Lies, Damn Lies and Hardware mpeg encoding

[CoCoNiPs]

I just heard about an old card the ATI Rage Fury Pro
with Video in video out
am i right in believing this card has hardware encoding through its "ATI’s RAGE THEATRE chip"
is this the same chip the newer and more expensive cards such as the radeon 64meg VIVO use?
are there any other ATI cards more recent than the rage fury pro that support hardware encoding? ie like a radeon vivo but cheaper bcos i really dont care too much about 3d performance i just want good tv out and video in
Thanx ahead
CoCo

[Macros746]

The first thing is: don't be too sure a Radeon is out of your price range...always go to Pricewatch.com and check their prices....Radeon Vivos are a steal right now....


Mark

[CoCoNiPs]

I dont see any vivo's there for under $150
Either way im in the UK so pricewatch cant help me ;/

[Macros746]

Just clicking on the videocards link I found a Radeon 64 vivo card for $145 and a 32 MB card for $64. As for you being in England I'm POSITIVE that these places ship internationally. If you DO order just make sure that the card includes TV out...I KNOW the VIVO does but I think the 32MB cards come in two flavors....might have to do a bit of research....

Mark

[mpack]

Beware: I've heard somewhere that ATI cards bought from US suppliers don't always come with PAL-enabled drivers, which would kind of limit their usefulness in the UK. Whether downloading drivers separately would work I don't know.. but I personally wouldn't want to take the risk.

[Macros746]

That is an excellent point and one I had not thought of. ANy takers on this question. What about NSTC versus PAL cards?


Mark

[CoCoNiPs]

I was just recently in the states but avoided buying a card bcos of the ntsc/pal issue
I think they make them either ntsc or pal
bit no support for both
i could be wrong
risky business hehe
CoCo

[mpack]

The way I heard it was that cards distributed in "foreign" markets had both PAL and NTSC support (in fact I know that must be true because my own UK-bought ATI card supports both), but cards intended for the US domestic market *may* only have NTSC support.

[CoCoNiPs]

yeh its the same with newish vcrs and tv's most in the uk support pal and ntsc
and in america they just support the native ntsc