Major Features:

• Delivers full frame, full size 640x480 NTSC @ 29.97 fps or 768x576 PAL @ 25 fps interlaced (odd and even fields) Component (yuvu) YUV 4:2:2, YUV 4:1:1 and monochrome 8 bit uncompressed video. YUV 4:2:2 Video has twice the color information than DV compressed video does - which results in more detailed, vibrant and accurate color images.
  
  
• Delivers 320x240 NTSC single (decimated horizontally but vertically full 240 lines) field at 29.97 fps. There is no interlacing in the 320x240 sizes and only the odd field is kept, which is specifically designed for Video Conferencing and Video Broadcasting.
  
  
• With the new "E" series DFG/1394-1 hardware additionally support sizes of 384x288PAL, 720x576 PAL and 720x480 NTSC.
  
  
• Provides interactive real time access to image controls for adjusting the Hue, Saturation, Brightness, Contrast and Sharpness of the Analog Image before they are digitized. No more time consuming CPU intensive post processing to correct off color video as can happen with DV Converters and older video media.
  
  
• For Color YUV422 video, supports up to three DFG/1394-1 units delivering 320x240 29.97 fps NTSC video or two DFG/1394-1 units at 320x240 and 640x480 29.97 fps NTSC or a single DFG/1394-1 for 768x576 25 fps PAL unit on one Mac at the same time. The "E" Series support the above and up to two DFG/1394-1 at 384x288 25 fps PAL.
  
  For Color YUV411 video, supports up to four DFG/1394-1 units delivering 320x240 29.97 fps NTSC video or two DFG/1394-1 units at 640x480 29.97 fps NTSC or a single DFG/1394-1 for 768x576 25 fps PAL unit on one Mac at the same time. The "E" Series support the above and up to three DFG/1394-1 at 384x288 25 fps PAL.
  
  
• For Indexed Colors (i.e. Monochrome to Psycho modes), supports up to six DFG/1394-1 units delivering 320x240 29.97 fps NTSC video or four DFG/1394-1 units at 320x240 and two 640x480 29.97 fps NTSC or three DFG/1394-1 units delivering 640x480 29.97 fps NTSC, or two DFG/1394-1's for 768x576 25 fps PAL unit on one Mac at the same time. The "E" Series support the above and up to five DFG/1394-1 at 384x288 25 fps PAL.
  
  
• Allows you to switch to any of the 3 video in inputs by name (Comp1, Comp2 or SVHS) and by Signal Type (NTSC or PAL) via software.
  
  
• Low CPU utilization, use of Altivec (if available) and multi threading allows Video Conferencing and Video Broadcast applications to devote more time to compression rather than decompressing the incoming video stream.
  
  
• Embeds Time Code information, based on initial start time of digitization for post analysis (limitations apply due to various QuickTime Bugs, listed below).
  
  
• Allows applications to specify what fields are to be displayed; both fields interlaced, odd only, even only, both fields separated and both fields alternating.
  
  

System Requirements, Compatibility and Limitations:

• The Version 2.07 PowerPC driver requires a G3, G4 or G5 Mac (DeskTop Power Mac, iMac, Mac mini, iBook or PowerBook) that has a 400 mhz or faster processor(s), 128 or more megabytes of Ram and FireWire (built-in, PCI or CardBus). The Version 3.0 Universal PowerPC Mac and x86 MacIntel driver requires a G4 or G5 Mac (DeskTop Power Mac, iMac, Mac mini, iBook or PowerBook) or a x86 MacIntel (Mac mini, iMac, MacBook and MacBook Pro).
  
  
• Compatible with Jaguar (10.2), Panther (10.3), Tiger (10.4) and now Leopard (10.5) version of OS X. The Version 2.07 PowerPC driver requires OS X 10.2.8 or higher (currently tested to OSX 10.5.2) and QuickTime 6.x or higher (tested to 7.4.5, 7.2 recommended) installed. The Version 3.0 Universal PowerPC Mac and x86 MacIntel driver requires OS X 10.4.0 or higher (currently tested to OSX 10.5.2) and QuickTime 7.x or higher (tested to 7.4.5, 7.3 recommended) installed.
  
