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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2014 1:13:49 GMT
Since 1988 I have been using video in astronomy, combining video and computer/s started way back with a ZX Spectrum, Amiga 2000, long before PC's were able to integrate any form of capture device. I started with a Nest Eye PC card, from there it was an endless succession of frame grabbers from various manufacturers, non of them cheap I might add. At the present time I have progressed to HD and HD SDI interfaced cameras working at 1080p x 1920 so that I can get decent sized images. There are now many HD and HD-SDI cameras on the market but ones needs a computer/s with some serious horse power and storage capacity. 10 seconds at 1080 x 1920 = 10 gigabytes or close to that. Currently I am experimenting with various makes & types and will provide some results in due course. Here is some of the analogue gear: picasaweb.google.com/109921669020426367250/VideoAstronomy?authuser=0&feat=directlink
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Post by davy on May 30, 2014 6:09:07 GMT
Granddaddy of video ..great hearing about your journey. What hd are you using now...davy
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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2014 19:28:30 GMT
It is truly an honour to have you here with us Shevill! Very nice setup with a lot of excellent equipment.
Cheers,
Chris A Astrogate
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Post by Deleted on Jun 4, 2014 20:14:01 GMT
Hi Shevill, Have you looked at the FEBON188 for HD SDI capture? Hemmi, discovered and a few of us have one now including Jack. I tried the Blackmagic HD SDI but just could not get it to work so I sent it back and bought the FEBON188. It worked straight from the off no problem. Great shots too and a seriously expressive collection
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Post by Deleted on Jun 4, 2014 22:02:25 GMT
Hi Shevill, Have you looked at the FEBON188 for HD SDI capture? Hemmi, discovered and a few of us have one now including Jack. I tried the Blackmagic HD SDI but just could not get it to work so I sent it back and bought the FEBON188. It worked straight from the off no problem. Great shots too and a seriously expressive collection :) Hi,
No, I have not tried this device but sounds very interesting as it looks more flexible than the BM Ultra Studio USB 3.0 unit I use. I recently managed to buy a 4 chanel SDI switcher recently so I can connect four of my HD-SDI cameras one on each scope ans easily switch between them, which is so convenient.
Where did you buy your unit from and how much, please?
Clear skies... Shevill
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Post by Deleted on Jun 4, 2014 22:16:01 GMT
Granddaddy of video ..great hearing about your journey. What hd are you using now...davy Hi Davy,
I started with the Mallincam Signature (the most user unfriendly camera I have ever used) and I would not recommend it to a beginner. The way the menu is accessed is painful to say the least, compared to all my other 5-pin menu cameras. At the moment it is producing oval images of round objects, which I cannot find a fix for, so I have put it aside after wasting days on it. I have 4 other HD-SDI output cameras, all easy to use and produce round images with exactly the same equipment.
I am experimenting with board & (box cameras as they are called by Chinese manufacturers) (standard in a case as we know them) direct from China but it is a slow process at the moment with our winter weather, plus I have some orthopaedic health issues which are slowing me down until they get sorted.
I also have some other video cameras normal format, from China that I am testing. I have always wanted large image files for printing & publication so at last 1920 x 1080 gives me what I want.
Clear Skies... Shevill
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Post by davy on Jun 4, 2014 22:30:50 GMT
im shure rock may be able to help with your camera his customer support is second to none ive heard,,let me know how you get on with your board cams,,ive been side tracked with my Samsung scb2000 peltier mod just now
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Post by Deleted on Jun 4, 2014 22:58:42 GMT
Hi Shevill, Have you looked at the FEBON188 for HD SDI capture? Hemmi, discovered and a few of us have one now including Jack. I tried the Blackmagic HD SDI but just could not get it to work so I sent it back and bought the FEBON188. It worked straight from the off no problem. Great shots too and a seriously expressive collection Hi,
No, I have not tried this device but sounds very interesting as it looks more flexible than the BM Ultra Studio USB 3.0 unit I use. I recently managed to buy a 4 chanel SDI switcher recently so I can connect four of my HD-SDI cameras one on each scope ans easily switch between them, which is so convenient.
Where did you buy your unit from and how much, please?
