Vulturetec

I've seen a few threads where this subject is brushed on but not really discussed much... I need a new laptop and one of my "needs" is video-input. There are a couple of laptops on the market that feature built-in video input that sound like good machines overall; ATI Radeon 9700 256mb video based systems, high-speed HDs, 1gb ram, 3.0+Ghz CPU, fast motherboards, etc. Here's the question though - typically people are using the video systems on these laptops to copy tapes or record TV video. I've yet to find anyone who has used them on live cameras, especially for a video downlink to an aerial camera system - my concern is any delay between the "live image" and the displayed one. Does anyone have any experience with these laptops?

Second question: How much delay is there with the good quality USB2 video capture devices? I'm not interested in capturing motion video, just using it to display the video on the laptop and snatch still images occasionally.

Any comments, ideas?

Thanks!

yb2normal

I think the delay will depend in part on how big an image you try to display, but I remember there being around .25 to .5 second delay when I used my USB capture device to capture a 320x 240 video. This was a very unscientific experiment where I sat in front of the camera and clapped and waved like a special needs child.

.5 seconds doesn't sound like a lot but I bet it would make for a very interesting flight if you were trying to control your plane from that video!

I am also in the market for a laptop, what brand offered the composite video input?

Thanks,
Bill

Vulturetec

Bill:

Thanks for the info. I had the same experience with a USB1 device, and that was on a 366mhz machine, I was hoping USB2 would be a lot better The AIW card in my desktop machine is perfect (of course it's also 8x AGP) but I need portability.

One of the laptops is by Sager. The video-in feeds off the TV tuner that they have built-in, don't know if it's just a Hauppage USB device stuck inside the box or just what. Unfortunately nobody seems to be able to feed me anything but spec-sheet specs

Vulturetec

As it always seems to happen ... after a week of research I found a site with a ton of people who own these things, I'll let you know if the video quality is worth the effort.

So far ONE owner said he runs video games through the laptop with no problem at all (kind of similar to what we'd use it for). Another estimates 1/16-sec lag (not sure how he got that number but that's what he said), and about .5-sec once you hit "record" on the digital recorder.

Funny thing is the card reports to be an AverTV USB 2.0 digitizer that is built into the computer. So far the external digitizer owners report a different story on the lag!

If I end up getting this monster I'll report the details here.