  
• Some FireWire Cardbus (i.e. LYNX based such as the FireWire 2 Go or early Orange Micro) cards in Power Books without built-in FireWire support (pre date Pismo models) do not have enough bandwidth to handle 3 kilobytes per packet at 400 mbps and will not deliver 640x480 sized video. Most current FireWire Cardbus cards made by IBM, Agere or Lucent (which have a larger FIFO) should work reliably.
  
  
• Older Macs that have limited bus bandwidth (ie < 66 mhz) may not be able to view video at sizes exceeding quarter (320x240) screen resolution or at reduced frame rates.
  
  
• To record full size, full frame rate uncompressed video requires a fast hard drive and ample hard drive space. For 640x480@29.97 NTSC video, the hard drive must be able to handle a minimum sustained rate of 17.6 megabytes per second (1.03 gigabytes per minute), otherwise dropped frames will occur. To reduce the recorded video size, use the PhotoJPEG compressor at medium quality instead of the "DFG1394 Component Video" (for YUV2 mode) or "DFG1394 Indexed Video" (for indexed color modes).
  
  
• Compatible with most QuickTime based Video Capture or Display Applications. Applications we have explicitly tested with include QuickTime Broadcaster, Live Channel Pro, ZyGoCasting, Security Spy, BTV Pro, Hack TV, Reel Eyes Carbon, EvoCam, Squid Cam, Movie Works, Image Caster, Max/MSP, SoftVNS, Jitter and Isadora. If any of the above products had x86 MacIntel versions, we also tested them with the PowerPC emulated and x86 MacIntel driver.
  
  
• The DFG/1394-1 is Not Compatible with iMovie or Final Cut Express, since they require a DV video source (DV Camcorder, DV Analog Converter, DV Recorder etc.) to operate. The DFG/1394 is also not usable with iChatAV, as Apple excludes any device that is not a DV or IIDC/DCAM type (NOTE if you want to complain to someone about this then complain to Apple about it, we are not doing the exclusion). To use it with Final Cut Pro, you need to set up a custom device profile for it.
  
  
• If you want to use multiple DFG/1394-1's with Security Spy (or other software that allows you to run multiple DFG/1394-1's at the same time), make sure that you set default Video size: to appropriate values in the Input Setup dialog (Settings Menu > Input Setup...). For NTSC sources this should be 320x240 and if you have "E-" series DFG/1394-1 then use 384x288 for PAL. The DFG Driver will allocate or deallocate FireWire bandwidth if it can do so based on the Image Size you have selected.
  
  
• If you are recording with the "Indexed Colors" option, you need to make sure you have selected the "DFG1394 Indexed Video" Codec in the Compression Panel of the Applications Video Settings Dialog before recording. Under QuickTime 6.3 and earlier the Sequence Grabber would return an error code and gracefully fail to record, but under QuickTime 6.4 or higher the Sequence Grabber just crashes with no warning (thanks again Apple).
  
  
• There is a hardware problem with the "E" series DFG/1394-1 when used with a Monochrome PAL video source. At sizes of 720x576 or 384x288, the DFG will not deliver video. To work around it you must select the "Video Source is PAL Monochrome" check box in the "DFG1394 Options" panel to force the converter to deliver 768x576 size video. This only applies to Monochrome PAL video for the "E" series of DFG/1394-1's, the problem does not have any affect with Color PAL video sources and has no affect on color or monochrome NTSC video sources.
  
  

Purchasing:

All purchases can be made by credit card at our secure Kagi hosted Online Store.

The version 3.01.03 Universal PowerPC Mac and x86 MacIntel DFG Driver is priced at $50.00 USD each and can be ordered here.

