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BOOKS AND ARTICLES Pinnacle Systems board and TV tuners - which is better for capturing?
As you know, there are specialized computer devices for digitizing analog video. They are produced by a variety of manufacturers and for different interfaces. However, one of the most notable in this case is Pinnacle Systems. In any case, when it comes to devices for high-quality digitization, in particular, with store sellers, this brand is most often heard. Of course, such an attitude towards digitizing devices from Pinnacle Systems is not at all without reason. After all, earlier, when computer video editing was in its infancy, it was this manufacturer that could offer a truly high-quality and functional solution. Today, video editing on a computer has become commonplace for many. Devices for digitizing video have become very cheap. And it's no secret that almost any computer TV tuner has the same capabilities. Despite this, apparently, many people still believe that only a specialized device can provide high-quality digitization, and it's good if it is Pinnacle Systems. Is it really?
I got my hands on a PCI-card for video editing from Pinnacle Systems, and I decided to answer the question. The card in question was bought by its owner for quite a tangible amount, which exceeded the majority of TV tuners on the market. With an average TV tuner, the price difference was about two times. However, unlike TV tuners, one indisputable advantage is immediately visible here! The Pinnacle Systems card has not only video inputs, but also video outputs, which may be important for some users.
As additional pluses for the card in question, one can name:
Consider the hardware part of the Pinnacle Systems card. The Philips SAA9H chip acts as a 7113-bit ADC. It is the key to the video capture board. It is this chip that converts the video signal from analog to digital form. This chip does not have a built-in PCI bridge, and therefore it can only be found on some TV tuners with a USB interface (Pinnacle PCTV 100e) and some standalone models (BeholdTV SOLO, Leadtek WinFast TV Pro 1680). The Philips SAA7113H chip does not have any outstanding features. And although it provides good color reproduction, especially high-quality SECAM decoding, is multi-standard (PAL / SECAM / NTSC) and has low power consumption, the popular SAA7130 / SAA7134 / SAA7135 chip family is absolutely not inferior to it. Moreover, according to available information, the comb-filter of the latter is even slightly better.
The ADV7179 chip from Analog Devices is used for the reverse conversion from digital to analog (video outputs of the card). We will not go into its features especially, since there is nothing to compare with anyway. There are no video outputs on TV tuners. Another chip on the Pinnacle Systems board is a proprietary development with the corresponding logo and designation MB87J3560. We couldn't find a datasheet for it, but judging by other chips, the board's capabilities and its layout, this chip implements the functions of a PCI bridge, providing the connection of the two chips already considered, as well as the functioning of the IEEE 1394 digital interface.
Is it worth continuing the comparison, if it is already known that the chip that is directly responsible for digitizing the analog signal on the Pinnacle Systems board is no better than the more massive SAA713x installed, probably, on every third or fourth TV tuner? Perhaps, yes, it is worth it. After all, there is a possibility that the quality can be affected by the layout of the board, the body kit of the chip, and, of course, the device driver. The following devices and chips will be compared:
For comparison, each device recorded a small video fragment from a DV camera in two versions - through S-video and composite video inputs. Video compression was not used! Then, from all the recorded fragments, two identical screenshots were selected in two versions - without using deinterlacing and using. The same deinterlace filter was applied in VirtualDub (Smart Deinterlace) with the same settings. Brightness, contrast, and chrominance weren't carefully adjusted, because with ten devices it's not exactly easy to do. The settings for the devices used when recording are very close to the default settings. Settings such as clarity and noise reduction (where available) have not been changed. Of course, if you have patience and carefully set the listed parameters, then, undoubtedly, the image of each of the devices could be made more similar to each other. This must be taken into account. Frames from recordings made via S-video input, deinterlacing was not used (source):
The Compro VideoMate T750 (Philips SAA7135HL/203) and Compro VideoMate Vista M5F PCI (NXP SAA7131E) tuners have very similar image quality to Pinnacle Systems' video editing board. Detail and color rendition is identical. A very small difference can only be detected with a very careful comparison of frames. It consists in a slightly higher noise level at the video editing board at the edges of objects. This can be seen in the example of people in the distance in the first frames and when examining a bicycle frame in the last ones. The AVerTV Hybrid Speedy PCI-E (NXP SAA7136E) and KWorld PlusTV Hybrid USB Stick Pro (NXP SAA7136E, Cypress CY7C68014A-56) tuners have an image with slightly inconsistent color adjustments (however, these are just adjustments that can be adjusted). A detailed comparison showed that the quality of the frames from these tuners is also very close to the frames received by the video editing board from Pinnacle Systems. Just like with the previous two tuners, there is a subtle difference in the level of noise at the edges of objects. The new NXP SAA7231KE/1 chipset installed in the AVerTV Studio 809 TV tuner provided a more significant difference. We will return to this issue when we compare frames processed by the deinterlacing filter. In the meantime, you can pay attention to the fact that this chipset clearly has a different algorithm for processing interlaced video - on the same frames, the "comb" is visible somewhere more strongly, and somewhere, on the contrary, much less. Evaluate the smoothness of the lines on the frame with the bike! Tuners GoTView PCI DVD3 Hybrid (Conexant CX23418-22Z) and GoTView X5 DVD Hybrid PCI-E (Conexant CX23887-14Z) once again confirmed the long-known distinctive feature. The 10-bit chips from Conexant Systems used in these devices provided better clarity compared to the video editing board from Pinnacle Systems, but at the same time, the graininess of the images also slightly increased. Perhaps for this reason, the difference in the noise level, unlike the frames of previous