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System Requirements

Digital Rapids DRC-Stream hardware runs on a PC with a Microsoft Windows operating system.

Below are computer system requirements for the following DRC-Stream capture boards:

• DRC-Stream 500 PCI board
• DRC-Stream 1000 - 2600 PCI board
• DRC Flux 3510, 3550, 6510 and 6550 PCIe boards

The DRC-5650 PCI board is only available in a Digital Rapids turnkey system.

Operating System:

The following Windows 32-bit versions are supported:

• Windows 7 (Stream 3.3 required)
• Windows XP SP3
• Windows Vista
• Windows Server 2003
• Windows Server 2008

The following 64-bit versions are supported only when using systems with Digital Rapids Flux boards. (Stream 3.7 or higher required.)

• Windows 7
• Windows Server 2008

Please see the Stream Readme for Operating System specific configuration issues.

CPU (minimum):
The number of streams that you can encode in real time (and their resolution/bit rate) is dependant on the speed of your CPU.

Intel Processor
For Stream 3: Dual Intel processors or dual-core processors or higher
Recommended: quad-core at 2.4 GHz or higher; dual-quad cores for higher resolution or multiple layer encoding

AMD Processor
AMD processor and chipset:
IBM Intellistation A Pro Model 6224-37Z with dual AMD Opteron 2.2 GHz Processors or higher

Memory: 512MB PC-133 SDRAM minimum; 2GB for Windows 7 OS

PCI Slot (for DRC-Stream boards): Recommended: a 64 bit 66MHz PCI or PCI-X slot
Digital Rapids SD boards will also work in 32 bit 33MHz PCI slots.
For HD boards: You will need to install the board in a 64 bit slot running at 66 MHz or faster. These slots will typically be PCI-X slots.
If a DRC PCI board is installed in a PCI-X slot with a faster bus speed, the bus speed will fall back to 66MHz.

PCIe Slot (for DRC Flux boards): PCIe x4 slot

Hard Drive: 7200RPM IDE hard drive (or higher RPM drive) for SD capture; RAID for HD capture at higher data rates

Graphics Display Card: VGA card supporting Direct Show with:
Minimum: 128MB RAM
Recommended: 256MB RAM or higher
Minimum: 1024 x 768 resolution

DV Input with the DRC-1600 and DRC-2600:
An IEEE-1394 port on the host system motherboard or OHCI-compliant IEEE-1394 add-on card in the host system is required for DV input with the DRC-1600 and DRC-2600.

DirectX: DirectX 9 or higher is required.

Known Incompatibilities

Note: If a system is not on the "Known Incompatibilities" list below that does not guarantee that it will be compatible. Please contact Digital Rapids Support if you need current compatible system recommendations.

For HD PCI boards (DRC-5650 or 5600): You will need to install the board in a 64 bit slot running at 66 MHz or faster. These slots will typically be PCI-X slots.

MSI computer motherboard MS-6728 based on the 865PE chipset (Single processor system). Marketed as "SystemX" from Tiger Direct.
This would also be a problem across the MSI product line where the 865 chipset has been used. Note: MSI ran tests with their 925XE board and found that it did work with the DRC capture boards.

MSI computer motherboard MS-7222 is not compatible with Digital Rapids capture boards.

IBM xSeries 336: A Blade computer with only one PCI-X extension slot (horizontal). Issue: After driver installation the error message is "there are no more available resourses" and the DRC drivers do not start.

Dell Precision 470: This system has 1 x PCI-E (for graphics), and 3 x 32-bit PCI (for 'legacy' devices). The 32-bit slots are on the far side of 2 PCI bridges, which gives poor performance for the data rate needed for full resolution captures, resulting in dropped frames.

The iBase MB899 is incompatible. This is a micro-ITX mainboard and it can’t assign the resource to Digital Rapids capture boards.

Some HP systems were found to be incapable of capturing full res SD single channel. These 1RU and 2RU chassis are fitted with a PCI-E x4 to PCI-X riser card.
It was found that if the riser was removed, and the DRC card inserted into the riser slot on the motherboard, the problem went away. In testing with the riser the DMA throughput maxed out at around 12MB/s.
Systems Affected:
DL160 G5, DL180 G5
DL165 G5, DL185 G5
DL380 G6, DL385 G5