Opinion on video card

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Anime Jedi
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Opinion on video card

Post by Anime Jedi » Tue Dec 13, 2005 4:38 pm

Right now I am a stranger when it comes to capturing video using my computer. However, I have just recently bought a video capture card from a friend of mine, and I would like to know this was the right first step. It's an ATI All in Wonder 128 Pro. To me, this doesn't mean very much. Also, it is quite an old card, approxiametely 5-6 years old. Is this fine for just beginning to captrue video?

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gangstaj8
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Post by gangstaj8 » Tue Dec 13, 2005 11:48 pm

Well, I can't really tell you much about the specs myself, but from looking through them, it seems to me like you've got a pretty good card for starting out with. I've got an ATI TV Wonder, and it works really well for me. Fairly simple, with a good range of preset options for capturing, and most importantly, the ability to customize those options.

You may enjoy having the ability to output to TV, that's one feature I will have to have whenever I need to upgrade my capture card. One thing that confuses me is the S-video input (if I'm interpreting the specs sheet right). I don't know of much that you could capture using S-Video other than DVD, which is redundant since you can rip them. I guess some game consoles maybe, but I don't really see the point there.

The only trouble I've had with mine, is that when I've recently been running another video-based program, (such as WMP, VDub, Premeire, etc. etc.) the TV Console program won't run properly unless I restart my computer. But that's an easy engouh issue to avoid. Happy capturing!
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Anime Jedi
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For specs

Post by Anime Jedi » Wed Dec 21, 2005 11:15 am

Thanks for the input.

Another question, does it really hurt to use a slower computer when capturing video? I'm in the middle of deciding whether I should get a new mother board, CPU, and RAM. My current processor runs at 450 MHz. Problem is that buying a new board and CPU means that with new technology, my old RAM doesn't work. Also, would changing my power supply be a vital component? I heard that from one guy.

It just feels that the simple idea of changing two pieces of my computer has turned into a whole barrage of stuff.

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Keeper of Hellfire
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Post by Keeper of Hellfire » Wed Dec 21, 2005 1:57 pm

Probably you need a faster CPU:
HardwareCentral wrote:CPU dependant video capturing

The biggest downfall of the AIW Pro when it comes to the video editing side of things is that it uses software/CPU encoding to compress the incoming video footage. That means a pretty hefty CPU in order to capture at higher resolutions without dropping any frames. Many dedicated capture cards use hardware compression to ensure that no frames are dropped no matter how fast the CPU is or isn't. This isn’t a huge issue, with CPU speeds increasing and prices dropping.
Full article:
http://www.hardwarecentral.com/hardware ... ws/2227/1/

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oldwrench
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Post by oldwrench » Wed Dec 21, 2005 9:04 pm

Yes a faster processor is much better. I found my old processor caused lots of dropped frames. Going from an Xp1300 to an Xp2000 helped a lot. 450 mhz is really getting old, check places like newegg.com or tigerdirect.com or any of the other good retailers for motherboard and processor bundles. Some are very well priced. Memory is often on sale for very good prices also, 1gig is pretty much what to go with.
I have been using an ATI AIW 7500 card for the last few years and it captures video quite well. I am working on a new machine with an AIW 600x pro card and an AMD 64-3700 processor, hope it's a good one.
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Anime Jedi
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New Card

Post by Anime Jedi » Wed Dec 21, 2005 9:24 pm

Thank you for all your input everyone. Though I hate to be a bother, but I've changed my mind again, and have bought a new card.

I bought the ATI TV Wonder Pro.

Info:
http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/prodde ... 031&catid=

It's very basic, but I have feeling it will work with my newer computer, and I won't have to worry about fixing up my old one. what made me come to this decision? I tried fixing my old one, but I just kept running into problem after problem. I may enjoy it, but buliding a computer from the ground up can definitely give a person one huge headache.

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Anime Jedi
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Extra

Post by Anime Jedi » Wed Dec 21, 2005 9:30 pm

One thing I forgot to mention. For some reason I have having trouble installing the older card into the AGP slot. And since that computer is at my apartment (I'm home for the holidays, instead of downtown) I decided to play it safe and buy a PCI card. I told about how PCI is the slowest, then AGP, then PCI Express, but with most cards being PCR Express and AGP, I didn't have very much choice. lol Hope people can understand the pickle I was in. ^_^

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