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Aurora Design Fuse^tm Video Capture Card
Review date: 6/13/98

Fuse a breeze to install, performs well

Intro | Installation | Configuration | Performance | Specifications | Summary

Introduction

(Note: as of 2004, the Fuse is no longer listed as a product a Aurora's website. Links to product pages, etc. in this 1998 review no longer work.)
Aurora Design (now called Aurora Video Systems) has released a new high-performance, yet affordable Macintosh-only video capture card called the Fuse^tm. The Fuse boasts impressive specifications such as up to 9MB/sec capture rate (with a G3/266, PCI SCSI card and AV drive) that rivals cards with much higher price tags such as the Media 100QX.
For more information on the Fuse, visit Aurora Design's Fuse Product page.
I found the card extremely easy to install and configure. Performance in Adobe Premiere 4.2 was very good and the card was never the bottleneck in any of my tests. Captures even to a relatively slow Iomega Jaz disk connected to the internal PTP SCSI interface were impressive. Attempts to use the Intio Miles PCI SCSI card and capturing to a RAID array ran into the same problems Miles owners have reported at the main site news in the past - video capture and playback was not smooth with the Miles card, regardless of disconnect or card speed settings or PCI slot used. [Update: Aurora Technical support reports a Fuse/Miles owner used these settings (see ID#1) in the Miles SCSI Util which resolved the issues when capturing to a narrow SCSI drive. See their troubleshooting page for more tips. ]
Image quality was very good, indistinguishable to the eye from the source in my tests using VHS tapes. For a sample frame see the Performance page.
Overall I liked the Fuse so well I changed my plans on purchasing a 9600, instead choosing a 8600 to allow use of their coming DAV slot Fuse card which promises even higher performance. [Update: The DAV Fuse card was later cancelled due to a lack of info on the DAV slot design I believe.]
I also liked the fact that Aurora is a Macintosh-only company and their attitude and support was excellent in all my dealings with them over the past few months. It's becoming a rare thing these days to find a company that does not hedge their bets with product offerings for the Windows market. I encourage you to support Mac-only companies whenever possible.

Let's get something straight right away - I am far from being a Digital Video expert. I've created movies in Premiere and After Effects and used cards like the Bravado 1000/Miro DC30 on both platforms but I don't pretend to be anywhere near the level of many readers who will read this review.

I rated the Fuse on a scale of 1-10 in each of the following categories:

Installation: Ease of installation.
Software Controls: Setting up the card for use in Premiere.
Performance: How well the card performed with both a 604E and G3 CPU based systems.
Image Quality: Objective tests of captured image quality.
Design/Features: The hardware design and feature set.
Documentation: How well the users manual covered installation, setup and configuration.
Support: How responsive and knowledgeable the company was in response to my technical support questions.
Price/Performance: Value for the money, compared to comparable products.

The Summary page shows the totals and an overall evaluation of the product.

Test System:
The base system used for test was a PowerComputing PowerTower Pro 180, running OS 8.1 with a minimum extension set. Disk cache was set to 96K (minimum), Virtual Memory was off. Installed Ram was 128MB. The graphics card was an ATI RagePro VR and for some tests a Initio Miles PCI SCSI card was installed connected to a dual Quantum Atlas II Raid Array running FWB's Raid ToolKit 2.06. 604E-180mhz CPU card tests were run with a 1MB L2 cache dimm. The Fuse card were tested in the bottom (F2) PCI slot.
To test for compatibility with G3 CPU card upgrades, final tests were run with a PowerForce design (Bottom Line RailGun 250/166 running at 288mhz) G3 CPU Card.
The latest tests used the current Fuse driver as of the date of this review (version 1.1). (See their software page for the driver updates.)

Feedback

For more information, product pricing or availability questions, contact Aurora Design.

You can follow my preferred path through the review by continuing to the next page, or use the links below to jump to a specific page.

Index of Aurora Design Fuse^tm Video Capture Card Review
Intro | Installation | Configuration | Performance | Specifications | Summary
- or -
Back to WWW.XLR8YOURMAC.COM

Copyright © 1998.

No part of this sites content or images are to be reproduced or distributed in any form without written permission. All brand or product names mentioned here are properties of their respective companies.
Users of the web site must read and are bound by the terms and conditions of use.