The version 2.07.03 PowerPC Mac DFG Driver is priced at $29.95 USD USD each and can be ordered here.

To upgrade from the DFG version 1.x or 2.x driver to the Universal DFG version 3.0 driver, please follow these upgrade instructions. To purchase the DFG/1394-1 hardware, please contact "The Imaging Source".

Support and Contacting Us:

If you find any bugs or observe behavior that does not seem correct and is not listed below, please report them via e-mail to:

support(at)outcastsoft(dot)com.

We can't fix bugs that we don't know about, so your feedback helps make this a better product. The first thing we need to know is which version of the DFG driver your using (i.e. use the Finder's Get Info to determine the version number), version 2.07 or 3.01. We also would greatly appreciate information on the Mac model (i.e. Single CPU G4 733, 1.66 gighz dual Core x86 Mac mini), amount of Ram, OS Version (i.e. 10.4.6), QuickTime Version (i.e. 7.02) and detailed description of the problem will help us diagnose and correct it.

If it's a crash, please include the "xxx.log" for the "xxx" application that crashed.

Downloads:

Versions 2.07.03 and 3.01.03 of the DFG driver fixes an issue with frame elapsed times when the Video source is unplugged and then plugged back in, addresses a compatibility issue with QuickTime applications that enable Leopards Garbage Collection 2 methodology and tests the drivers under QuickTime 7.4.5. We recommend that all users download and install it.

Download the version 2.07.03 DFG/1394-1 PowerPC Mac Driver (DFG1394InstallerV20703.dmg 524 Kilobytes), then double click on the Disk Image to mount it and then double click on the "DFG1394InstallerV20703.pkg" to install it - no restarts are required.

Download the version 3.01.03 DFG/1394-1 Universal PowerPC Mac and x86 MacIntel Driver (DFG1394InstallerV30102.dmg 548 Kilobytes), then double click on the Disk Image to mount it and then double click on the "DFG1394InstallerV30132.pkg" to install it - no restarts are required.

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions:

I've lost the e-mail that has the unlock keys for the DFG driver or the DFG I registered is broken has been replaced by The Imaging Source. How do I get the key again??
Send an email to info(at)outcastsoft(dot)com with your name, the serial number(s) printed on the bottom of the DFG and a brief explanation of what has happened. We can then send you the key(s). Note that we only allow one replacement key per year for faulty hardware.

My video starts off normal but after about five to ten minutes it starts alternating pink and green or just strange in monochrome. Why??
Until you purchase an unlock key for each DFG/1394-1 device, the "DFG1394VDIG.component" VDIG will run in "Demo Mode". In Demo Mode, the VDIG will operate normally for up to 10 minutes and then will being scrambling the Video signal alternating every 5 to 10 seconds. This allows you to try the VDIG out for extended periods before paying for it. You can purchase unlock keys by Credit Card or PayPal via our Secure Online Store.

I want to purchase three DFG/1394-1's, how many Drivers do I need?
You need to purchase one Driver for each DFG/1394-1 you plan to use. The Drivers are keyed to each DFG/1394-1 device and the unlock keys are kept in a single file named "DFG1394REG" at "/Library/Application Support/". They are not keyed to a particular Mac and you can transfer the unlock key to any Mac that you want to use.

Will my Universal Version 3.0x Unlock Key work with the Older Version 1.0x or 2.0x DFG Driver or Vice Versa??
No it will not work and the Version 1.x or 2.x driver will run in demo "Pink and Green" mode with a Universal 3.0x Unlock Key.The same applies if you try and run the version 3.0x driver with a version 2.0x or earlier unlock key.

Why is there a price increase from the previous PowerPC and the new Universal driver?
There are many reasons for the increase. We had to purchase MacIntels, had to re-write large chunks of our low level DFG source code, had to re-write all our support applications and now have to do three times as much testing (i.e. test on PowerPC, test on x86 MacIntels with Rosetta and test x86 MacIntel native). Some of our tests take a minimum of 10 days to complete, so we now have to have individual Macs tied up for at least a month. Also there are fewer MacIntel systems in use compared to the number of existing PowerPC Macs, so demand and sales volumes are lower.

