ATI TV Wonder VE vs. All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro

[Anthrax]

I'm just trying to understand the differences between the two cards, what makes the 9700 pro so much better. I will be using it only to capture tv. I already have the VE. I am trying to decide if it is worth paying $200 more to get the All-In-Wonder Radeon 9700 Pro instead of the Sapphire Radeon 9700 Atlantis.

If someone could just maybe point out what differences the higher priced capture cards have I would appreciate it, thanks.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Well for one you can capture 720x480(NTSC)without using special drivers and MMC8.1 will allow PIP(picture-in-picture) with your TV Wonder VE.
Here's a great ATI website: www.rage3d.com
Here's a review:http://www.sharkyextreme.com/hardware/videocards/article.php/1561051

[Metaluna]

I'm just trying to understand the differences between the two cards, what makes the 9700 pro so much better. I will be using it only to capture tv. I already have the VE. I am trying to decide if it is worth paying $200 more to get the All-In-Wonder Radeon 9700 Pro instead of the Sapphire Radeon 9700 Atlantis.

If someone could just maybe point out what differences the higher priced capture cards have I would appreciate it, thanks.

The All-In-Wonder 9700 will have a lot of features that you'll probably never use. For one thing, it has video out (including component video), which the TV Wonder does not do at all. It also has a stereo tuner which the TV Wonder VE doesn't have. So you won't be able to record stereo broadcasts with the VE unless you use an external stereo tuner such as a VCR and then pass the composite video to the VE and record the stereo audio with your sound card. The VE also lacks an S-Video inputs, so if you ever plan on capturing from HDTV, SVHS or other high-quality sources it won't look as good as the AIW 9700 or a regular TV Wonder.

The Theater 200 chip on the AIW 9700 is supposed to be much improved in terms of quality over previous ATI capture products, so captures should look better than the Bt878 chip on the TV Wonder, however I don't know if you would notice this on a TV broadcast. I don't know how the AIW would compare to the VE in terms of dropped frames and audio/video sync issues. Hopefully someone else here can comment.

Also the AIW is supposed to have hardware-assisted MPEG2 encoding, which might be an advantage depending on your needs.

Overall I would say the biggest downside of the VE for your uses is the lack of a stereo tuner. Other than that the differences should in theory be pretty minor.

[lordsmurf]

The VE is an inferior chipset, and an entirely software-driven capture setup, which is enirely different from the ATI AIW RADEON series of cards (hardware-assisted MPEG encodes), of which the 9700 is part of. The VE is a BT chipset, not an ATI chipset. The 9700 is at least 2-3 times the quality of the VE. The VE is missing a lot. It's a real stripped-down card. I tried one last month, not impressive at all, went right back to the store. I bought another ATI AIW Radeon DDR32 (7200), although PCI, and I suggest AGP given my experiences between both cards. The VE is old technology, and is limited to old software (MMC 7.9).

[Conquest10]

Well for one you can capture 720x480(NTSC)without using special drivers

that's weird. i can capture perfectly at 720x480 with the ATI drivers.