Capturing with ATI AIW 9800 PRO issues newbie..

[Nozmo]

I am a bit frustrated so I’m hoping for some good advice from this group. I’ve just finished building a new system with the following specs:

P4 3.06
512 DDR 400 dual channel RAM
Intel board
ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro
160 GB Western Digital Ultra/ATA with 8 MB of Cache

I also recently purchased a Sony Handycam TRV250 (yea, I've since learned I should have spent the few extra bucks for the 350). What I want to do is simply use my computer to dump my digital video to my system, make some basic edits and titles and burn to a DVD. I would also like to record older analog video to computer and burn these to DVD as well.

The trouble is . . . well. . I’m not sure. I have the Pinnacle Studio 8 software (patched to version 8.10.4.0) and aside from it crashing A LOT, audio vanishing from scenes and a lack of clear instructions I’ve managed to make a few test videos and found the resulting video quality to be mediocre at best. Also there appears to be an endless array of settings to choose from. I’ve read on this site other suggestions on capturing using non-standard settings, compressors and system tweaks. Can anyone recommend a good software package to do what I am looking to do without having to significantly modify my PC in the process? Also, I am thinking about purchasing a firewire/DV card for my system in the hope that this will ease the capture process and allow me to obtain a higher quality end result. So far using composite, and S-Video inputs gets me fair quality at best. And Lastly, should I look at Adobe instead of the Pinnacle software and when I capture, should I try to do so with the MPEG-2 compression from my ATI?


Suggestions?

Thank you.

[krypt300]

i have a ati all in wonder 9800 video card and the pinnacle 8.4 authoring program that came with it is garbage..crashes all the time..i've been using TMPGEnc DVD Author and the authoring time is much faster and i burn a dozen dvds transfering from vhs...couldn't be any happier..i got another 17 days till my free trail period is up and probably will purchase TMPGEnc DVD Author since it suits my editing needs.

[bottle-necked]

I recommend you try the ATI MMC to capture MPEG2. It will do a good job when setup properly. I also vote to trash the Pinnacle8, it's pretty lame.

make some basic edits and titles

For the basic edits and titles I like Ulead VideoStudio Version 6. V7 is free to try from Ulead site. It's harder for me to use but will do that ok.

and burn to a DVD

To burn I like TMPGEnc DVD Author. It's easy to use and learn.

You'll love that 9800 when you get it figured out. I like mine.

p.s. And Welcome to the forum.

[tigerman8u]

I have the ATI AIW 9000 pro. Of the softare i've used to capture MMC works best with the AIW.

[Augster]

If you have an ATI card, go to Lordsmurf.com and read all his guides. You will KNOW exactly what you can do then. He specializes in ATI captures and knows his stuff.

Check it out.

[tigerman8u]

I do use his guides