ATI vrs LEADTEK vrs MSI

[Cipote]

For a budget of around $50, I find the ATI TV Wonder VE, the LEADTEK TV2000 XP Deluxe and the MSI TV@nywhere Master seem to do pretty much the same. I have read posts for the three of them and found posite and negative comments, so I guess they all work and they all give some trouble.

I am planning to use this card to capture TV and transfer some VHS tapes.
Based on your experiences, which do you consider the most apropieate for the job?

[Northstar]

Well the answer to this is obvious.

Anyone recommending whichever card will more than likely own it, i own the Winfast 2000XP so i recommend that

I think you said it yourself, they are all pretty similar, they all have slight niggling problems of some sort, but some that probably depends on the computer your putting it in, plus who installs it and did they install it right, then theres what capture software to use, and then using it correctly, its endless.

Im no expert in such matters and i am pretty new to the capture scene but i am happy with my choice of card. The software that came with it is alright, but of no use to me as i dont use any of it to capture, i use other free capture software which does a better job IMHO.

[FulciLives]

I have an AverTV Stereo (which is very similiar to the AverTV Studio expect the Studio model has an FM radio receiver whereas the Stereo model does not).

I've very happy with it and you can get it in the $50.00 range.

I've heard bad things about the MSI having a "noisy" picture.

Alot of people say great things about the LeadTek card.

I know the ATI AIW cards are popular. I'm not sure if the ATI TV Wonder VE uses the same chipset as the ATI AIW cards or not. I thought it used a less desirable chipset but I could be wrong.

If you want more info on ATI visit the LORDSMURF website.

Also you should decide if you want to capture AVI or MPEG. All of these cards (other than perhaps the ATI) are really best doing AVI captures. If you want to do direct to MPEG captures then look at the ATI cards or the WinTV PVR line such as the WinTV PVR-250

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[gmatov]

Fulci,

A small correction;

I have searched through all the settings of my MSI TV@nywhere, and I cannot find an avi cap setting.

MPEG4 to Full D1, and all points in between, no avi.

That is with the companion software, MSIPVS. Have not tried with any other cap program.

Cheers,

George

[FulciLives]

Fulci,

A small correction;

I have searched through all the settings of my MSI TV@nywhere, and I cannot find an avi cap setting.

MPEG4 to Full D1, and all points in between, no avi.

That is with the companion software, MSIPVS. Have not tried with any other cap program.

Cheers,

George

Unless there are more than one versions of the MSI card the one that I am aware of is best suited for AVI capture as it only does MPEG-1/MPEG-2/MPEG-4 capture using SOFTWARE meaning that it is highly dependant on your computers speed since your computer's CPU is doing most of the work. This is not the best way to capture MPEG and most people who use a card such as this (which only does SOFTWARE MPEG encoding) usually use it for AVI capture.

Try using VirtualVCR which is a FREEWARE capture application. It works great for me using my AverTV Stereo and I can capture using HuffyUV or MJPEG both of which are AVI codecs.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[spiderman2k1]

ATI IAW you can get one at www.pricewatch.com some time's for $50.00

[Cipote]

Hadn't stoped by the AverTV but definetely caught my atention, there are a lot of very good reviews about it, haven't really found much places where they sell the Stereo though, only the studio which is a bit more expensive, I'm not really sure if I am going to use the remote and the fm tunner, but it seems to have a lot of good features.

The AIW seem prety good, but I already have what I believe is a decent video card, an NVIDIA Geforce2, not the best, but works fine.

Thanks for your coments on this.

[FulciLives]

Hadn't stoped by the AverTV but definetely caught my atention, there are a lot of very good reviews about it, haven't really found much places where they sell the Stereo though, only the studio which is a bit more expensive, I'm not really sure if I am going to use the remote and the fm tunner, but it seems to have a lot of good features.

The AIW seem prety good, but I already have what I believe is a decent video card, an NVIDIA Geforce2, not the best, but works fine.

Thanks for your coments on this.

Just so you know the AverTV Stereo/Studio seems to work BEST (and very well at that) when you capture at FULL D1 to an AVI file. I've used it with the HuffyUV codec and the PICVideo MJPEG codec and I capture with VirtualVCR which is a freeware capture program. Another popular capture program for this is iuVCR

Do your captures at 704x480 (NTSC) or 704x576 (PAL) then add a border of 8 on each side to bring it back up to 720 width (8+704+8=720)

That seems to be the best way to retain the aspect ratio. If you want another resolution that resize the 720x480 to your desired target be it HALF D1 (352x480) or SVCD (480x480) or VCD (352x24) or whatever.

As for taking your capture and converting to MPEG-2 for DVD I use a combination of AviSynth and VirtualDubMod and for the actual encoder I've been using mostly CINEMA CRAFT ENCODER (aka CCE) but I also sometimes use TMPGEnc Plus 2.5

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[SeeingMole]

Does all those 3 cards mentioned use the Conexant chip?

What about ATI All in Wonder? Does it also use the Conexant chip or does it use ATI's own chip. If it's not Conexant, how is the quality compared to the Conexant chip?

[lordsmurf]

Does all those 3 cards mentioned use the Conexant chip?

What about ATI All in Wonder? Does it also use the Conexant chip or does it use ATI's own chip. If it's not Conexant, how is the quality compared to the Conexant chip?

The ATI AIW uses a Theatre 200 or Theatre Rage chipset on the Radeon class cards, and the quality of the Theatre is at least double that of the BT/Conexant chipset, as the ATI incorporate hardware assist on the MPEG encoding and scales much better to all valid resolutions like 352x240 and 352x480 with no artifacts, unlike the BT/Conex chips which only do good at 720x480 or 704x480.

[SeeingMole]

How's the quality of the real time captured MPEG files using ATI's MMC compared to CCE and WinDVR? Do they use their own MPEG engine?
I'm particulary interested in MPEG1 VCD quality.
(I know CCE is not real time, but just wanted compare the quality)

Thanks!

[trevlac]

For a budget of around $50, I find the ATI TV Wonder VE, the LEADTEK TV2000 XP Deluxe and the MSI TV@nywhere Master seem to do pretty much the same. I have read posts for the three of them and found posite and negative comments, so I guess they all work and they all give some trouble.

I am planning to use this card to capture TV and transfer some VHS tapes.
Based on your experiences, which do you consider the most apropieate for the job?

I think you are getting a lot of dis-information. Please fully confirm before you buy. Even what I say.

The TV Wonder VE uses the BT8x type of chip. So does the Leadtek. So does the Aver. The MSI uses a newer chip by the same company cx2388x. The +/- of these may be the following:

BT is better supported with software because it is older and specs are know.
CX does 10bit vs 8bit ADC for less error. Not sure this is noticable.
CX Should have much better y/c splitting from a composite source like a tuner.

I'd say the CX would give you better quality from an analog tuner, but it's drivers may not work as well as the BT stuff you can get. From an S-VHS deck, there probably is no difference.


PS: I don't have a "newer" ATI card. The prices on the "newer" ones seem to be closer to $150 than $50. Also, even though I don't have a "newer" ATI card, I am suspecious that the "quality" is 2x as good vs a CX based card. For a direct capture to MPEG2, they may be better and much easier to use. But I don't think you can get HW assisted mpeg for $50.

Trev

Here are the specs to the CX: http://yanyan.dtdns.net/capture/pdf/cx2388x.pdf

Here they are for the BT:
http://www.conexant.com/products/entry.jsp?id=404