The VACPCI is a real time NTSC/PAL video overlay and video annotation controller for the PCI bus.
The VACPCI integrates on a single PCI card, a high-resolution graphics accelerator, digital NTSC/PAL TV decoder, digital NTSC/PAL TV encoder and video overlay controller. The VACPCI accepts a composite or S-video (NTSC or PAL) analog video input from a variety of sources including video cameras, digital video recording equipment or regular TV broadcasts. It can mix the real-time video with graphics data and provide output to drive an analog or digital VGA monitor or a TV monitor (as composite video or S-Video). The VACPCI Video Annotation Controller features multi-format alpha blending hardware allowing graphics/video to be alpha-blended over a number of graduations from transparent to fully opaque. The VACPCI is suited to a wide range of applications which require annotation of live video streams with information such as titles, advertising data, dynamic grids or visible watermarking.
The VACPCI board uses a high performance 64 bit 2D graphics accelerator and 8Mbytes frame buffer to provide fast video graphics processing to enable high speed re-sizing of alpha blended images.
Product Highlights
- Single channel video annotation / overlay controller
- Composite or S-Video input
- Analogue / DVI VGA, composite and S-Video outputs
- Alpha blending - 256 levels of per pixel blending or, by rectangular region
- 24bit colour annotation graphics
- 2D 64 bit graphics accelerator with 8Mbytes frame buffer
- Comprehensive SDK for Windows 2000/XP/XP-Embedded, Linux and QNX (to save you time)
- Industry standard video connectors for video input/output signals
- Single +5V power supply
Applications
- Avionics and Radar Display
- Live Video Labelling
- Video Annotation and Titling
- Multimedia displays
- Advertising message Insertion
- Medical and Industrial imaging
- Mobile Entertainment Systems (MES)
Software Development Kit (SDK)
The VACPCI is available with a comprehensive SDK which provides a high level API to configure and control the embedded video hardware (via more than 500 internal registers). The SDK helps bridge the gap between the TV and computer display technologies and saves a significant amount of time during development.
The SDK consists of support libraries and drivers as well as an extensive range of example applications (including source code). These examples show how the SDK can be utilized to harness the power of the VACPCI in complex video/graphic applications.
The SDK datasheet is available for download from here.
Technical Information
Advanced Micro Peripherals provides access to detailed reference manuals to help you select the best product for your application. You can download the hardware reference manual and software reference manuals for Linux or Windows* for the VACPCI (quick and easy registration is required).
*Note: The software reference manual is applicable to the VACPCI, VAC2000 and VAC104-Plus.
Ordering Information
The following part numbers can be used when placing an order.
- VACPCI-I-A/O-VT - PCI Video Annotation Controller
The VACPCI SDK can be ordered using the following part codes.
- VACPCI-Win2000 SDK - VACPCI SDK for Windows2000/XP-E
- VACPCI-Linux SDK - VACPCI SDK for Linux
Note: The VAC SDK is only available to purchase when purchasing a VACPCI card. The SDK will not operate with any other hardware
