Philips PCA635VC manual

PC Camera User Guide PCA635VC[...]

This manual covers the installation, usage and tr oubleshooting of the Philips PCA635V C Camera and Videogram soft- ware. Y ou will notice, to get up and running quickly , that a separate Quick S tart guide has been included. This manual should be used along with the Quick S tart guide and referenced when you need a mor e complete explanation. In a[...]

About This Manual 2 Manual Conventions 2 T able Of Contents 3 About Y our Philips PCA635VC 6 Bundled Softwar e 6 Videogram Creator 6 Chapter 1 Befor e Y ou Begin 7 Check the P ackage Contents 7 Minimum System Configuration 7 Optimum System Configuration 7 Safety T ips 8 Maintenance 8 Chapter 2 Setup & Installation 9 Installing Philips PCA635V C[...]

Chapter 4 Videogram Creator Softwar e 14 Opening the V ideogram Creator application 15 Video & A udio Settings 15 Settings Control P anel OK & CANCEL Buttons F ormat 15 Quality Size Adjust 16 Video 17 Audio 17 Capture A udio F requency Size Channels Image 18 Size Subject Quality The Main W indow 19 F ile Menu B ar F ile Menu Edit M enu T oo[...]

Chapter 7 Grabbing Snapshot Images 32 Capturing a Snapshot 32 STEP 1: P review V ideo Live Video STEP 2: Grab S till Live Video STEP 3: View the B it Mapped Image STEP 4: Save and Send Grabbing S napshot I mages from P re-Recor ded V ideo 34 Picturegram 34 Chapter 8 Adding Narration & Audio 35 Add Live Sound 35 Record A udio or N arration Add P[...]

Y our Philips PCA635VC Camera is the easiest way to capture and send video fr om your desktop or laptop computer . The Philips PCA635V C along with Videogram Cr eator Software, incorporates the latest in video captur e and playback technol- ogy into a high quality , compact video camera. W ith the PCA635VC you can captur e full-motion video at reso[...]

This chapter provides a checklist of items y ou need to ensure a smooth installation including a section on general safety . Before installation, make sure that y our Philips PCA635V C was shipped complete (“P ackage Contents ”) and then v erify that your system meets the minimum requirements (“S ystem Requirements ”). Check the P ackag e C[...]

Safety Tips Before you install this pr oduct, be sure to safeguard y ourself, your computer system and the Philips PCA635V C. I t is recommended that you follo w these precautions in addition to any precautions y ou may have found in other documents for your computer . • Shut down and disconnect system po wer prior to plugging and unplugging conn[...]

This chapter walks you through the installation and setup process for y our Philips PCA635V C unit. Some of the diagrams in this section may look different than your system. This user’ s guide is designed to be used along with any existing docu- mentation that you have collected for your computer . The following diagram is an o verview of all the[...]

This Chapter describes installation of the Philips PCA635V C software, including the Videogram Creator and Player soft- ware. Due to the true 32-bit nature of the softwar e, the installation will only work under Windows 95. STEP 1: Re-Connect the P ow er During the hardwar e setup we instructed you to unplug the computer system from the wall outlet[...]

STEP 6: Follow the Installer Dir ections The following dialog box will appear . If nothing happens, restart your system and try it again. If it still doesn ’ t work make sure the drive works by trying another CD. F ollow the simple on-scr een instructions to complete the installation. QuickVideo Software on System Once you have finished installin[...]

Philips PCA635V C Setup W izard - W alks you through the installation and set-up of your Philips PCA635VC, including properly configuring your parallel port. Philips PCA635V C Electronic U ser G uide - Online U ser Guide in A dobe Acrobat format. Videogram Pla y er Group Videogram Player - Standalone player that is installed on the system har d dri[...]

Then, the Wizar d will help you configure the audio on y our Philips PCA635V C. Enter Internet settings, then you ’ r e ready to begin recor ding with Philips PCA635V C. 13[...]

This Chapter discusses the Videogram C reator software. With the Videogram Creator softwar e you can begin capturing, creating, and sending V ideograms. This Chapter will explain the differ ent aspects and features of this software, and will show you ho w to adjust settings to create the best Videograms with your system. Vital settings that control[...]

Video & Audio Settings Before you begin using the Videogram Cr eator , it ’ s impor tant that you learn how to control video and audio . Y ou may want to experiment with these settings later to optimize video capture for your system. M ore information regar- ding “Optimizing System for Video Capture ” can be found in Chapter 10 located to[...]

• F ast (VGP ixel) - S elect this option to capture video at a higher frame rate; color and o verall definition of the video will be less than the High or M edium settings. This is your best choice for most Videograms and the default setting. Size Select one of these options to adjust the size of the video captur ed. The size setting tells the V [...]

duction is as follows: put the A uto White B alance switch on, hold a white paper in front of the camera and switch ov er after a few seconds from auto to fixed mode. N o w the color settings are stored in the camera, even when y ou switch off the power of the camera. When light conditons change it is recommended to put the A uto White B alance mod[...]