TV tuners, is not felt here. With correct color adjustment, there is no difference in color reproduction. In all attempts to make the color gamut of the Compro VideoMate Vista U890F (Trident TVMaster TM6010) TV tuner look like the frames received by other devices, nothing came of it. Another AVerTV Galaxy TV tuner, made on the basis of the same Trident TVMaster TM6010 chip, was even taken to help, but in his case the story repeated itself. Not to say that the Trident TVMaster TM6010 chipset is completely bad, but it lacks a bit of naturalness and uniformity of the image. The tuner based on the ATI Theater HD750 (ATI Theater Video T507) provided generally good image quality. Looking at its frames in detail, you can see that there is also slightly less noise at the edges of objects, compared to the video editing board from Pinnacle Systems. In addition, for example, another important feature is visible on the bicycle frame. It lies in the fact that the ATI Theater HD750 chip provides a clearer border. The yellow color does not go beyond its limits. Frames from recordings made via S-video input, deinterlacing activated:
The video editing board from Pinnacle Systems and TV tuners based on the SAA713x chips proved to be quite predictable when the deinterlacing filter was running. As required, the "comb" disappeared, the rest of the patterns in terms of image quality, expressed above, remained the same. No miracles happened with the frames of the TV tuner AVerTV Studio 809 (NXP SAA7231KE/1). Of course, where the "comb" was almost invisible, the picture became even better. But where the "comb" was too noticeable, it turned out to be a daub. This forced me to analyze nearby frames of a video clip recorded by this tuner. As it turned out, it just has a slightly different arrangement of frames with a more noticeable "comb" and almost without it. In general, the video captured by the AVerTV Studio 809 turned out to be of good quality. It has smoother lines, however, because of this, it has lost a little in clarity. The deinterlacing filter made the image more complete. In this form, it became obvious that the excessive clarity provided by TV tuners based on Conexant Systems chips is not particularly useful. However, clarity is regulated by the regulator of the same name, as well as the ratio of brightness / contrast parameters, so everything is in your hands. Having shown patience, it is quite possible to achieve a realistic image, I think. Frames tuner Compro VideoMate Vista U890F (Trident TVMaster TM6010) and models based on ATI Theater HD750 (ATI Theater Video T507) also turned out to be quite predictable. The above patterns in terms of image quality have been preserved, there is nothing to add. Frames from recordings made via composite input, deinterlacing was not used (sources):
These frames, as well as the frames below, taken from recordings via composite inputs, are published for completeness of comparison. Of course, the clarity of these frames is clearly worse than those that we have already reviewed. If you still doubt the superiority of the S-video connection, then you have a good opportunity to see the difference in image quality with your own eyes. Curiously, this side-by-side comparison revealed different amounts of drop in clarity. In general, the difference is not so significant, but, for example, the clarity obtained through the composite video input of the Compro VideoMate Vista U890F (Trident TVMaster TM6010) TV tuner cannot be compared with other reviewed participants. That's why the products based on this chip clearly outperform the video editing board from Pinnacle Systems not only in terms of color rendering. Another more noticeable difference compared to others came to light in the TV tuner GoTView X5 DVD Hybrid PCI-E (Conexant CX23887-14Z). The image received through the composite input not only became even more grainy, but also excellent in color adjustments. Thus, using different video inputs for this model, additional adjustment of clarity, brightness, contrast and color is required. Frames from recordings made via composite input, deinterlacing activated:
Well, now we can start summarizing. The first thing to say right away is that the specialized video editing board from Pinnacle Systems turned out to be no better in terms of the quality of analog video signal digitization than most of the tested TV tuners. Modern TV tuner models can provide very similar capture quality and in some cases even slightly better. This is mainly determined by the ADC chip, which is directly responsible for digitization. At the same time, there are models of TV tuners on the market that use chips with a very mediocre video processing quality. Such chips are not designed for the most accurate digitization of an analog video signal. Their main purpose is domestic use and television viewing. These include the Trident TVMaster TM6010 chipset, which combines everything you need to easily create a USB video device based on it. However, putting all-in-one chips on a level lower than others is clearly not worth it. A good example of the opposite is the ATI Theater HD750, which also includes everything you need for USB video devices, but at the same time demonstrates unsurpassed quality. In my opinion, NXP SAA7231KE/1 can also be attributed to chips oriented towards home use and TV viewing. He was unable to ensure the maximum accuracy of digitization. The presence of filters built into the chip, which did their best to make the image more watchable and smooth, had an effect. In general, he did it well, but this is unlikely to please a professional involved in digitization. After all, filters, when it is really necessary, can be applied later, but the reverse process is impossible. Therefore, we will hardly ever see this chipset on video editing boards positioned as at least semi-professional ones. The reviewed video editing board from Pinnacle Systems is not super professional. This is the price level that, if necessary, the average user for home use can still afford. More expensive boards that use professional ADC chips and are used somewhere in television may still be better than TV tuners. It is important to note that this video editing board from Pinnacle Systems is not new. This model is approximately 2002-2003. More modern counterparts may have improved hardware. However, in any case, as this article has shown, it is necessary to carefully approach the issue of choice, evaluating the installed chips and the device capabilities you require. It is unequivocal to say that video editing boards for capturing an analog video signal are better than TV tuners is wrong! Author: Dmitry Kornev; Publication: pctuner.ru
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