Live Capture

Live video from external sources such as cameras or computers may be brought into Hippotizer and used as a video source. A capture card is required. See Hardware Information on Capture Cards for more information.

Before using live capture, it is important to ensure the card has been properly detected by Hippotizer. This information is best accessed within the Live Capture Tab in the configuration page of Zookeeper.

In the above image an SDI capture card has been detected.

Once detected, live capture inputs will appear as a list of buttons in layer source.

Delay in Live Capture

It is often desired to have as little latency in live capture as possible. Properly configured, Hippotizer will add 2-3 frames of delay.

For best practice guidelines please see the section on reducing live delay

Interlaced video signals

Some SDI signals are Interlaced; this alternates lines between frames to reduce the data rate. (Frame 1 will have even lines, frame 2 odd lines and so forth) Interlaced signals are normally denoted with an i in their frame-rate. For example, 1920×1080 @60i sends 60 interlaced frames per second. Interlaced signals often show a jagged ‘combing’ effect with lateral motion making it necessary to de-interlace the signal.

Hippotizer has two de-interlacing tools. A software based one on layer, and a hardware based system on the capture card.

The software de-interlacer on layer simply crops the interlaced signal in effect halving the vertical resolution. This does not add delay but the reduction of resolution may not be desirable.

The hardware de-interlacer occurs on the capture card and works by combining preceding frames to create a full resolution stream. The buffering required for this process will add latency: typically one frame. The hardware de-interlacer is controlled from the Capture Card tab of the configuration section of Zookeeper.

Generally, the hardware de-interlacer offers better visual quality.