When I first heard about the new DVRaptor-RT capture card from Canopus, I was wondering how much this real time video editing bundle would cost. Adobe Premiere alone retails for $549, so you can understand my delight when I saw that for a mere $50 more, we have here a DV card that can actually edit high quality video in real time. What's the catch? Well, there are a few, but if you prepare carefully, they can be sidestepped easily, and suddenly, you're editing video as simply as can be done for a price that just two years ago would have been ten times higher than this. Isn't technology wonderful?

Taking a closer look at the DVRaptor-RT package, you'll see that besides a single-slot PCI DV card and the full version of Premiere 6.0, it also includes SoftMPEG Encoder, a nice software-based way to crunch your footage down into MPEG files, Xplode Basics 3D Transition software, which is loads of fun to play with but doesn't work in real time (and may be hazardous to your professional health if you use it too much), and a trial version of SpruceUp DVD authoring software, a good way to get your feet wet in DVD authoring but not quite up to the level of Sonic Solutions' DVDit. Nevertheless, since I think enough of the DVRaptor-RT to say that it alone is worth $599, all this extra software is virtually free.

Remarkable as these low-cost DV cards are, it's crucial that you check with the manufacturer about compatibility with your motherboard, and then, make sure your computer is properly prepared. With the DVRaptor-RT, I first tried to use a Biostar motherboard with a Via chipset, and although the DVRaptor-RT captured video perfectly, it refused to play back anything. Then I moved the card over to a Dell Dimension XPS1000, and no dice there, either. Premiere wouldn't load. That's because earlier we had a DVStorm board in that computer, and even though I followed the instructions to uninstall Premiere and the previous drivers, the registry still contained references to the DVStorm installation and prevented Premiere from launching. My point is, before you jump into buying a DV capture card like DVRaptor-RT, or any other DV card for that matter, check with the manufacturer to see if it will be compatible with your motherboard (hopefully Canopus will have updated this outdated compatibility list on the company's Web site). If you had previously installed a different capture card, unfortunately, it's probably best to back up all your files and reinstall your operating system before you install the new card. As I've mentioned many times on this site before, the best-case scenario is to have a systems integrator or value-added reseller (VAR) install the card in a new computer for you that's dedicated to DV editing -- not such a big deal considering that you can get a perfectly good DV editing system, including computer and monitor, for much less than $2K.

That said, I tested the DVRaptor-RT on a third machine, using an Athlon 1.2 GHz chip, Gigabyte GA-7DX motherboard (with an AMD-761 chip set) and 256 MB of DDR RAM. This proved to be a sweet configuration, combining low cost with plenty of processor power -- enabling me to put together lots of effects that were all able to execute in real time. Like its sibling the DVStorm, DVRaptor-RT gets more powerful as processor speed increases. So go ahead -- dissolve from one shot to another while applying an old movie filter to both and laying a title over them, all in real time. Create a fine-looking chromakey. It works!

This configuration reminded me so much of the DVStorm, that I needed to step back for a minute to assess what was missing in this package that is included in the DVStorm. The hardware differs in one crucial way: Just like the Matrox RT2500 and Pinnacle DV500+, DVRaptor-RT needs to render any effects you create if you're sending the footage back to DV tape. DVStorm can do that in real time. Also, DVStorm has a nice breakout box that you can mount into the front face of your computer. But if you just want to record your finished sequences on VHS or Betacam tape, there's no rendering necessary on the DVRaptor-RT, so if this is the flow of your productions, don't waste the extra money on a DVStorm. But if you want to capture video from an analog source, like a VHS machine or analog camcorder, you're out of luck with DVRaptor-RT -- it has no analog inputs.

What else is lacking? If you're a pro user and need balanced audio inputs and outputs, then this card is not for you. It only has RCA audio jacks. Nor can you control a tape deck via RS422 analog deck control. Another fave of mine that's missing is Storm Navi, an automatic logger that finds the beginning of each shot, marks ins and outs on an entire tape's worth if shots and delivers a batch capture list to you. Maybe Canopus would consider adding that to the bundle. But heck, what did you expect for $599!

I really like this card. I can see why Avid selected it as the DV capture/acceleration engine for its Xpress DV software. And at this price, it's not unreasonable to consider buying a low-cost computer into which you can plant this sucker. It's remarkable how the prices of these devices have continued to drop. And, at $599, this card has most of the functionality of the Matrox RT2500 (except for the $999 RT2500's real time 3D effects, and hardware MPEG) and all the functionality and then some of Pinnacle's DV500+ at $779. Keep an eye on these other cards, though, because this is a hotly competitive market segment, and these companies won't sit still while the others pass them. For example, Pinnacle has a new card soon to be released called Pro-ONE that's sure to give DVRaptor-RT a run for its money. But for now, because of its advanced real time features and extremely low cost, the Canopus DVRaptor-RT is king of the hill for this market segment.

Charlie White has been writing about digital video editing since it was the laughingstock of the postproduction industry. He's an Emmy award-winning producer and director for PBS, and Senior Producer at Digital Media Net. Reach him at cwhite@digitalmedianet.com