I have been working on a project for some time that involves using frame grabbers to get frames of video from a camera running algorithms on the result.
There are lots of different frame grabbers that work on both analog video (like an RCA or BNC connector carrying an NTSC or PAL signal) and digital video. These frame grabbers typically have 2, 4, 8 or 16 inputs. However, modern computers have generally moved to digital outputs like DVI or HDMI for output while the video is often still in analog.
I want to move everything to digital but until then I have to input analog NTSC/PAL and output the exact same format but cleaned up from the algorithms.
My issue is that while there is a whole standard way to input analog, the output of analog is hiding. We have "frame grabbers" that can take in analog signals to the pc but there are very few options I see to output (playback) the analog signal in the same format.
The onboard and discreet graphics cards no longer have analog. There is no family of "frame putters" that output the NTSC/PAL signals. It seems like there should be a whole family of peripherals for PCI/PCIe that would output analog signals like a screen or with special coding but they do not seem to exist.
What is the best way to output 1, 2, 3 or 4 channels of Analog Video (NTSC/PAL) from an x86 Windows PC?