Mixed reviews of the AIW 8500DV

[TechieMan]

Hi All,

I was considering purchasing an AIW card. I am looking at Radeon 7500 to Radeon 9000. However I have seen a AIW Radeon 8500DV. What I want to know is has anyone used this card and other AIW cards? I seem to be getting mixed reviews on this forum about the AIW 8500DV with regards to capture quality and audio sync.

I just need to capture in Mpeg 2 (720 X 576 PAL) from VHS and need audio/video in sync...someone mentioned in this forum about the AIW 8500DV having a digital tuner and hence the quality is not so good....I am just wandering if the SVHS/Composite video quality will therefore be poor compared to other AIW cards.

I have used other cards...like Pinnacle DV500, DC30 and WinTv PCI...I just need Mpeg 2 capture card.

Many thanks for your help!!

[pixel]

I use the ATI AIW 8500DV. About the digital tuner, it is actually very good, it is just the fact that people who have very poor TV reception claim that it isn't very good for them, for everyone else it is fine. The digital tuner only affects your captures if your are using an RF cable and, as it is digital, it will give you better tuning. The composite and s-video are no different from any other ATI card.

There are no sync problems I've ever heard of with any ATI cards, the only problem you may find with ATI's is that you may tend to drop frames if you use the onboard sound, so a seperate sound card is the best option.
(EDIT:: I have heard of a problem with capturing AVI's and out of sync audio, but this is across the whole ATI range and is not a hrdware problem, it is software. This can be overcome by using VD)

All of the cards you have suggested are capable of capturing full DVD resolution.

It doesn't really matter what card you choose, there is not a lot of difference (except the 9000 range is slightly better, if money is no object), but a lot of people stick by the 7200 and 7500.

On this link there are some cards suggested from Ebay: https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=173269

I have personally never had any problems with my 8500DV and wonder why a lot of people seem to have un unfavourable opinion of it. To me the RF captures have been a lot better than other cards I have seen. I know I am not the only 8500DV user on here who is more than happy with there card, so any other 8500DV users post up your reviews/experiences.

[TechieMan]

Thanks for the reply Pixel

Seems to have eased some of my concerns. There is an 8500DV on ebay...so I will have to see how much it sells for...as its 2nd user I will be willing to spend about £65-70 otherwise I am sure I can pickup a AIW 7500 for about £45.

The audio/video sync issue, well at the moment I am using WinTv (basic model) with the PCI Soundblaster Live 5.1 card and I have no audio/video sync...I have captured over 6 hours of video using AVI_IO and everything seems fine. The only problem with WinTv is, it has no Mpeg 2 capture and thats the reason I am after one of the AIW or even a normal Radeon VIVO, 9200 for example which I can get for about £60 newish and I assume it uses the same hardware chip for capturing as the AIW series?

Once again thanks for the info...most appreciated.

[pixel]

Well, it is really down to personal preference and £££. If you have the £££ buy a 9000 series, as the chip is slightly better. As I already said, there is not a lot of difference, because the MPEG2 captures are software encoded with some hardware encoding, so it does not depend on the card, it mainly depends on your CPU.

You did not state what you will be capturing, or your CPU power.
If it is just going to be timeshifted TV your CPU won't matter too much.
If it is going to be real-time DVD capturing you have to have a pretty fast CPU (most people suggest the P4 2.53GHz C and upwards are best).

I would say as there is not much difference in the cards (people even use the 32MB cards for DVD capture), buy whatever you can afford. I know that you will not see any noticeabe difference in the capture quality between a 7200 and a 9200.

Good to see you already have a PCI sound card. I have actually tried that card out on my PC and it works fine with the 8500DV.

[TechieMan]

I will be capturing in 720X576 PAL from VHS. I have an Athlon 1800XP, 512 MB RAM, 20 gig system disk and 60 gig 7200 RPM for Video as well as a 40 gig 5400.

So seems like my PC is not fast enough to use for capturing DVD compliant Mpeg 2 with Radeon.

O.k last question

If you had the choice for just captuing (no other fancy stuff, TV Tuner etc) would you go for AIW or a normal Radeon VIVO?

[pixel]

Nope. Your PC wouldn't produce the best quality MPEG 2 captures. But Lordsmurf's guide would be a good in-between for you: www.lordsmurf.com it means you can capture in MPEG2, transcode to using TMPGEnc (and it will encode faster than using an AVI as a source) and you will have a perfect MPEG 2 at the end.

You RAM is fine, that's probably all you will ever need (even for vid editing).

I'm not sure about your 40gig 5,400rpm drive though, that may be too slow too capture too, so could be used as a drive for sending your re-encoded videos to.

I have not seen a lot about the VIVO's, but I would go for an AIW because you have the breakout box which means you have no fiddling around at the back of your PC, and most other ATI users I have seen on this site have AIW's and not VIVO's.

[TechieMan]

Thanks for all the info Pixel!!