Captur e Audio This box must be checked before attempting to capture any audio . Fr equency Select one of these options to choose the audio frequency for sound captur e. The settings offer you the ability to balance sound quality with the size of your sound file. A lo w frequency setting (8KHz) will produce lower sound quality in a much smaller fil[...]

Quality Select on one of the settings to gain better image resolution or to sav e file size in snapshots. These options directly affect the quality (depth, resolution) in snapshots and captur e speed. The higher the Quality setting, the better the image will appear . Subsequently , higher Quality settings will result in a little mor e time to compr[...]

• Play Videograms - Plays the most recently created V ideograms. • Exit - Closes the V ideogram Creator application Edit Menu Here y ou ’ ll find sound and video settings. • Go t o In Ma rk * - J umps to marked In-point in the selected video • Go to Out Mar k* - J umps to marked Out-point in the selected video • Clear In-Out Mar ks* - R[...]

F ast F orward - Active only after a video clip has been captur ed, hold button down for fast forward, click button once to move the video clip forward one frame at a time. Slider Contr ol - Active only after a video clip has been captur ed, this displays the current position of the video/sound clip and allows users to mo ve to different points wit[...]

This Chapter walks you through capturing, saving and playing back both Videograms and standard M icrosoft video (.A VI) files. Videograms and A VI Video Files Compared The difference between Videograms and A VI Video files is size. Microsoft .A VI Video files serve as the base file format for Videograms. V ideograms dramatically compress the A VI f[...]

STEP 1 Pre view Video When you first open the Videogram C reator application you will be in the “P r eview” mode. I n the “P review” mode, video displays from the Philips PCA635V C. If video is not displayed when you click on the pr eview button AND all the connectors are tightly plugged in, then go back to Chapter 5 and make sure that all [...]

AD V ANCED Dropping frames is normal and will vary from system to system depending on the system performance, as well as the type and size of video being captured. Experiment with differ ent settings as described in Chapter 4, you can impro ve the system performance and drop fewer frames. Ho wever , the real judge is your eyes. Click the “OK” b[...]

Once the V ideogram is created, an e-mail window will appear (in this example, the windo w is from M icrosoft Exchange). Simply type in the e-mail address of y our recipients, the file is already attached. Sa ving Videograms An alternative to sending the V ideogram directly is to Save the Videogram. This allows you to post the Videogram to a W ebpa[...]

AD V ANCED Before starting the V ideogram compression process by clicking on the “I nternet Send ” button, you can set the start and end points of the video by using the Mar k In and Mar k Out buttons (shown at left) on the Video T oolbar . Simply find the desired starting point on the video then click the Mark I n button. F ind the desired end[...]

Audio T ype Select one of these options to indicate the sound optimization. • Generic - This setting saves the maximum amount of information to reproduce a wide range of sounds and is optimi- zed for music and other demanding audio files. This setting will cause the file to consume mor e space on the hard drive. • Speech - This setting saves le[...]

Videogram Player folder), or they can do wnload it from the Alaris W ebsite (http://www .alaris.com). Creating Videograms without the Player will not only save file space, but upload and do wnload times. Using Videograms With Non-MAPI Email Programs With non-MAPI email pr ograms such as America Online (A OL), you cannot launch the email program dir[...]

There are two types of Videograms that you can play: self-ex ecuting V ideograms that include the Player in the file, and Videograms that requir e the Player to be installed on the playing system. Playback for both of these files is described in this chapter . For best results, both types of Videograms should be played back on a minimum 486DX/2 66 [...]

Clicking on the menu button in the lower left hand corner of the Videogram Player softwar e, will make the following “ Application ” menu will appear: U se the Str eaming Videogram Play er Menu to access the follo wing functions: • Open F ile… - Open a V ideogram file with .VGM extension to play . This is a V ideogram saved without a built-[...]

• Skip F rames if behind (checkbox) - By default this is left checked to optimize the viewing speed and to keep the sound synchronized. When this option is not checked, all frames will be play ed back in the Videogram r egardless of sound synchronization. • Sound - Use this slider to adjust the playback volume of the Videogram without affecting[...]

One of the great things about the Philips PCA635V C is that, in addition to capturing video clips, it also captur es single images, or snapshots. Snapshots ar e great for everything from wallpaper for the W indows desktop to images for I nternet web pages and they ’ re extremely easy to grab with the Philips PCA635V C. F ollo w the step-by-step i[...]

