Orion telescopes & binoculars 52181 User manual

Orion®Video Capture Device

#52181

INSTRUCTION MANUAL

Providing Exceptional Consumer Optical Products Since 1975

OrionTelescopes.com

IN 433 Rev. C 08/14

Customer Support:

www.OrionTelescopes.com/contactus

Corporate Offices:

89 Hangar Way, Watsonville CA 95076 - USA

contents may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the

prior written consent of Orion Telescopes & Binoculars.

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• Mouse (external or built-in)

• Internet connection required to display on-line help and download

additional software

• High Speed USB 2.0 port

Windows

The Orion Video Capture device, device driver and Orion Capture soft-

ware requires Windows running on a Pentium III™ or equivalent,

or higher.

Mac OSX

The Orion Video Capture device, device driver and Orion Capture soft-

ware requires Mac OS X 10.3 or above running on a Power PC G3/G4/

G5 or Intel-Based Macintosh computers.

Input Devices

A wide variety of Input devices are supported (Figure 2).

Software and Driver Installation

Before the video capture device can be used the USB device driver and image

capture software must be installed onto your computer.

Note: If you have any antivirus software enabled, please disable it during the

installation of the software.

Note: Do not connect the Video Capture Device to your computer yet.

The Orion Video Capture

Device enables any NTSC

or PAL analogue video

signal output from CCTV

camera, DVD, DVR, VCR,

Cablebox, Game Console

or Camcorder to be dis-

played and recorded on any

computer or Laptop with

Windows or Mac OS X oper-

ating system installed.

Video input can be from any

Composite or SVideo signal.

The Video Capture Device can be used for many purposes including:

• Live Viewing and recording of astronomy subjects via CCTV camera such

as the Orion Starshoot Deep Space Video Camera or the Orion Starshoot

Video Eyepiece.

• Live internet broadcasting. Search the web for "free online video

streaming and broadcasting".

• Capturing and editing home movies from tape to digital formats such as

DVD, Web and mobile devices.

• Automated tracking and recording of meteors using HandyAVI or UFO

capture software.

Please read this instruction manual before attempting to use the video capture

device or install the software.

Parts List

• Orion Video Capture Device (USB)

• Manual

System Requirements

The following hardware is required:

• Recommended minimum memory size is 512 MB.

• Disk Space – 1GB or more recommended for saving Movies.

• Video Display – 800 X 600, 16-bit color or higher. 1024x768 or higher is

recommended.

Figure 1. USB Device Figure 2. Examples of supported Input devices.

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Windows Users

Download Windows device driver and Orion AmCap capture software from the

following link:

www.telescope.com/vidcap

Please turn to the section titled “Windows installation and operation”.

Macintosh Users

Download Macintosh device driver and EasyCap capture software from the fol-

lowing link:

www.telescope.com/vidcap

Please turn to the section titled “Macintosh installation and operation”.

Windows Installation

and Operation

Video Capture Device Driver Installation

1. Download and run the driver that is compatible with your operating system.

2. The USB-TV Device Driver Software Installation will start.

3. Follow on screen Installation instructions.

4. When installation is complete click the Finish button.

5. Restart computer.

Once the driver is installed, the computer will now recognize the Orion Video

Capture Device whenever it is plugged in.

Please connect the Video Capture Device to your computer, you should see a

window, select “Yes, this time only”, and then select “Install the software auto-

matically (Recommended)”, select “Continue Anyway”. Wait for a moment until

the system displays “Your new hardware is installed and ready to use”.

Verify Device Driver Installation

You will now need to check that the drivers are installed correctly.

1. Right Click on My Computer

2. Left Click on properties.

3. Click on Hardware tab and then

Device Manager.

In the Device Manager click on the

“Sound, video and game control-

lers”. You should see the “USB 2861

Device” listed. (Figure 3).

If it has a Yellow mark next to it then

this means that the driver is not

installed correctly. You will need to

remove the driver and disconnect the

Orion Video Capture device from the

computer and reconnect to install the

driver again.

Capture Software Installation &

Guide

Now that the Video Capture Device

driver software is installed, the

capture software must also be

installed.