Why is the DFG PowerPC version 2.07 driver still being offered and supported?
There are two reasons for still offering it, performance and backwards compatibility. Firstly, it was built using the CodeWarrior development environment and the Altivec code compiled with it executes 30 to 40% faster than the same code compiled with Apple's XCode. So if your running multiple DFG's off the same PowerPC Mac, you'll get better performance with it than the Universal version ever will. Secondly using CodeWarrior allows us to support OSX 10.2.x, 10.3.x, 10.4.x and 10.5.x for PowerPC G3, G4 and G5 CPU's with the same driver, which is nearly impossible to do with Universal Binaries under XCode.

There seems to be a performance difference between the older 2.07 DFG Driver and the new 3.01 Universal DFG Driver when used on PowerPC Macs. The new 3.01 driver has higher CPU usage than the old one does. Why??
This is because the 2.07 version and earlier were all built using the CodeWarrior development environment and the 3.0 version HAD to be built with Apple's XCode (we have no choice but to comply and be assimilated). Apple's XCode generates very poorly optimized Altivec code which executes 30 to 40% slower than the same code compiled with CodeWarrior. Note that many developers have reported similar slow downs and in our own in house testing, we have some internal cases where XCode generates Altivec code that runs 100% slower than CodeWarrior does. We can't help but wonder what performance differences one would get if OS X had been compiled using CodeWarrior, especially any of their Altivec specific code.

I need to use multiple DFG's on multiple Macs, but I don't want to have to use the "Unlock DFG1394 Drivers" utility to register the DFG's on each Mac. Is there an easy way of doing this?
Yes. Simply run the "Unlock DFG1394 Drivers " application on a single Mac with all your unlock keys and then copy the "DFG1394REG" file (located at "/Library/Application Support/") into the "/Library/Application Support/" on each Mac that may be running a DFG/1394-1 on. Then all those Macs will registered to use any of those DFG/1394-1 units.

How many DFG/1394's can I theoretically use at the same time?
Assuming no other FireWire devices are connected, the number of DFG's your Mac can support depends on the size (width and height), format (YUV422, YUV411 or Indexed mode) and signal type (NTSC or PAL) of the video streams you want to use and how many FireWire busses your Mac has.

Do not confuse the number of FireWire ports with the number of of FireWire busses. All currently shipping Macs have a single FireWire bus regardless of how many FireWire ports they have on the Mac. To add more busses you need to add more FireWire OHCI Controllers on a PCI or CardBus card.

A single 640x480 NTSC YUV422 color video streams amounts to 17.56 megabytes per second of data. So two streams use up 35.12 megabytes, four streams use up 70.24 megabytes and eight streams use up 140.48 megabytes per second etc.. A 768x576 PAL 25 FPS stream uses it's 21.1 megabytes per second of data. At half the video size (i.e. 320x240NTSC / 384x288PAL) the video data stream is reduced to one quarter.

When the video stream is sent over FireWire, each video field is broken into packets and transmitted in an isochronous stream at a rate of up to 8000 packets per second. Each packet can contain up to 4096 bytes of data. To maintain the normal frame rates for NTSC or PAL video, an entire frame of NTSC video is transmitted every 267 packets (every 1/29.97th of a second) and an entire frame of PAL video is transmitted every 200 packets (every 1/25th of a second).

The packetizer in the DFG/1394-1 places a variable amount of video data into each FireWire packet, and the table below summarizes the maximum number bytes per packet that are transmitted for each video size, signal type and video format over a single FireWire Bus.




Note: Due to a hardware problem in the "E" series DFG/1394-1 720x576 and 384x288 PAL sizes will not work with Monochrome PAL Video source.

