used to understand the size ratios versus the
video appearance between the Reference size (incoming signal), what the user sees in the dialog box (Display size),
and what appears at the client, i.e., such was WME.

Changes made on this page separately apply to Video Preview and Capture Pins on the currently selected device,
as determined by the Pin Type drop-down box. When Both is selected from the drop-down box, changes the user
makes to the crop setup apply to the Capture and Preview pins.

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For example, the user might need to create different setups for the Capture and Preview pins. To do this, the user
would enable cropping with both pins, then create different settings for each pin.

Crop Tab Controls

The following controls are located on the Crop tab.

Enable Cropping – Enables the ability to crop borders from the incoming video. When the Enable Cropping box
is checked, the crop sizing controls are enabled. When the Enable Cropping box is not checked, the incoming
video is unchanged.

Positioning spin controls – The Top, Left, Height, and Width controls can be set manually to represent how
many pixels in each of the four boarders should be cropped. The spin buttons, which are the up / down arrows, can
be used, or the user may directly enter the desired values. The Enable Cropping checkbox must be checked to
enable these controls.

Click ‘n drag cropping – This control is available when the user wants to size and position the Crop window to set
the cropping margins. If the Enable box is checked and no crop positions have been set, the user can use the left
mouse button to grab any corner, side, top, or bottom of the video preview window and drag the borders to the
desired position. The entire crop window can also be positioned by clicking and dragging it to the necessary
position.

At any time, the crop window is smaller than the underlying preview window, the crop area is displayed as normal
video and the video in the preview window is displayed as inverse video. This allows for easy determination of
what portion of the incoming video should be ignored.

Display Size – The Display Size refers to the size of the preview graphic within the dialog box.

Granularity – Different video color space definitions impose pixel count and window dimension restrictions that
must be considered when cropping. The Granularity box sets forth to the user the number of pixels that will be
cropped or added each time the user increments or decrements the crop size by one pixel. In the above example
(2X1), the crop border will always change in multiples of two pixels horizontally and one pixel vertically. Some
color space modes force the granularity to 16 pixels or more in one or both dimensions.

Reset Reference button – The Reference Size text box displays whatever the user has selected on the Video
Decoder tab as whatever their expected input is. After making the selection on the Video Decoder tab, the user
then clicks the Reset Reference button to update the value in the Reset Reference text box.

Start Preview – The background graphic in the Crop window can be replaced by sample frames of live video. This
helps the user pinpoint the desired crop border settings. If the user does not have a valid input signal, internally-
generated SMPTE colorbars will be substituted for the background graphic.

Stop Preview – If the Stop Preview button is pressed while in Preview mode, the original background graphic in
the Crop window is restored.

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The Deinterlace Tab

Deinterlace

The Deinterlace tab provides the user with the ability to turn deinterlacing on or off, select a desired operating
mode, and instruct the card to detect telecined content, and apply appropriate compensation.

What are Telecine and Inverse Telecine?

Telecine video is NTSC video originally created on movie film at the industry-standard 24 frames-per-second rate.
Since standard NTSC video has a near-30 frame-per-second rate, in the telecine conversion process from 24 frames
to 30 frames-per-second, certain fields are repeated in a regular, recurring sequence. If a telecined sequence is
viewed directly on a progressive screen, as is usually the case, and the user streams video to a computer screen,
interlacing artifacts will be visible.

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The process called Inverse Telecine is the reverse of Telecine. Telecine drops the redundant fields and reassembles
the video into a 24 frames-per-second progressive format. Interlacing artifacts are 100 percent removed. If the video
is viewed at 24 frames-per-second, the user will see the exact timing and sequencing that was on the original film. If
the user views the video at 30 frames-per-second, every fifth frame is repeated; however, no deinterlacing artifacts
exist.

Telecine and inverse telecine only apply to NTSC video. They are not used for PAL video and do not apply to the
HD modes, which handle differences within the HD standard before delivery to the Osprey-700 HD. The Auto and
Inverse Telecine buttons will be ignored when PAL or any HD mode is selected as the video standard.

What is Advanced Motion Adaptive Deinterlace?

Motion adaptive deinterlace is an algorithm for deinterlacing pure video (non-telecine) content. Motion adaptive
deinterlace detects which portions of the image are still, and which portions are in motion, and applies different
processing to each. This can be somewhat CPU-intensive but is helpful when the video consists of high-motion
content. Simpler Bob and Weave algorithms can be employed when video is relatively stationary, with a slight loss
of sharpness. In some cases, such as when the desired output frame vertical dimension is exactly half of the
incoming dimensions, the user might find it is unnecessary to select deinterlacing—the scaling algorithm simply
drops odd or even frames, that is, drops the odd or even lines altogether to achieve the scaling.

Once deinterlacing is enabled via the checkbox, the user may select which algorithm to use—Bob 0, Bob 1., or
Advanced.

