ATI AIW 8500DV - Recommendations to purchase for a newbie...

[K_cin_az]

Hello,

I am looking to get a good quality capture card. From my research for $150 the 8500dv seems like a great buy. I do not game so the quality of the video card doesnt mean much to me. I am just looking for a card to capture my vhs collection over to and to use as a digitial vcr.

Is this a good product for what I am looking for? I have done research and have found either great reviews or terrible reviews.

Is their some other products I might want to look into at this type of price range (100-200$). Again the main features I am looking for is caputering VHS and CABLE EVENTS. I want to be able to set my computer to record just like you do a VCR.

Last ?. Does the cable input have to go directly into these cards for the digitial vcr function to work, or can you have the componet outs from a cable box plugged in the card and capture that way?

Thanks for any help,

Nick

[txpharoah]

Yes on all those questions. You can make it like a VCR and set timers, you can hook up wires in numerous ways (composite/s-video/coax), and the card is exceptional in quality.

You can also use the VHS->DVD guide below for tips on how to make perfect DVDs from ATI captured video sources.

From what you described, this would be a perfect card for you. I own two ATI AIW cards for similar reasons.

[vivisimonvi]

Just hope you'll survive the installation process if you do you get this card. I got one two months ago, and there's still a few problems with it. I managed to solve most of them through driver updates on the website (the File Player crashes sometimes and so does the PC Check utility that's just about it).

Aside from some software issues, the card is great for capturing. Although I've only purchased ATI products in the past, this one is the most trouble.

I'm also doing the same converting my VHS collection to DVD and the results are fantastic!

[K_cin_az]

Thanks for the help!

I will be purchasing this product soon. Sounds like it will be a great fit for me for not that much money, currently they are down to $150.

[LanEvo7]

If you do buy it, use the drivers that come with it. If it works then don't upgrade. I bought it and immediately updated everything, caused tons of crashes using MMC and Vdub.

[2fives]

Lanevo7 couldn't be more right, I have the aiw 7500 and smart me decided to upgrade everything. Lost some features, remote didn't work, the whole thing crashed and was botch as hell. Unistalled and reinstalled my original drivers. AHHHHHHH, no it works fine.

Like ATI even states on their web site, if it is all working fine don't update.

Don't even update the video drivers off the MS updates, that messed up my capture driver too.

[txpharoah]

I would advise against that anti-upgrade attitude.

The most stable software is currently the April 2003 drivers and the ATI MMC 7.7.

But yes, some past upgrades have been bad (as would be the MMC 8.1 upgrade) so I can see where they're coming from. After you get the drivers I suggest, don't upgrade anymore. FYI: the drivers in the box are years old and the MMC software has bugs. You MUST get newer versions for it to work properly. Just not necessarily every time ATI says "here's the latest and greatest."

[spiderman2k1]

I would get the Dazzle 2 PCI card go to http://www.dazzlegeek.com/ if you have amd to see if it will work you can also get PVR250 or 350 that are very good. i have the ATI AIW radeon the first one these card are all software so it really does not matter what AIW you have they all do the same job but my Dazzle kicks the AIW ass Dazzle is alot better. but with Dazzle you have to download Times to capture TV show dazzle does not make time's Only AIW and the PVR 250 or 350 have timers. If your doing DV cap just get a good firewire card

[txpharoah]

No offense, but there is no way a PCI card could outperform an AGP card. And Dazzle is far below ATI on the chain of evolution. ATI invented manyof the capture technologies that cards like Dazzle use.

[Ron B]

Hello-I have used the AIW 7500 and 8500DV. Both are good cards for basic capture and TV viewing. I'm pretty sure most of the display and capture drivers for these cards have not been changed for awhile, I would use the latest drivers from the ATI site, not the drivers on the installation CD. I would not use the MMC software unless you have to. I have found there are better DVD and file players, and I never use the Launch Pad stuff. There's alot of info at www.rage3d.com on ATI cards, you might want to check there for more info.