the osprey-500 has a variety of audio inputs, both analog and digital. the typical consumer will probably find the unbalanced analog rca audio inputs to be the most useful. balanced audio inputs (via xlr connectors) provide cleaner audio especially if the cable length is very long. the prosumer may have a dv camera source and may choose to use the audio embedded in the ieee-1394 dv stream. for the professional and broadcaster a choice of three digital audio inputs is available. on the base card are s/p-dif optical and rca inputs. the breakout box contains a single professional aes/ebu stereo digital audio input. this input is shared with the right balanced analog input to prevent having both balanced audio and professional digital audio connected at the same time.

    the selection of audio input to capture is independent of the video input selection. for example, even if you choose to use dv video as a source, you can still opt to use the analog balanced inputs instead of audio embedded in the dv stream.