Attention America Online (AOL) Users:
Effective 2/5/07, Gemvision will no longer accept any email or other electronic correspondence from an AOL. Due to unreasonable security measures implemented by AOL’s suite of products that incorrectly associates IP Addresses as spam providers, we are blocking any and all incoming emails from an AOL account. We recommend a Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, or similar email account for those who expressly use AOL at this time.

The following is a range-set of recommendations meaning that if you choose a computer with specifications within these ranges, you will have a good computer to run Digital Goldsmith on. We encourage you to look around before you buy to familiarize yourself with current prices and availability. Since we are not able to test every type of processor, video card, and monitor, please be aware that we are recommending the components that we have had consistent success with when using DG. However, if you also run Matrix on the same computer, it should conform to those specifications. Upgrade users should refer to the FlashPoint 128 document on our website. For DG only though, we recommend that your computer has at least these specifications:

• 1.7 GHz Pentium M or better
• 512 MB – 1 GB of DDR RAM
• 128 – 256 MB video card
• 40 GB hard drive or larger
• 19 – 21 inch monitor (desktop)
• 15 – 17 inch monitor (laptop)
• 1024 x 768 minimum screen resolution. 1280 x 1024 preferred.
• Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate in either 32-bit or 64-bit versions
• Windows 7 Home Basic or Starter edition NOT supported
• Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP Home, or Windows XP Professional
• Windows XP 64-bit NOT supported
• There are no current plans to port Matrix over to Apple Macintosh computers

Processor & Memory
DG is NOT processor-intensive, so while conventional wisdom says that getting a faster processor is always a good thing, it does not apply to this application (you really don’t need a 3.6/3.8 GHz processor). Also, DG does not take advantage of dual processors at this time. On the other hand, RAM is much more critical than the processor speed for DG. Most preassembled computers (through Tiger Direct, Dell, Best Buy, etc) contain the recommended minimum of 512 MB DDR RAM.

Video Graphics Card & Video Capture Device
Gemvision recommends any of the NVIDIA brand open GL video cards. Visit NVIDIA’s website for detailed descriptions of various video card models. Regarding Video Capture Devices, most users will also have Gemvision’s System Six camera system which requires a capture device for the video signal to convert it to a digital picture. There are several options for these capture devices. Please be aware that some video capture devices may not work properly with some computer hardware. It is best to call technical support for an overview of capture devices - doing so will save you time, money and frustration!

Monitor
A 19 inch monitor is a comfortable size for most people, but if you present to a customer who is looking at the screen from a distance, a 21-inch monitor might be more effective. CRT, flat panel, and laptop monitors vary in display appearance and quality – it’s best to visit a store so you get a feel for the monitor before deciding on a size and resolution.

Resolution
The minimum resolution for DG is 1024x768. Some computers may have other resolutions that will work for you (wide, for example), but this is the most common resolution. Native Resolution is the number of pixels that the monitor was made with. Flat panel monitors are available with almost any Native Resolution but must be run at that setting or else the display will be blurry. CRT (tube-style) monitors, however, can be changed from their lowest to maximum resolution with virtually no quality loss.
There are various acronyms that vendors use to designate how many pixels a monitor can display. The following detailed explanation of aspect ratio, resolution, many of the acronyms, and their meaning are considered advanced information intended to be self-explanatory. It is not essential to understand all of the following to purchase a good computer for DG use.
For the purposes of the information below, Horizontal/Vertical (H/V) is the ratio of the image width to height in pixels, display modes with an H/V Ratio of 4/3 will appear to have square-shaped pixels, and distortion occurs when the pixel size ratio differs from the physical screen size ratio.

Quad and Hex are emerging as terms for high-resolution displays. Quad refers to 4 times as many pixels as a previous mode (2 times the vertical and horizontal pixels). Hex refers to 16 times as many pixels as a previous mode (4 times the vertical and horizontal pixels).

HDTV specifies an aspect ratio of 16/9 and digital broadcast HDTV uses 1920×1080 pixels for high resolution mode. Computer display modes are intended to be used with HDTV-style wide screen displays.Most of the wide screen modes have a pixel width to height ratio of 16/10, which yields pixel array dimensions easier to cope with in computer hardware and software. The WXGA mode, with dimensions of 1366×768 pixels, is within one pixel of a 16/9 ratio.