So the number of DFG's that can be supported amounts to the sum of the packet sizes for the streams you wish to use multiplied the number of FireWire busses. As long as the sum of the packet sizes for the combined streams are less than 4096 bytes per bus, then you can use that many DFG's at the same time on that bus.

Will using FireWire 800 / IEEE1394b allow more devices to be used?
No it won't. Like many other video products, the DFG/1394-1 is a FireWire 400 speed device. To gain the doubling of bandwidth that FireWire 800 offers, the DFG/1394-1 would need to be re-engineered for FireWire 800.

The "DFG1394 Options" panel is missing in the "Video" dialog for application "xxxx".
Due to a bug in all versions QuickTime 6.x for the function call "SGSettingsDialog()" when used with the "seqGrabSettingsPreviewOnly" parameter, all third party panels will be excluded. This affects the applications "Evo Cam 2.x and earlier", "FrameThief", "VideoScope", "Arkaos VJ 3.0.1" and possibly others.

My Video preferences are not being kept after I have set them, then quit and then re-launched application "xxxxx".
Most likely the application "xxxxx" in question is not saving OR is saving them and not restoring the settings properly. Applications should use the "SGGetChannelSettings()" and "SGSetChannelSettings()" to get and restore the settings. However there is also bug in all version of QuickTime 6.x for the SGSetChannelSettings() call that will disable additional DFG VDIGs if used too.

How can I tell what Series ("C","D" or "E") the DFG/1394-1 is?
On the bottom of each DFG/1394-1 is a white label and the serial number is printed below the bar code.

If your DFG/1394-1 unit is a "C" or "D" series, then you will see a twelve character serial number, which will be similar to "Serial: 021105D34567". If there is a "C" in the serial number you have "C" series DFG/1394-1 and if it has a "D", then it's a "D" series.

If your DFG/1394-1 is an "E" series, the serial number will be 8 characters like "23300057" and will not have any letters in. Also above the barcode are the words "Model DFG/1394-1e".

What is the purpose of "IN" and "OUT" over the "FIRE1" and "FIRE2" ports OR I plugged the FW cable into the "OUT" - "FIRE2" port and nothing happened.
When connecting the DFG to your Mac with the 6 pin FireWire cable, the ports behave differently depending on what series your converter is.

With the "C" and "D" series, it made no difference which of the two FireWire ports you are plugged into. Also the "C" and "D" series do not pass power through to other devices connected to the DFG/1394-1 on the other FireWire port.

With the "E" series, you must connect your Mac to to the "IN" "FIRE1" port or it will not run, unless you attach an external power source. Power from the FireWire bus is then transferred on the "IN" port to power the another device on the "OUT" "FIRE2" port. This allows you to power additional DFG/1394-1's or other bus powered FireWire devices in a daisy chained fashion.

What is that green blinking light for and why does it stay green for about 8 seconds when I power it up?
The Green light indicates the status of the DFG/1394-1 hardware.

Soon after the DFG first powers up, it starts probing the composite and SVHS ports for active video signals and continues searching for about 8 seconds. If it finds an active Video port (i.e. broadcasting NTSC or PAL) it stops sooner.

After it finds an active signal OR about 8 seconds has elapsed, it continues blinking at a rate of several times per second. As long as it's blinking it's operating properly.

Note that if you have your video sources connected and broadcasting live video, then power up the DFG/1394-1 and it takes 8 seconds to start blinking, then it is not detecting the video signal. Either you have a weak signal, the video signal may not be NTSC or PAL compliant or the DFG/1394-1 hardware may be defective.

I am a Developer and I would like to programatically control the DFG/1394-1 from my Application instead of having to do it manually via the Video Settings dialog. Is this possible?
Yes. We do have a lower level "Hook" API for our DFG/1394-1 VDIG that allows you do this. Contact us at support(at)outcastsoft(dot)com and we can provide you with the "C" headers and examples of how to use it.

