ATI AIW 3000XP Super...

[mrtristan]

I think I may be ready for a new all in one capture card again, so I want to solicit the opinions of anyone who owns or has first hand experience with anything above the ATI AIW Radeon. I actually broke one of the resistors half off, about a year after I had it, while installing some RAM. I "fixed" it by just pushing the broken half back on, but it's been getting more unstable, recently.

I posted this here, because I'm looking for general opinions on the card. I already own one, so I know what to expect, in terms of capturing performance. Maybe model x doesn't work with motherboard brand y, stuff like that.

[txpharoah]

I still suggest the ATI All In Wonder 7200, 7500, 8500, and 9700 cards. They do very well, and while not a Matrox, they surely can hold their own. The quality is unsurpassed by other consumer cards. And the MPEG2 encoding hardware is definitely a nice advantage.

If you want the best, drop $250-350 or so on the 9700. I have a 7500 and 7200, and am perfectly happy with them both. Not as good as my toys at work, but nice for my work at home.

[Faustus]

Why not just get a Video DV bridge? Gets rid of the need for a capture card that is also a video card.

[mrtristan]

pharoah - Can you tell any difference in performance between the 7200 and 7500, regarding capturing and graphics? I have the 7200. If there isn't much difference, I'll probably stick to the same thing and replace this one with the same model.

flaystus - I actually never thought of that. I recently bought a DV camcorder that supports Analog to Digital passthrough, so I could use that. The only problem is that baby kicked my computer out of our bedroom and I only have a coaxial line running in the room that it's now sitting in. Do you know of any converter that will convert a coaxial signal to RCA? If not, my least expensive option would be to buy a cheap VCR and use it to pass the cable signal through. Definitely food for thought.

[txpharoah]

I wouldn't do a DVD bridge, but whatever.

As far as 7200 vs 7500. Not much. Same for 8500. Only the 9700 has any noticeable differences, and even then, not somuch with video as computer graphics. RAM is about all the differences are. Chipsets are largely the same or similar