1. Download, unzip and run the

Orion AmCap capture software

installer.

2. The Orion AmCap Setup Wizard

appears. Click Next.

3. Select a destination folder and

Click Next.

4. Click Next again to start the

installation.

5. When the wizard is complete,

click close. This has installed the

capture software.

6. Open Orion AmCap from the icon

on your desktop. The Live Video Window should appear (Figure 4). The

software will recognize many cameras so check that USB 2861 Device is

selected from the device menu.

Figure 3. Device manager screen.

Figure 4. The live video window.

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7. Under Options menu select

Video Capture Filter and select

Video Decoder Tab to modify

settings such as PAL/NTSC/

SECAM country video standard

settings. Select the Video Proc

Amp Tab to modify image settings

such as Brightness, Contrast,

Hue, Saturation and Sharpness

(Figure 5).

8. Under options menu select Video

Capture Pin to modify settings

such as Output Size (Figure 6).

The maximum output size is 720

x 480.

9. Under options menu select Video

Crossbar to modify video input

settings based upon the video

device attached to the Video

Capture Device IE (Figure 7).

The majority of devices will output

standard Video Composite video

signal. Higher quality can be

achieved using SVideo input.

10. Select Capture File from the

File menu and name your ﬁle

including the AVI extension name.

IE MyMovie.avi. Click Open.

11. Enter the amount of disk space

to allocate as a Capture buffer

for this data. Movie ﬁles need a

large amount of disk space. Enter

a value such as 50 Megabytes

or higher. Press ok. The size of

the captured data may be much

higher than this value depending upon number and size of frames captured.

12. Select Set Frame Rate under the Capture menu. Check the box Use Frame

Rate and type 15. Press ok.

13. Select Set Time Limit under the Capture menu. Check the box Use Time

Limit and type 20. Press ok.

14. Select Start Capture under the Capture menu.

15. Press ok when you are ready to

capture Images.

An AVI movie sequence of 300 frames

(15 frames per second x 20 seconds)

will now be recorded.

The total number of captured frames

is displayed on the bottom bar. If

frames are being dropped this will be

displayed also. To remedy this, try

increasing the capture buffer size. If

this does not resolve dropping frames

then the frame rate or resolution

should be set to a lower value to pre-

vent dropping of frames.

Macintosh

Installation

and Operation

Check your Mac OS X version

Orion Capture software requires Mac

OS X 10.3 or later.

Please go to About this Mac.

There you will ﬁnd your Mac OS ver-

sion (Figure 8).

Install Driver and Application

Note: If you have any anti-virus software enabled, please disable it during the

installation of the software.

Download and run the installer

“EzCAP1.0.1R.pkg”.

Follow the onscreen instructions. You may need to enter your Mac password.

Once installation has completed please restart your computer (Figure 9).

Connect the Capture Device to a USB port on your Mac, after a short while,

the hardware will be installed in your computer. You now need to check that the

drivers are installed correctly.

Please go to About this Mac More info Hardware USB.

Figure 5. Video Capture Filter.

Figure 6. Video Capture Pin.

Figure 7. Video Crossbar.

Figure 8. Mac OS X Version window.

Figure 9. EzCap successful installation.

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If the driver is installed correctly

you should see the device listed as

in Figure 10. (Vendor ID: Empia

Technology, Inc)

If not then it means that the driver is

not installed correctly. You need to

remove the driver and disconnect the

USB Video Capture from the Mac,

uninstall them ﬁrst and then re-install

the driver and application again.

EzCap

Application Guide

Click Go Applications EzCAP,

then double click EzCAP Capture

icon.

Select “Digitizers” and “EzCAP” to

select device. Next Click “Record”

and select “Video Settings” on the

application window. Click Source and

select Composite or S-Video to match

your video source (Figure 11). Select

“OK”. You should now see the video in

the video window.

Click Record Sound Settings 

Source Unknown USB Audio

Device”, and set Speaker to “On”,

then click “OK” (Figure 12). You

should now hear the audio as your

inputted audio source.

You can also click Record icon, and

select “Record Setup” to set items

for recording, and select “Record” to

record the video programs.