How do I access the "Video" dialog and "DFG1394 Options" panel in Max/MSP with Jitter?
It's present in the "jit.qt.grab.help" object as the "settings" button. Click on the button named "settings" in the "jit.qt.grab" object, as shown below.

Known Apple Bugs:

Most of these bugs have been resolved in OSX 10.4.x and QuickTime 7.1.x or higher.

• Due to kernel memory leaks in OS X FireWire (Apple Radar Bug #3164095 February 2003 ) when repeatedly stopping and starting isochronous FireWire channels, we do not consider our DFG/1394-1 driver usable with the Oculus application (a Kernel Panic may ensue after 5 to 30 hours of usage). This problem is in part related to how Oculus continually stops and starts the VDIG from transmitting video after each frame is grabbed - which means 1 to 4 kernel objects get "leaked" each time. Other applications such as Evo Cam or QuickTime Broadcaster do not behave this way and although the kernel leak will still occur in them, it does not cause problems for long term usage. This kernel leak affects all FireWire drivers that use isochronous transfers including Apple's DV and IIDC 10.2.x drivers. This has been fixed in 10.3.x but remains an issue for 10.2.x.
  
  
• Apple has as serious bug (Apple Radar Bug #3320643 July 2003) with the Sequence Grabber SGSetChanelSettings() call (QuickTime 6.0 and higher) which does not close off intermediate VDIG Components that it opens when applying previous users settings. This means that in most cases the SGSettingDialog() will only only show two DFG/1394-1 in the list of possible Video Sources to select from. Finally fixed in QuickTime 7.0.
  
  
• Apple Broke Time Code support (Apple Radar Bug #3303806 June 2003) in the Sequence Grabber in QuickTime 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4 and now 6.5. This means when you try and "copy" a movie that was recorded, then it detects the bad/invalid TimeCode Track and refuses to copy it to the ClipBoard. Time Code is now only supported now for QuickTime 6.0.2 and earlier or QuickTime 7.0 and higher.
  
  
• QuickTime 6.4 (Apple Radar Bug #3467318 October 2003) has broken (happened in QuickTime 6.1 too) the placement of the "Video" settings dialog. It will randomly appear almost completely outside the Monitor (title Bar off screen) and then will randomly jump all over the place next time you use it again. We permanently (hack) fixed this so that it can not happen again.
  
  
• OSX 10.3. breaks the Component Manager for SG Panels that register VDIG components and resulted in an infinite series of device registrations which made it appear that the Mac was hung or locked up. We've worked around this.
  
  
• There is a bug in FireWire that can cause a Kernel Panic (KP) with OSX 10.2.8. Although we have reduced the likely hood of it happening, we can not eliminate it and it's a flaw in PseudoAddress space handling in Apple's FireWire (it improperly releases a kernel object). This was introduced in OSX 10.2.8, "went away" in OSX 10.3.x and only happens on OSX 10.2.8 - regardless of the Mac used. For long term stable use, we recommend using OSX 10.2.6 (and earlier) or upgrading to OSX 10.3.x and higher.
  
  
• Apple still has not fixed (Apple Radar Bug #3279377 June 2003) the fact that if you have an active isochronous connection with an application, and you sleep the Mac, when it wakes up the isochronous connection is dead. So they are not issuing a Bus reset after a the Mac wakes up which would re-start the isochronous transfer. Still not fixed in 10.2.x, 10.3.x or 10.4.x after 3 years.
  
  
• QuickTime still improperly sets the resource path for pop up menus controls in the Sequence Grabber Panels (OS 9 and OS X). So if an SG panel and an Application happen to have menus that have the same ID numbers, then the menus for the SG panel never get loaded and when the pop up menu control in the SG Panel gets used, the wrong menu is displayed for it. To work around this, we've set the ID's for the 2 pop up menus we use to 16666 and 16667 which hopefully will keep them from interfering with other applications. Still not fixed in OSX 10.4.7 / Quicktime 7.1.3 after 6+ years.