Aurora Design Fuse^tm Video Capture Card Review date: 6/13/98
Fuse a breeze to install, performs well
Intro \| Installation \| Configuration \| Performance \| Specifications \| Summary
Introduction
(Note: as of 2004, the Fuse is no longer listed as a product a Aurora's website. Links to product pages, etc. in this 1998 review no longer work.) Aurora Design (now called Aurora Video Systems) has released a new high-performance, yet affordable Macintosh-only video capture card called the Fuse^tm. The Fuse boasts impressive specifications such as up to 9MB/sec capture rate (with a G3/266, PCI SCSI card and AV drive) that rivals cards with much higher price tags such as the Media 100QX. For more information on the Fuse, visit Aurora Design's Fuse Product page. I found the card extremely easy to install and configure. Performance in Adobe Premiere 4.2 was very good and the card was never the bottleneck in any of my tests. Captures even to a relatively slow Iomega Jaz disk connected to the internal PTP SCSI interface were impressive. Attempts to use the Intio Miles PCI SCSI card and capturing to a RAID array ran into the same problems Miles owners have reported at the main site news in the past - video capture and playback was not smooth with the Miles card, regardless of disconnect or card speed settings or PCI slot used. [Update: Aurora Technical support reports a Fuse/Miles owner used these settings (see ID#1) in the Miles SCSI Util which resolved the issues when capturing to a narrow SCSI drive. See their troubleshooting page for more tips. ] Image quality was very good, indistinguishable to the eye from the source in my tests using VHS tapes. For a sample frame see the Performance page. Overall I liked the Fuse so well I changed my plans on purchasing a 9600, instead choosing a 8600 to allow use of their coming DAV slot Fuse card which promises even higher performance. [Update: The DAV Fuse card was later cancelled due to a lack of info on the DAV slot design I believe.] I also liked the fact that Aurora is a Macintosh-only company and their attitude and support was excellent in all my dealings with them over the past few months. It's becoming a rare thing these days to find a company that does not hedge their bets with product offerings for the Windows market. I encourage you to support Mac-only companies whenever possible. Let's get something straight right away - I am far from being a Digital Video expert. I've created movies in Premiere and After Effects and used cards like the Bravado 1000/Miro DC30 on both platforms but I don't pretend to be anywhere near the level of many readers who will read this review. I rated the Fuse on a scale of 1-10 in each of the following categories: Installation: Ease of installation. Software Controls: Setting up the card for use in Premiere. Performance: How well the card performed with both a 604E and G3 CPU based systems. Image Quality: Objective tests of captured image quality. Design/Features: The hardware design and feature set. Documentation: How well the users manual covered installation, setup and configuration. Support: How responsive and knowledgeable the company was in response to my technical support questions. Price/Performance: Value for the money, compared to comparable products. The Summary page shows the totals and an overall evaluation of the product. Test System: The base system used for test was a PowerComputing PowerTower Pro 180, running OS 8.1 with a minimum extension set. Disk cache was set to 96K (minimum), Virtual Memory was off. Installed Ram was 128MB. The graphics card was an ATI RagePro VR and for some tests a Initio Miles PCI SCSI card was installed connected to a dual Quantum Atlas II Raid Array running FWB's Raid ToolKit 2.06. 604E-180mhz CPU card tests were run with a 1MB L2 cache dimm. The Fuse card were tested in the bottom (F2) PCI slot. To test for compatibility with G3 CPU card upgrades, final tests were run with a PowerForce design (Bottom Line RailGun 250/166 running at 288mhz) G3 CPU Card. The latest tests used the current Fuse driver as of the date of this review (version 1.1). (See their software page for the driver updates.)
Feedback
For more information, product pricing or availability questions, contact Aurora Design.

You can follow my preferred path through the review by continuing to the next page, or use the links below to jump to a specific page.

Index of Aurora Design Fuse^tm Video Capture Card Review Intro \| Installation \| Configuration \| Performance \| Specifications \| Summary - or - Back to WWW.XLR8YOURMAC.COM
Copyright © 1998. No part of this sites content or images are to be reproduced or distributed in any form without written permission. All brand or product names mentioned here are properties of their respective companies. Users of the web site must read and are bound by the terms and conditions of use.