CaptureMate
Macintosh capture software for MovieStuff's Video WorkPrinter

Version 1.1; April 25, 2006
Author: Ben Bird
Email: support@bensoftware.com
Web site: http://www.bensoftware.com/capturemate/
MovieStuff web site: http://www.moviestuff.tv/
Online order page: http://order.kagi.com/?UXT

Description
CaptureMate is a capture application designed specifically to work with the WorkPrinter film transfer equipment produced by Roger Evans at MovieStuff. It synchronises with the WorkPrinter at up to 8fps and can capture in both QuickTime Movie and DV stream formats.

CaptureMate works with any Macintosh compatible video input source. The WorkPrinter equipment requires the use of a camera with 12x optical zoom; for this a DV camcorder is ideal although it is possible to use other types of camera and/or video input device with CaptureMate such as video input cards, built-in video, DV, and FireWire video sources.

How to use CaptureMate
Connect your camera and launch CaptureMate. You should see a window with a live video preview from your camera, like this:

If you have multiple video input devices connected to your computer, select "Video Device Settings" from the Edit menu and select the one you want to use. This window also allows you to adjust any other settings that are supported by your video device (note that brightness and contrast controls are not supported for DV devices; this is a limitation of the Apple DV driver software due to the compressed nature of DV video).

Go to "Preferences" under the Edit menu to set up the preferences for CaptureMate:

Capture formats
If you are using a DV device you can choose to capture either a QuickTime movie or a DV stream. If you are not using a DV device you will have only the option to capture a QuickTime movie. When capturing a QuickTime movie you can enter the playback frame rate - this does not affect the capture in any way; it just defines the frame rate at which the movie will play back. If you are capturing a QuickTime movie, you can also choose to flip the video horizontally or vertically if so required.

Whether you choose to capture a QuickTime movie or a DV stream depends on what you want to do with the video after capture. Typically you will be importing the video into some video editing software for adjustment - in this case you will want to use the format that is preferred by this video editing software. All video editing software supports QuickTime movies, so this is generally the preferred choice, and has the added advantage that you can set the frame rate and use the flip controls in CaptureMate.

Synchronisation of the WorkPrinter with CaptureMate
It is vital to make sure that the synchronisation of the WorkPrinter with CaptureMate is very accurate to avoid frames being captured while the film is still moving.

Firstly, you should try to achieve this by using the "timing cam" adjustment on the WorkPrinter device itself. Do a test capture with the "Preview video during capture" option enabled in CaptureMate (so that you can see each frame as it is captured) and turn the timing cam until you get perfect frame captures.

If you find that you cannot introduce enough delay using the timing cam along, there is an option in CaptureMate to add a delay between mouse click and frame capture (generally you will want to leave the Trigger setting as "Mouse-Up", as this is the way the WorkPrinter units are designed to trigger frame captures). Increase the delay setting by 1 and repeat the test capture, again adjusting the timing cam until you get perfect captures.

Capture destination
By default, CaptureMate will ask you where to save the movie file every time you start a capture. This can be changed (from the "Capture location" menu) so that CaptureMate will save movies automatically in the same folder as itself, or to the desktop, or to your documents folder.

Capturing
When you click the "Start" button, CaptureMate will enter capture mode, displaying a progress window that shows the number of frames captured and optionally a preview of the frames that are being captured. In this mode, frames are captured in response to mouse clicks in this window. Make sure the mouse cursor is positioned over this window and start the WorkPrinter. After the capture is complete press the escape key to exit from capture mode.

IMPORTANT: make sure to quit all other applications when running CaptureMate. This will ensure that the capture is as reliable as possible.