Uninstall the

Application

Go to Macintosh HD Applications EzCAP, and delete the “EzCAP”

folder (Figure 13).

Go to Macintosh HD Library 

QuickTime EzCAP.component

and delete the “EzCAP.component”

(Figure 14).

Go to Macintosh HD System 

Library Extensions Ez CAP.

kext and delete the “EzCAP.kext”

(Figure 15).

Now you ﬁnished the uninstallation

application.

Additional

Software

The following software is compatible

with the Orion Video Capture device.

Follow the provided links to download the latest software.

For detailed information on installation and usage of additional software consult

the websites of each software provider. Tutorials and user groups can also be

found online.

RegiStax (Windows) – Free image processing software

A popular free image processing suite of tools includes features such as align-

ment, stacking, optimizing and wavelet ﬁlters,

Registax can analyze, align, and stack thousands of images in just minutes.

http://www.astronomie.be/registax/

AVIStack (Windows) – Free image processing software

AviStack is a freeware tool that registers, stacks and processes AVI’s and

image sequences of astronomical objects..

AviStack was primarily developed to process lunar images, but, it also works

well with solar and planetary images.

http://www.avistack.de/

MaximDL (Windows) – Trial/Paid CCD imaging and image

processing software

MaxIm DL is the fastest and easiest way to image the night sky.Whether

you want to produce stunning portraits, collect science data, or hunt for new

objects, MaxIm DL has the tools you need.

Figure 10. Checking Driver installation.

Figure 13. Uninstall Application.

Figure 11. Video Settings.

Figure 14. Uninstall Component.

Figure 12. Sound settings.

Figure 15. Uninstall extensions.

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Complete observatory integration. Controls your camera, autoguider, ﬁlter

wheels, focusers, camera rotator, telescope mount, and dome. ASCOM compli-

ant.

Includes a complete image processing toolkit, including a large variety of ﬁlters,

deblooming, curves, deconvolution, color tools, and much more

http://www.cyanogen.com/maxim_main.php

HandyAVI (Windows) – Trial/Paid Suite of tools for AVI ﬁles.

Features include time lapse, motion detection, surveillance, planetary

imaging, meteor trail imaging and stop motion animation.

HandyAvi automatically captures a speciﬁed number of frames (pre-frames)

immediately preceding the “trigger event” so that the (possibly) dim beginning

of the meteor trail is captured.

HandyAvi continues recording data while additional motion is detected.

HandyAvi continues recording an additional number of “post-frames” after the

last motion is detected.

The AVI ﬁle will contain COMPLETE meteor trails, airplane trails or lightning

events.

Automatically email images of detected motion.

Automatically FTP upload captured video to a website.

http://www.azcendant.com/

UFO Capture (Windows) – Trial/Paid time shifted motion capture

software

Automated detection, recording and analyzer software for Meteors,

Atmospheric phenomena and security.

Automatically email images of detected motion.

Automatically FTP upload captured video to a website.

http://sonotaco.com/e_index.html

Lynkeos (Macintosh) – Free image processing software

Lynkeos is a Cocoa (Mac OS X) application dedicated to the process-

ing of astronomical (mainly planetary) images taken with a webcam through a

telescope.

http://lynkeos.sourceforge.net/

Internet Broadcasting

Share your views of the night sky by broadcasting live over the internet.

Includes video, voice and text chat. Search the web for "free online video

streaming and broadcasting".

See members from all parts of the globe broadcasting the night skies from their

home built observatories, back yards, and just about any other place where

they can set up a telescope.

Tips

Loss of Capture Device Connection

If the computer connection to the Video Capture Device is interrupted, you will

need to re-establish connection. This can happen due to several reasons; if a

cable becomes unplugged, the computer “freezes”, or the software/hardware

otherwise temporarily loses the data coming from the device.

To re-establish camera connection, ﬁrst close all capture software on your com-

puter. Then, unplug and re-plug the Video Capture Device into the computer’s

USB port. Now, re open the capture software and the Live Video Window

should appear indicating re-established connection between camera and com-

puter.

ORION TELESCOPES & BINOCULARS 52181 User manual

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