ATI PCI Theatre 550/650 vs AGP AIW 7500, 9600XT

[TaranScorp]

I was capturing VHS tapes using a AIW 7500 to AVI and was having good results but the 7500 puked out on me. I was looking at replacing the card with a AIW 9600XT which is AGP and my computer is 7 years old so I decided to build my own computer around the 9600XT and I was going to buy a Asrock mobo that has a VIA chipset and has a AGP slot but then I read that the ATI Theatre 550/650 boards are PCI . Are the Theatre 550/650 boards a overkill for capturing old family VHS tapes to AVI, or are the older AGP AIW cards good enough for capturing VHS tapes?

[lordsmurf]

The cards are not PCI, but PCI-e.
They work like shit compared to the older AGP series Radeon cards. You will not be happy.

The older AGP cards are not only "good enough" but are a highly suggested quality method. You don't find that on new devices anymore.

[TaranScorp]

Coming from you I know it's very good advice. So I'll stick with my AIW 9600XT.
I only asked because I wanted to buy a Intel chip based mobo but I can live with a VIA chipset mobo.
The Asrock is the only descent mobo with a AGP slot.

[sanlyn]

Get the mobo from a good dealer, TaranScorp. Newegg and TigerDirect sem to be OK outfits if you need to RMA -- it's happened to me, and the service was good. I ended up with a bum Biostar mobo that they readily replaced, and a bum power supply (I'll admit, I was getting the cheapest stuff out there).

BTW, hope you found the reply to your PM about widescreens. Not much in 4:3 LCD's these days, but I still think it's a better view than 16:9 until time gets the bugs out of wide monitors -- which you'll see once you start using 'em.

The 9600XT does a dance around the new ATI cards. The old Theatre-200 TV-Wonders (pre-digital) had similar capture circuits to the AIW's. I understand VirtualDub could use them for capture. Of course, you have to find one. They fit in the old-style "PCI" slots, but you still need a real graphics card to use 'em.

This probably belongs in another part of the forum, but if the ASRock dosn't work out, try this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/BIOSTAR-K8M80M2-...3286.m20.l1116
I built 2 XP PC's with this board, and another with Win2K, all use AMD 4.4 CPU's. I've run 'em 2 years now, sometimes 48-hrs straight for video processing with AIW AGP's and PCI IDE controller cards with 4 hard drives. Another eBayer sells 'em for $50.