There are two fields per interlaced frame, odd and even. Bob 0 is for Field 0 (even) and Bob 1 is for Field 1 (odd).
If the signal coming in is progressive, these settings have no effect.

Clicking Advanced forces the advanced motion-adaptive algorithm to deinterlace incoming video.

Inverse telecine control

The dialog box allows the user to enable or disable Inverse Telecine. When Inverse Telecine is enabled, the
following options are available:

• Auto-detect Telecine Source

• Enable Frame Sync
• Resync Interval text box

The Video Decoder Tab

The Video Decoder tab exposes the incoming video signal format. Choices include NTSC and PAL as well as ten
different High Definition modes. The ten High Definition modes are listed as follows:

• HD 720P 60
• HD 720P 59.94
• HD 1080I 60
• HD 1080I 59.94
• HD 1080I 50
• HD 1080P 30
• HD 1080P 29.97

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• HD 1080P 25
• HD 1080P 24
• HD 1080P 23.98

The selection should be set to match the incoming signal’s primary mode. Although the Osprey-700 HD board
automatically senses and adjusts to incoming signals, including switching between SD and HD modes, setting the
incoming signal’s primary mode is advisable to avoid the slight delay that results from evaluating and re-syncing to
changes of input signal timing.

The value selected under Signal Format is what the user should expect the input video to be. Whatever is selected
here is displayed on other tabs in the Reference Size text boxes. Once the user makes the selection on the Video
Decoder tab, the user must go to the other tabs (Watermark or Cropping) and click the Reset Reference button
so the Reference Size text box is updated to the size corresponding to that chosen on the Video Decoder tab.

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The Diagnostics Tab

The Osprey-700 HD driver can be configured to run certain internal self-tests for diagnostic debugging purposes.
These are normally disabled. The user’s authorized ViewCast Support representative might invite the user to change
these settings should the user experience problems using the Osprey-700 HD with a video application

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Warning: The user should not enable these settings without specific instructions from ViewCast
Support. Doing so without proper instructions might result in system instability or in the system
crashing.

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CHAPTER 3
THE AUDIO DRIVER
Setup and control for audio are much simpler than for video. The basic steps are covered in the following topics.

Selecting the Audio Source and Input Volume

The audio source is set using the Osprey mixer driver interface. Most applications, including the WME applications,
interface to the mixer driver directly and expose the look and feel of specific applications. One example is WME,
which has the built-in ability to expose the Osprey-700 HD Audio property page, as shown below

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In the WME Session properties box, select the card, i.e., the Osprey-700 HD Audio capture device, then click the
Configure button. The following dialog box will appear.

In the dialog box above in the Pin Line drop-down box, the user will see the Osprey-700 HD exposes the eight
stereo digital audio pairs available in the SDI audio specification. If the user’s application only supports one
input, he or she should select which stereo pair to supply his or her application.

However, the default Windows interface to the mixer driver can also be used. There are two simple methods for
getting to the mixer source and volume control dialog box.

1. The easiest method for accessing this interface is for the user to right-click the speaker symbol on
the taskbar (typically the speaker symbol is located on the lower right-hand side of the screen).
Then, the user should select the Open Volume Controls option. To make this icon appear, the user
can click the checkbox in Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio Devices.

2. If the user does not see the speaker symbol, he or she can click the Start button on the Start Menu,
and select Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Entertainment -> Volume Control.

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Either of these two methods allows the audio mixer interface for the audio playback device to appear, as shown
below for an Osprey analog card. The Recording control page on an Osprey-700 HD displays eight sliders, one for
each possible stereo input.

For the user to be able to see the Osprey audio capture (recording) device, he or she must select Properties under
the Recording Control Options menu. This action allows the Properties dialog to appear. The user must then
click on the Mixer device list at the top of the dialog box to see the list of audio input and output devices, including
one or more Osprey cards. When the user has chosen the device, the user should click OK, and then he or she will
be returned to the Recording Control display.

The Osprey-700 HD device is not a mixer in that the device does not allow for mixing the various audio sources.
Therefore, when one audio input is selected, other previously inputs become deselected. The Select checkbox at the
bottom of each source sets which source is being used. The sources are listed below in the Pin Line dialog box, the
user has four events he or she can set from the dialog box, as follows:

• Which one of the eight (8) channels to use (Pin Line)

• Whether to enable the selected Pin Line

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• Balance
• Volume

The Pin Line dialog box is a Windows Application Properties Page and does not apply to the Osprey-700 HD.
Therefore, some settings are disabled.

The user can only enable one Pin Line at the time. Enabling a different Pin Line will disable the previously enabled
Pin Line.

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OSPREY HARDWARE SPECIFICATIONS

The Osprey-700 HD includes a second BNC connector (output) that is reserved for future applications. As shipped,
the second connector can be used as an SDI Loop Out connection. The output of this port is a replica of the
incoming SDI signal, valid for all SD and HD modes.

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