Clear skies... ShevillHi Shevill, The unit was $129 with various postal options. I went for the express and paid another $30. The unit was posted on a Saturday morning and I received it the following Monday morning so not bad from Taiwan! The chap who sells them andyzhengster@gmail.com and the company febon.blogspot.com/2014/02/febon188-uvc-usb-sdi-grabber-card-user.htmlis the 4 channel switcher like a DVR? There are a few on here that have DVRs myself included. I have 4 cameras when fully set up. 1 - Main camera, Xtreme on the C11 2 - Finder cam, Samsung SCB2000 on ED80 3 - Scope cam with lens for wide field sky cam 4 - Scope watch cam to keep an eye on the set up while working remote. i then use a Dazzle to capture the DVR and can switch quite easily from camera to camera. I can also use the DVR settings to adjust the colour.contrast etc. This works great mixing with the camera software settings to get the right balance. I did look into getting a hybrid DVR also so I could add the HD SDI but have left that idea for now. Have a look here to get an idea of how the DVR works for broadcasting. There is also a video of Saturn which was first light with the HD SDI camera and the FEBON188. new.livestream.com/spaced-out/events/3006293/videos/51269110
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2014 3:46:52 GMT
Hi Shevill, Have you looked at the FEBON188 for HD SDI capture? Hemmi, discovered and a few of us have one now including Jack. I tried the Black-Magic HD SDI but just could not get it to work so I sent it back and bought the FEBON188. It worked straight from the off no problem. Great shots too and a seriously expressive collection :) Hi Karl, My Google searches eventually sent me to the same site, so I have ordered one, $US 144.00 including express freight. It may well not support as many video resolution options as the BM device in terms of capture speed & resolutions. The BM Media Capture software has a great speed test program which shows at what pro settings Resolutions) one can capture at. For most a standard 72,000 spin drive is not adequate and needs a SSD, which I capture to directly at the highest resolution. It will be an interesting experiment. Thanks for the heads up on it. Clear Skies...
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2014 7:14:47 GMT
Hi Shevill, Have you looked at the FEBON188 for HD SDI capture? Hemmi, discovered and a few of us have one now including Jack. I tried the Black-Magic HD SDI but just could not get it to work so I sent it back and bought the FEBON188. It worked straight from the off no problem. Great shots too and a seriously expressive collection :) Hi Karl, My Google searches eventually sent me to the same site, so I have ordered one, $US 144.00 including express freight. It may well not support as many video resolution options as the BM device in terms of capture speed & resolutions. The BM Media Capture software has a great speed test program which shows at what pro settings Resolutions) one can capture at. For most a standard 72,000 spin drive is not adequate and needs a SSD, which I capture to directly at the highest resolution. It will be an interesting experiment. Thanks for the heads up on it. Clear Skies... Hi Karl, The Black Magic Ultra Studio USB 3.0 unit needs a very specific Renases USB 3.0 chip-set to function as well as a lot of horse power and storage space in lots of gigabytes, and not all motherboards have this. Unfortunately, not all USB 3.0 chip-sets are made equal, some do the correct speed , some don't. To throughput gigabytes of data the USB 3.0 has to be working at peak performance. This is why they state in their technical blurb which motherboards they have tested with their units. This is why I built the PC that I did, and believe me it was difficult to get all the right parts-took a lot of searching around the globe. I can see now the the FEBON188 is only USB 2.0, so it will not perform at anything like the throughput of the BM unit, which processes any 3G HD-SDI video resolution at full 30/50/60 frames per second. The FEBON unit drops way down to 5 FPS, which is not what we want to eliminate rapid seeing changes. It will be an interesting device to test with the cheap HD-SDI Chinese cameras and maybe ideal for newcomers as a starting/easy entry point, but it will not match the resolution of the BM unit at full frame rates-USB 2.0 is its bottleneck, USB 3.0 has a data transfer 10x that of USB 2.0. It will be interesting to use in my other observatory because it is not practical to transfer the BM equipment from the main obs. I am a tech nerd/freak...Clear skies, Shevill
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2014 8:10:36 GMT
Hi Shevill,
Thanks for the info. I knew I was taking a risk with BM and it's compatibility with my PC but with little IT knowledge these things are trial and error for me. I bought this with the knowledge I could send it back and get the FEBON188 as a fall back. Unfortunately whilst my PC has USB 3 it is pretty basic. When I next update the PC the spec will be very much based on something very powerful and compatible with Blackmagic products. I also like the look of the HD SDI Pro but something for the future.
I look forward to your feedback once you try out the FEBON188.
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