Epiphan Systems Releases PCI Express VGA Frame Grabber

 

In an unexpected move, Epiphan Systems unveiled its’ VGA2PCIe frame grabber today – a completely internal frame grabber based on the PCI Express bus. This move is unexpected because Epiphan specialized in external USB and Ethernet based devices.

The VGA2PCIe is a fairly basic 1-channel VGA frame grabber.  At the same time, VGA2PCIe offers capture rates that are impressive to say the least. Let’s take a look at the advantages and shortcomings of this new device:

Advantages:

• No compression when transferring the from VGA to the PC, meaning that your computer will see the VGA signal in 100% lossless, raw quality.
• Capture rates vary between 35-85 frames per second, making this frame grabber ideal for high frame rate applications.
• VGA2PCIe is able to capture full HD (1920×1080) video at high frame rates.
• VGA2PCIe is based on 1x PCI Express, meaning it will fit in any PCI Express slot.
• For a price of $800, this is lower than other competing internal devices.

Shortcomings:

• Only one channel for VGA capture, although several VGA2PCIe devices can be installed on the same machine.
• No drivers for Linux or Mac, but Epiphan promises to add them in the near future.
• No audio input capture support, while other frame grabbers in Epiphan’s product line (like the VGA2Ethernet) support a stereo audio input.

Conclusion

VGA2PCIe is a strong contender in the internal frame grabber market. It should definitely be put under consideration if you are shopping for an internal VGA frame grabber. The specifications are impressive an Epiphan’s support has always been great.

Shutter – A Tool for Linux Screenshots

Shutter is a fully-featured screenshot tool for Linux. Within one window, Shutter lets you take a screenshot of the screen, a window, or an area of the screen, edit it, and upload it to the web. Shutter is fully open source and, according to their website, has the following features:

Features:

• take a screenshot of your complete desktop, a rectangular area or capture a website
• take screenshot directly or with a specified delay time
• save the screenshots to a specified directory and name them in a convenient way
  (using special wild-cards)
• Shutter is fully integrated into the Gnome Desktop (TrayIcon etc.)
• generate thumbnails directly when you are taking a screenshot and set a size level in %
• Shutter session collection
  • keep track of all screenshots during session
  • copy screeners to clipboard
  • print screenshots
  • delete screenshots
  • rename your file
• upload your files directly to Image-Hosters (e.g. http://ubuntu-pics.de), retrieve all the needed links and share them with others
• edit your screenshots directly using the embedded drawing tool

It works like your standard screen capture program (we review such programs all the time) and does not yet have a video recording feature. The program can be set to run automatically as soon as you press the PrtScn or Alt+PrtScn buttons. Read here about configuring Shutter to activate automatically.

Extended Features/Plugins

One neat thing about Shutter is the support of plugins.

These plugins are able to create effects similar to those in GIMP and PhotoShop but directly in Shutter, making it a nice tool for web developers who want to add effects to images on their website, but either don’t have the expertise or the time to do so. All plugins have a slate of settings to make your image look just the way you want it.

Uploading your Images

Shutter lets you upload your screen captures to a wide variety of free image sharing websites. One of the neatest feature of the upload feature is that you get embed and direct links to the uploaded images right away, without the need to launch a browser.

Conclusion

Shutter is a very powerful and fully-featured tool for capturing still screenshots within a graphical Linux environment. As a matter of fact, it surpasses many of its’ Windows counterparts in features, ease of use, and usability. For more information about Shutter for Linux visit http://shutter-project.org/.

An Awesome New Tool for Web Based Webpage Screenshots and Annotations

Here at ScreenCaptureNews, when it comes to software, we like everything that’s free, useful, and simple. A good example of an application that abides by those three rules would be Aviary. Think of Aviary as a tool for capturing screenshots of webpages, similar to FireShot, which we earlier reviewed.

 

How it works

The way it works is quite simple, just place www.aviary.com/ before the URL of the webpage that you would like to capture.

Once that is done, you will be taken to a loading page, it means that your capture was successful and the Aviary image editor is starting.

You will then be taken to a full-blown image editor, as pictured below. The features are pretty self explanatory. Once you are done editing, you may click on “save to desktop” or “save & host online,” depending on what you would like to do with your saved capture.

 

Advanced Screenshot Editor

The most amazing feature of Aviary is, by far, the advanced editor, pictured below. It can be accessed by clicking on “Advanced Editor” in the top right of the window.

Those that work with Photoshop will have an easy time adapting to the advanced image editor, which tries to replicate the Photoshop interface and functions with some features like layers, history, magic wand, smudge tool, liquify tool, freeform selection tool, and more. All these features definitely make this web based applet more advanced than most free screenshot editors which need to be installed. What’s more, Aviary works with all operating systems including Windows, Mac OS and Linux, and allows for direct uploading of an image to the Aviary web servers, where you can share it with others.

Conclusion

If you don’t have a webpage screenshot editing tool that you’re used to, or if you’re looking to try something new, I would definitely recommend Aviary. It’s easy to use, it’s free, and it’s packed with features that you won’t find anywhere else!