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Snappy Just click the mouse button for high-res video images By GREG SWAIN This new technique just has to be the lowest cost way to capture high-quality video images on a PC. It’s called “Snappy” and teamed up with a standard camcorder, it produces images that can rival those from expensive digital cameras costing $6000 or more. A CTUALLY, SNAPPY should be classified as a frame-grabber because that’s what it does – it grabs video frames from a camcorder (or some other video source). But unlike a conventional frame-grabber which plugs into your PC’s mother­ board, Snappy is a compact external device that plugs into the parallel port. This makes for a much more convenient arrangement. You don’t have to pull the cover off your PC and you don’t have any of the installation hassles that can occur with plug-in cards (IRQ settings and the like). It also means that you can easily move the device from one computer to another, should the need arise. In use, Snappy can be teamed with any video source, such as a camcorder, VCR or TV tuner. It’s then simply a matter of click­ing the mouse button to preview a video frame via the proprietary software that comes with the device. This frame can then be captured and saved in a number of standard file formats, includ­ing bmp, pcx, tif, tga and jpg. Image quality The big difference between Snappy and conventional frame grabbers lies in the image quality. Conventional frame grabbers are strictly low-resolution devices and the image quality is limited. By contrast, this new device us claimed to provide video stills at resolutions up to 1500 x 1125 (1,687,500) pixels and in 16.8 million (32-bit) colours. That’s more than twice the resolution from a conventional frame grabber but there are a few other enhancements to the image along the way. In fact, this is claimed to be the world’s highest resolution video grabber. A clever IC The clever part of Snappy is a custom chip hidden inside the hardware. This chip, the HD-1500, was developed by Play Incorporated (USA) and digitally enhances the captured image before it is fed to the PC. Among other things, it provides 8-times oversampling, sets the black level and features adaptive comb filtering and timebase correction. Provided the source material is up to scratch, the result­ing image is sharp and has good colour and contrast. You can get some idea of the quality from the accompanying photographs. These photographs were supplied as jpeg compressed files on a demonstration disc and have not been enhanced in any way. All that we have done is open them in Photoshop, convert the resolution from 72 dpi to 266 dpi, resize them and convert them from RGB to CMYK format. From what we’ve seen, Snappy is perfect as a quick and painless way of capturing good-quality video images. You don’t have to muck about getting film processed and then scanning the resulting images, all of which costs October 1996  25 time and money. Of course, the results aren’t as good as those from a drum scanner or dedi­ cated transparency scanner but then we’re talking horses for courses. The software Fig.1: this is the interface that you get when you boot the Snappy video capture program. Clicking the Preview button brings up a frame grab on the screen. Fig.2: the Snappy software lets you make all sorts of adjustments to the previewed image, including colour, brightness, contrast, picture (gamma) and sharpness. You can also adjust the colour balance. This video grab, from the Snappy demonstration disc, was obtained at a resolution of 1500 x 1125 pixels. 26  Silicon Chip The Snappy software is easy to use, with an intuitive interface – you just click on the action buttons or turn the control knobs. You don’t need fancy hardware to run it either. The specifications are a PC-compatible with a 386 processor or better, 4Mb or RAM, 4Mb of hard disc space and a VGA (640 x 480 or better) video card. The software runs under Windows 3.1, Windows 3.11 and Windows 95 but no mention is made of Windows NT. Fig.1 shows the interface that’s presented when you boot the software. To preview the image, you just click the Preview button. Clicking the Adjust button then brings up the window shown in Fig.2. From there, you can make adjustments (if neces­sary) to various aspects of the image (eg, colour, brightness, contrast picture (gamma) and sharpness). It’s then simply a matter of clicking the Snap button to save the image to the disc in one of the standard formats. One very useful feature of the software is that you can “invert” the image from a negative to a positive. This can be useful if you have a negative colour transparency, for example. The trick is to place the transparency on a lightbox, aim the camera at it and then use the software to produce a positive image. Despite what might seem a rather clumsy technique, the result is still surprisingly good. Of course, you can use the same technique to capture images from a positive transparency but without “inverting” the image. As well as the standard capture software, Snappy also comes with Adobe Photo Deluxe, an easy-to-use image editing program. This will let you add special effects to your images and even add titles. An image distorting program (called Goo) and a morphing program (Griffon Morph) complete the software suite that’s sup­ plied with Snappy. Once again, these are easy to use and you can amuse yourself morphing grandma between her true self and the visage of a bassett hound, if your taste runs to such pastimes! The saved image can also be opened Above & left: provided some care is taken with lighting, Snappy is capable of producing excellent results, as these two photos demonstrate (again from the Snappy demo disc). Snappy is the easiest, most cost-effective way of obtaining video grabs that we've seen. in high-end imaging editing software such as Photoshop or imported into desktop publishing programs. In addition, Snappy boasts a Twain interface which means that an image can be directly acquired through Photo­shop or any other program that supports the Twain standard. Who will use it? Snappy At A Glance • • • Captures images from camcorders, VCRs, laser disc players, etc. • • • • • Preview mode displays image on-screen prior to capturing. • • • Three capture modes: field, frame or multi-frame. Easy to install; plugs into the PC’s parallel port. Custom chip enhances image and provides video resolution up to 1500 x 1125 pixels in 16.8 million colours. User adjustable image processing controls. Twain interface; emulates scanners. Negative mode for grabs of photographic negatives. Saves in one of three resolutions: 1500 x 1125 (5Mb bmp), 640 x 480 (1Mb bmp) and 320 x 240 pixels (250Kb bmp). Dimensions: 64 x 124 x 22mm Comes with Snappy (video capture), Adobe Photo Deluxe, Griffon Morph and Goo (image distorting) software. Just about everyone who needs to capture good-quality images with minimum hassle will want Snappy. To quote a well-worn cliche, the list of applications is endless. This device is perfect for producing catalogs, ad­ vertisements, real estate magazines, school reports, ID cards, newsletters and Internet images, to name just a few. Provided that you have a video camera (or some other suit­able video source), Snappy is the fastest, easiest way to get good quality video grabs into your PC that we’ve seen. The cost won’t break the bank either – the recommended retail price is $449. This price includes the hardware, all the software (Snappy, Adobe Photo Deluxe, Goo and Morph), a video cable, a 9V battery and a manual. For further information, contact the Aus­tralian distributor Star Micronics, Unit A, 107 Asquith St, Silverwater, NSW 2128. Phone (02) 9748 4300. SC October 1996  27