Imperx has released its latest family of digital laptop frame grabbers, the HD-SDI Express. The frame grabbers now measure 34mm and 54mm (ExpressCard form factors) and have a single coaxial cable connector.
The boards can capture single or multiple frames and can stamp a user message, date, and time of capture onto the video. They handle all SD and HD formats, from regular TV up to HD, including the common 720p, 1080i, and 1080p formats, and fit in any laptop that has an ExpressCard interface.
What makes these frame grabbers stand out is that they support lossless real-time capture of both video and audio. Not only can the cards capture video, but they also capture two channels of 24-bit audio at 48kHz, making it possible to use the camera's microphone instead of a separate microphone. By including the audio in the card's single input, no software is needed to mix and sync audio and video.
Along with the frame grabbers, Imperx also provides a software developer kit (SDK) with an application programming interface (API) that allows customers to develop their own software to interface with the card and grab imagery and audio. It provides drivers for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7 and a variety of drivers to interface to third-party software tools with imaging libraries like LabView, Matlab, DirectX, and other media encoding software.
