On Thu, 9 Aug 2001 11:14:57 +0100, "John Knott" wrote:

>I need to capture video from eight different live video feeds.
>I have eight computers, each with matrox digitising cards(g400 marvel), but
>the problem is, I want the digitising to be synchronised.
>e.g. i want all of the difitising processes to start at exactly the same
>time, end at exactly ther same time, have the same number of frames, same
>frame rate, same color depth, and size etc.etc.
>
>Does anybody have any suggestions on how to go about this?
>Also does anybody know of any factors from computer to computer that may
>affect the frame rate of capture, even slightly, and are there any hardware
>acquisitions i could make to make sure the video is digitised exactly in
>sync.
>
>The eight computers are decent spec p3s with 128MB memory, and are
>networked.

If the results do not need to be "real time", this would be
FAR easier done this way: forget synch., start the cameras
(with tape in), fire a flash visible to all the cameras,
start the action, end it, stop the cameras, digitize the
eight clips, and then cut and synch. them in a good
video editor (only one computer needed...). You can also
make adjustments for color-balance/exposure/etc. at this
time...