<p>A computer based system (10) for displaying and compressing video including a video capture card (12) with a video compressor (38) and a bus interface circuit (21, 22) that acts as a bus master. The system also includes a software virtual interrupt generator (140) that uses timer events provided by a computer system service; an overlay controller (73) implemented in software that transfers video from the video capture card (12) over the computer bus (21, 22) to a graphics subsystem; a display controller implememented in software that causes display of uncompressed video from the video capture card (12); a software controller that compresses audio in software and sends video data to be compressed across the computer bus (21, 22) to the compressor (38); a controller (154) that is implemented in software and calibrates startup delay of the audio input subsystem; and a user interactive input mechanism for adjusting the rates of compression.</p>