STEP 2: Grab Still Live Video W atch the motion video carefully for a scene that you would like to captur e a snapshot of. Click on the “G rab S till” Button to freez e this image. Depending on the image size (described in Chapter 4) and system performance (Chapter 10) this could take a few seconds to a few minutes. 33 Capturing & Processin[...]

STEP 3: View the Bit Ma pped Image The Video Windo w in the Videogram Cr eator application provides a pr eview of the image captured. F or closer inspection of the image, you can pull up a separate window containing y our BMP . F rom the “Edit ” menu, click on “View Bitmap ” to bring up the S napshot I nspection Windo w . Click the right (o[...]

A great way to enhance any video capture is to add sound. This is not limited to just video. I t is easy to add music or nar- ration to a snapshot as well. This Chapter walks y ou through a step-by-step procedur e on adding sound to a snapshot or video capture. Before starting, a captured video snapshot or image must be visible in the video windo w[...]

The Videogram Cr eator application makes it easier than ever to share information. Captur e a picture and send a thousand words or simply send a self-running and compact V ideogram. J oin us as we attempt to document a few new ways to share information. Sending with E-Mails F amily E-mails have become a part of everyday life for millions of people.[...]

Stand-Alone Videogram Pr esentations Y ou don ’ t need a fancy presentation software package installed on every system to enjoy the benefits of video-enhanced presentations. In fact, with a small inv estment of time, you can create stand-alone and self-running V ideogram presenta- tions. T o begin you ’ll need a standar d A VI video and sound e[...]

Video Streaming Videogram S treaming is basically a standar d Internet file download taken one step further . A standard file download on the Internet may be accomplished by simply clicking on a link to a file. F or example, by clicking on a link to http://www .yoursite.com/file.ex e , the FILE.EXE will be transferred to y our hard drive. FILE.EXE [...]

5 Upload the .V GX (or .VGP) file to y our Internet site, where y our Internet page (.HTM) files are located, and be sur e to note the exact location, like: http://www .yoursite.com/myvgx.vgx. 6 Edit one of your Internet pages (.HTM) to include a link to the .V GX (or .V GP) file by adding a line similar to: <a href=”http://www .yoursite.com/m[...]

P arallel P or t Recommendations The parallel port is the first contact a computer system has with the video information using the Philips PCA635V C. Y ou can have the fastest hard drive, har d drive controller , computer processor and RAM and still not see an improvement in video capture if the video originated at a slow P arallel P ort. W e stron[...]

System Recommendations Increase y our windows display resolution from 256 colors to 64,000 or 16.7 million colors to gr eatly enhance video vie- wing. In general, we r ecommend that you use a P entium 90 or faster computer with a Hicolor (64,000 color , 16-bits per pix el) or T ruecolor (16.7 million color , 24-bits per pix el) display to view Vide[...]

Q. What is a Videogram? A Videogram is a file containing highly compr essed video and audio. A Videogram typically will include the player so that any Windo ws PC user can play the file back on their computer . With V ideogram technology , you can fit over 60 seconds of video and audio on a single 3.5 inch floppy , so, for the first time you can de[...]

Q. What is MAPI and do I need a MAPI compliant e-mail system to use P hilips PCA635V C? MAPI stands for M essaging Application P rogramming I nterface. This interface allows differ ent applications to interact using e-mail messaging. If you have a MAP I-compliant e-mail system, an e-mail window will automati- cally appear when you are r eady to sen[...]

Q. How do I save video captur ed using Philips PCA635V C to an A VI or MOV file? Any video that has been captured with Philips PCA635V C can be saved as an uncompr essed A VI file. U nder “FILE” click on “Save As ” and then choose A VI format. Currently , MOV (QuickT ime) files ar e not supported directly by the Videogram Creator softwar e.[...]

tems, we use 1 GB or larger drives with data transfer rates of at least 11 MB/second (A T A Mode 3) and seek times of 14 ms or less. In general, we r ecommend that you have a display with at least 256 colors and pr eferably 64K colors minimum. Videogram Creator will wor k on systems even with 16 colors but the quality will be very poor since the or[...]

Optical Sensor 1/4” CCD Pixels P AL (HxV ) 512x582 NTSC (HxV) 512x492 Illumination 10 - 100000 lux Integrated lens 3.8mm, F2.0 Resolutions Str eaming video r esolutions NTSC (HxV) 320x240 / 240x180 / 160x120 P AL (HxV) 352x288 / 264x216 / 176x144 Still image r esolutions NTSC/P AL (HxV) 320x240 / 640x480 / 1024x768 / 1600x1200 P erformance Video [...]

Active Video Area The section, or region, of the application that displays live motion video . Aspect Ratio The length compared to the width of the video window . For example, a standar d television has a 3 to 4 aspect ratio (for every 3 pixels of height there are 4 pix els for length). AV I The Microsoft standard file format for combined video and[...]